Needlenose

Rank and file UAW workers not feeling the love as US car companies return to profitability – and union leaders are aligned with Management.  No mystery here, business has been using a clever tool for the last 4 decades.  When times are tough, buy off the existing union members by keeping their salaries and benefits static, while getting them to agree to screwing future workers:

The sense of grievance among autoworkers in large part stems from concessions accepted by the UAW in recent years, as the industry has grappled with declining sales and the government has stepped in to rescue major automakers. The concessions in essence created two separate classes of autoworkers via a two-tier wage system — a term now underlined by many workers as the source of enduring unhappiness.

Under the two-tier system, workers with seniority have generally been able to preserve their pay scale, with basic wages of about $28 an hour. But new hires can now be paid half as much, at a wage officially referred to as “entry rate” because workers are theoretically able to move up through the wage levels as senior workers retire.

The future of labor in America lies in organizing labor abroad.

I ditto Ian Fletcher’s call for import tariffs to level the playing field against unfair overseas competition.  But I don’t think his suggestion to use a tariff to make up the difference in the price of goods due to China’s currency manipulation and to compensate for other country’s foreign export rebates goes far enough.

The Capitalist Tools want us to compete by rolling back 100 years of labor reforms and eliminating environmental protections, basically a race to the bottom for the other 98% of the population so that our hard-working children and prisoners can breath the same smoggy air and drink the same polluted water enjoyed by labor in China and S.E. Asia.

To hell with that!  Let’s keep our high standards, and instead hit foreign goods with ‘carbon,’ ‘pollution’ and unfair labor practices tariffs.

Sure, the prices of goods will rise as manufacturing shifts back to well-paid North Americans…but at least we’ll have jobs and some money with which to buy them!

Wasn’t so long ago when “Town Hall” meetings around the country were dominated by older, angry white reactionaries, yelling something about gubbernmint messing with their Medicare and stalking around the building carrying poorly written signs and firearms.

How times have changed!  Governor Walker’s brazen attempt to kick in the teeth of labor has resulted in angry crowds of liberals at town hall meetings, yelling about reactionary strong-arm tactics and carrying well-written signs.

Good-on ya Wisconsin!  Nice to know that not all liberals are spineless jellyfish – apparently that’s just limited to Democratic Leadership and elected officials!