This is pretty astounding. Mexico's auto unions agree to cut wages:
Wage concessions were apparently key to persuading Ford Motor Co. to direct many of the 4,500 new jobs involved in building Fiestas to the Ford plant in Cuautitlan, on the outskirts of Mexico City. Union leaders at the plant told The Associated Press they had agreed to cut wages for new hires to about half of the current wage of $4.50 per hour.
"We agreed to it," said Ford union leader Juan Jose Sosa Arreola. "We need to be more competitive. That's the truth. That's a reality."
The United Auto Workers union had hoped to preserve American jobs by offering a two-tier wage system last fall, cutting starting wages for new U.S. workers by half to about $14.20 an hour. But it hasn't worked -- the jobs are flowing to Mexico, where starting wages at some plants also have been two-tiered, to as little as $1.50 per hour with a lot less of the related pension and health care costs of U.S. workers.
With labor costs like these, Mexico is staying competitive with China, where an average worker at a foreign-owned factory or joint venture can make $2 to $6 per hour. While Mexican benefit costs run higher, Mexico may have already won the low-wage race
The Race to the Bottom is on, with the ultimate low wage workforce being a surf or slave class.
Labor ground into the dirt, bankers elevated.
Yes and if Americans are thinking that they are going to be exempt from this race to the bottom, they are delusional. If pundits and intellectuals believe that we may take a hit in the West but China will be the new America, they're fooling themselves. The Chinese or Indian "miracle" is based on very cheap labor. If that changes the miracle is ashes. If techno-junkies believe that technology will save our collective butts they are ignorant of modern history. How many bank workers lost their careers to auto-tellers? Even jobs like radiology are now being outsourced via the internet to docs in India making $5 / hr. The guarantee of getting a good paying job after earning a degree in areas like engineering or even business is becoming nul and void. This final descent into oligarchical feudalism will not be stopped unless we the people force the CEOs and their politician toadies to stand down. And that won't happen unless We The People stand up.