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This is old news, by the way (April). Ikea followed up here in May: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/about_ikea/newsitem/Swedwood_statement http://www.ikea.com/us/en/

This is old news, by the way (April). Ikea followed up here in May: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/about_ikea/newsitem/Swedwood_statement http://www.ikea.com/us/en/about_ikea/newsitem/Swedwood_state... In short, they plan to fix the mandatory overtime problem, and they claim not to be involved in union busting. The latter charge, even in the article, was weak -- mandatory meetings where management tries to talk people into not unionizing? Sounds pretty benign. They also denied the charges of discrimination. Sounds like they hired American management who weren't really on board with their philosophies, and that they're fixing the problem.

Natsu 15y ago
It's interesting because most of those conditions (except discrimination and union-busting) are completely normal, sadly. What happens, generally, is that a company will under-staff because they can't predict their workload and then try to make it up with temps when they get slammed. Except that the temps can't do any of the semi-skilled jobs that involve special machinery, so the people can use them end up with mandatory overtime and weekend shifts. They may also be forbidden from taking vacation days. I know a guy who just had to cancel his daughter's birthday party because the only other production worker who can operate that machine was injured. I don't know anything about how unions fit into the equation having never dealt with that, but I know quite a bit about how production works at this point, and it's not pretty.
- hvs 15y ago
  Unfortunately, unions have a tendency to limit the number of skilled workers that a company can hire due to higher wages required for existing employees.