Half pay for auto workers

During the recent economic downturn the auto industry was hit hard and the company in the best shape was Ford that did not need a government bailout. Ford survived but had to reduce the number of employees by 50% including some 35,000 in the union. Part of the agreement with the union specified that any new hires would state at $15 an hour compared to the retained union members who are paid $30 per hour. This reminded me of a situation I encountered while working in Ohio where our plant had a cafeteria and as a part of the union negotiations the operating of the cafeteria was turned over to the union. They hired new employees to run the cafeteria and proceeded to pay them half the wage of the average plant employee. Funny how things look from the other side of the fence!