I work for a company that fabricates conveyor belts for other manufacturing companies, by hand despite the fact that the companies will use machine to utilize our products (wackiness). Customers include Hostess, Nestle, Mars Chocolate, etc.
Over the pandemic we’ve had many shipments of base material stuck either in some canal overseas or at customers somewhere on the coast. I do mostly clerical work, and half of my goddamn job is now explaining to salespeople that we are doing our best but we cannot keep up with both new orders while also keeping up with late prefers when we simply don’t have the material nor the manpower necessary to fabricate their belts.
I have seen grocery shelves in my area empty, many from the companies that utilize our products. We have had repeated threats from customers that they will look elsewhere for business, and I don’t know what to tell the salespeople who continue to press me for answers on why their orders are late. I want to scream “BECAUSE WE DO NOT PROVIDE AN ADEQUATE SALARY FOR ANYONE TO WANT TO WORK HERE!” We lost three people two weeks ago, which has obviously dug us deeper into our back order hole.
Employees are exasperated.
Despite this, last quarter the company recorded its biggest profits in the company’s history. Instead of a bonus we all received a BBQ lunch. I can barely survive on my wage. I do not know any clearer example of the USA’s decline into late stage capitalism than the company I work for. We are overworked while shelves remain empty and mid level managers take their quarterly bonuses at the expense of the people actually doing the work, while I can cannot even afford most of the products we eventually are the ones helping to make. How much longer can this shit keep up?