This started out as a rant to my wife last night and turned into a Facebook post this morning, so I figured it would be better to preserve it for later review as a diary.
From The Globe and Mail.
"Two-tier wage deals like those inked recently by Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. are spreading across the U.S. border into Canada’s labour landscape – again – as companies struggle to compete with lower-cost global rivals.The Canadian Auto Workers union agreed to deals last week with Ford and GM that will see new hires start at a lower rate – $20 an hour rather than $24 currently – and reach the top salary scale of $34 an hour after 10 years, rather than six years for existing workers.
The CAW fought off an unpopular provision in place at Ford and GM’s U.S. plants that keeps new hires permanently at a lower wage level with a pay scale that never achieves parity with existing workers. But the union did agree to a wage freeze and bonuses instead of a cost of living allowance, reflecting in part how unions are on the defensive amid a sluggish economy, and the battering Canada’s manufacturing sector has taken because of globalization and the rise in the value of the Canadian dollar."