Cap/Com No. 100: Kickass! Workers buy their airline.

[Elok]

The only union anyone in my family has had experience with is the Teamsters. If this union is anything like them, every single one of those employees is screwed. Kid actually has a good point in that union management has essentially become The Enemy. They're "representing the interests" of both sides of the equation now. Call me cynical, but I predict the little guy will get his butt whooped by big money here and this whole affair will be an embarassment to the commies for years. Again.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by TCO
Eat some more Heartland food...

They don't have one of those here. My home cooking is better anyway.

Tonight I made baked BBQ chicken, mac & cheese, and mixed greens. We're having key lime pie for desert. Speaking of which, I have to go pull it out of the oven.

[Agathon]

This doesn't sound like communism to me.

Then again, the sound of communism is the sound of happy workers warming their feet with burning capitalists.

[Saras]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Generally speaking, often times workers are able to better cut costs and make the workplace more efficient. The test is in seeing whether they can plan for the future. In Peru, after the leftist coup of 1968, the workers took over a sugar factory and ran it into the ground, because all the workers stole from the plant.

Sounds like USSR writ small

[Kuciwalker]

Re: Cap/Com No. 100: Kickass! Workers buy their airline.

Originally posted by Azazel

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/559085.html

Arkia employees buy their company
By Zohar Blumenkrantz and Omri Cohen

Arkia Airlines' employees bought Knafaim's 75 percent stake in the carrier for $12 million yesterday. Since the union already owned 25 percent of the airline, the deal gives the workers 100 percent ownership.
Under the deal, the workers also received an option to buy Knafaim's shares in the travel agencies Issta and Kishrei Te'ufa, at a price to be determined by a mutually agreed assessor and subject to the consent of parties that hold the right of first refusal on the shares. Knafaim owns 25 percent of both companies.

Media reports have suggested that the workers coordinated the options deal with the New York based-Nakash brothers, who would then come in as strategic investors after the options were exercised.

The Arkia sale was mandated by Antitrust Commissioner Dror Strum after the Borovitch family, which owns Knafaim, purchased 39.6 percent of El Al from the state.

In a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange yesterday, Knafaim said that it believes that with the sale of Arkia and an option to buy Issta and Kishrei Te'ufa, coupled with the earlier sale of its 25 percent stake in another company, Arnon Paz, it believes that it has fulfilled all of Strum's conditions, and there is therefore no longer any need for him to appoint a trustee for Knafaim - a move he had threatened to take if Arkia were not sold.

"The sale to Arkia's workers reflects the relations of mutual trust between Knafaim's shareholders and Arkia's workers, which led to Arkia's growth, via mutual cooperation, over many years," said Israel Borovitch, CEO of Knafaim and chairman of the board of El Al, after the sale. "I wish Arkia's workers great success."

Meanwhile, Knafaim published its financial statements for 2004 yesterday. The company reported a 3.3 percent decline in revenues compared to 2003, from $174.9 million to $169.1 million. Nevertheless, it turned a profit of $1.46 million for the year, compared to a loss of $2 million in 2003.

In the fourth quarter, the company posted a loss of $2 million on revenues of $30.9 million.

This is great: the workers will now be the masters of their own faith.

Of course, this is just a reason to open a fresh new cap/com thread, and this time, the issue is worker-owned corporations: do we need much more of those around? Are they superior to ordinary corps?

Discuss!

Every person is his own worker-owned corporation, which is free to enter into business contracts with other corporations

[Odin]

Originally posted by Agathon
This doesn't sound like communism to me.

Command economies:

Workers owning the means of production:

LONG LIVE TEH CO-OP!!!

[pchang]

SAIC is one the largest successful (at least financially) worker owned companies. However, you have to buy your shares (just like with ownership in any other company). Thus, some workers are more equal than others. In the end, it is no different than working for any other large corporation.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
It depends on wether the union as a whole owns it or the local owns it. I doubt the local could come up with the money, but regardless, the workers have a lot more say in their workplace now than they did before.

It's like the same lawyer representing the plaintiff and the defendent in a court case.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Agathon
This doesn't sound like communism to me.

Then again, the sound of communism is the sound of happy workers warming their feet with burning capitalists.

Pew! Haven't you ever smelled the foul stench of burning Pigdogs?

[Kidlicious]

I was an ununionized substitute teacher for three years. We got paid a measely $65 a day, because of the teachers union. The teachers kept getting raises and we kept getting passed up. So we began to start our own union. Then the teachers tried to get us to join their union so that they could dominate us. We started our own union despite the efforts of the teachers union.

Workers don't always have the same interests and sometimes their interests come into conflict. Capitalists and managers aren't the only ones who can take advantage of you and keep you from getting what you deserve.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Workers don't always have the same interests and sometimes their interests come into conflict. Capitalists and managers aren't the only ones who can take advantage of you and keep you from getting what you deserve.

Very true.


Even though it has happened a number of times now, I still feel odd whenever I agree with kidicious.