MBNA gone, but what about jobs? (6000+ to be announced this week)

[UpInArms]

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060101/NEWS/601010334/1006

The moment Delaware has been bracing for has arrived: Bank of America is scheduled today to complete its purchase of MBNA Corp., the state's largest private employer and a force for economic growth for more than two decades.

The buyout, and its effect on employment, has been a leading topic of conversation in Delaware since Bank of America announced its plan June 30. But even as the closing date for the acquisition arrived, the crucial question of how many jobs will be lost in the state remains unanswered. Company executives have not disclosed how many positions they plan to eliminate in Delaware, home to about 10,500 MBNA and 1,300 Bank of America workers.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America has said it will eliminate 6,000 jobs nationwide in combining its credit card operation with MBNA's. Many Delawareans say they're fearful the state could be in for 3,000 or more job cuts, as well as a falloff in charitable giving and tax revenue.

<snip>

"I suspect they are ready to pull the trigger," said John H. Boyd, a Princeton, N.J.-based consultant who advises companies on which offices to keep after mergers. "This is going to play out rather quickly."

<snip>

Henry Beckler, a Greenville resident and veteran of the state's financial services industry, said confidence in the state's economic outlook has been shaken by fears over layoffs and MBNA's vast real estate holdings. Beckler said homes in wealthy Greenville, long an enclave for MBNA's top executives, are already going up for sale.

...much more...

(edited title cuz I kant spull)

Happy New Year from the BFEE :(

[babylonsister]

1. This will surely interfere with

dimson's plans this week of trying to convince Americans the economy is on solid footing. :wtf:

Bush's early 2006 plan comes into focus


Bush's early 2006 plan comes into focus
President begins year defending spying, economy, Iraq

Sunday, January 1, 2006; Posted: 4:42 p.m. EST (21:42 GMT)
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) -- President Bush is starting his sixth year in office with a flurry of activity designed to trumpet upturns in the economy, defend U.S. action in Iraq and challenge critics who claim his methods of fighting terrorists infringe on civil liberties.
(snip)

While the president makes his case in public, his aides will be girding behind the scenes for looming battles with Congress over the renewal of the Patriot Act and the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

White House officials hope this week sets the tone for its top priorities as Bush visits the Pentagon on Wednesday to discuss the war on terror and then flies to Chicago, Illinois, on Friday to try to convince Americans that the economy is on solid footing.

"I've been thinking long and hard about 2006," Bush said Sunday after a visit to wounded troops in San Antonio. "And my hopes, of course, are for peace around the world. I'm going to continue to work as hard as I can to lay that foundation for peace."
(snip/...)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/01/bush.agenda.ap/i...

[znowboarding]

31. Thank God I work

for a small company that needs me.

[roguevalley]

2. MBNA was part of the reform of the bankruptcy and credit card

scam. Thank Joe Biden for this, this untrammeled and unfettered acquistionism.

[saigon68]

20. Biden like Joe mentum Limpmann is a DINO

Clothed in the tattered garments of repuke lite.

[Occulus]

3. Why can't we simply outlaw this?

Why can't expected job losses void the sale, by law?

[kysrsoze]

24. Unfortunately, that is often the reason why companies merge

There should be some kind of tax penalties for layoffs and offshoring, but you'll never see it with this congress. What I really like is that these banks just keep getting bigger but the public never sees any benefit - only higher fees and weak investment rates through the banks.

[MaineDem]

4. Maine is waiting out the news too

-snip-

The acquisition has raised concerns in Maine, where MBNA has about 3,000 employees, with 2,000 of them in the Belfast area, making it among the state´s top 10 employers. Besides Belfast, MBNA has call centers in Portland, Brunswick, Farmington, Orono, Presque Isle and Fort Kent.

It´s not known what the impact of the merger will be in Maine.

http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D8ES1VFG2-0.shtml

[NWHarkness]

11. Belfast Maine

People seem pretty optimistic that there won't be major cutbacks here, but I don't know if that's justified. It's going to be a devastating blow to the town if they move out. 2000 jobs in a town of 6500....do the math.

[housewolf]

5. So this is Joe Biden's payback for voting for bankruptcy reform...

He should be proud.


:sarcasm:

[gulfcoastliberal]

9. LOL, beat me to it! Suck failure, Biden!

Screw MBNA.

[ellenfl]

13. i don't really blame biden. he WAS looking out for

his major corporate constituency. however, now some of the employees of those constituents will need the bankruptcy protections he voted against.

ellen fl

[Media_Lies_Daily]

30. The new bankruptcy laws don't have much effect on major corporations....

...only on the other 99% of Americans who will lose everything if they file for bankruptcy now.

