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| John Schnatter | |  |
John H. Schnatter, born November 23, 1961 and better known as "Papa John", is the founder, chairman, and current CEO of Papa John's International, Inc. He founded the company in October 1984. He is also spokesman for Papa John's. | Photo: Archives |
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The recent trend for mega-corporations to threaten their workforce by cutting back hours, due to The Affordable Health Care Act, is nothing new. During the beginning of our industrial revolution, tycoons used their money and power to create such abhorred conditions for workers, that 1 in every 11 steel workers were killed on the job, and all in the name of unimaginable profits for the few.
Papa John's Pizza CEO John Schnatter went on the record and threaten to cut his full-time employee's hours, trying to scare up votes for Mitt Romney; because he may have to pay a little more for his full-time employee's health benefits, if "ObamaCare" is not overturned.
What really is to be gained by such measures? Alienating the majority of full-time workers? Showing your hand as a pompous ass, devoid of morals in light of profits? What could be the reasoning to show such venom towards a workforce responsible for tremendous wealth and success?
Let's just look at the numbers and facts, as they have no morals or emotions. Papa John's Pizza cleared $306 million dollars in profits in 2011, and they currently employ 16,500 workers. Once The Affordable Care Act kicks in, if Papa John's Pizza is not providing health care for their full-time workers, or providing inadequate health care, they can be fined up to $3000 per full-time employee.
This would come to less than $40 million dollars, even though not all of the Papa John's employees would require the maximum p
| Papa John's Pizza cleared $306 million dollars in profits in 2011. | | |
enalty to be paid; but even if they were levied the maximum penalty, this would still leave Papa John's with over $260 million in profits; not too shabby for shabby "pizza".
Let us imagine for a moment that we operated in an economy that had self-owned enterprises, and Papa John's Pizza was owned by the workers. Not owned by Schnatter and a few other men, but owned by the actual workers producing the actual pizzas. Do you think they would threaten to cut their own hours, as oppose to using less than 13% of profits to provide adequate health care for themselves?
The answer is obvious, and why a wage-labor system always creates unsustainable wealth discrepancies and distribution problems. If you believe full-time workers should either be paid a wage high enough to afford health insurance, or receive health insurance as part of their pay-package, you would be wise to boycott Papa John's Pizza.
Your waist line, taste buds, and future wages will all thank you for it.
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 | | John Schnatter |
Papa John CEO in New York City celebrating his success. | Photo: Archives |
