-----Original Message----- From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> To: LBO-talk at lists.panix.com <LBO-talk at lists.panix.com>
>I know the righteous thing to do is to support the Flint strikers, but
>there was a comment in one of the papers the other day from a Wall Street
>analyst who said something like, "In this world you can't sustain $44 an
>hour jobs assembling wire harnesses." Really, how can you?
I am always suspicious when I see a number like this, because the people usually making that much are usually 30-year veterans working overtime. It is true that many UAW folks make solid incomes; maids in hotels make less, airline pilots make more. So what? Why shouldn't folks working in a hard, sometimes tedious job make a good income, especially when the company makes billions in profit each year.
We should be fighting for all workers to make as much as a UAW worker. The sad thing is that people are supposed to celebrate an economy where a kid with a college degree can step out and make $50,000 his first year in the job market, then turn around and begrudge an autoworker for making that much after decades in the job.
How much is General Motors paying their executives, engineering staff, and advertising staff? I bet their salaries have gone up much faster than the lineworkers and parts subcontractors.
--Nathan