Sometimes you have to get angry when you read something that does not strike a good chord. I am not speaking of the countless story upon story of a child molester on the pages of the paper but instead this time of corporate america.
Several years ago General Motors spun off one of their divisions called Delphi formerly known as A.C. Sparkplug.
Now Delphi is hurting bad and has threatened to file bankruptcy. To avoid this, they have asked the United Auto Workers to take BIG cuts in pay and benefits. Not temporary, help the company out cuts but forever cuts.
Some workers now making 25 dollars or more an hour would make under the agreement only ten to twelve dollars an hour. WHEW!!!!
More than half of all pay and benefits would be gone forever. FOREVER!
And here is the part that I fear for those people and for the rest of the working class of America.
If this happens here with Delphi then General Motors will do the same within a short period of time. Then Ford, then the rest of corporate America will follow suit.
Each big and small employer will say to thier workers. "You either take what we give you or we are shutting the place down."
"We are already rich from this thing and our boards have given us wonderful golden parachutes should we close down so we dont care! Our lives will be virtually undisturbed..How are you going to make your house payment and pay your bills with no place to work any longer?"

I think this is the return to a split United States. The Have and Have Nots.

In my own company a Regional Manager told me that the company's unwritten policy is to keep all sales people earning only an average of 36 thousand per year. If the store volume increases and the average for any store exceeds that amount. The managers are instructed to add additional sales people. Under that scenario there is never any reward for being excellent at your job. The company will always stack the deck against you.
This year already, our company cut some of our commisions back 10 percent but increased our quotas for sales 25 percent. If you dont make quota a total of 4 times in any 12 month period you will be shown the door.
The greed of the corporate culture is out of control and it is no longer just the Enrons of the world. It has finally filtered down. Our economy here in the U.S. will be that of a Taco Bell employee. Low pay, no benefits, and all service oriented. Service to the Haves who will keep the Have Nots down forever with few if any chances to provide for their familys in a better way than the day before.
I wonder whether we allowed it. We no longer manufacture most items we consume. We have shipped most of those type of jobs overseas. Now even service jobs are headed that way as well.
They call it outsourcing. Care to make a airline reservation? The voice on the other end is proably from India or Pakistan or another English aware country that will accept low pay so that excecutives here can line thier pockets with one more layer of cash that might have gone to your family if the job would have stayed here. The whole shooting match is suffering and will continue to suffer with Dominoe effect. If one does it others follow.
Life may not be the Magic Party we hope for but at this rate, we wont be able to dance without music.