The War on the Middle Class Continues

[adigal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/01/business/01delphi.html?hp&ex=1143954000&en=1e4a4430347b4cf6&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Delphi wants to throw out some of its labor agreements, fire thousands of workers and cut the pay of thousands of others to 1/2 of what they are making now. Hey - my stockbroker told me that people who are fired can just get retraining, so maybe we can send some of these people to him for a job!!

"DETROIT, March 31 — Delphi, the nation's biggest auto parts maker, on Friday asked a federal judge for permission to throw out some of its labor agreements, a move that could cost 20,000 union workers their jobs and leave thousands of others with less than half their current wages."

and:

"Delphi, which is operating in bankruptcy, wants the judge's permission to impose sharply lower wages and benefits on six unions, setting up a confrontation that its largest union, the United Automobile Workers, said could lead to a lengthy strike."

And they wonder why we have no confidence in the economy??? I bet you that the judge allows them to do this as part of their bankruptcy.

[Hobarticus]

1. Retraining: "you put the fries in the basket, drop them into the vat..."

Your stockbroker sounds like a real charmer.

[adigal]

2. Yeah, I am looking for a new one

One who is not a Republican Bush-licker.

[Hobarticus]

7. Good luck...

Have yet to meet one who isn't a supply-side assclown.

[adigal]

8. A progressive with a conscience would be nice

but I don't know if any of them can be stockbrokers.

[Hobarticus]

9. I just started with putting money into PaxWorld...

It's definitely a long-term leave-it-alone investment, nothing that I'd jump in and out of with the market, but I feel a little better about being a capitalist.

[notadmblnd]

3. This is all a freekin scam

I have a sister that is being placed by a contract house. She was told by them, that if she waits till after Easter there will be many job openings at Delphi and she will be placed there.

These companies are complaining they're going to the poor house, how in the hell can they hire for positions through contract houses if they can no longer afford the people who work for them?

[adigal]

6. They will hire her for $8 an hour

with no benefits. That is what they are doing to us and only Lou Dobbs ever talks about this at length and he has it all mixed up with the immigrant issue.

[notadmblnd]

10. it's more like $18

she was offered a position for that amount down at the Ren Cen, with gas prices, she doesn't want to drive 30 miles down there.

This is Union busting and the eliminination of white collar jobs with bennies. She will have to pay for her own health care policy working via the contract house.

[ikojo]

4. Point your stockbroker to an article that

appeared recently in the New York Times...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/business/yourmoney/26lou.html?ei=5070&en=7e9c0850094cc35a&ex=1143608400&pagewanted=print

March 26, 2006
Retraining Laid-Off Workers, but for What?

snip

SIMILAR federally subsidized boot camps, organized by state and local governments, often in league with unions, have proliferated in the United States since the 1980's, and now many cities have them. Unable to stop layoffs, government has taken on the task of refitting discarded workers for "alternate careers." In deciding as a nation to try to rejuvenate them as workers, we put in place a system, however unrealistic, that implicitly acknowledged layoffs as a legitimate practice.

The presumption — promoted by economists, educators, business executives and nearly all of the nation's political leaders, Democrats and Republicans alike — holds that in America's vibrant and flexible economy there is work, at good pay, for the educated and skilled. The unemployed need only to get themselves educated and skilled and the work will materialize. Education and training create the jobs, according to this way of thinking. Or, put another way, an appropriate job at decent pay materializes for every trained or educated worker.

snip

That was the myth. It evaporated in practice for the aircraft mechanics, whose hourly pay ranged up to $31. Not enough job openings exist at $31 an hour — or at $16 an hour, for that matter — to meet the demand for them. Jobs don't just materialize at cost-conscious companies to absorb all the qualified people who want them.

You cannot be an engineer or an accountant without a degree; in that sense, education and training certainly do count. Furthermore, in the competition for the jobs that exist, the educated and trained have an edge. That advantage shows up regularly in wage comparisons. But you cannot earn an engineer's or an accountant's typical pay if companies are not hiring engineers and accountants, or are hiring relatively few and can control the wage, chipping away at it.

[adigal]

5. I will - thanks n/t