I'm super pro-union, but if $35,000/year is "just on the threshold of a living wage", then I should've been very, very, very dead a long, long time ago.

If I made $35,000/year, I'd be in Mexico right now.

The idea that non-profit organizations should not generate an operating profit is ridiculous. 

The term non-profit simply means that the company does not distribute net profit to shareholders, employees or individual stakeholders directly.

Whether or not the distribution of profits is achieved indirectly is an entirely different matter.

Vicarious, according to Penn State University's "Poverty in America" project, living wage in Duluth for a family of 3 (2 adults, 1 child) is about $41,000 per year  while "low-income" is defined by the feds as 200% of the Federal Poverty Guideline, or $35,200/year for a family of 3. Let me also point out that while Person's salary alone could support 31 hospital clerical workers, overall compensation for all of the hospital's 20 or so executives totaled over $6 million in 2007.

The workers aren't asking for an executive salary. They're asking to keep pace with inflation so they can continue to support their families and to not lose their jobs to outsourcing.

I second TimK's point, although personally I would get tired of the heat after a while and want to come back north.

Living wage for a family of four in St. Louis county is $60K.  Living wage for a family of three (two adults, one child) is $45K

Asking for a one year wage freeze is not uncommon during these tough economic times. As a member of one of the local building trades, I know that many of the local unions have settled contract negotiations for that exact same situation. A one year wage freeze verses a reduction in the number of employees sounds acceptable to those who need to keep their jobs and health care benefits. I am sure that many people that lost jobs due to being led to believe that solidarity will save jobs wished that they would have used a little more common sense. I have always thought that my union business agent is not always making the best judgment when it comes to advising the members in situations like this.

Wait.  So the iron workers represent the the people clerical workers at SMDC?  How exactly does that work?

As a non-union worker of SMDC, it has been 3 years since I received a cost of living raise and we have been told by our supervisor to expect pay cuts this year (talk of 20% similar to what was done at Cirrus)-- well, I did get a $250 "bonus" last year as if that made any difference (most union employees got a 3.5% raise).  If the non-union employees already have wage freezes and may experience wage-cuts, why should the union employees get a raise?  BTW: non-union does not equal management.  As a non-union employee, I make about $33,000 gross/year working full-time.  If I was a union employee, I guess I would have a hard time supporting a strike knowing that by doing so I would be essentially giving up my job losing pay and losing benefits.  If the union is so supportive of its workers, why does it not offer some type of compensation to the employees on strike?  Where do the union dues go?  When I was in the steelworkers union at SMDC, my union dues were close to $40/month when I made less than $20,000/year.  And when I was told that my position was eliminated, I was told by my union rep that they were really sorry but there was nothing they could do to help me.   I never once felt like the union did anything for me.

Perhaps some of them are among the thousands of single income households with children in the Duluth-Superior area.

Seriously......every time a union decides to picket or strike, everyone on this God-forsaken site grabs their pitchforks and torches to join them.  I seriously hope the workers strike and are replaced by people that would appreciate the work, because "cost of living" increases are a load of crap.  If you want a raise, work harder and deserve it instead of punching the clock every day and expecting a raise based on the fact that you dragged your sorry ass to work for yet another year.  Doesn't matter how hard you worked, or how many times you called in sick, or even how well you did your job......all that matters is that you show up and try REALLY hard not to fuck up so much that they have reason to fire you.  Which is a great way to go through life, eh?

The executive staff at SMDC oversees eight different medical facilities that employ thousands of people.  But of course, that is a piece of cake, right?  35 medical transcriptionists could EASILY run a multi-state hospital/clinic system, no?  How many people have the qualifications necessary to do the SMDC executives jobs?  Not too many.  THAT is why they're paid like they are.  Here's the bottom line: People who file papers, or mop floors, or type shit that is already written down ARE NOT WORTH $15 an hour.  Why, you socialist jackmonkeys ask?  BECAUSE PEOPLE WITH THOSE JOBS SKILLS ARE A DIME A DOZEN.  If someone is willing and able to do the same job for less, they should be able to.  It's a free country.....unless you buy the load of horseshit the unions are more than willing to sell you.  Sweet JC, you people are cracked.

There are three nuns (you know, the people who take a vow of poverty?) from CSS on the board of SMDC, one of whom is the board chair.  If you think they are throwing money at a bunch of executives because they don't have anything better to do with it, you're all on crack.  They pay those people that much for a reason: Because they have taken the time to become educated and work their asses off in every job they've had since they stepped out of school.  These executives that you all love to excoriate didn't land in a cushy $500k job after being an executive assistant.....they worked their way up and took risks--such as managing others or taking on additional job responsibilities.  And you wonder why union workers are always disgruntled about their jobs: The union contract they love so much forbids them to be "management" or to do anything outside their "job description".  What a load of crap.  Unions are for people who never did anything for themselves, wiping their owns asses included.  See, if union workers are SO great at what they do, why don't they direct the massive pension funds of theirs to invest in companies that are cooperatively-owned by the union workers themselves?  Answer?  No one would use them because their work is substandard, they're lazy and have an entitlement mentality surpassed only by the welfare masses.  Coupled with the fact that they would need SOMEONE QUALIFIED TO RUN THE COMPANY--CALLED "MANAGEMENT".  Of course, if that qualified person were to stick to true union ideals, s/he'd make just as much as every else regardless of his experience and s/he'd be required to use a different title than "management", because in uber-twisted unionland, that is a curse word.

I know this a whack-job liberal message board, but y'all really need to pull your heads out of each other's asses and realize that unions have essentially become paid extortionists in America.  They pulled one of the biggest con jobs on record by getting all of their employees health care benefits exempted from the health care reform excise tax on "Cadillac" insurance plans.  Of course, I'll never find any complaining here about how that will screw independent non-union contractors who happen to pay their employees' insurance, nor will I hear how labor unions and frivolous lawsuits are the largest contributors to rising medical costs.

