Author: donelsonfiles

• American history, Conscious Capitalism, economics, Ethics, Great Debate, Labor, Political Discussions, social, Socialism. Capitalism, Union Labor, Worker rights

Do unions still have a place at the table?     

 by Dr. Larry Fedewa (May 12, 2019)”Conscious Capitalism” promotes the most expansive view of workers’ rights ever to be advocated by corporate management  in the history of capitalism. At last, workers are accorded the respect due to major stakeholders in the organization, whether a corporate giant or an entrepreneurial start-up. Almost always this means sharing in the profits of the company if not outright  stock ownership.This view of the business flows from an idealistic definition of the enterprise which includes, among other things, the function of profits as a necessary means to a greater good. The greater good is the mission of the firm as providing a community service through the sale of its goods or services. Conscious Capitalism challenges everyone in the organization to contribute to  the fulfillment of this mission and provides the resources to do so.Conscious Capitalists also tend to be anti-union.Most believe with founder Whole Foods CEO, John Mackey, that unions introduce an adversarial relationship between management and labor which detracts from the collegial environment necessary for the Conscious Capitalist company to be successful. True to that description, the unions argue that underneath the sheep’s clothing, Conscious Capitalists are really hiding their power to dictate and enforce their own definition of workers’ rights. The workers ultimately have to accept that definition or find another job. With every company defining workers’ rights in its own way, no standards will be set or recognized. This is just the same old thirst for power presented in modern dress.So, what’s the answer? Is there a place for unions in a Conscious Capitalist company or not?

The first element of the answer is: if the employees want a union, there is a place for a union. During a transitional period such as the current one, there will continue to be employers who do not accept the new ways. The old paradigm of management versus labor will be in place and needs to be followed.Over time. however, more and more companies will join the new movement – particularly since there is much evidence accumulating that indicates “Conscious” companies are substantially more successful financially. In order to maintain its relevance, therefore, labor will have to adapt.The first step in that direction is to find a new answer to the question of a union’s role in a worker-friendly enterprise. Here are some ideas. First, many companies will be trying to transition to the new style. Unions could help them succeed. But, why not hire a consultant or new senior staff to guide the company in the new direction? These may be useful measures, but no one outside the organization has the same motivation and investment in success as the people working there now. However, they are generally as inexperienced as the owners. Involvement of a knowledgeable and sympathetic third party can be welcome to all sides.

However, the union must be truly invested in the cooperative approach in order to be credible.To achieve this posture, unions should be reaching out to the small but growing body of Conscious Capitalism experts. Honest discussions about sensitive issues will profit both sides.Another role for unions in the new world of work we face is that of advocating national (and international) standards of what constitutes workers’ rights in this new century. As movements like Conscious Capitalism illustrate, 40-hour-workweeks, paid vacations, pensions and health care are not enough to keep the economy going in the right direction. Today’s workers want to be part of the company in new ways, ranging from profit-sharing, to shareholders, to open communication with governing bodies, including full financial disclosure, to a “cooperative culture”, and many other new practices. Workers want to be treated as persons, not robots.This transitional period is reminiscent of the early days of the TQM (Total Quality Management) movement, which can be seen as an earlier step in this direction. The eagerness of workers to become involved in contributing their ideas and expertise to product development and manufacturing was often almost tangible. It revealed to many of us just how much talent had lain dormant in our workforce.The contention here is, of course, that unions as well as management must embrace this new style of company culture as the means to solving our wealth gap between the rich and the middle class.

The standard economics of the Trump era are doing much to enhance the wages of the lowest income workers. But from a macro view, the real challenge is to enrich the middle class, which is responsible for much of the consumer economy on which our national wealth ultimately depends. The Liberals want the government to use the tax system as the instrument for re-distributing  America’s wealth from the very rich to everybody else (legal or illegal). To do that would destroy America’s economic system of capitalism, which has created all this wealth.Conscious Capitalism is the answer to the question of how we solve the wealth gap without turning to socialism. Union support – with an updated agenda – will help America achieve the right outcomes. 

 Barry Salzberg is global CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.January 30, 2015 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.LinkedIn Influencer, Barry Salzberg, published this post originally on LinkedIn. 

