Judge: Pratt Can't Move Jobs Out of Conn.

NY Times ^ | 2/5/10 | AP

[goat granny]

I have no insight, but wonder how long before its appealed..Judges don’t legally have that power......

[Citizen Tom Paine]

The US labor can compete with labor in another irrespective of the hourly wages. The balancing factor is productivity. If each US employee makes 10 times as much product he can be paid 10 times as much and we still can compete.

The rub is that management must spend money,i.e., automate, to increase productivity. One school function also is to turn out trained motivated employees who can use the automated procedures.

[Senator John Blutarski]

If I may ask, what is your personal opinion of the issue here?

[William Tell]

Iscool said: "Can you, OR WILL YOU live on less than a dollar per hour wages in the U.S.??? "

You're asking the wrong question. The question is, "MUST you live on less than a dollar per hour wages?" With a billion Chinese and a billion Indians willing to work for much less than American union workers, just what choice do you think they will have?

Any highly paid worker in the U.S., which includes almost everyone, is making a very bad economic error if their first priority is anything other than increasing productivity. The bashing of "big business" is not helpful.

[y6162]

Ummmm.. I work for a vendor of Pratt, and sit on the campus, so I have no skin in the game.

In this case, its the engine refurbishment business that has sagged because of the economy. Ct jobs are a lot more expensive than others. Pratt mgmt is making rational business choices based on cost. The union is doing what it can to save jobs.

It’s sad. I walk through the plant campus. People who work at Pratt build things. They take pride in what they do.

If I were in the union, I would have made concessions.

[Senator John Blutarski]

Thank you, sire, for the appraisal. I always hesitate to draw conclusions from first impressions, so this helps me to round out a better appreciation of the overall situation.