The following is a repost from http://www.redtalesonline.com/

Race To The Bottom


In 2005 aircraft cleaners at Northwest Airlines made over $19.00 per hour with good benefits. NWA management had a plan, long in the making, to break the union to which cleaners belonged. Management brought in an airline contracting company, G-2, to replacethe cleaners. These cleaners made less than the union cleaners, $10.00 less per hour to be exact and no benefits.

Now these cleaners are being told they will not have a job by September. Delta Global Services will be taking over. They have been told they may reapply for their jobs. The new hourly wage? $7.75 – no benefits. Many have already told DGS they must move on because their families would starve if they accepted that job.

The same process has been repeated across the country for both Northwest and Delta baggage handlers. Good paying jobs with good benefits are lost to contracting companies in the down line stations. Now this work is being given to Regional Handling Services. Guess what? Jobs that had been low wage are going even lower.

Every worker in the U.S. has some sense that a “race to the bottom” is taking place. We see it all around us: contracting out, Ready Reserve, higher percentages of part time. With a contracting economy, we know employers will try to accelerate this process. While having a union cannot always stop this process, it is the only way workers can battle back and win. Without a union there is simply no bottom in the “race to the bottom”.