labor unions and compensation demands during a deep recession

A lot of interesting stuff in this report by Jere Downs in the C-J...

Welders, painters and crane operators walked off the job Friday at American Commercial Lines’ Jeffboat shipyard, idling barge production in the first Teamster strike since a 10-week walkout in 2002.

Interesting timing: in a weak economy. As we'll see, th weak economy leads to downward pressure on compensation which is likely to irritate workers. Those in a union (labor market cartel) are least likely to stand for such an outcome.

Increased healthcare costs proposed by the company Thursday on the eve of the expiration of a three-year labor agreement precipitated the strike...

That will be more and more of a problem; it'll be interesting to see how workers-- union and non-union-- respond...

“They want to take money from us in this contract,” pipe welder Eric Caines, 32, said...

An interesting view of voluntary, mutually beneficial trade. Then again, when a labor market cartel has such monopoly power, it can be quite adversarial...

ACL is offering “the same healthcare we have for all of our ACL non-union employees, from the deckhand to the CEO,” Mike Ryan, company president and chief executive said in a prepared statement.

“I don’t care what their non-union people have,” Teamster Local 89 President Fred Zuckerman said...

An interesting look into the apathy/hostility toward non-union people...It'll be interesting to see if this bites them in the butt later.

ACL’s offer also proposes no wage increase in the first year, with 1 percent and 2 percent annual increases thereafter, striking Teamsters said.

“It all adds up to a pay cut,” Caines said.

Right. In a severe recession, that's what you typically get.

It's odd and potentially devastating decision by the union to have its members step out at this point in the economy. Stay tuned...