US jobs massacre accelerates, as ruling class confronts growing upsurge of class struggle

In the eyes of the ruling class, however, these savage attacks on jobs are only the opening salvos in a much larger offensive against the working class.

The attacks on workers’ jobs and living standards in the US are part of an international process. In an interview Friday with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares stated that the jobs of autoworkers throughout Europe were threatened if they did not accept demands for greater “efficiency” and cost cuts.

What the Times and other outlets did not report, however, is that relatively higher wage increases have been more than eaten up by inflation, a deliberate sleight of hand on the Times’ part. In fact, the same Labor Department report Friday showed that private-sector compensation declined 0.2 percent year-over-year in constant (i.e., inflation-adjusted) dollars. Earlier in April, the Labor Department reported that real average hourly earnings in March were down 1.6 percent from a year earlier.

Tavares—who flies from country to country to crack the whip over workers and demand “strictness”—had a pay package of nearly $25 million in 2022, a rise of 22 percent from the year before.

[wsws.org]