The Congressional Republicans are trying to make the auto workers take a one third pay cut in the negotiations for the auto industry bailout. It seems that the discussion on capital hill about whether to loan General Motors, Ford Motors, and Chrysler- bedrock of the American auto industry-monies so they can have some purchase power and meet payroll recently turned on whether the auto workers should take a pay cut. Republicans claims this is necessary to equalize salaries with those working for Toyota and Nissan, two foreign auto companies whose employees are non-union.The republicans have been including in their calculations all benefits received by Union Workers as part of their salary, like health and pension benefits. That’s what companies do when they want to make it seem like employees are receiving more than they actually are, they count the legacy benefits-those monies received by people no longer working for the company even though those people may have given twenty, thirty, even forty years of their lives to these companies. These are the people who allow these companies to succeed the people who are actually doing the producing.
Workers, Laborers, or hourly employees, call them whatever, whether they are union are not are doing the real work behind a successful corporation, and even when the company is not successful the "grunt workers" are the ones that are usually holding the company together by consistently producing, doing what they are instructed by the managers (field agents for the corporation). I watched several news coverage about the situation with the auto companies and in every shot of auto workers they are doing their jobs--they are producing the cars they are told to produce. Most of these cars on monstrous gas guzzling SUV’s--Escalade, 4runners, suburban, expeditions, some of the biggest cars on the road.
