How Two Tier Anything is Poison to Unions

When your company bosses and your union bosses start telling you how great and wonderful a "two tier" anything can be brothers and sisters you should know that someone is pissing on your leg and telling you it's only rain. This Two Tier stuff is part of the whole Austerity program that workers are being asked to buy into these days.

From the employer's side the argument always goes something like this - there's only so much money in the pot, and the pot itself is not very big, so that it is not a matter of how much the union can negotiate for its members, but rather a question of how this rather limited pot of money will be distributed among the workers. So first, they go for outright concessions and threaten layoffs if they don't get the cost savings they want. And once they have milked that for all it's worth they go for some form of "Two Tier" solution where new hires are subjected to some form of employment discrimination like longer probationary periods at reduced wages, provisional or part time status at lower wage rates and little or no benefits with the possibility of full time status years down the road, or membership in a 401(k) pension plan instead of membership in the defined benefit pension plan.

From the union side the argument is that jobs have been saved, or new jobs are being created, and that means someone who didn't have a job and was living on food stamps now has the chance to pull themselves up by their own boot straps and become a dues paying union member, although at the lower wage rate with less benefits and they're still going to be living on food stamps. It's all Motherhood, Apple Pie and the American Dream.

It has always been the strategy of the powerful to destabilize the solidarity of the masses by playing favorites, and this has often been achieved by inseminating and utilizing prejudices associated with race, religion, country of origin, citizenship and even sex. But today, if employers wish to take advantage of this sort of discrimination, they have to make some cosmetic changes to the language, and most importantly they have to pick on a new kind of minority, one that hasn't been fighting back over the last century, and preferably one that is not yet well organized or represented.

So let's think real hard and figure out the ideal vulnerable candidate, a minority without a voice. Bingo! - That's it! - Future employees! Don't buy into this nonsense brothers and sisters, don't start selling your future brothers and sisters down the river.

Equal pay for equal work, an injury to one is an injury to all. Read more about this Two Tier B.S. at this web site. No More Tiers