My work hours were cut in half at the beginning of the year

[AnotherMcIntosh]

20. Behind the scenes, you'll find MBAs w charts and graphs who receive bonuses for what they're doing.

Your union can respond to this.

What is happening at your company follows a standard plan of the MBAs. They are trained to do exactly what they are doing.

They are hired by the executives to come in and officially tell the executives, with formal reports, that the executives' salaries are too low. They also give the executives the step-by-step plans on how to incrementally increase their salaries until the company is ultimately sold. The company has to be sold for this to work. But not immediately.

Under the routine approach, to maximize the sale price, the company needs to show increasing profits over a period of years. To show increased profits, they either have to increase sales or increase margins. Even when they cannot increase sales, they can increase margins by systematically lowering costs. Some costs cannot be signifigantly lowered. Wages can be.

The MBAs are routinely given stock options (a tax trick) which allows them to purchase company stock at a depressed price and then sell their stock at a premium when the company is sold.

Your description of what is happening indicates that your company is going to be sold. The question is "When?"

If your union can determine when the MBA's stock options are going to mature, your union can predict the sale date.

Somewhere, there are public records which disclose when large companies issue stock options to executives and MBAs. Your union attorney, who may be more familiar with labor law than the registration requirements of stock options, may be able to determine that or otherwise refer to someone who knows where such public records can be found.

What you do with the information is up to you. You have a number of options. If you are still bargaining for a contract, you might be able to negotiate for stock options with a similar maturity date. Even if this doesn't work, your union would be able to put them on notice that you are aware of their game. Bona fide lawsuits filed just before an anticipated sale date can depress the value of stock. There are other things that can be done as well.