The Facts
Its simple people and wrench you are dead on point but heres how we tell the true story . Why dose management want to control your health and welfare? They do it because they increase their operating capitol and they do that on the backs of the employee.What dose that mean it means the company gets more profit margin and the employee has less security. Run the numbers the company plan is worth half over a lifetime than the Union plan. The company plan is a out of pocket cost to the employee that can go up at any time.The company plan is one that can change on a month to month or even a day to day basis.How can I say this its because the company will never agree to language that stops them from being able to alter the coverage as they see fit.Putting your health and retirement into the hands of the company is a fools game and you will always loose. I have been refereed to rule one and two before, and I say rule one is take care of your family first! Rule two is revert to rule one if rule two ever comes forth, thats for you Sm--- Sta--. If you ever wanted to get less and pay more just go into a company health and welfare program and if you want to work forever just get yourself a company pension plan like enron what a joke.To add a comment on that, I don't see how that excess can go in their fund..haha, cause it never comes out to begin with.....They say you are getting an: 11% to 12.5% increase so lets use that and the max benefits we can do...(to get your "comparable plan")
11% Increase
6% matched for pension= 12% pension
2% Max medical
That leaves you with a 3% increase in wages....dont forget...with crappy medical and 401K
How long is this 3% increase for...it doesn't say so I am going to (from being screwed by people in the past) assume its for the life of the contract. Lets also assume this contract would be for 3 years. So for three years you would only have a pay increase of 3%? Lets look at some things that have happened in the last couple years:
State minimum wage increases:
2005 2.6% @ 7.35
2006 3.8% @ 7.63
2007 3.9% @ 7.93
Average Increase
2005-2007 was 3.4% PER YEAR
So your saying that WE only get a 1% increase in pay PER YEAR? :
Do you wonder why it seems that in the last couple years you have been keeping less and less of your paycheck?? Well look what would have happened IF we kept up with the minimum wage increases since the last contract (keep in mind these percentages are figured by the actual increases in price for basic services in the state of Washington) All these numbers are from the L&I websites except for the OHFL happy land estimate below.
This is an estimated BASE HOURLY RATE USED FOR 2004
BASE RATE 20.41/HR
2005 2.6% @ 20.94
2006 3.8% @ 21.74
2007 3.9% @ 22.59
Boy wouldn't that have been nice? Nice increases, fair, kept up with the price of basic Washington services... Come on.. the price of oil alone per barrel in that same time frame has increased 168% thats not even what we see at the pump, don't think about affording a new home, we have to keep up (oh wait thats right now days you can get that nice interest only loan). Now some may say that we cant compair our wage increases to the percentages of minimum wage...but isn't it fair? We are in a skilled trade, not working at McDonald's, you cant say that I was worth more to your company based on percentages in 2004 than I am now, can you? So really, I believe we have a lot of catching up to do in the wage department cause were already behind, but now they want to do us in for the next contract duration too? This just hasn't been adding up to me, now that ive been doing a little research I realize why I've had less and less money over the years and its making me even more bitter. Check it out for yourselves, its scary. We are going to be heading for tough times unless we demand better. ED AND DAVE: you have any comments? Explanations? PLEASE feel free to post here, we know your looking.