[ssiguy]

No one can absorb a 50% pay cut...........mortages, rents, groceries, utilities, are all paid and calculated according to your income.
People may have gotten a mortgage based on their estimated income and halfing that means bankruptsy.
Who in hell would accept a 50% pay cut when they would make 60% of their wage on EI?
Also you are forgetting the most basic idea behind the outrageous 50% cut..........Caterpillar was going to be closing the plant regardless. The company always had the intention of closing the plant but by trying to get the employees to accept a 50% wage cut and THEN close the plant their severance would have been based on their previous earnings. In otherwords Caterpillar was just trying to reduce their severance pay by 50%. I think the union knew damn fine that the plant would be closing for good but realized that by accepting the 50% pay cut it would dramatically reduce their severance AND the amount of EI they would get as it to is based on your previous earnings.