Meep
Conservative Commune
11/26/2012
When one realizes that union bosses and the rank-and-file do not have the same interests, especially when the union bosses’ have fully-funded pensions where rank-and-file have some awfully-funded pensions, not to mention the awesome pay & bennies and that (so far) the industries going under don’t hurt the bosses, the following is not surprising at all (like most of my “Unexpectedly!” posts):
In Illinois, the latest intra-union conflict—and potentially the biggest yet—is in Joliet. Last May, after contract negotiations stalled, nearly 800 IAM-represented employees walked off the job at Caterpillar’s hydraulic-parts factory. After a few weeks, more than 100 returned to work, fed up over the lack of progress in the talks and pinched by the union’s $150-a-week strike pay, some workers say.
When an agreement was reached in mid-August, the contract provided less than the one before it: The IAM gave in to an hourly pay freeze for veteran employees, an end to pensions, a doubling of health care premiums and a one-time ratification bonus of $3,100 instead of $5,000 under the previously proposed pact. The terms were almost identical to a Cat contract ratified by the UAW a year earlier….
The article continues at Conservative Commune.
