Submitted by Mish Shedlock of MishTalk
Greece Shut Down By Protests And Strikes Over Pensions; Emergency Eurogroup Meeting Monday
In protest of still more pension cuts, Greek unions started a 3-day strike on Friday that has shut down much of the country.
The Greek parliament holds a pension reform vote on Monday. The vote is expected to pass but perhaps barely. Syriza has a slim three seat majority in the 300-seat Greek parliament.
UPS, and roughly 270,000 retired truck drivers, construction workers, and other service workers can breathe a collective sigh of relief... for now. As we previously reported, the Central States Pension Fund had submitted a plan to Treasury that if approved would have cut member benefits, and triggered UPS to take an estimated $3.8 billion charge.
As politicians and businesses trip over each other to see who can raise the minimum wage the fastest and to what extent, the typical "totally unforeseen" consequences of central planning are being felt.
From a human resource perspective, workplace tension is on the rise.
With record numbers of older workers in the workforce, as the beach/sunset/walks-in-the-park vision of retirement crashes on the shores of reality, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel.
After a series of tests on ways to deter theft, Wal-Mart has decided that America's favorite supercenter position will be making a comeback. This summer, Wal-Mart will be rolling out a program that will bring door greeters back to the entrances in hopes of reducing theft, and improving customer service.
We already know that the quantity of the April jobs was disappointing, but what about the quality? Well, on one hand the BLS reported that based on the Household Survey, in April 253K full time jobs were lost so there's that. But what did the Establishment Survey, which is the far more massaged one and thus the one that algos pay the most attention to, show?