In Spring Hill, Tennessee General Motors is reopening one of its Saturn plants in an effort to create more jobs. Reactions to this plan are both of joy and surprise. This effort will help in the generation of jobs in an industry that has suffered much loss of work to foreign countries. The reason workers are surprised by this is that this plant in question has been closed for a long period of time, to the point that it would be thought it was impossible to revive.
This offer comes with workers being employed for full wages at $28 per hour. However this full payment would not be able to support large numbers of employees so a tier 2 payment system was developed. This tier 2 system has a wage of $15 per hour. This option of lower wages allows for more employees to be hired. This is expected to reduce unemployment figures significantly as it has already been lowered in the county from 17% to 13%. In this time of difficulty for the working class this is a welcome strategy.
I agree that this historic reopening will certainly be a good thing overall for the city and for its citizens. Reopening the plant will employ many workers, which will have ripple effects throughout the community. I do have some difficulty with the article calling the deal a “win” for the United Automobile Workers. Overall I think the effect will be positive, but in the end this is a compromise. To get the jobs many people will be taking that second tier wage, which is quite a drop from the original wage.
ReplyDeleteEven though the unemployment rate will be lower but it won't help improve their living standard since the wages is low. This wage will support them at bare minimal but its better than not having a job at all.
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