Auto parts company demands 60% pay cut from employees

[billyskank]

Corporate Piracy Runs Amok

For those who missed the brief news flash about this monumental bankruptcy, here's the outline: Delphi, once a subsidiary of General Motors but now independent, is losing money. The company complains of U.S. wages that are too high to compete with labor from Mexico, China and other offshore locales where it runs plants that do quite nicely, thank you. It is hell-bent on addressing its "legacy issues." That's corporate-speak for cutting pensions and health benefits for retirees.

Delphi wants to slash the wages of its American production workers from about $27 an hour to $10 or $12, and expects the UAW to go along quietly. Otherwise, the company will throw the workers on the mercy of the bankruptcy court. Delphi may well dump its pension obligations on the government. This could leave retirees with drastically reduced checks and taxpayers, ultimately, holding the bag.

I dare say the company will get what it wants. Doesn't that just make you want to cry? :cry:

Originally from the Boulder Daily Camera, but they require registration to see the article:
http://websearch.dailycamera.com/bdc/web/searchResults?site=BDC&searchType=site&searchString=delphi&GoSearch.x=9&GoSearch.y=8

However, I found the article reproduced on Common Dreams:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1019-21.htm

[supernova]

1. The state of the labor movement in the country

is atrocious.

It's definitely a race to the bottom.

[billyskank]

4. The only end to it that I can see

is when workers in the US (and the UK) are actually paid less than their Asian counterparts, then the jobs might start coming back to us. :(

[supernova]

30. I don't know what they think

(I know you're sleeping now, probably) we're supposed to do. Who's going to buy all those fabulous things they keep importing if we don't have jobs ourselves? Although, I don't think the UK has the horrific trade-imbalance that we do.

[China_cat]

2. The Reagan legacy.

[billyskank]

6. Reagan was where the backlash started

Damn those uppity unions, demanding decent living conditions for their members. :(

Worker solidarity actually worked, but there is no international solidarity, so they are able to break with globalisation. That's what it's all about, I'm fairly sure.

[WCGreen]

38. A lot of those trade Union members were Reagen Democrats..

Comfortable in the burbs and worrying about democrats taking their guns...

A lot of them did and continue to do so, vote against their economic interests...

[sufrommich]

3. There is a great deal

of talk about this here in Detroit and it's all doom and gloom.I make it clear to all that I can that Delphi is only declaring bankruptcy HERE IN
THE U.S.! A lot of people don't understand that.This is an attempt to break unions through the courts.I look for GM to be the next corporation to give it a shot.It's hard to tell from this vantage point(the heavily unionized burbs of Detroit)whether the rest of the country even cares about things like this anymore.It's sad that we have become so desensitized to corporations trying to turn us all into sweatshop workers.People forget that it is unionized workers who lifted the rest of us up and made the great (but quickly disappearing)middle class.I'm with you,it makes me want to cry.

[billyskank]

5. I can see that they want to make slaves of us all

but how do they expect us to eat? We have to remain alive in order to be exploited. I don't even see how this makes sense even from their perspective, in the long run. :(

[sufrommich]

7. Remain alive

in order to be exploited.Thats a great line,I'll have to use it the next time I get stuck in an argument with some deranged right winger."Unions brought this all on themselves dontcha know."
Forget about eating,who's going to buy all those cars they need to sell!They never seem to tire of the endless cheerleading to "buy more"and yet I wonder if they believe that the small percentage of rich people in the world will keep all these multinationals afloat.Unfortunately for the rest of us..it looks like they are going to find out.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

28. Welcome to DU...I read that article the other day and noticed that

In essence they want to pay 3rd world salaries in the US...so what does that tell people they want to do to the US?

[Wcross]

8. Is "Steve" Miller and his management staff taking a 60% cut?

It would seem that it would only be fair if he was the first to take the pay cut. I doubt this will be the case.

[billyskank]

9. Some of them are going to downsize themselves

so they are preparing golden parachutes for all the poor executives.

