As the heads of the Big Three auto companies beg the Senate Banking Committee for their bailout, the United Auto Workers express willingness to make concessions, sacrificing job security and retiree health care to keep General Motors and Chrysler out of bankruptcy. But that doesn’t seem to be good enough for the Motor City moguls who, to sweeten the deal with the government, are busily promising massive layoffs and cuts in the labor force. These bastards seem simply too stupid to get the message. The whole point of the Obama New Deal-style recovery plan is to create jobs, and put cash in the pockets of workers to prime a new consumer cycle. There is no auto industry if the guys on the line aren’t paid enough to buy the goddamned cars. Henry Ford knew that, but seemingly his successors can’t grasp the concept.
The secret word is Nationalize
The guys who made that Mercury would never have believed this shit.
ReplyDeleteNeed to retool the car companies and their people in charge.Didn't they see the day when they would have to compete with import cars that got better mileage and lasted longer? I think the heavies in charge are old white men who won't change,and hate Japanese products.
ReplyDeleteIntelligent designed vehicles,that last for years wins every time.
Detroit kinda hasn't gotten it for a while now.
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2008/12/03/cheer-up-detroit-henry-ford-has-the-answer/
Now, which Archduke was it got assassinated two weeks earlier...?
"...no auto industry if the guys on the line aren’t paid enough to buy the goddamned cars..."
ReplyDeleteC'mon, how many automotive line workers have you actually met?! Most are fat, lazy, undereducated, overpaid shitheads. When a material handler/forklift driver with barely a high school education brings in $30,000.+ per year something is radically wrong. Detroit CEOs are the only ones who are overpaid; the whole industry is bloated with excess and too fucking stupid and short-sighted to invest in better R&D with the long term goal of making better cars.
Is it any wonder the Japanese and Korean automakers are eating Detroit's lunch?
That's a disgusting generalization about working people.
ReplyDelete"Most are fat, lazy, undereducated, overpaid shitheads."
ReplyDeleteWow! Heavy words!
But don't forget that a big part of their salaries is stolen by the parasites above.
"...no auto industry if the guys on the line aren’t paid enough to buy the goddamned cars..."
ReplyDeleteYou've got to be kiddin right?
From 2006:
According to Forbes:
Labor cost per hour, wages and benefits for hourly workers, 2006.
Ford: $70.51 ($141,020 per year)
GM: $73.26 ($146,520 per year)
Chrysler: $75.86 ($151,720 per year)
Toyota, Honda, Nissan (in U.S.): $48.00 ($96,000 per year)
According to AAUP and IES, the average annual compensation for a college professor in 2006 was $92,973 (average salary nationally of $73,207 + 27% benefits).
Bottom Line: The average UAW worker with a high school degree earns 57.6% more compensation than the average university professor with a Ph.D. and 52.6% more than the average worker at Toyota, Honda or Nissan.
This is arrant nonsense. The hourly rate for a GM assembly worker is around $28.00 an hour. The figures you quote were cooked up by the Heritage Foundation to fuel a blame-it-on-the-workers orgy. They were created by totalling real labor costs plus ALL other benefits -- including health and retirement, past, present and future -- and then dividing them by the actual number of hours worked in 2006. All this by people who probably never did a day's real work in their affluent lives.
ReplyDeleteThis piece in today's NY Times give the lie to the whole seventy bucks an hour nonsense.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/business/economy/10leonhardt.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper