The Vise Tightens: Where's The Outrage?

In a vein similar to this post about the vanquishing middle class, comes this news from Working Life:

The banner headline in the Financial Times (subscription required) reads: "Delphi seeks to tear up labour deals." You may remember that back in November the company's CEO Steve Miller had concocted a deal that would plunge Delphi into bankruptcy, gut the living standards of the workers (cutting wages from $26 an hour to $12.50 an hour) BUT pay executives and senior maangers hundreds of millions of dollars in severance packages and bonuses. Even some conservatives have had a dim view of Miller's plan.

Now, the FT reports that Delphi "is set to ask a bankruptcy judge to tear up its labour contract with its 33,000 US blue-collar workers as a way of stepping up pressure on trade unions to accept deep cuts."

Between CEO's and bankruptcy courts, American workers are getting hammered, and it appears that no one is listening, let alone defending us. Working Life asks the questions we should all be asking - particularly of the Democrats:

Why do we sit by and allow the bankruptcy laws to be used to bludgeon workers, particularly while executives make off with millions of dollars? Executives at these companies are essentially engaging in legalized looting--using the cloak of the law to force concessions from the average worker in order to enrich themselves.

Where is the Democratic Party? The corruption story that should really be making the front-page news every day and spark press conferences with outraged politicians performing before the cameras is these outrageous looting of companies at the expense of millions of Americans. From where I sit, the story of Jack Abramoff is nickel-and-dime stuff--though certainly part of a corrupt pattern.

The big story is how politicians from both parties aid and abet the construction of a legal system that makes it possible for a guy like Steve Miller to screw his workers and enrich himself. United Airlines executives are doing the same thing (millions of execs after workers have given $4 billion in concessions).

At a minimum, we need to change the bankruptcy laws. If a company goes into bankruptcy, if its going to demand wage cuts from its workers, executives have to be hit with the same proportional hit to their pay and benefits. And, as an aside, the law should prohibit companies from using bankruptcy to shred pensions--because pension money, after all, really belongs to workers (it is their compensation that they've deferred to a later date).

And where is the Democratic Party demanding that, as a part of any of these concession demands, companies commit to endorsing and working to enact Medicare For All? After all, rising health care costs are a major factor hitting the bottom line of many companies in distress (certainly, airline and auto companies). It's idiotic to think you can just hit workers now as a way of turning around a business if you ignore a central structural cost that can be solved with national policy.

These are the questions we should all be asking this election year. It's time for the politicians who WORK FOR US to step up to the plate and do something to protect the middle class, otherwise, they don't deserve our votes.