Michael Moore Calls Out ABC Labor Practices On "Good Morning America" (VIDEO)

Michael Moore called out ABC on "Good Morning America" Wednesday for employing "permalancers," permanent freelancers who are effectively full-time employees but hired on a contract basis, and thus not extended any benefits.

"I'm talking to employees, people backstage here, they don't get to be real employees here because they don't get the benefits, so they're freelancers," Moore told Chris Cuomo.

"And I said 'Guy, I was here two years ago and you were a freelancer' — right backstage here at ABC — he said, 'We call ourselves permalancers now.' They don't get to share in just the basic benefits that an employee used to have who worked here. What's wrong with that? What is wrong with just giving people basic things for their hard work?"

WATCH:

Comments

[plasticanimalz]

His point was that it's no longer about how hard you work in order to make more for yourself. The system that is in place over the past 10 years has been finding ways to cut more and more of what we have. I've seen them whittle away from industry to industry, cutting out the middle class. You either have to worry about your job being taken away from in illegal immigrant worker or it being sent overseas. Who benefits? The guys at the top. Who suffers? Americans.

Anything they can send overseas or pay someone cheaper to do, they will. And I can attest to the other's users comment about Disney being one of those types of people. I was actually told that the reason that most of the work has been going overseas is because they can't afford to pay us because of the unions. Meanwhile, the exec's threw martini parties every Friday with $200 bottles of vodka. The exec's screw up and the little guy always gets the blame and gets fired. So far, that is what I've learned about corporate America. Yay Capitalism!

[pachinko74]

Moore's an idiot, one of the pillars of this country is capitalism. His freedom of speech is a form of capitalism, the free market of ideas. Anyone who espouses that capitalism is itself evil has no clue what they are talking about. Sure, there is evil done within capitalism, just like any other system, but capitalism is a tool, it can do good and it can do bad, but it is itself not inherently good or evil.
Nice job evading the question on whether unions can be corrupt.
This is America, if I should choose to work harder for a better home, better food and better medical coverage, should I not be entitled to that?
Only in capitalism does the consumer have the power to control these businesses, yet we keep giving them more of our hard earned money, so that they can gain more power. Wake up people! Excercise your power with your pocketbook and stop giving these businesses the upperhand. There's a real solution. Stop enslaving yourselves to these pointless ammenities, use the public services that are available and take control.

[rekk]

Evil? Really?! Just because Moore brings up the fact that there is no more common decency in the market place? That's right, common decency - last I checked that was a good Christian value.
Moore was simply pointing out that the dynamic you spoke about, i.e. working harder constitutes getting more, doesn't even out any longer. Moore is pointing out ( and I am too) that this has shifted to "whoever is the sneakiest (i.e. Evil), wins"
That's not Christian, and that's not capitalist either, it's just criminal.

[SpocksCuz]

I'd be very interested to see proof that Michael practices what he preaches with his own crew members.

[stargazer13]

when a long line of abuse,s

to reduce us too absolute

it is time to change our guards

[alan8653]

Finally a blow for the little guy. This is the first denunciation of the horrible practice of free lancing I've heard of in 21 yeares of freelancing

[joeperc]

Good on M.M.! I just wish he had named Disney Corp. as the owners of ABC. Disney is one of the biggest, most powerful anti-worker corporations in the world. From their local ABC affiliates to their touring Broadway Musicals they are constantly trying to short change workers, artists and performers, bog down contract negotiations and bust unions. They aspire to be the Wal-Mart of entertainment!

[walk0nwalls]

Don't wanna be a downercake but aren't permalancers per norm in New York production offices? I thought I heard about this a while ago.

[rekk]

Yeah, unfortunately. I recently found out too that some of the more glamorous ones are now charging for their internships too. Oh, and by the way, they've had the handle on the permainterns, too. That's position permanently held by a recent graduate. They don't pay them and they just cycle through them. Coffee anyone?

[stevebol]

How are capitalism and humanism not related? Forgive me, I am a recovering nihilist so please forgive my ignorance.

[LCLA]

We might be able to answer and discourse better if you define your terms.
Often we assume we are talking about the same thing with terms like capitalism and humanism, but then it turns out that there are different definitions.
So, how do define these from your recovering nihilist perspective?

[Tulka2]

The relentless hammering by corporate lawyers over the last fifty or so years ensures corporations now have all the rights of persons, but none of the social responsibilities of persons. BTW....? Corporations come right into the best law schools and hire off the top 10% of so of each new class. No wonder it's hard to fight them. Corporations are LEGALY bound to do everything in their power to make as much money as possible for their shareholders who sleep the sleep of the innocent because, after all, they haven't laid off any workers. The corporation has. Every human in the Corporation is "just following orders".

Nothing will change until we take legal person-hood away from corporations. Congress could do it next week. That would make more of an impact, in the long run, than even health care reform.

