Friday, December 05, 2003

We've become the Wal-Mart nation, a place where everybody -- business, investors, consumers -- wants everything done on the cheap, no matter the consequences.

The way it all works can be seen on a very small scale at a very large company.

Hewlett-Packard was looking to save money when it hired Black Box Network Services to handle telecommunications at some Silicon Valley campuses. Black Box took over the work last summer from NetVersant Solutions and initially kept many NetVersant workers. Black Box figured it eventually could beat NetVersant's costs with layoffs and pay cuts.

But there was a problem. The workers were union members and, says the union representing them, entitled to bargaining rights. Black Box refused to negotiate and the situation blew up.

11:47 AM |