The ruling and the working classes

The May 27 edition of the Chicago Tribune featured two articles in the Business section that made me think of the Marxist principle of the struggle for power between the ruling and working classes. The main article discussed the golden parachute of $64.3 million that departing chief executive Sanjay Jha is collecting as he leaves Motorola. The other feature article discussed the union workers and their strike against the Caterpillar Inc. plant in Joliet.

I can’t understand why the workers would strike. After all, Caterpillar made a kind and generous offer of a six-year contract that would freeze their wages, double health care premiums and eliminate pensions and seniority rights. Indeed, this would go a long way toward reducing operating costs, which should increase earnings for the stockholders and would provide justification for compensation increases for CEO Oberhelman and the other five top executives.

According to Caterpillar’s 2011 proxy statement, Oberhelman had a total compensation of $16.9 million for 2011, which was a 60.2 percent increase over 2010. The top six Caterpillar executives, including Oberhelman, received total compensation of $49.1 million for 2011, which was a 20.3 percent increase over 2010. Certainly, a class struggle with Caterpillar ... the wealthy, powerful executives vs. the hourly workers trying to keep their heads above the poverty line.

It seems to me that corporations could set up compensation plans for their workers similar to executive plans. The workers would be provided a base salary coupled with a variable income plan based on bonus, profit-sharing, stock incentives, etc. The workers would be compensated well when business is good and share in the pain when business is down. It works for management and would work for labor.

Ron Fuchs

St. Charles