Perhaps moreso than anything I've read to date, Louis Uchitelle's article (SEE: "
Unions Yield on Pay Scales to Keep Jobs") in Saturday's New York Times provides us with an alarming, firsthand, crystal-clear snapshot of what Elizabeth Warren was referencing when she warned us, last December, of "
AMERICA WITHOUT A MIDDLE CLASS--IT'S NOT AS FAR AWAY AS YOU MIGHT THINK." First, from Liz Warren (December 5, 2009):
Today, one in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.
As Uchitelle reminds us today, we are (indeed, as we blog) witnessing the daily play-by-play of the overwhelming dominance of the corporatist-haves over the soon-to-be and already-lower class have-nots. (Simon Johnson, in August of 2009, called it: "The Two-Track Economy.") It's the ongoing story of the status quo's creation of the greatest economic disparity ever measured between our country's social classes; and here it is in today's NY Times, ironically writ large. Truly, even today's Times' alternate headline for Uchitelle's story supports the narrative of our developing, two-track economy, calling it: a "Two-Tier Wage Scale."
"Unions Yield on Two-Tier Wage Scales to Preserve Jobs"...
Unions Yield on Pay Scales to Keep Jobs
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
New York Times
November 20, 2010
MILWAUKEE -- Organized labor appears to be losing an important battle in the Great Recession.
Even at manufacturing companies that are profitable, union workers are reluctantly agreeing to tiered contracts that create two levels of pay.
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...
The story references the reality that this was a "...fairly common means of shrinking labor costs in the recession of the early 1980s. At the end of the contracts, however, wages generally snapped back up to a single tier. At G.M., Chrysler, Delphi and Caterpillar, the wages will not be snapping back."
Uchitelle takes us to three large, successful manufacturers in southeastern Wisconsin: Harley-Davidson, Mercury Marine and Kohler, where management has successfully implemented semi-permanent, "two-tier systems that could last well into a recovery."
"This is absolutely a surrender for labor," said Mike Masik Sr., the union leader at Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle maker, not even trying to paper over the defeat.
I'm leaving some of the most alarming quotes and facts for you to read (by clicking on the links, above).
It's a stunning piece; a stark, extremely tangible example of the ongoing destruction of our country's middle class, as it's occurring in real time, throughout America.
# # #
And, in a moment, this will bring us to Bob Herbert's column, also in today's Times: "Hiding From Reality." But, first, a little more about unions; this time as it concerns G.M.
Yesterday, along with many hundreds of others here at DKos, I applauded the story of a resurging General Motors, as articles regarding the "new G.M.'s" initial public offering flooded the MSM and the blogosphere, throughout the day. I even posted a positive diary about it! In it, I talked about the United Auto Workers, and their rapidly-diminishing membership...
To provide some context for organized labor's share of the statistics that are mentioned, above, here's a snapshot from the Wiki UAW page...
The UAW has seen a dramatic decline in membership since the 1970s. Membership topped 1.5 million in 1979, falling to 540,000 in 2006. Then the Great Recession hit, with GM and Chrysler going bankrupt. Membership fell to 390,000 active members in 2010, with more than 600,000 retired members covered by pension and medical care plans.
But, the reality is, while Thursday's MSM (along with many folks' posts in this community) was bursting at the seams with stories of jobs "saved," the truth is all new UAW hires are earning only a small fraction ($14 per hour) of what all new union members earned up until just 17 months ago. (Very much like all those Wisconsin union members in Uchitelle's story in today's NY Times.)
From a very poignant op-ed by author Paul Clemens in Thursday's NYT...
The Ghosts of `Old G.M.'
By PAUL CLEMENS
New York Times
November 18, 2010
...ACROSS the nation, as in Detroit, there is an economic disconnect, a split between what the economic numbers say and how things feel on the ground. The economy is growing, but the unemployment rate hasn't budged. The recession officially ended in June 2009, but more jobs have been lost than have been added since that "ending."
Handling this disconnect requires political acuity. It brings to mind something Philip Roth once said about those who have little feel for literature and the texture of lived experience it provides and so "theorize" it. Mr. Roth imagined a scene of a father giving his son this advice while attending a baseball game: "Now, what I want you to do is watch the scoreboard. Stop watching the field. Just watch what happens when the numbers change on the scoreboard. Isn't that great?" Then Mr. Roth asks: "Is that politicizing the baseball game? Is that theorizing the baseball game? No, it's having not the foggiest idea in the world what baseball is."
It'll be fun, for a day or two, to look at the scoreboard, and to see what G.M.'s shares are going for: $26? $29? $33? $35? The numbers on the exchange will change; it'll be great, and a welcome, temporary relief from the numbers, still difficult to comprehend, of jobs lost and plants closed. Soon enough, though, we'll have to go back to watching what's actually happening on the field, where there's still a blowout in progress, with the home team way behind, and no one, seemingly, with the foggiest idea what to do about it.
The fact is, on Thursday, even this "gloom and doomer" (and former Carter/Mondale Michigan Press Secretary and local, 1980 Democratic presidential campaign UAW media liaison) was in DENIAL!
So, here's Bob Herbert doing a deeper dive (another must-read, IMHO) on our collective denial, in Saturday's NY Times: "Hiding From Reality."
Hiding From Reality
By BOB HERBERT
NY Times
November 20, 2010
However you want to define the American dream, there is not much of it that's left anymore.
Wherever you choose to look -- at the economy and jobs, the public schools, the budget deficits, the nonstop warfare overseas -- you'll see a country in sad shape. Standards of living are declining, and American parents increasingly believe that their children will inherit a very bad deal.
We're in denial about the extent of the rot in the system, and the effort that would be required to turn things around. It will likely take many years, perhaps a decade or more, to get employment back to a level at which one could fairly say the economy is thriving...
--SNIP--
...All we are good at is bulldozing money to the very wealthy. No wonder the country is in such a deep slide.
We don't even seem to realize how deep a hole we're in...
--SNIP--
...That's how people behave when they're in denial.
America will never get its act together until we recognize how much trouble we're really in...
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POSTSCRIPT...
Truth be told, this is one of my "more personal" diaries. You see, even a diehard, Democratic "gloom and doomer" like me can be subject to fits of cognitive dissonance. If nothing else, what posting this diary represents to me is the truth that, on a much more personal level, I understand--perhaps a lot more than I even realized until this evening--what many folks are saying when they criticize my reality-based coverage of what's happening in our corporatocratic, draconian, two-track economy. It is painful. Sometimes, very much so! And, deep down inside, I "get it." And, I wanted to share those sentiments with you, tonight.
I won't be providing any links or calls to action, this evening. I'll leave that to the commenters...