Day: July 23, 2012

Take a moment to reflect upon just how much contempt the Çaterpillar corporation has for the union that represents its workers: as Steven Greenhouse reports, the company—in the midst of our nation’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression—is demanding wage and benefit concessions from its unionized work force while profits are booming and executives are receiving pay increases:

Caterpillar, after record profits, squeezes its union for a six-year wage and pension freeze and increased insurance contributions – not because it has to, but because it can. As the machinists’ union enters its fourth month on strike, the company says it’s getting along just fine with temps and union workers who have crossed the picket line. Private-sector union membership is now at an all-time low of 6.9%. Even as calls to remedy America’s income inequality grow from Occupy and other movements, nobody in power is helping. The Democratic Party’s ship has long since sailed.