http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/23/Columns/When_the_boss_flops__.shtmlWe are too generous to workers. That is mantra repeated over and over as the reason for the foundering of America's great industries. Last week we heard it from the automobile industry, the week before it was the lament of the airlines, and in prior years the tune was sung by steel and textiles.
Apparently, we can no longer afford the luxury of providing America's industrial work force a decent living, health care and retirement security. Top executive pay may still be climbing through the roof, but rank and file labor costs in America's manufacturing sector have nowhere to go but down, with China as the model.
Wall Street cheers any move in that direction. General Motors stock climbed 7.5 percent on the day last week it announced that a tentative agreement was reached to cut health care expenses for union members and retirees by $1-billion annually. The stock rose even as the company reported its largest quarterly loss in more than a decade.
Owners like to celebrate when workers lose out.
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