[sufrommich]

10. I think he's taking the cut

but Delphi originally was going to offer it's executives bonuses to "hang in there" while they went through the bankruptcy process.I haven't heard if they still plan on but I think it's incredibly cold that the execs considered that while gleefully planning on cutting it's hourly wages from $27.00 to $10.00.
I've added a sad article from a Toledo paper,I hope this is allowed,I'm new here and not sure of the protocol.http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051020/COLUMNIST03/510200315/-1/NEWS06

[billyskank]

11. Welcome to DU, btw

and your link is quite within the rules. DU rules permit quoting of up to four paragraphs from a foreign source; providing a link is perfectly acceptable.

[sufrommich]

25. Thanks for the welcome.

Nice to meet you.

[Mutley]

12. I swear I'm about to move to a deserted island somewhere

and forget that the rest of the world exists. Who's with me?

[billyskank]

13. Yeah I'll go with you

I'll build a hut near the beach. :)

[Mutley]

14. I'll gather the edible plants.

Someone else will have to do the hunting. I just can't bring myself to kill some cute furry creature.

[billyskank]

16. Cute or not, I can't kill anything

Unless there's someone else there, you'll have to be vegetarian. ;)

[Mutley]

18. I'm sure I can handle that.

I've always wanted to try it anyway. :D

[lpbk2713]

15. Meanwhile back at the country club .....

you can be sure the lifestyle of the corporate directors and the board of directors remains unchanged. They will continue to wine and dine and vacation often in exotic places. It is common knowledge that in corporate America it's not unusual for the CEO to earn three or four hundred times what the average blue-collar worker in the same organization earns. This has always struck me as obscene.

[billyskank]

17. But it isn't ENOUGH!

They want MORE!

[RedstDem]

19. When Will The CEO's Realize They Are The One's Causing It ?

By Paying Themselves So Highly, They Are Making Their Own Companies Face Bankruptcy, In My Opinion. One Day After The Revolution When Theyre Gone & Buried, We'll Start Over Again, but it Won't Come Soon Enough.

[Mutley]

20. I don't think they care.

As long as they get theirs; nothing else matters.

[billyskank]

21. I think it's the idea

To reintroduce a stratified class society. Step one; the underclass are paid too much, so that must be dealt with. What other way is there to undermine worker solidarity than by pitting us in competition with our poorer brethren abroad?

[Mutley]

22. True. But it doesn't seem like it would be good for them in the long run.

There will be no one to buy their products and services if they make us all too poor.

[billyskank]

23. I don't know

Sometimes it seems as if they have in mind something like an old-fashioned feudal society. That means they would have to make peasants of us. To do that they'll have to make us ignorant.

[Mutley]

24. Heh. I'll tell them "good luck with that."

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

29. Yeah but for an individual CEO, if they make it to their 20 mil bonus or

severance or whatever, why would they care about the "long run"? In the "long run" they're set for life.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

26. I'm sure the CEO's are making a similar, proportional, concession.

:eyes:

[Orrin_73]

27. Why blame mexico and china

they should not have shipped those jobs in the first place.

[Blue_Tires]

31. posted something similar here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5110035

[shanti]

32. i cry for our children

they are royally fvcked by outsourcing:-(

[bridgit]

33. whoa, whoa, whoa, so lemme get this straight...

so i go up to my landlord and simply explain to that schmuck that because my company requests a 60% cut in my pay i will have to be paying him 60% less for my rent :7 cool, i'm all for it = let's do this thing:thumbsup:

[Montauk6]

34. I'm just waiting for the first corporation to actually charge people for

the privilege of working for them. Then when the eventual 60 Minutes story airs, you'll see Croft or Stahl querying one of the boneheads going along with it; and you'll get such rich gems as "Well... it's REALLY a good deal when you think about it..." or "Hey, I'm just happy to have a job."

[chaska]

35. This country is so done for. Kiss your asses goodbye, America.

[gmoney]

36. My hometown pride is just swelling...

This writing's been on the wall for a while, but I didn't think it would be quite this ruthless.

There goes my property value...

Fuck you, Roger Smith.

[samplegirl]

37. Sadly

this is happening here in my home town.
The clutches of true captilism
taking our last factory which supports this entire
valley.
Its been a deadly blow.

[CanuckAmok]

39. This is a case where workers should put a lien on the company.

Cite themselves as creditors, in the event the company files for bankruptcy.

The UAW should help the workers file a suit preventing the company from liquidating any assets, including inventory, until it's debts are discharged to all creditors, including the workers.