[cjr1]

While unions of late are not viewed in positive terms,they do have a purpose to protect their members & provide assistance in other areas than wages.I work for a Canadian Co. that purchased the original Procter & Gamble Soap Plant known as Ivorydale in Cincinnati.This was a major divesture of assets & employees for a minimum outlay from the purchasers.These "outsourcing" ways do help companies increase profits,but at the cost of decent jobs & wages.The thing that caught my eye in the Delphi article was the request from the company to reduce wages from $27 to $10-12 per hour! If that is accurate,that is over a 60% cut in pay!!!Could anyone here take a pay cut like that?I'm not a manager but a technician that does what a manager used to do.I make about $23/hr,have not had a raise in over 5 yrs. & am told that holdovers from P&G make too much $$$$.Our bottom managers make 100K+,but you never hear about them taking pay cuts or benifit cuts.Corporations of all kinds are out of touch with reality.If there are not decent wages in manufacturing,the middle class is doomed to dissappear,them all that will be left will be your management class @ $100K & the worker class @ 25K-35K.Hard to live a decent life on those kind of wages.Even with high skills & service time of 15-20 yrs,they keep telling us we are only worth $16/hr tops!!People do become accostomed to a life style of sorts,rich & poor,just hard to swallow when it is always the little guy that gets to "sacrifice" for the good of the company.Take a look @ what Delta took back from their maintenance people last year to keep the Co. afloat & it still didn't help.

Chris