Last week’s World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos gave leaders from politics, business, and civil society the chance to connect on critical issues. This year’s theme and focus for the forum, “The New Global Context,” represented a critical issue for the business landscape and resonated with attendees as they debated the huge transformations resetting how we operate.I wrote the following post for CBNC and it was originally published on their website on 21 January 2015:

Of the many exciting changes facing all of us, the most important has to be how we collectively advance society in the new global context. This particular undertaking is not being driven by the few thousand people meeting in the Swiss Alps, but by talent around the world. Take millennials, the world’s future and, in some cases, current leaders. In a recent Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (Deloitte Global) survey of nearly 8,000 young professionals from 29 countries, most said business is too focused on a narrow agenda of profit and product, rather than on improving society by addressing the purpose and people of business.Simply put, they believe the business agenda needs a reset. I agree, and here are three ways I think we can do better business in 2015:

Identify and instill purpose throughout our organizations.Six in 10 of the millennials we surveyed globally said a “sense of purpose” was part of the reason they chose to work for their current employers. Employers they admire include Johnson & Johnson, whose affordable and accessible products improve health around the world; and Philips, whose mission is to improve the lives of three billion people by 2025 through its own health-care solutions, in addition to its lighting solutions that make neighborhoods safer and reduce municipal carbon footprints. And it’s not just millennials – surveys have shown that all generations feel it’s more important to work for a company that makes a positive impact on the world. In the end, a sense of purpose doesn’t just positively impact society, it’s been shown to make business stronger. It can unlock enormous individual potential, tremendous collective effort, and creative energy.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor by a single real estate developer.We need to always think beyond borders, embrace partnering across sectors, and abandon any notions that our organizations are just fine on their own. We have to know who we’re competing with and looking beyond our own backyards in order to sustain long-term growth. Global competitiveness is shifting toward emerging markets, and talent in those markets is exceedingly ambitious. In 2013, emerging-market companies comprised roughly a quarter of Fortune’s Global 500 list. A year later, more than one-fifth of the companies in the top 50 came from emerging markets. Germany’s Merck recognizes this; it’s working with India’s Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories to co-develop several biosimilar cancer treatments. Dr. Reddy’s is leading early product development, while Merck will lead manufacturing, late-stage product development, and commercialization in mature and predefined emerging markets.

Diversity is just a buzzword unless you bring it to life.Diversity of thought drives progress and needs to be cultivated throughout our organizations, especially at the top. In our survey of millennials, only 21 percent of women rated their leadership skills as “strong.” I believe a confidence gap exists among women because they don’t see other women in leadership roles. That needs to change. According to Credit Suisse research, companies with senior teams comprised of more than 15 percent women had a return on equity of 14.7 percent in 2013 versus 9.7 percent when teams had fewer than 10 percent women. At Deloitte Global, our chairman has been working to diversify our board. To do so, in 2014 the male CEOs of the Canada, France, UK, and U.S. member firms, gave up their board seats to alternates, all of whom in fiscal year 2014 are women. The resulting dialogue and impact has been dramatic. Diversity of thought leads to better solutions – period. The business community has talked for years about creating enabling opportunities for high-potential, diverse leaders within organizations. It’s time for less talk and more action.

Purpose, collaboration, and diversity of thought all demand a greater sense of urgency from business. Effective leaders have been resetting their agendas for years, assessing what’s working, what isn’t, and what can be done better. It’s how top organizations improve profit margins. But, leaders need to extend that thinking beyond profits to impact. Those who continually challenge their own agendas and are not afraid to reset how and why they operate, will continue to drive long-term growth for their organizations.

This is the new global context, one which makes me wish I had another 38 years in business

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/04/european-elections-ramifications-for-britain/

Why we can’t trust the media as the media once again blows an important story!

From Red State April 30, 2019

Buried in the Post report and absent from the headline is this pretty important line way down in the body.

“When Barr pressed him whether he thought Barr’s letter was inaccurate, Mueller said he did not, but felt that the media coverage of the letter was misinterpreting the investigation, officials said.”

In other words, Barr pushed back on Mueller’s silly complaints and got him to admit that Barr hadn’t misrepresented anything. Then we see Mueller fold and say he’s actually just upset with the media for misrepresenting the matter.

“When Barr pressed him whether he thought Barr’s letter was inaccurate, Mueller said he did not, but felt that the media coverage of the letter was misinterpreting the investigation, officials saidJ

I can see why the WaPo would want to avoid headlining this “Mueller conceded Barr’s letter was accurate, criticized the media coverage.”1526:35 PM – Apr 30, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy58 people are talking about thisView image on Twitter

Chuck Ross✔@ChuckRossDC

After 22 months of not giving a shit about the media running rampant w/ speculation, Mueller finally took a stand on the issue after Barr released his letter. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mueller-complained-that-barrs-letter-did-not-capture-context-of-trump-probe/2019/04/30/d3c8fdb6-6b7b-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html?utm_term=.05ae03bc8d7d …6937:01 PM – Apr 30, 2019445 people are talking about thisTwitter Ads info and privacy

Barr doesn’t play games and that’s why he’s so good at his job. Could you imagine Jeff Sessions ever standing up to Mueller like that and calling him on his nonsense? Of course you couldn’t because he’d never do so.

Meanwhile, the media talking heads on the left are reacting as expected.

