Working Hard and Getting Played by the Rules
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| Also listed in: Featured Bloggers |
Yesterday, I visited with a group of locked out automotive parts workers in Jackson, OH.
There are more than 300 workers at the town's plant who are struggling to stop their employer, Meridian Automotive, from slashing health care and pension benefits after the company filed for bankruptcy last week.
According to union leaders, the Jackson plant is one of the few facilities owned by Meridian that actually turns a profit.
The situation at Delphi is better known, but the issue is the same. CEOs are forcing workers to pay for management failures instead of taking a cut in their multimillion-dollar compensation packages.
I spoke with a woman who works at the Jackson plant with her husband. They've already sent one of their children to college on their combined income. Now they wonder if they will be able to afford the same opportunity for their younger daughter, who graduates high school this year.
For 30 years, employees at the Meridian plant deferred higher pay to maintain good health care and pension benefits. Now, they could see all those benefits disappear for good.
It is standard practice in corporate America today for workers to receive less and less regardless of high performance, while CEOs get lavish pay packages even when they drag a company down.
One glaring example of this practice can be seen at Pfizer, where retiring CEO Henry McKinnell will receive a $6.5 million annual pension even though the company's stock price declined 44% under his watch.
Before I left Jackson, I couldn't help but think about the injustice I had just witnessed.
These people work hard and pay their taxes, yet this is the thanks they get from an economy that rewards greed at the top.
Corporations feel emboldened to slash pay and gut benefits because they know that they have friends in government who will never side with workers.
When I'm in the U.S. Senate, I want to change that dynamic. We must reward businesses that create good paying jobs at home, and share the burden with workers during times of economic trouble.
When we raise living standards for all Americans, we help businesses as well. Higher incomes and lower health care costs for U.S. workers mean higher consumer demand.
It is time for corporate America to partner with working America. Together, we can fuel our economy well into the future.
There are more than 300 workers at the town's plant who are struggling to stop their employer, Meridian Automotive, from slashing health care and pension benefits after the company filed for bankruptcy last week.
According to union leaders, the Jackson plant is one of the few facilities owned by Meridian that actually turns a profit.
The situation at Delphi is better known, but the issue is the same. CEOs are forcing workers to pay for management failures instead of taking a cut in their multimillion-dollar compensation packages.
I spoke with a woman who works at the Jackson plant with her husband. They've already sent one of their children to college on their combined income. Now they wonder if they will be able to afford the same opportunity for their younger daughter, who graduates high school this year.
For 30 years, employees at the Meridian plant deferred higher pay to maintain good health care and pension benefits. Now, they could see all those benefits disappear for good.
It is standard practice in corporate America today for workers to receive less and less regardless of high performance, while CEOs get lavish pay packages even when they drag a company down.
One glaring example of this practice can be seen at Pfizer, where retiring CEO Henry McKinnell will receive a $6.5 million annual pension even though the company's stock price declined 44% under his watch.
Before I left Jackson, I couldn't help but think about the injustice I had just witnessed.
These people work hard and pay their taxes, yet this is the thanks they get from an economy that rewards greed at the top.
Corporations feel emboldened to slash pay and gut benefits because they know that they have friends in government who will never side with workers.
When I'm in the U.S. Senate, I want to change that dynamic. We must reward businesses that create good paying jobs at home, and share the burden with workers during times of economic trouble.
When we raise living standards for all Americans, we help businesses as well. Higher incomes and lower health care costs for U.S. workers mean higher consumer demand.
It is time for corporate America to partner with working America. Together, we can fuel our economy well into the future.
