in response to charges that workers can't make ends meet, upmc opens employee food pantry (Pittsburgh: low income, rent)

[greg42]

Originally Posted by ebyrnes

If I read this correctly, they are asking employees to donate to stock the food bank for other employees? My head is spinning.

That appears to be the case. "Please help your fellow employees because we pay them too little."

[groar]

Originally Posted by ebyrnes

If I read this correctly, they are asking employees to donate to stock the food bank for other employees? My head is spinning.

yep, that seems to be the case!

[Tinare]

OMFG! Seriously, is the leadership at UPMC that out-of-touch that they thought that this was a GOOD idea???

"We care that we don't pay you enough to survive without help so here, we're asking your co-workers to make up the difference." That's the PR message UPMC wants to allow into the world? Yeah, that's a winner of an idea...

[CaptainPittsburgh]

And Andrew Carnegie built public libraries so that the mill workers who brought his fortune could better themselves; never mind that they were all working twelve to fourteen hour days to scrape by on the pittance he paid them. Or as one publication said at the time, "Ten thousand ‘Carnegie Public Libraries’ would not compensate for the direct and indirect evils resulting from the Homestead strike."

UPMC's just taking part in a proud American tradition, haha.

[SammyKhalifa]

Part of me thinks this can't possibly be real.

[bradjl2009]

Wow. What a joke.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by Hopes

This sentence makes no sense whatsoever. Did you forget a subject or a verb or an adjective or something?

Yes, supposed to be 'not' rather then 'my' (and duly edited)

That's irrelevant. If she went elsewhere, someone else would be underpaid in her place, probably paid even less than her.

It is relevant, if that's not the prevailing market rate for her position then it would go unfilled. Just because someone is only being paid $9-13 an hour doesn't automatically mean they warrent a raise??

For the record I'm no umpc fan & this was a dumb move by pr standards but would like a lot more facts before jumping on the umpc better pay these people more because they deserve it bandwagon

[groar]

Originally Posted by SammyKhalifa

Part of me thinks this can't possibly be real.

i understand the feeling but it's totally real. i'm looking right at the employee newsletter that mentions the food pantry, but i feel weird about directly linking to it.

[sskink]

Up next: Company scrip.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by UKyank

It is relevant, if that's not the prevailing market rate for her position then it would go unfilled.

I'm not sure how or why the "prevailing market" matters when you are dealing with UPMC? UPMC is way too large relative to the size of the local health care market to assume there is a free market in hiring labor. You don't get a demand curve like you'd see in an Econ 101 book when you don't have a competitive market. And UPMC is granted very large tax concessions allegedly because it is a benefit to the community. "Do your full-time employees need to use a food pantry to eat" strikes me as a very low bar and, by UPMC's own admission, they don't do that.

This isn't economics on either side. It's all politics and if only one side is organized politically, they'll win.