[WhiteTara]

16. yeah, he should be ashamed

but of course, he'll just have another drink and let it go.

[DiverDave]

22. I sent ol joe

and carper an email after the bankruptcy vote.
I told them that if I wanted a republican to represent me, I would have voted for one.

[madmark]

28. Exactly; suck it Biden, a lot of good your whoring did for your odious

constituent.

[Maine-ah]

6. when they started closing down up here

they offered people a buy-out. either early retirement or a severance package, which was something like 6 weeks pay. Basically, for all those that didn't take it and hung on to see what would happen are screwed. My mom was smart, and took the retirement. She worked for the company for over ten years, and was a retirement age anyway. They were the largest employer in the state, I do believe.

[MaineDem]

12. I think BIW is the largest employer

But MBNA is right up there with them and Bean's and UNUM as big employers. Today.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

7. When is...

Crap like this going to end? When workers start burning management out of their homes?

[cantstandbush]

8. We need some candidates who run against corps and banking and

not be afraid of the lobbyists and tell them to shove their money up their asses. We will need almost paupers who are used living a paupers life to take over Congress so that they will owe their political souls to no one save themselves and working people they represent. It's pie in the sky, I know, but there is no hope for this government otherwise. Candidates will have to be in a position refuse any offer made to them...except the lives of their family.

[SkipNewarkDE]

10. MBNA was an evil f-ing company

I worked there for many years. The company was cultish and dysfunctional. It was one of those things where you either fit in, or you didn't. I didn't, to say the least. The cultish aspects were alarming. Over every door was the phrase "Think of yourself as a customer." Other inspirational company phrases were on every wall. Newspeak rules. The company would tell us what charities to contribute (United Way), and encourage 100% participation from employees. They at one point wanted EVERYONE to go for a fitness evaluation, which included giving blood for a cholestoral evaluation. Some of the antics of the CEO were just absurd and sickeningly childish. Every year in Wilmington there is a big Point to Point race that is sort of the social event of the season, with tens of thousands of people in attendance. One year the CEO had a fight with Winterthur, where the race is held, and decided he would schedule a "Walk for Education" charity event on THE SAME DAY. Furthermore, the walk choked up traffic heading out to the location of the traditional Point To Point event. All employees were advised to attend, and officers had to give a reason to their managers as to why they could not attend if they chose not to. It was so f-ing petty. The CEO, Charles Cawley was a self-indulgent kook. He freely spent the company's money on extravagance. There was a huge art collection, and classic cars totalling millions of dollars were on proud display all around the place. The opulence was an absurdity. Fortunately they forced this nut job out. He was also a huge Bush supporter. You may recall the stink a few years back when MBNA circulated a memo, (not on the corporate stationary) that SUGGESTED to employees whom to vote for in the upcoming elections.

There were a lot of rich old white men running the place, and I had a manager from hell. He was a monster, a micro-managing, dishonest asshole. I was working on a project with a project manager from another department, who was African-American. This guy didn't like the way she spoke, and would make fun of her during conference calls... hit mute, and make a blatantly racist comment about "ebonics." This guy also one day yelled about hating dealing with the "faggot manager" of the art department (who, not surprisingly, WAS gay).

There was so much burn-out rampant in this company. They would ask for more and more from the employees, with no compensation. I remember being TOLD that my job would suddenly include being on call 24 hours a day on weekends, in addition to my regular 45 hour work-week. No discussion, deal with it.

Needless to say there was an extreme amount of employee burn-out in the Delaware area. A local mental health expert called MBNA a "sick company" because of how much it twists its employees' minds, and just the sheer percentage of employees that ended up in therapy and other mental treatment.

The company has been good for the local economy. We not jokingly called it "The Firm." Others called it "The Borg."

[Kolesar]

14. Al Lerner was a Bush funder

He profited when Art Modell shipped the Browns off to Baltimore, since he was part owner. When the NFL relented and established the "New Browns" for Cleveland, they let him be the franchise owner. Thanks for the account, SkipNewarkDE. :thumbsup: After MBNA gets bought out, should I continue bad mouthing & boycotting them?

[SkipNewarkDE]

15. Chuck Cawley was a pioneer

This guy had his head so far up the Bush's asses it was unbelievable.

[sallyseven]

17. I stopped using my MBNA card after I found out they contributed

to pissy ass. I cut it up and threw it away.

