<< 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?
Doug >>
there's some biiiig problems with per hour quotes like this. having not read the article but frequently heard comments like this (as one of those lazy- union-aristocracy-of-labor-over-paid-bitches-invading-the-male-work-force- women, translation: i have 20 years as a technician of one stripe or another in the phone co.).
1. different craft and assembly line positions get vastly different pay. i'll bet that the guys getting $44 an hour are less than 10% of the workforce OR this is their overtime rate which they do not make all the time. F'rinstance, in NYNEX/Bell Atlantic, until a year ago, there was almost a 50% difference between top paid craft and lower crafts with top dollar crafts getting $25 an hour. Now, most of the differences have been eliminated, but in NY State alone the number of craft is down 40% in the last 10 years of double digit industry growth. So overall everyone is making more, but the value they produce has increased at an even faster rate. Further, time and a half and double time rates (yes, $37.50 and $50) on over time get routinely paid because these rates are still cost effective in the face of hiring enough workers and paying them medical, dental, and retirement benefits.
One more f'rinstance. A hi-rise apt. building is being constructed across from where I work in midtown. The couple of guys who sit in the crane above the construction (40 floors above the ground) make between $50-75 an hour (straight time). However, they are the few highest paid guys on the site and in no way reflect the average hourly rate. 2. High hourly pay rates are only difficult to sustain if the business isn't making a significant profit. In all the debate on GM, NO ONE HAS SAID THEY AREN'T MAKING A GOOD PROFIT. So what if the hourly rate is high, if the value produced is even higher, then sustainability is infinite. 3. By arguing about the highest wages available, the press paints american workers as greedy and lazy. No one paints the ceo, management, and stock holders as greedy and lazy because they want to make even more of a profit from paying wages in foreign countries which don't cover a socially acceptable standard of living. 4. If we begin attacking the highest paid wages, then other wages in society reduce by comparison. So, if high union wages get lowered, then a place doesn't have to pay as much to its management, nonskilled labor, etc.
i'm sure i could think of more, but this is it for now. maggie coleman mscoleman at aol.com