At least one Detriot Free Press Columnists seems to think it's very possible...

BRIAN ERSON: Them that's got shall get
October 10, 2005
BY BRIAN ERSON
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

People trying to understand what's happening at Delphi Corp. need only remember that we live in a compe ive world.

To compete with stingy auto suppliers overseas, Delphi needs to pay its hourly workers less.

To compete with corporations at home, Michigan's fourth-largest company needs to pay its top managers more.

Got it? It's all about compe ion.

That's why Delphi wants its hourly workers to absorb a 63% pay cut, and why it filed for bankruptcy when they refused to swallow wage concessions on the company's tight schedule.

And that's why, on the eve of its bankruptcy filing, Delphi sweetened severance packages for 21 top executives, who'll now get 18 months' salary, plus part of their regular bonuses, if their jobs are eliminated.

Message to hourly workers: These are tough times, but we're all in this together -- unless things get really bad, in which case managers' families get all the lifeboats.

And yes, we understand that these sweetened severance packages will make many of you angry. But the way we figure it, you were already angry. So where's the downside in making our golden parachutes a little more golden? How much angrier can you get?

Reaping the whirlwind

I think we in Michigan are about to find out exactly how angry workers can get.

I hope I'm wrong about this. I hope that one or two years from now, when the profound changes engulfing Michigan's economy have had a little more time to play out and God knows what new natural disaster or international plague has come along to distract us, the premonitions I have today will seem histrionic and short-sighted.

But I believe we are very near the point where the frustration of the working poor and newly unemployed may erupt in acts of violence the likes of which haven't been seen in this country since the earliest days of the labor movement.

And the way things are going, it's only a matter of time before top executives at Michigan's largest public companies are unable to walk through their factories or walk their dogs beyond the perimeters policed by their invisible security fences without protection.

When rationality meets rage

Yes, there are rational explanations for what is happening at Delphi, reasons why a company on the brink of disaster might choose to make a few key employees more comfortable even as it demands unprecedented sacrifices from most of its workers.

But many of those workers are already seething over the disparate impact of other economic challenges. For example, they can't understand how two hurricanes that have been catastrophic for millions of Americans and visited serious hardships on almost everyone else are just another business opportunity for a politically connected few.

Maybe all that's needed is for a few more economists to explain how our exciting new global marketplace works.

But somehow I don't think that will be enough.
Brian erson, Detriot Free Press

Union violence on the streets of Detriot? Are you kidding me?

Also, didn't I write that hard-times were coming to GM and Ford?