Unions Yield on Wage Scales to Preserve Jobs

      This President keeps talking of all the jobs that have been created by much stimulus and with the help of his financial team.  Some jobs just might come back. The surer bet is that the jobs that many will have to take to get off the unemployment list will pay much less than when they started collecting from the government. We have not had or given raises in the last three years, let alone plan to hire new full time employees.   Soon the cry to extend unemployment benefits, again, will be on the agenda of the lame duck season of Congress.   What should be at the top of the list is extending all the Bush tax cuts and adding  the 40% of Americans that do not even pay federal taxes to the roll.

In years past, two-tiered systems were used to drive down costs in hard times, but mainly at companies already in trouble. And those arrangements, at the insistence of the unions, were designed, in most cases, to expire in a few years.
Now, the managers of some marquee companies are aiming to make this concession permanent. If they are successful, their contracts could become blueprints for other companies in other cities, extending a wage system that would be a startling retreat for labor.
Though union officials said they could not readily supply data on the practice, managers have been trying to achieve this for 30 years, with limited results. The recent auto crisis brought a two-tier system to General Motors and Chrysler. Delphi, the big parts maker, also has one now. Caterpillar, back in 2006, signed such a contract with the United Automobile Workers.

            Welcome to the lower standard of living.........cheese with those fries???