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Vi @ Mar 6th 2008 9:43AM
Is it fair that the company wants to cut wages in half? Could you live on half of what you earn right now and still keep EVERYTHING you own? Look and see what the union has proposed. Have you who have criticized thought about what will happen when these workers either have to take the wage cut to half their wages or lose their jobs altogether? When they lose their homes, who will buy them? How many of them will sit empty along with those that are already foreclosed on because there are no jobs that pay enough to be able to afford them? What about gas prices? Over $3 a gallon now and going higher?
Maybe when they send your job overseas or higher someone younger willing to be paid less than you so the CEO can get his/her big bonus...
Go to www.executivepaywatch.com and find out just how much your CEO/CFO made last year and see how you feel about these strikers!
tanooki2003 @ Mar 6th 2008 10:24AM
If a company is not doing well and not making the financial numbers that they should be making then the company reserves the right to do what is necessary to get them back up or otherwise totally fail. If it means letting a few people go then so be it. If they have to hire new and younger talent in order to remain competitive then again so be it. If they sit on the same soggy employers who are more of the paperweights instead of the go getters then ultimately the whole company suffers and then it becomes bad for everyone. Look at the market share of the domestics continuing to decline in the automobile world. It's certainly not "well if it is a foreign car then it must be better" perceptions that kill them, it's their quality of output, which has not been that competitive when compared to the imports. Yes they have gotten better but at a turtle's pace while the imports are moving quicker than a rabbit. If this is a surprise to you then you may need to open your eyes more. I am well focused to the automotive industry mainly because I have close friends who work at different automobile companies throughout the world, not because i hear my neighbor saying "my chevy lumina sucks".
As a business owner if you have dead weights that refuse to change their ways, participate, being an asset to the company and contributing to helping the company grow you drop them like a bad habbit, regardless if they have 2 mortgages, going to lose their home...etc. If that was a concern to them it should be a motivating factor in them improving themselves to become better. If the company the employers are working at wants to reduce their pay in order to help rebuild the company's finances then they can either suck it up and deal with it or find another job. it's just that simple.
Thank goodness my businesses do not support or are involved in unions. The thing I hate the most is someone forcing me to keep a dead weight in the company just so they can pay their expenses. I don't work that way.
hooligan @ Mar 6th 2008 10:27AM
How is it that a company spends upwards of $70 an hour for it's labor force and that labor force says that isn't enough? Fire the bastards and hire those who are more than happy to do the same job for benefits and lesser hourly wage.
montoym @ Mar 7th 2008 1:26AM
Depends on your definition of fair I guess. I don't know about you but I know I didn't sign a contract at my job stating that I'd make a certain amount for "X" number of years. If my employer chooses to cut my pay, I can sell my skills on the job market and look for a new job if I don't like the pay(or anything else about the job for that matter).
If your skills are worth the pay you receive now, then you should be able to find a company willing to pay that, if not, maybe you were being overpaid for your skills. No company wants that. I don't really see how "fairness" makes an entry into this situation.
You know how the US killed it once thriving steel industry? Unions fighting for "fair" wages while their jobs went overseas to cheaper labor. Now most of the World gets their steel from Japan and the US steel industry is virtually non-existent.