Justin Miller✔@justinjm1

This is incredible: Mueller all but said Barr was sabotaging the reportJustin Miller✔@justinjm1MUELLER: “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mueller-complained-that-barrs-letter-did-not-capture-context-of-trump-probe/2019/04/30/d3c8fdb6-6b7b-11e9-a66d-a82d3f3d96d5_story.html?utm_term=.88b8791f7d6f …1,7146:24 PM – Apr 30, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy1,317 people are talking about this

Joe Scarborough✔@JoeNBC

BREAKING: The Attorney General actively engaged in a cover up, was called on it, and continued to cover up the truth about Trump’s obstruction of justice.16.6K6:29 PM – Apr 30, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy7,814 people are talking about this

That’s literally the opposite of what the Post report actually says, but MSNBC is gonna MSNBC.

Frankly, I’m kind of enjoying the freaking out at this point. These people are always in the process of losing their minds and it’s decent entertainment. Barr should continue to play hardball with Congress and tell the media to pound sand on their complaints.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/04/renaming-mania-curbed-in-minnesota.php

https://pjmedia.com/trending/rod-rosenstein-has-a-few-choice-words-for-media-fbi-leakers-and-obama-administration/

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/25/texas-exports-boosted-by-oil-rise-3-times-faster-than-us-increase.html

https://nypost.com/2019/04/27/joe-bidens-killer-advantage-heading-into-2020-election/ From Salena Zito

“Local Pennsylvania Democrats have done well here in the past two years post-Trump. The ones who have won statewide, like Sen. Bob Casey and Gov. Tom Wolf, have done so by running on local issues like infrastructure and health care and job creation. Same on the local level where Conor Lamb in Congress and Pam Iovino in the state Senate won as moderate problem-solvers campaigning in big Trump districts…There was no call to arms for third-trimester abortions, no New Green Deal support that would cripple the booming shale industry, no rallying cry for impeachment and no pledges for Medicare or free college for all…Mikus summed up her support for Biden neatly — and it is a sentiment shared by a variety of Western Pennsylvania Democrats longing for a win in 2020…“He has experience, he was an integral part of the Obama White House, he has presidential conduct, he is right on labor and he can win Western Pennsylvania,” Mikus said. “Win here and you’re the next president. It’s that simple.”

From Powerline Blog: April 26th by Paul Mirengoff

“Biden never had a good fastball. He finished near the bottom of his law school class at Syracuse University (and lied about this, as well as other aspects of his academic background). When he campaigned for president in 1988, he had to rely on words he stolefrom a British politician. He has been wrong about nearly foreign policy and national security issue for the past four decades, including even the no-brainer decision to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan…Biden never had success in any endeavor other than politics. That’s true of Bill Clinton and (mostly) Barack Obama too. But they are obviously intelligent (extremely so in Clinton’s case) and achieved the academic success that eluded Biden, to say the least..Biden deserves credit for becoming a Senator from Delaware at a young age. But his two attempts at the presidency were abject failures. If Barack Obama hadn’t needed a non-controversial white running mate with gray hair, Biden would have languished in the Senate forever. But there’s a problem. It’s not likely that Biden will run as a purely traditional Democrat. I haven’t heard him part company with the leftism espoused by the rest of the Democratic field. Rather, he’s apologizing for past manifestations of his traditionalism. Biden seems anxious to prove that he’s “woke” — that, in his late 70s, he finally “gets it I don’t believe Biden can do “woke” for a sustained period of time. I’m not sure he do it for a month. Moreover, the effort will only make him seem ridiculous and produce even more gaffes than we are accustomed to from the talkative former vice president…This suggests that Biden’s candidacy could go in either of two directions. He might become a laughingstock and, as such, crash and burn. Or Democrats (and eventually the electorate as a whole) might forgive, overlook, or laugh off his attempts at wokeness and accept Biden as a serviceable alternative to his wacky competitors (and eventually to President Trump)…In the latter scenario, America might well end up with a president who never had a fastball or much guile — a president who was always a mostly empty suit and who has shriveled with old age.”

https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/joe-biden-decides-to-go-nevertrump/ Roger Simon

“Biden will be forced to move left just to get nominated and likely say things he doesn’t believe in, probably forgetting what he believes in the process. After that, if elected president, he’ll end up doing some of those same things because of who put him there. That’s how politics works, here and everywhere else — a profession for unremitting narcissists willing to change their opinions at the drop of a vote or a check…But that’s not Biden’s real problem. It’s not even the economy, stupid. Or even the fact that’s he’s a multiple plagiarists, something people like me (writers) find especially abhorrent. (Who likes to be robbed?) It’s Ukraine, not to mention China. The man is corrupt to the core and the Democratic Party better hope he doesn’t get implicated in what is coming soon — the devastating investigation of the predicate of the Russia investigation. That investigation, which would make an all-time great movie that will, alas, never be coming to a theater near you because of the nature of Hollywood, nevertheless will be the story of stories starting in a month or two. It’s just beginning to unfold.”