BUSINESS WRITING

The case of the income distribution dilemma.

You are the manager of a bottle manufacturing plant that produces bottles of varied sizes and shapes on specified orders from other corporations.  Because of a recent recession during which the demand for bottles decreased, you are considering laying off 30 percent of your workers, nearly a thousand people.  The plant is located in a small city and is one of the chief employers in the community.  A recent article in the local newspaper claimed that your plant was directly responsible for the incomes of 30 percent of the community and indirectly for another 20 percent of people who depended on your workers spending their paychecks in local businesses and for local services.

As an advocate of utilitarianism, you are troubled by the impending layoffs and hope to find a way that might ease the crisis.  Your dilemma is this: Your corporate overseers have told you to cut payroll costs by 30 percent and have suggested that the easiest route to that goal is layoffs.  Meanwhile, the leader of the local union has got wind of the coming crisis and is threatening a shutdown of the plant if layoffs go so high.  If the union does that, you’ll have to hire and retrain replacements whose processing and training will cancel the savings of the layoff.

What should you do?

• 1.       Refuse to lay off anyone, risking your own termination by the corporation.
• 2.       Bite the bullet: lay off 30 percent of your workers, the simplest solution.
• 3.       Negotiate with the union leader, telling him that if the remaining workers will take a 15 percent cut in pay, you will lay off only 15 percent of the workers. That way, the crunch won’t be felt as hard by the community.
• 4.       Call all of your client companies, begging them to place orders for bottles.
• 5.       Raise the price of the bottles 15 percent to cover some of the costs not covered by sales.
• 6.       Lower the price of the bottles 15 percent to generate more sales.
• 7.       Discuss with your management team taking a 15 percent cut in salary to show goodwill with the workers.  If everyone sacrifices, the workers will be more willing to go along.
• 8.       Raise the union’s share of paying for health and life insurance.
• 9.   Cancel all holiday and vacation pay.

In a brief essay, explain your choices and why you made them.