[ultras sur]

How America became a superpower?

[wanderer78]

Originally Posted by Callace (View Post) Thanks a lot for that link Jon Stewart is funny and btw, I have been looking at your signature for a while, and it always makes me laugh Your board has vampires on it?

I'm sorry, I missed your comment about my sig.

30 Rock doesn't have vampires. My sig is from a speech made by one of the characters (who's a little crazy).

The GM situation is sad. It's funny. I watched "Roger and Me" just last week, and it sounds like they've been screwing people over for a long time now.

[sunnykerr]

Oh, man, that scene with the woman and the rabbits... I saw that movie ages ago and it still haunts me.

[wanderer78]

That scene was freaky. My mother hid under the covers when that played.

[sunnykerr]

It's so sad...

[Callace]

Originally Posted by wanderer78 (View Post) I'm sorry, I missed your comment about my sig. 30 Rock doesn't have vampires. My sig is from a speech made by one of the characters (who's a little crazy). The GM situation is sad. It's funny. I watched "Roger and Me" just last week, and it sounds like they've been screwing people over for a long time now.

Ok I see It was a funny comment, anyhow. I like it.

I watched that movie too, but it is a long time ago. dont remember much of it. But it is a bit peculiar that the rabbit scene was the most shocking, with all the other nasty stuff that was shown there

[vc318]

Broward County School District layoffs: 396 Broward County school teachers laid off -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

I know this is no secret but what kind of a world are we living in when we don't need teachers?! It's absurd! So now they have to hang on the hopes of getting re-hired in the fall. I hope the banks can understand that when they have no money to send them for their bills.

[sunnykerr]

It's certainly a bad sign of the way times are going...

[vc318]

And some more:

British Airways asks staff to work unpaid for up to a month - CNN.com

LONDON, England (CNN) -- British Airways is asking thousands of its staff to work for free for up to four weeks, spokeswoman Kirsten Millard said Tuesday.

In an e-mail to all its staff, the airline offered workers between one and four weeks of unpaid leave -- but with the option to work during this period. British Airways employs just more than 40,000 people in the United Kingdom.

Last month, the company posted a record annual loss of £400 million ($656 million).

Its chief executive declared at the time there were "absolutely no signs of recovery" in the industry.

"I'm 30 years in this business and I've never seen anything like this. This is by far the biggest crisis the industry has ever faced," said Willie Walsh, British Airways' chief executive.

A spokesman for one of Britain's biggest unions said its workers could not afford to work for free for a month.

"It's all well and good for Willie Walsh to say he's prepared to work for free when he earns four times in a month what they do in a year," said Ciaran Naidoo, a spokesman for Unite.

He pointed out that the airline was not ordering staff to work without pay.

"It's a request -- you can take unpaid leave or you can work for free, and the chances of people working for free are very unlikely, but there might be some people who want to take unpaid leave.

Demand for the airline's passenger seats and cargo holds fell during the last financial year, while its fuel bill rocketed to almost £3 billion ($4.7 billion).

Walsh said British Airways' woes were inextricably linked to the downturn in the global economy and that there had been no sign of any "green shoots" of recovery.

Like its premium-class competitors, British Airways is losing customers to cheaper rivals.

The airline's premium passenger numbers fell 13 percent in the second half of last year, in line with the industry average.

Total traffic fell 3.4 percent and while the airline carried 33.1 million passengers last year, it was a drop of 4.3 percent from the previous year.

The dip in demand for British Airways' flights has forced a switch in strategy at the airline.

From the end of last year, it has been trying to tempt passengers with lower fares, sacrificing profit per seat for "bums on seats."

It plans to reduce capacity by 4 percent next winter by parking up to 16 aircraft.

How the hell can you tell someone to just go along with this?! I swear these execs are out of their mind. Don't they know that people have flipped bills to pay?! It's kinda the reason why people - um - WORK!!!! And just like the person mentioned in the article - it really is easy for these suit-suit guys to say "Oh sure, I don't mind taking like a month off" when they'll make up that money any other time. It's like crap on the hard working people these days.

[sunnykerr]

I'm guessing that's actually what they're counting on: The fact that people need to continue working. So, you know, better to work X amount of days for free as opposed to having to lay off people.

Just a guess, though.

[wanderer78]

The situation with the teachers is very sad. I'm guessing classes will become even more crowded. As with many things. it's the children that will suffer.

Personally, I wouldn't do volunteer work for a corporation. That's ludicrous. But why is that piece in the U.S. thread?

[vc318]

Originally Posted by wanderer78 (View Post) The situation with the teachers is very sad. I'm guessing classes will become even more crowded. As with many things. it's the children that will suffer.

Of course - in the end the children will suffer.

Personally, I wouldn't do volunteer work for a corporation. That's ludicrous. But why is that piece in the U.S. thread?

I thought British Airways also had offices here in the U.S. so I thought it should be posted here as well. But I have gone ahead and re-posted this in the UK thread.

[Miss Kelsey Rose]

This whole ordeal with the teachers is getting a bit ridiculous. The students are suffering. From personal experience, I had a Geometry teacher back in tenth grade who wasn't even qualified to teach the class! She was a marine aquatics teacher! I needed that extra help in math, and it wasn't there. In my high school career, I had only one math teacher that truly helped me. The rest were not qualified (literally) to even teach the classes.

What is up with that?

I know the article was about teachers being laid off, but, I think this is relevant. Given that the teachers they are hiring/keeping may not be as good for the subject they're stuck with/forced to teach in the absence of a professional in that particular field.

[vc318]

Originally Posted by Miss Kelsey Rose (View Post) This whole ordeal with the teachers is getting a bit ridiculous. The students are suffering. From personal experience, I had a Geometry teacher back in tenth grade who wasn't even qualified to teach the class! She was a marine aquatics teacher! I needed that extra help in math, and it wasn't there. In my high school career, I had only one math teacher that truly helped me. The rest were not qualified (literally) to even teach the classes. What is up with that?

See, this is what kinda annoys me about teaching sometimes - the principals get so desperate just to find anyone to babysit these students for a couple of hours even if they aren't qualified! It isn't okay but they do this because they can't find anybody crazy enough to teach anymore (overworked and truly underpaid). I hate to say this but let's hope that more of the unqualified ones were laid off so that those who are truly deserving and qualified to do the task will be given a job.

[Callace]

The teachers getting fired were really sad to read I remember still how sad and frustrating it was when one of my favorite teachers got fired in high school, for the same reason as in the article (which led to a student riot and rehiring within a year, but)

Also sad to hear about the unqualified teachers some of you have had. I have been blessed with very few of those, but it is really annoying when it happens.