Globalization, Use of Temps, Destroying Middle-Class Jobs

[Better with a Union Man]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entr...lass_jobs/

Tuesday Dec 21, 2010 9:43 am
By Roger Bybee

Two related trends—using globalization as a lever to extort multi-tier wage systems and the massive expansion of temporary work—are producing profound structural changes that leave workers increasingly at the mercy of Corporate America.

They are also creating the architecture for a stunningly unequal and socially unstable society. Most recently, the threat of relocating their jobs offshore forced members of UAW Local 833 at the Kohler Corp. in Wisconsin, a union with a long tradition of militancy and resilience, to accept massive concessions.

CEO Herbert Kohler laid out an explicit threat: swallow the concessions or "this location will continue to shrink." The new five-year contract will create a two-tiered wage structure inserting non-union temporary workers into the workforce. Seeing no alternative, they voted Sunday by a 62% to 38% margin to accept the painful changes.

One worker described the sense of utter powerlessness felt by him and his co-workers: "You vote yes, you have a job," he said. "You vote no, you don't have a job. Plain and simple." In the absence of a national labor campaign with sufficient resources committed at the local level, even tough-minded and sophisticated union locals can only do so much on their own.

FULL story at link.



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[Willinois]

In Illinois, state agencies are using more temp workers to compensate for staffing cuts.