BRIAN DICKERSON: Them that's got shall get - The Free Press

[Jon8503]

October 10, 2005 - BY BRIAN DICKERSON - FREE PRESS COLUMNIST


People trying to understand what's happening at Delphi Corp. need only remember that we live in a competitive world. To compete with stingy auto suppliers overseas, Delphi needs to pay its hourly workers less. To compete with corporations at home, Michigan's fourth-largest company needs to pay its top managers more.

Got it? It's all about competition.


That's why Delphi wants its hourly workers to absorb a 63% pay cut, and why it filed for bankruptcy when they refused to swallow wage concessions on the company's tight schedule. And that's why, on the eve of its bankruptcy filing, Delphi sweetened severance packages for 21 top executives, who'll now get 18 months' salary, plus part of their regular bonuses, if their jobs are eliminated.

Message to hourly workers: These are tough times, but we're all in this together -- unless things get really bad, in which case managers' families get all the lifeboats. And yes, we understand that these sweetened severance packages will make many of you angry. But the way we figure it, you were already angry. So where's the downside in making our golden parachutes a little more golden? How much angrier can you get? I think we in Michigan are about to find out exactly how angry workers can get. I hope I'm wrong about this. I hope that one or two years from now, when the profound changes engulfing Michigan's economy have had a little more time to play out and God knows what new natural disaster or international plague has come along to distract us, the premonitions I have today will seem histrionic and short-sighted. But I believe we are very near the point where the frustration of the working poor and newly unemployed may erupt in acts of violence the likes of which haven't been seen in this country since the earliest days of the labor movement.

rest of story @ link below:

http://www.freep.com/news/metro/dickerson10e_20051010.htm

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I have a friend who works at Delphi

in upstate NY and she's been keeping me abreast of what is happening. To my mind, the 'golden parachute-take care of the haves and screw the working people' is the basest obscenity. I'm surprised these CEOs don't insist on child or slave labor in order to "compete" and keep their bloated share of the pie large.

[malaise]

2. Too many people don't understand the history of Unions

I remember when the Berlin Wall fell and the Neocons were riding high. I saw the way in which Unions and their leaders were being attacked in all countries where the Neoliberal model was being pushed. I remember a seminar where a few of us raised the issue and pointed out that workers rights across the globe would be sacrificed at the altar of globalization. Well the model has finally been implemented in the US.
Dickenson is correct - workers will reach breaking point across the globe.

I hope the Democratic party has a serious plan to address the rights of workers or they too will feel the wrath of the working poor.