Economic Pain, who feels it and who gains from it? (written in 2005)

“Time is the great eraser and this will not even show faintly on the chalkboard of our memories. But for the IPC workers and their families, time will not erase the pain of this sacrifice, for it will be with them every day, sitting on the other side of their kitchen tables, like an unwanted supper guest.”

There is an old saying from the fitness book of clichés and overused metaphors, “No pain, No gain.” In these days of economic contraction in our area, the question could be who feels the pain and who gains from it? A prime example is, Industrial Powder Coating or IPC, a local company who has been in the community for over 20 years, started by a Norwalk family and now owned by outsiders, who was in the news lately. The story was about the concessions or givebacks that the workers at this plant accepted “to keep the doors open.” The workers represented by UNITE, had little choice if the truth is known in this discussion, which probably amounted to “take it” or “we’ll close the doors.” Having been on that side of the issue, “the take it “side, for many years, when a company comes asking for the type of givebacks that were agreed to in this continuing saga of 21st century America, it is a last chance scenario.

Profit before People
Of course, the company probably said to the workers, that when things turn around, you will get these items back, but the truth is that once it is lost, there is always another crisis or reason the company will have for not reinstating the concessions. I mean the bottom line for the corporation is to make money, and that is the reason for its existence, period. It does not matter if they are powder coating parts or making widgets, the profit is the motive for their being; and the workers and the community, are just parts of the process to make that profit.

Low paying J-o-b-s = T-a-x-e-s
There were the usual comments in the paper by company officials, elected officials and the local economic folks. The Mayor was effusive in her praise for the UNITE Local for the agreement that saved the company and the jobs. How can you be effusive, when a little investigation would have shown that these folks at IPC were barely making a living wage before the wage cuts, freezes and more out of pocket for healthcare? The real reason for the joy was the saving of tax dollars for the city budget; for that is the government’s bottom-line, tax revenues. Let’s be real, for local government, County, City and School districts, the workers wages are just a source of tax dollars. In the discussions that follow on tax abatements for companies and corporations, the selling point is that the municipalities will be able to generate tax revenues from the “new jobs” that are created, regardless of what the wages are for those jobs. The point that is never discussed is that the companies do not pay any taxes on their income, just the workers. So should we be surprised that it didn’t seem to make a difference to these officials making the comments, of the pain that the workers were going to feel by giving the company these givebacks in wage cuts, wage freezes, and accepting an increase in healthcare costs?

The Gain like the Pain is One Sided
I didn’t hear anyone say, how are these people going to live on less money or no raises in the future, while paying increased costs for their healthcare? How are their families going to cope with the increased cost of everything else, gas, food, rent, clothing and education for their kids, which continues to go up while the value of their real wages keep sinking and sinking? I did not hear any one wonder how the workers families are going to cope with a quality of life that is in decline? I did not hear anyone raise a question of the moralness of pain that is only felt by one side; while the gain from that pain is only felt by one side, those who are not feeling the pain?

Time moves on for us, but not for those in Pain
But like all stories, this one will fade very fast, and those who were effusive in their praise for this agreement, will forget those workers who gave all. And as we drive past the IPC building in the industrial park, we will not even slow down to think of those people who gave up their hold on a quality of life to save the company and those tax dollars. Time is the great eraser and this will not even show faintly on the chalkboard of our memories. But for the IPC workers and their families, time will not erase the pain of this sacrifice, for it will be with them every day, sitting on the other side of their kitchen tables, like an unwanted supper guest.