I have great faith in this memory box. Things will change if they don't take the internet away.

[goswim12]

"If you want to remain slaves of the bankers and pay for the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and control the nation's credit."
Sir Josiah Stamp

"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws"
Mayor Amschel Rothschild

"Whoever controls the volume of money in our country is absolute master of all industry and commerce, and when you realise that the entire system is very easily controlled, one way or another, by a few powerful men at the top, you will not have to be told how periods of inflation and depression originate."
James A. Garfield, 20th President of the US, two weeks before his assassination

" I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. THE ISSUING POWER SHOULD BE TAKEN FROM BANKS AND RESTORED TO THE PEOPLE, TO WHOM IT PROPERLY BELONGS"
Thomas Jefferson

This is a documentary from the 90s that tells the whole story and it's a MUST-SEE.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936#

[GoodwithWood]

Well done. Thanks.

[FDR67]

Thank you so much for those quotes their awesome!!!

[BabaLou7]

Fantastic, thank you.

[BabaLou7]

Fanned.

[BOin08]

"When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic"
Ben Franklin

...weclome to socialism

[goswim12]

"If the American people only understood the rank injustice of our monetary and banking system, there would be a revolution by morning..."
President Andrew Jackson, who took a bullet to change the situation

[sleeperd]

Lib hypocrites eating their own - ya gotta luv it.

[stargazer13]

and who eats there the GOP does it best I would hazard to say

[psmarc93]

I have no idea who the "lib hypocrites" are since you don't specify, but it is a fact that members within a group are always harder on other members of the group than they are against the opposition outside their group. Note the decimation of the Republican Party from within. With a failed leadership (Bush and the neocons) the party seeks to define itself, insecure in its future. A hugely unpopular faction of racist, anti-intellectual populists have been flushing the Republican party of moderates as "compromisers." These populists believe that their resulting party purity will win elections -- the truth of their beliefs becoming self-evident to the rest of America. However, the polls and the past two elections prove that most, 75% roughly, of America wants nothing to do with the Sarah Palins, Rush Limbaughs, and Sean Hannitys of the new Republicans and thus this intra-party feud may spell the death of Republicans altogether.

[tj101]

Table alert!

[goswim12]

Banking - the biggest scam in the history of the world. "Give us the power to issue your money, and we'll give you f*ck all in return." Genius really.

[sonwinks]

The fear of the "government" running your life, along with the ridiculous idea that maybe, just maybe one day "I" will be in that top 1%, combined with the fact that corporations have the rights of individuals without the responsibility or accountability associated with that right, is what problem really is.

The government isn't there to run your life, however it should be there to create a level playing field, protecting it's citizens and at the same time setting an environment where corporations can achieve reasonable results. This concept should extend to health care and any other right of the people.

We the people should stop living the lie that one day we will be in that 1%. We need to accept that there is almost NO chance of that happening and that is ok too....

Further if corporations want the rights of individuals, unfortunately that means they need to have the responsibilities of said individuals, this is again where the government should act, and create that level playing field. "We the people" is a right that comes with responsibilities and "we the people" should have our rights and responsibilities protected by the government. If the corporations want to join "we the people".....the same laws that govern us....should govern them.

It's not wrong to make money, it is not wrong to achieve financial freedom, however it is wrong to do it the expense of your fellow man, and the earth. This is what a "democratic economy" should be.

[WeCanDoMore]

Thank you sonwinks, and Michale Moore too. Fanned.

[starlady7]

Agree! Fanned.

[freeus]

not just abc! why is health care tied to jobs?!?
release it: single-payer NOW

[yodaveg]

Unfettered capitalism has another name: feudalism.

[slithers]

No and we don't have unfettered capitalism. When this country was formed we did.

[leftbehind2000]

Unfettered corporatism more like.

[slithers]

Moore, please explain what you mean by a democratic economy? It makes no sense whatsoever.

[cybersense]

I have not seen Moore's movie. I can give you an example of what I believe he is trying to project.

When my father owned his company, he was constantly trying to stay above and make a profit.
He did okay with that, but it comes with the responsibility of an obligation to the people who work for him, the work that was performed had to be done with regard of that responsibility. We knew that if it rained hard, after the ditches were dug the day before, it meant the work would be delayed and so would the pay for those employees. We got up and re-dug them late at night. It wasn't just about the profit, and there is great stress about that when running your own company, it's about the people that you take responsibility for when you operate it.

It's hard to see that type of commitment now in corporations. It less about your responbility on all counts, and more about the profit and high pays and bonuses, for more to buy things with and the attitude of being "the top dog", instead of the responsible business owner. The commitment for all responsbility is no longer there, or for many - never was there.

[slithers]

I don't disagree with you, however that's corporate responsibility which has nothing to do with capitalism (or our lack of)/corporatism and what Moore is trying to brand as democratic economics.