"For a person who's so hard to work for, Keith has a really loyal work force," observed Kathryn Tatum, who has worked for him since 1997.
The results will surely be a boon to dads, moms, children and, yes, employers, who will see a more satisfied and loyal work force.
Union Yarn, like so many mills scattered across the South, has left its loyal work force not only unemployed, but out of breath as well.
Oddly, equity stakes have not created what you might think they would create: stable, loyal work forces.
Chief executives could devote their formidable talents to raising the skills and living standards of loyal work forces and avoiding the huge self-imposed costs of labor turnover, rather than gaming quarterly reports.
Different companies choose to set pay at different parts of the range, depending on their financial health, willingness to make do with high turnover and vacancies, and desire for a loyal, self-motivated work force.
And it may be that, down the road, companies with loyal unionized work forces will fare better than even nonunion companies in hotly contested growth businesses like wireless communications and high-speed Internet access -- markets where the ability to provide a reliable network and professional customer service may matter more to customers than providing the lowest-cost product.
For example, does it have a solid history of profitability, a large and loyal base of customers, a competitive advantage (intellectual property rights, long-term contracts with clients, exclusive distributorships), opportunities for growth, a desirable location and a skilled work force?
The Mitsubishi cluster of companies, or keirestsu -- which includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries -- has a work force that numbers in the hundreds of thousands, and many of those workers can be expected to be loyal customers.
But as a work force, we should.
It's a ready-made work force.
