Not trying to get political with this, but I found it interesting nonetheless.


http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/56374475-180/workers-hours-health-cuts.html.csp

"As the nation anticipates further implementation in January 2014 of the Affordable Care Act, which requires companies with 50 or more employees to provide insurance for their full-time employees, LDS Church-owned Deseret Industries has cut its workers’ hours to fewer than 30.

In doing so, DI, as it is known, will not have to provide health coverage for these employees."

And I loved the doublespeak here:

"But they do not get health insurance, according to LDS Church spokeswoman Ruth Todd.

"Todd explained the cuts as a way 'to serve as many people as possible.'

"Reducing the trainees’ hours, she said, 'has allowed for a dramatic increase in participants.'"

Coming in Jan 2014 "Every member a DI volunteer program!"

now that they are cutting the canneries. I can actually see this happening.

They have done this. In 2007 our stake was assigned to send volunteers to work at the DI. I sorted clothing for four hours. All the stakes in our area had this assignment. I know it took place the next year but have not been plugged into church for a while to know if they are still doing this. I suspect yes, and now I expect it will continue or start up again.

Around 2008 our stake started requesting volunteers to work at the DI. I left the church that year so I'm not sure if they continued with volunteers. But I suspect so.

Wow. This is just wrong. Cheap b@stards. I guess DI employees will have to see their Home Teachers for a priesthood blessing instead of a Doctor when they get sick now.

;o)

I guess what absolutely galls me is how disingenuous this comment is:

"Todd explained the cuts as a way 'to serve as many people as possible.'

"Reducing the trainees’ hours, she said, 'has allowed for a dramatic increase in participants.'"

That is pure corporate spin, and not at all what one would expect of a charitable organization. Why not be honest? Why not say "We can't afford to pay insurance on all of our trainees, so we are forced to do this."

They make me sick.

Don't worry! LDS inc could spend millions on futile attempts to keep over the hill Gordon Hinckley alive.

They could spend Billions to complete Hinckley's pet Mall Project, CCC.

But when it comes to providing any health care benefits to the needy employed at Deseret Industries? screw those people! They can be just like Jesus -suffer and die.

DW once said "Why don't you work for the church??"

I'd rather be holding a cardboard sign next to a freeway exit....

My husband used to drive the trucks that picked up donated goods. A lot of the time, the loaded trailers went straight to the dump, never being sorted. True, some of the donated items were broken, trashed, etc., but there was a lot of good things, too. One time, DH saw a book that has been thrown in the trash at DI's. He picked it up & brought it home. It was the first half of the BoM, printed in the deseret alphabet.

I had friends who worked 'part time' at ZCMI and didn't have health insurance or other benefits. Most of ZCMI employees were part time.

This isn't anything new with the LDS church. It is their way of saving money.

I suspect they will also include volunteer (assigned) workers to work at D.I. Keeping part time help is cost efficient.

That way the church coffers can increase and the money used for 'whatever the church deems necessary'. The tithing receipt explains that perfectly. They have the authority to do what they deem necessary with the money donated as tithing.

Brilliant methods of creating wealth for the church. It comes on the backs of sacrificing members.

I'm glad to see that it's such a socially responsible corporation...SNARK!

the great and spacious mall must be sucking them dry if they are making members clean toilets, closing canneries, and now the DI cuts. We all know they have investments up the ass....so why are they suddenly cutting back? But yet they keep building new temples?

nevermind, I just answered my own question :)

I see it as another sign tithing revenue is waaaay down so in a way it's a good thing...except for the people who rely on the church.

lol

I worked there a while ago while transitioning between jobs, and they told me the same thing about cutting hours to avoid paying benefits.

To give the DI "coaches" a little credit, though, some of them felt this was unfair not just with benefits but also with hours. One of them even complained how it's making people get two part time jobs to get full time hours and complicating life for people even more--all without benefits.

I managed to get two jobs and had to quit the DI to do just that--get full time hours.

Modern woes, I guess.

Places like DI (and I expect many other not for profits) can't make it and pay for Obamacare. Many state universities are cutting the hours for non-tenured faculty so they don't have to pay the cost of Obamacare. Other businesses are having to do the same thing.

Boilermaker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Places like DI (and I expect many other not for
> profits) can't make it and pay for Obamacare.
> Many state universities are cutting the hours for
> non-tenured faculty so they don't have to pay the
> cost of Obamacare. Other businesses are having to
> do the same thing.

Then they should just say that, instead of saying they are making cuts in hours as a way "to serve as many people as possible ("Reducing the trainees’ hours, she said, 'has allowed for a dramatic increase in participants.'")

exactly. The way they worded things was just totally awkward and suspicious sounding.

They probably would consider any such statement about Obamacare too political. Everyone knows the reason they are doing this is Obamacare so there really is no reason to announce it. They are just doing what Obamacare is forcing all kinds of institutions to do.

The "cost" of the current system is already being borne by everyone. Obamacare shifts the cost a little, to some businesses, but we all have been paying for the uninsured for years. This just makes it come through the front door in a more organized way that spreads the cost to some who opted not to insure themselves and then got hurt or sick.

FYI.

It helps to understand some facts:

http://kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/snapshots-employer-health-insurance-costs-and-worker-compensation/

Businesses have been pulling this stunt for as long as I've been in the workforce (since the 1970's.) They offer full benefits including health insurance to full time employees and nothing to part time employees. Then they hire lots of part time employees and cut hours for full time employees so they're not eligible for the benefits package.

This isn't new. The businesses just have a new excuse for why they are treating their employees so shabbily.

By the way, the cook in your favorite restaurant may have come to work with a raging case of the flu because s/he doesn't get sick days or have health care insurance. I used to cook when sick because I had no other choice. It was stay home OR pay the bills.

Cost cutting is no excuse for the Mormon church to withhold health care from the needy working poor.
What would Jesus do??

The morg rakes in $ millions through tithes each week.

If any cost cutting needs to be done it should involve the secular business projects they funnel those tithes into.
It's a church, for Chrissakes, not a corporation.

Oh....wait.

I suppose the needy working poor will be able to get their insurance through Obamacare. There is no good reason for any organization to put itself into a position in which they spend money (especially donated money) that might be used better. DI is simply making sure it has the money it needs to best fulfill its mission. Would you purposely put yourself into a position where you have to pay extra taxes when you could avoid it?

Boilermaker Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DI is simply making sure it has the money
> it needs to best fulfill its mission.

You have a far more generous view of DI and its leadership than I do.

Donated money is better spent on building shopping malls and resorts in Hawaii ???

Wow.
You could have fooled me about what the true mission of God's church is.

Deseret Industries runs the same employment program the Goodwill does. They do not do anything for free, friends.

It is an eighteen month program, not permanent work. The state pays for a non-profit to train disabled people for permanent work.

When the state funds end, out the door you go to be replaced by fresh meat. The supervisors are the only permanent people and you will notice none of them are disabled.

Just in case you thought something was being done out of "charity" or the desire to help disabled people.

If they wanted to actually help disabled people, they would hire them, give them a decent wage, promote them and give them health insurance.

Instead, they lead them to believe they are now "employable" because they sorted used stuff for 18 months on the state's nickel. The disappointment and depression that follows the discovery that they have been used is never shown.

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