Some Factory Jobs Return, Paying a Whole Lot Less

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/some_manufacturing_jobs_return_paying_a_whole_lot_less_20110518/?ln

Unemployed American workers are glad to see factory jobs returning, but they’re finding that the pay is drastically lower now, the result of a global race to the bottom for cheap labor. Since the start of 2010, U.S. manufacturers have added 250,000 jobs, the first time since 1997 that the country is enjoying a sustained increase in factory employment. The Rust Belt in particular is beginning to see a turnaround, but workers will be making do with less income. Meanwhile, anti-union interests continue to chip away at workers’ right to organize and bargain, a sorry state of affairs for a country that must realize by now that being a “service economy” is getting us nowhere fast. —KDG

:snip:

The Rust Belt’s nascent recovery is being fueled by a host of factors, including a revitalized auto sector, innovations that have made workers more productive, and a weakened dollar, which makes American products more appealing for export.

Lower labor costs are also a critical factor. But many of the prospective workers who braved a cold rain Monday outside the old Hoover plant for a shot at a job with benefits did not complain.

“I was a little disappointed about the rate of pay,” said Leslee Valentine, 52, who rushed down to the factory after hearing about the job fair on the news. “But right now I’m on unemployment, so it looks pretty good. There is always that opportunity to move up.”

More at the link --

They want compliant serfs that are too busy working and staying hungry to agitate for better things.

ALEC is selling so that their profit is increased.

No there isn't. Young carpenters end up being old carpenters, not Construction Site Managers. Few teachers become Principles, there is only 1 Manager at the local Wal Mart. 2% of the people in this country control most of the wealth and not only are you and I not one of them, we never will be.

That's the difference between being solidly middle class and being working poor. Even auto workers are being hired at $14 an hour, which at best is enough for a young single person to live on comfortably.

I understand the argument that American manufacturers can't compete if they don't hold down wages -- but that only means that our entire system is broken.

So if the underlying problem is that "making things" has become a bargain basement operation, then just what work is there for people to do that brings in enough for them to live on?

It seems as though the problem is that the things people *make* have gotten cheaper and cheaper -- while the things they *need* (decent housing, medical care, education) have gotten more and more expensive. So how do we change that equation to make it come out even?

:sarcasm:

crap, the latest gadget, the latest fashion, and the quickest food, all cheap. Like you say, health care, housing, and tuition, - through the roof, certainly not in the script for the average retail/warehouse/factory worker making $30,000 (if that) a year.

Clothing is a necessity and depending on where you shop it can be pretty expensive.

is "They should just be happy they have a job". I've even seen it here.

Jeepers, Mr. Peabody! How does it all work??? These people are so smart and their economics are so complicated!