Fuck, people.....you all just don't get it.

Wow, nice retort TimK.  Typical lib response: namecalling.  I guess it's easier than trying to defend your broken ideology.

And yet, you still haven't argued a single point.  You sit in front of your computer fuming because there isn't a single thing you can say in rebuttal.

Come on, TimK, I know you have to have SOMETHING factual to say in response......or did what I say hit a little too close to home?

Oh, I have no problem with collective bargaining.  I also have no problem with management hiring replacement workers.  The "history of organized labor" is wrought with atrocities.....including a very distinct connection to something else that is "organized": Organized crime.  Coupled with the fraud, intimidation, embezzlement and extortion that accompanies organized labor at every turn.  See, there's no money in union workers organizing their own cooperatively-owned companies for the reasons I listed above, and one other glaring reason: There's far better money to be made sitting on the sideline and getting their fingers into other people's wallets.  If that's not the case, then tell me why unions won't direct their pension funds to invest in union-owned operations.

Unions have been extorting private business for YEARS.  Back in the early 1900's, there was a legitimate reason for unions to exist.  That reason is no longer applicable......though the unions keep tooting the same horn they did back then.  Sorry, but $15 an hour is way too much for the work that half of these SMDC employees are doing.  The entitlement mentality, such as that of the unions, is permeating throughout our society, and if left unchecked it will be the downfall of our nation.

Don't know why you're apologizing to the PDD community for your complete lack of anything useful to say.  You're just another lackey of the left.....no basis for your arguments...... except for maybe, "It's not fair!"  Well guess what, douchebag......life isn't fair.  Asshole, eh?  A little more namecalling from a mindless imp?  Wow, please don't hurt my feelings.  I don't know what I'd do if someone called me an asshole.  Get in line, bud.....you're not the first and won't be the last to call me that, especially with the abundance of union hacks and other assorted liberal causeheads around these parts.

Fifteen hundred people falling on their swords over a one year wage freeze and thirteen outsourced jobs isn't solidarity, it's half-witted suicide.

Sheesh, whine..complain. You know the solution, people: GET OUT. Pack up your stuff and leave. We did 22 years ago and never once looked back at Dull-uth.  Life is beyond *terrific* out here on the East Coast. Great jobs, tons of advancement opportunities, super benefits, oplus if you move to a military-saturated area as we did (Hampton Roads, VA), you can practically write your own ticket. You decide what you're worth and even a mere hostess in a restaurant has salary leverage. 

Why sit and moan about how lousy your way of life is when you can up and change it - just like that - pull up stakes and come live where life is good all the time! And yeah, it is just that easy. 

Just my opinion as an EX-Duluthian.

Debster, people here whine because there aren't any jobs and then SCREAM when someone tries to bring jobs to town because they don't like the type of business they're bringing.  Duluth has got to have one of the highest concentrations of CAVEpeople and NIMBYs anywhere in the United States, if not world.

Sadly, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.  Once 75% of the people here realize here in the year 2010 that business isn't inherently bad for the environment, maybe Duluth will be home to some new jobs.  Aside, of course, from schlepping canvas bags, cranking out eco-friendly cutting boards and working at an overrated co-op.

Jude--What kills me is that it'd OK to show concern about something new coming into the community.  But it doesn't stop at that.  It's full-fledged, pitchfork-wielding psychosis that overtakes the masses.  Take for instance the proposed PolyMet project--people were screaming bloody murder when they announced their intent to STUDY establishing a new operation on the Range.  Not even so much as a survey had been done, and people were already forming an angry mob.

Another great example was the proposed golf course at Spirit Mountain.  Granted, a lot of that opposition came from the Fond du Lac tribe (who, not coincidentally, dropped a golf course on a wetland behind their casino a couple years later), but a couple of people knee-jerked and threw a holy sh*tstorm because SOME of the land at Spirit Mountain was going to be used in a way that didn't jive with their opinions.  Never mind the tens of thousands of people that WOULD have been able to enjoy that land and view as a golf course (let's face it: most of our seasoned citizens aren't avid hikers/geocachers), and no matter the tens of millions of dollars that our local economy lost out of from that potential private investment.  And congrats to the Skyline Alliance and like-minded "green" groups who sent a legal lynch mob after the developers: Those developers have since been investing the majority of their time, efforts and money elsewhere.

And then there's the pristine Clough Island.  It used to be a farm.  A FARM.  No one uses the island for recreation, and if you do, you're tresspassing......because it's private property.  The investors in the Clough Island project were going to pour millions into our economy to develop the island, and a handful of loudmouths--including our glorious former Mayor Bergson--told them to get lost.  Why?  They had proposed a development that would have minimal impact on the ecosystem, would have allowed more people to enjoy our area and created hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs.  But no.  Not here--it's OUR community.  Apparently we don't want new people here unless they live, work and play where WE want them to with what WE want them to work, live and play WITH.  That is wrong.  It is incredibly pompous--to think that WE have the right to dictate what others do with their land.  The fact of the matter is that the environmental/NIMBY/anti-change factions in this city need to understand that, as a community, there is no such thing as treading water.  You're either moving forward or falling behind.

And a direct statement to the environmentalists:  If you want to make a difference, work WITH developers, politicians and investors instead of against them.  I guarantee that developers would much rather have people helping them avoid damage to the ecosystem than filing frivolous obstructionary lawsuits at the first HINT of a construction project.

Duluth will be a rusty slum of 35,000 people with lots of green space if we don't make a concerted effort to attract new development and new residents.  The average Duluthian isn't getting any younger--it's time to get some new blood in this town.