Pressure on wages to slow economy

This is a story about a workplace where less than half were union members. Being so, the non-union members of the company outvoted the union members, and accepted this outrageous deal.

Hundreds of workers at Coca-Cola Amatil's warehouses around the country will cop a pay freeze and new hires will receive pay of 38 per cent less to do the same job under new pay deals that provide a stark warning of the pressure on wages across the economy.

In the latest move in a national strategy to lower wages, beverage giant Coca-Cola Amatil sealed a new pay deal this week with its Victorian warehouse workers that locks in a pay freeze in 2015, followed by pay increase of about $30 in 2016.

The national rate of inflation of 3 per cent a year means these workers' wages will effectively go backwards. But more unusually the agreement also enabled a two-tiered pay system that will see new hires receive about 38 per cent less than their encumbent colleagues doing the same jobs. Read more

Which is what happens during an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement when there aren't enough union members to stop the employer from bringing in such bullshit agreements. I don't know about the intricacies of the particular situation, but one would have thought the union organiser would have done a recruitment drive before even starting negotiations.

Alas this sort of stuff is going on more and more lately in Australia. Across the board wages are under pressure with new EBA agreements reflecting that. 

Stephen Smith, director of national workplace relations at the Australian Industry Group told Fairfax Media it was seeing similar agreements nationwide. 

"We are seeing very modest wage outcomes across most sectors at present, given the economic circumstances, and wage freezes are certainly not uncommon." Read more

And there you have it. The economy is crumbling in the face of Abbott's rhetorical trashing of the economy ("budget emergency") and his actual trashing of the economy (car industry?). Once workers have less money, they spend less, the economy tanks. It's not rocket science, have been saying this for years.

This is what's so stupid about these corporations trying to screw down wages and send jobs overseas. They're shooting themselves in the foot. If nobody's got any money as their jobs have been sent overseas, just who do these corporations think is going to buy all this stuff they're making in China? Obviously, fuck all. The economy will be in the doldrims for years.