If a rising tide lifts all boats, what happens when the tide goes out?

I thought this was an interesting article on the downward drift of American labor which I picked up on Wonkblog out of the Washington Post. It's called "This is what a job in the U.S.'s new manufacturing industry looks like" and was written by Lydia Depillis. For some reason I'm always fascinated to read about what things are like in the contemporary American workplace, especially for those without Union protection. There's a familiar depressing feeling about them, even if it's an industry you've never worked in.