Workplace Massacre in Alabama: Did Endless Downsizing and Slashed Benefits Cause the Rampage?

By Mark Ames, AlterNet. Posted March 13, 2009.

Now that the company is under bankruptcy protection, with the same Pilgrims running the show, what's the worst that would happen for punishing a lowly worker who made a claim? Another lawsuit? Yeah, right.

So now we can start looking at the "motive" that Alabama investigators first broke, then hushed up: Last week, Pilgrim's Pride suspended McLendon's 52-year-old mother from her grim night-shift job as retribution for her demands to be paid in full for her work. Almost the same time that his mother was suspended from Pilgrim's Pride, McLendon abruptly quit his job at Kelley Foods, a meat-processing company a few towns over. Add to this another corporate attack on the locals: In mid-February, Reliance Metal Products, the place where McLendon worked until 2003 and where he ended his killing spree, quietly started laying off its workers and pushing the lucky few who still had jobs into working longer hours.

You can glean some of the anger and frustration in unofficial forums, but there's little information in the official realm: According to a report dated Feb. 18 from a local TV station, WTVY:

Local Prefabricated Metal Manufacturer Lays Off Worker

At one time, Reliable Corp., based in Geneva, Ala., employed 800. We're being told by those who work there that fellow employees have been receiving their lay-off notices. Reliable Corp. has been manufacturing prefabricated metal products for more than 50 years. Over recent days, News 4 has received several calls from those who've been laid off.

They haven't been told if it's temporary or if it's a permanent job loss. In one correspondence, we've learned that those who've been laid off will meet with a delegation of company and state officials early next month in Geneva. Following the loss of a body-armor company late last year, Geneva Mayor Wynnton Melton says any loss of jobs for his city is tragic.

News 4 was unsuccessful in getting a statement from reliable officials in Geneva. In the 1990s, Geneva lost more than 2,000 textile jobs as they went to overseas' countries. At this time, we're not being told if the layoffs are due to the national recession. We will continue to follow this story as details become available.

As the local news crew reported, it's almost impossible to find out any news about the layoffs because Reliable was keeping quiet. You get some clues to the answer via the three lonely comments at the bottom of the WTVY story:

Posted by: Rudy Location: New York on Feb. 18, 2009 at 4:28 p.m. -- My heart goes out to the layoff victims of Reliable Corp. I found immediate advice and strategies in an iTunes app called "Pink Slip." It helped me know my rights and keep my head during and after the meeting with HR.

Posted by: Gwynn Location: Westville on Feb. 18, 2009 at 7:56 a.m. -- I have been laid off from Reliable. I have not been informed of any meetings. We were told that the layoffs were due to lack of work and that if work picked up, we would be called back to work. If work orders didn't, we would be terminated at the end of the month.

Posted by: RELIABLE WORKER on Feb. 17, 2009 at 10:35 p.m. -- Company laying off employees and giving overtime to other workers is more of a losing battle either way you look at it! Employees were told if they were called back by March 2nd, they would have a job, if not, they no longer had a job! Cut out overtime and put people back to work, not only are you hurting your employees but the city of Geneva as well. Loss of income is a loss of sales for the city. Not many jobs in the city makes people seek new jobs elsewhere. Makes you think we should have voted wet on the wet dry ballot. That would have been a lot of tax money for the city, which is now being lost by loss of jobs!

What these commenters reveal is the same Reaganomics corporate approach at work as with Pilgrim's Pride, only scaled down in size. Everywhere it's the same: the company only exists as a vehicle for the top half a dozen or so executives and major shareholders to plunder as many suckers -- workers, investors, taxpayers -- as they can soak. We know a lot less about Kelley Foods, the last place McLendon worked before his killing spree. Divorce papers from 2003 reveal that the wife of Charles Kelley, one of the principal owners, accused him of having "engaged in domestic violence" against her.

We also know that, like Pilgrim's Pride, Kelley Foods earns a substantial amount of money from American taxpayers: $1.36 million in food contracts with the Defense Department in just three years, 2005-07. For Kelley, that's a huge amount.

See more stories tagged with: workplace, massacre, alabama

Read more of Mark Ames at eXiledonline.com. He is the author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond.

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