I came across this article about this American CEO being held hostage in his Chinese factory and even after a huge ransom sum was being paid…he is still going to rehire some of these same workers and keep operating the factory.  What does this tell you?  What it tells me is that…all’s fair in business, because I am still making huge profits and because like he stated today, “we have millions of dollars tied up in equipment and we are not going to walk away from.  It’s the almighty dollar and I do not feel sorry for him one iota.  It is profit, profit, and more profit.

The only reason this occurred at all was pure greed by all these US companies that “out-sourced” these factories to other countries to get workers to perform job skills at ridiculously low prices, so to make huge profits for people like this guy.  Oh, he was deprived of sleep by shining bright lights in his eyes and by banging on his office walls…boo hoo.  It’s interesting that his story of staying in China and the workers belief that they were moving to India; does not correlate.  In my mind, I would guess that the truth is somewhere in between.

I also found it interesting that now that he is back home, he goes on national news to describe what a horrible experience this event was  and tries to imply that he was the innocent party.  Anyway read the article and draw your own conclusions.

An American boss detained nearly a week by his company’s Chinese workers left the Beijing factory Thursday after he and a labor representative said the two sides reached agreement in a pay dispute.  Chip Starnes, who said he was “saddened” by the experience, reached a deal overnight to pay the scores of workers who had demanded severance packages similar to ones given to laid-off co-workers in a phased-out division, even though the company said the remaining workers weren’t being laid off. Remaining workers at the medical supply plant in Huairou district, on the outskirts of Beijing, had said they believed the entire factory was shutting down, that the company owed unpaid salary and that they saw equipment being packed and itemized for shipping to India.

Starnes said the workers’ demands were unjustified. He stated today, that the total compensation was a ransom amount and it totaled in excess of $ 600,000.  Chu said all the workers would be terminated, and Starnes said some of them would be rehired later.  “It has been resolved to each side’s satisfaction,” Chu told reporters at a conference room at the plant in late morning.   She said they had been sorting out paperwork until 5 a.m. and that 97 workers had signed settlement agreements.  Starnes, a co-owner of Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, had quietly departed the factory grounds by the time Chu spoke, returning to his hotel in Beijing.

Police in Huairou district had made no moves to halt the labor action but guarded the plant and said they were guaranteeing Starnes’ safety while local labor officials brokered negotiations.  It is not rare in China for managers to be held by workers demanding back pay or other benefits, often from their Chinese owners.  Police are reluctant to intervene, as they consider it a business dispute, and local officials typically are eager to see the matter resolved in the way least likely to fuel unrest.  The labor action reflected growing uneasiness among workers about their jobs amid China’s slowing economic growth and the sense that growing labor costs make the country less attractive for some foreign-owned factories.

About 80 workers had started blocking all exits starting last Friday, and Starnes had spoken to reporters in recent days through the barred window of his factory office. Earlier Thursday, he said in a telephone interview that he had been forced to give in to what he considered unjustified demands. He summed up the past several days as “humiliating, embarrassing.” At the beginning of his captivity, workers had deprived him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office, he said.

“We have transferred our funds from the U.S.,” he said. “I am basically free to go when the funds hit the account here of the company.”

Starnes stated that he planned to get back to business, and even rehire some of the workers who had been holding him.   Starnes previously said the company had been winding down its plastics division, with plans to move it to Mumbai.  When he arrived in Beijing last week to lay off the last 30 people, workers in other divisions started demanding similar severance packages.

Just think, maybe with the new immigration laws that these same conservative politicians and business CEO’s helped pass in Congress will bring about an in-sourcing of jobs into the US because these same factories can now hire these illegals, who were all on welfare any way, for below minimum wage standards to provide even greater profits for all these “fat cats” that don’t pay any taxes.

And the golden elephants & diamond incrusted jackasses, looked down from their lofty perches and saw nothing but pure greed and the minions had nothing…and it was good…