USA: Labor: Job Insurance gained by unions asking less in wages

Unions Yield on Wage Scales 

to Preserve Jobs

By LOUIS UCHITELLE

Published: November 19, 2010

MILWAUKEE — Organized labor appears to be losing an important battle in the Great Recession.

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Gary Tramontina for The New York Times

Matthew Levatich, president of Harley-Davidson, left, and Bill Peek, owner of Heart of Dixie Harley-Davidson in Pelham, Ala.

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Peter Wynn Thompson for The New York Times

Mike Masik Sr., president of United Steelworkers local 2-209.

Even at manufacturing companies that are profitable, union workers are reluctantly agreeing to tiered contracts that create two levels of pay.

In years past, two-tiered systems were used to drive down costs in hard times, but mainly at companies already in trouble. And those arrangements, at the insistence of the unions, were designed, in most cases, to expire in a few years.

Now, the managers of some marquee companies are aiming to make this concession permanent. If they are successful, their contracts could become blueprints for other companies in other cities, extending a wage system that would be a startling retreat for labor.

New York T+mz (Nov19,2k10)

Picture at top: some employers who make motorsc+clz; 2nd pix, the Wisconsin-based union leader in the motorc+cl manufacturing industry.

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-- Politicarp posting lead-in to Uchitelle's article