I wonder if any of their workers will be able to afford and American automobile?
REH -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mike Spencer Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2011 6:46 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Futurework] Re: Two-Tier Wages and Detroit Arthur wrote: > Detroit Sets Its Future on a Foundation of Two-Tier Wages > > http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/business/in-detroit-two-wage-levels-are-th e-new-way-of-work.html >From the article: Some benefits for the lower-tier workers are scaled back as well. They get the union's traditional medical benefits, but a maximum of four weeks paid time off a year, versus five for the longtime workers. And instead of the guaranteed $3,100-a-month pension a full-paid worker receives after age 60, the new hires have to build their own "personal retirement plan" based on contributions from the company of less than $2,000 a year. So, next stop: Soylent Green? At ca. $28,000/year, essentials -- shelter, food, transportation -- are going to leave very little for "non-essentials" such as clothing, medical care/insurance, kids' education or retirement saving. How about this? Chrysler and the UAW work together to buy up in bulk the title to the may abandoned or foreclosed houses in Detroit. A new lower-tier-wage hire gets freehold title and warrantee deed to a house. Chrysler and UAW negotiate with the city to prevent taxes, basic services, building or occupancy code or other regulations from undermining the deal or overwhelming the new owners. Good for the city, good for neighborhoods, good for property values, the employee only has to pay for utilities, not ca. 50% of his gross for shelter. Banks can get rid of all those liability houses/parcels, UAW and Chrysler look good in exchange for a one-time deductible expense plus a little work for their in-house lawyers. So many of those houses are in poor condition. That's where the regulatory deal with the city comes in. A guy with a family making $28K is probably willing to live for a few months or years in a house of his own with a yard but numerous problems than he is to pay rent where a missed payment will mean a move to a cardboard box. This would be especially true if he already "owns" a home but is on the brink of foreclosure. If the project works even half-decently, the city, state of feds may see their way to subsidize some "domestic infrastructure upgrading". And the workers no longer feel like they're second-class citizens. Of course, in Detroit, many of said workers will be black and there are influential people who *want* them to feel like 2nd class citizens. But that another story. - Mike -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [email protected] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
