The attendance policy is absolutely ridiculous. As you said, family emergencies, arriving to work one minute late, leaving work early because you are sick, and you are automatically penalized.
To improve morale, try firing the hordes of FMLA abusers who have infiltrated the employee ranks and only show up to work when they feel like it. A large percentage of these people have been on FMLA for years, and years, and years and show obvious patterns of abuse. For example, calling in on Monday's and Fridays for weeks on end and before and after almost every holiday.
Management is not interested in investing in their employees. Their goal is to have a flock of subservient sheep.
The profit sharing plan was eliminated for a variety of reasons such as freeing up cash to purchase other companies, i.e. Advanced Neuromodulation Systems, Thoratec, etc.
It was also abandoned to appease the shareholders. A decision was made by management to pay a quarterly dividend. Realistically, it only enriched the hedge funds, mutual fund companies, and any large individual shareholders such as the former CEO of St. Jude, Daniel Starks, who owned six million shares of STJ stock before the Abbott acquisition.