Tuesday, April 12, 2011

IKEA sucks


I used to shop there, I admit, back in my grad school days. But at some point you come to realize that it's all crap. And that's hardly the worst of it, at least in Danville, Virginia:

[T]hree years after the massive facility opened here, excitement has waned. Ikea is the target of racial discrimination complaints, a heated union-organizing battle and turnover from disgruntled employees.

Workers complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace and mandatory overtime. Several said it's common to find out on Friday evening that they'll have to pull a weekend shift, with disciplinary action for those who can't or don't show up.

Lovely.

On a related note, I saw Made in Dagenham the other night, the true story (with the characters fictionalized for the sake of the movie) of women machinists at Ford's Dagenham plant in England going on strike in 1968 over being reclassified as "unskilled" and being paid significantly less than men. It wasn't just about their appallingly poor treatment at Ford, though, it was about the fight for equal pay generally, and it was a remarkable milestone in the history of labour.

The movie itself is rather trite and formulaic, both plot and characters, but it's really enjoyable, with a fantastic performance by Sally Hawkins as the shy, unassuming heroine who leads her sisters not just against Ford but against the male-dominated union establishment. (I hated Black Swan and Natalie Portman's showy, largely one-note performance. Either the wonderful Hawkins (see Happy-Go-Lucky for more wonder) or Winter's Bone's Jennifer Lawrence should have won the Best Actress Oscar.)

In many ways, we have come a long way since 1968. Equal pay across the board is still an unrealized ideal, but at least there is less discrimination in the workforce, against women or otherwise. But what's going on at IKEA, not to mention at Wal-Mart and other companies big and small, shows that there's still an awfully long way to go.

Some things are still worth fighting for.

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7 Comments:

  • From what I've read, IKEA in Sweden is a model of good labor practices, whereas the plant in the US is run by US MBAs, and therefore abuse labor as much as they can get away with.

    By Anonymous Jack, at 1:46 PM  

  • Jack is wrong, Ikea gets away with as much as it can, and it doesn't matter where it takes place at.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:45 PM  

  • They've only gotten worse. Their appliance products are made by Whirlpool, and the only sound that happens when you buy one is your money being flushed down the drain. Ikea doesn't service or stand behind the products, they foist that off on Whirlpool - three out of five new appliances failed and a month after this disaster started we're still waiting for parts...or service... or for Whirlpool to do anything other than say call our outsourced service organizations who don't have parts.

    They suck. Don't buy them.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:02 PM  

  • It's kinda guaranteed to break down feeling, the first minute you buy it

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3:56 AM  

  • For some reason when they do breakdown though, you can't even get angry. Yes Ikea S U C K S !!!!!

    By Blogger Unknown, at 3:57 AM  

  • Unlike many I think the quality of much of what I have purchased at IKEA is commensurate with the price I paid. I bought kitchen cabinets, counter tops, oven, stove, sink, and dishwasher all for around $4000. It even seems to be holding up ok except for the oven. When I installed it the instructions seemed a little sketchy. By that I mean the ventilation seemed inadequate. I figured the company must have engineered everything so I followed the and indeed the oven functioned well, until I tried to use the self cleaning feature the first time. The oven over heated. So far have had to replace the Thermist0r $56, thermal fuse $25 oven lock $100 and possibly the circuit board and controls. I have come to find out that mine is not an unusual experience. What I really find disturbing though is that when I search the internet for anything related to this the first three pages of search results direct me to the IKEA website which is not helpful. Don't be fooled by the Swedish egalitarian socialist image. The are just as evil and corrupt as any large American Corporation.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:21 AM  

  • Ikea discriminated against my 10 year old child due to his Autism. Please sign and share our petition at change.org https://www.change.org/p/ikea-stop-discriminating-against-disabled-children

    By Anonymous Toni, at 3:57 AM  

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