Katz....

I have worked for 23 years for a company called Beckman Coulter. For 20 years I was classified as a salaried employee, even though I was technical. Our salary was lower than the industry peer groups but we were offered a company pension while others were not. 5 years ago a group of executives took over and did what CEO's do now...its all about shareholder value....pump up the stock, break up the company and sell the pieces. Good for the CEO and the stockholders but not so good for the employees. There were waves and waves of layoffs, entire departments including all the science people and QA people. Then a couple of years ago the trouble started....for the first time in the history of the company we had to recall a product... we desended into FDA hell and there we remain today. All the time this guy and his hand picked board were making millions. Stock options mostly...my salary was frozen but by this time I was over 55 not a good time to start fresh. Finally, the board said he had to go....with a 47 million dollar parting gift. We were told a new CEO would be hired but then we noticed the SEC filings, the board and the remaining executives were packing their parachutes. We got sold now my pension is forzen and will not be funded as of 2012. That pension we were told we would get at retirement. And the new guys....well the first thing they did was cut the workforce by another 8%. The company headquarters is a ghost town.

I believe in capitialism but now I believe the deck has been stacked against the workers and the middle class.

Just my recent experience.....