[woodsprite]

19. I worked there for 2 days and walked out, told 'em I wouldn't be back.

I have seen former student employees get hired there, be thrilled because they have a "great" job with "great" pay. When I hear that, I remind them that they will be putting in 60+ hours per week for that pay. *THAT'S* why they have inhouse barbers, childcare, and laundries. Most came back to me within a year because they were so burnt out and were checking with me to be their reference. These were business majors from UD.

As it is, my BIL is waiting this out. They use his company as outsourced support for some of their credit card machines. He's been having to travel to Texas and Georgia lately. He's sweating this out.

[SkipNewarkDE]

21. It was a little contained community...

I felt sorry for the city of Wilmington, actually. The city powers thought that MBNA would stimulate the downtown economy with its presence in Wilmington. Those of us who KNEW MBNA from the inside knew better. The complex is a self-contained little hive, with a network of elevated walkways connecting the buildings. Once you get inside, you have a company store, a post office, a gigantic food court complex, a dry cleaner, a tailor, a gym, numerous smaller cafe's. Furthermore, the buildings themselves, while absolutely beautiful, did NOT include retail space at the street level, which would have been key for revitalizing much of downtown Wilmington's Rodney Square area. Many of the other large banks and corporations included retail space on their ground floor, to make the walking area outside of the buildings a destination for pedestrian traffic.

[Jawja]

23. Thank the gods

I sent all of their credit card and consolidation loan solicitations back with NO THANKS! :think:

[mainer]

26. They bundled huge amounts of Bush contributions

Several friends of mine worked for MBNA. Whenever there was a GOP fundraiser, MBNA "knew" which employees had attended and had written checks. I checked "Opensecrets.org" and was blown away by how many $2,000 checks were donated to Bush in the 2000 election from our little 5,000 pop. community. And when you looked at the donors' employment, it was almost always MBNA.

[lebkuchen]

27. MBNA was the largest Bush campaign contributer in 2004

as I recall.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. Biden is a dick!

Wish I could be more loquacious.

[BlueInPhilly]

25. I too worked for MBNA

and I lasted 15 months. Totally peculiar company. I used to work with this guy who killed his ex-boss and himself:

http://www.nbc10.com/news/2394962/detail.html

Bugged me when I found out, since Ken was an MBNA soldier. Not that I condoned what he did, but MBNA was a world on its own and everything else was out of sort. Cawley was god and Hammond, et.al. were his apostles. The company had a way of overtaking your life and I needed to get out because I didn't like what I was becoming (I was a VP). I find it all so ironic that in the end, MBNA - the company that prided itself in never laying off people and never outsourcing - is no more. I wonder if BofA would still allow Cawley unlimited use of the company jet?

[SkipNewarkDE]

32. I remember Ken Tripp...

... vaguely. Seen him around quite a bit. Didn't now him personally, but he appeared to be one of the MBNA drones.

It is simply amazing how "sick" that company is inside, and they are oblivious to it.

There were some very cultish aspects of the company - mode of dress, the MBNA "flair" (Office Space joke) ie. the little service pins. Customer College, the intense two week MBNA education course. I worked doing computer support and project management. The support aspects of my work had me crawling around under people's desks, lugging computer equipment, boxes, etc. I wanted to opt for a more casual mode of dress than the MBNA standard uniform of light shirt, dress slacks, tie, jacket and shiny shoes. Other IT areas of the bank could dress as such. Yet BECAUSE my department reported directly to Cawley and co., I had to perform my duties dressed to the nines. Unfortunately it was a bit rough on the clothing.

Material aspects aside... Other annoyances: Mandatory TACS duty for officers of the bank.. man I hated that. There was NO WAY I was anywhere near as good as a regular customer service guy, yet I had to take initially four hours out of my month to go and take customer calls. It really horked me off... And then when call volume was high, they asked us to do 8 hours... then 12 hours.... AND then we were told that this time had to be done OFF of regular work hours, which truly was annoying. A task which was in name supposed to acquaint officers with all aspects of bank operations so far as customer contact is concerned had evolved into bank officers being a temp force for an over-taxed customer service area. I remember putting in a Masterpiece idea that essentially said, if the idea behind officers working customer service was to improve their knowledge of customer contact, why don't they have us also do such things as retention, direct sales, etc, to mix it up a bit?

Hmmm.

[WhereIsMyFreedom]

29. Canceling my card

I don't know anything about the internals of either company, but from a customer's perspective I was always happy with MBNA. However, I detest BoA. I was previously undecided about whether to cancel my card, but now the decision is a no-brainer.