Boycott Compaq!
Compaq Computers annually sells about 400,000 computers in Canada. I wish that number could be brought down to zero.
Compaq just bought DEC computers for $9 billion. DEC was profitable and the DEC plant in Kanata, Ontario, was among the most efficient computer system production plants in North America.
Do you remember these big corporations demanding tax cuts and a "hospitable" environment for big business? They told us that we had to be efficient and competitive if we wished to retain healthy economic growth. Just like the DEC plant (which manufactures Alpha motherboards for high performance computer systems). They said taxes should be reduced, just like Mike Harris has been doing, and workers need to be well-trained, just as the public education system in the Ottawa area has been doing.
Well, it turns out we were lied to. Efficiency doesn't matter. Worker training, dedication and loyalty doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the universe of big business. Compaq is removing production of the Alpha systems from the Kanata plant and laying off 1,100 workers, with more cuts to come. Thank you and good bye.
Don't get me wrong. Nobody should be able to force Compaq to employ workers it doesn't want. But neither do we have to buy computers from a manufacturer who doesn't give a damn about its employees. Some people would have you believe that corporations owe nothing to anyone, except for the bottom line. Astonishingly, among their friends are so-called Christians in the U.S. who believe that capitalism is ordained by the bible. Richard De Vos, one of the founder's of Amway, donates hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party every year. He knows who butters his bread.
These people act as if their employees, their plants, the transportation infrastructure, the health care system, the education system, etc., comes from nowhere and costs nothing. They certainly act as if they owe nothing for any of these things that make it possible for DEC/Compaq to build a plant, hire trained, qualified employees, transport their products, and make piles of money. The minute they think they can increase their share values by dumping their own loyal employees, they will do it, without the slightest concern for these workers, their families, or their communities.
Well, we certainly don't need Compaq. The truth is that there are many excellent competitors out there whose products are more reasonably priced in any case. Boycott Compaq! Send a message to the big fat corporate bosses who never cut their own salaries when times are hard: we will reward corporations that display some sense of responsibility towards the communities from which they get their profits.
Boycott Compaq.
© Copyright 1998 Bill Van Dyk
June 30, 1998