Let's fire this beast up this morning. The dealing over at Caterpiller just about demonstrates everything that's wrong with our system. First the facts. About 780 workers are on strike at CAT's Joilet, IL. plant and have been since May. CAT wants them to accept a 6 year contract(absurb in itself), a wage freeze for the entire 6 years, a larger employee contribution to heathcare package, and a freeze on pension benefits. Other than the freeze on pension bennies, this is nuts. A 6 year wage freeze is about a 12% pay cut when you consider just a very small inflation level. Add more of a contribution to heathcare and we're probably looking at 15%+ pay cut over that 6 year period. All this coming at a time when the company is making record profits, and record exeuctive pay increases and bonuses. And yet not one thin dime of these record profits will be allocated to the workers on the line. You know, the people who actually build the equipment. This is not how you grow an economy! This is not how you strengthen the middle class! This is not capitalism! This is corporate greed at an extreme! If team Obama had any balls they would make this issue at CAT a front and center debate on a national level. Ask Romney a couple simple questions. Is this your idea of recovery? Is this what the average American can expect as you kiss the hand of corporate America? Seems the trickle has been shut off completely. And please, no Pavlov dog repsonses lapping up the anti union rhetoric. It's bigger than that.
I can sympathize with being unhappy about being asked to take a pay cut when your employer is making record profits. Globalization is a bitch. The thing is with so many unemployed people, there are likely a lot of guys that would be thrilled to get a job at CAT Joliet, being paid the new compensation package presented by management.
You are not part of the culture, so what you say may make sense, to you. CAT has held Illinois in general, and Peoria in particular, hostage for many years. CAT posted record profits while cutting benefits to their retirees and doing all they can to flank the UAW. CAT does NOT give the skinny on owning shares. Their floor workers are there to work and be thankful that they work for CAT. They still sell the past of when a janitor could feed his family of four and his wife stay at home.
No President or candidate has taken on CAT. They come to Peoria, stand at the Mossville plant, make their speeches, and leave. I personally don't think any President ever will take them on.
BTW, great thread, CO. Lets see what people outside of the rustbelt and the Heartland have to say on this.
Yeah, that's true, until they figure out that they have signed a deal with the devil and mortgaged their future.
It's interesting to consider how many of those striking may own shares in CAT. They want their wages up, but it is wages down (among other things of course) that make their shares more valuable.
Not logical. Strike=skittishness on Wall Street. If I had a stake in CAT, I would want stability, no?