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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Does anybody know what the average UAW worker makes? It's hard to have an opinion on all of this without knowing! Thanks!
"All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms labor is treason. If a man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other."
Abraham Lincoln
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Abraham Lincoln would know modern-day Republicans for what they are: traitors against America.
I don't blame the UAW anymore than management, and think both have been more reasonable than congress. What mistakes UAW may have made were made years ago in different times. Choices that seemed good at the time but have prove unsustainable. What I've seen of the UAW of late has been more than reasonable.
The fundamental problem is demand. There may not be enough demand for 3 U.S. automakers given the number of competitors. This is not just true of the U.S., but the world over. The world just might not need to so many automakers. The question is not should we prop up potentially dying industry, but how do we smoothly transition? I support the former but not the latter. The world changes, and we adapt. Otherwise we might still be supporting the construction of stagecars....
You are so right!!
The parties touted support of the worker during the election, particularly the Republicans with Joe the Plumber, but in reality they have been systematically destroying it for years. Continually giving more and more by way of tax breaks and loopholes to the wealthy. Failure to give loans to the automakers should have been the last straw!
Our own country -- states in particular - give more money (perhaps 10 x so) to foreign automakers than the US automakers were asking for in loans -- not in giveaways. And those foreign companies in addition receive assistance from their own countries or are owned by their governments.
And the bailouts of Wall Street and the Banks and their continuation of conducting business as usual -- receiving big bonuses, taking expensive trips and essentially snubbing their noses at the taxpayer -- is outrageous! Their egregious activities -- perhaps even criminal -- caused most of our current economic situation and continues to by failure to make credit available! Cars would sell if loans were reasonable and available, companies could conduct business if they could continue obtaining credit as necessary for normal operations, and so on.
Everyone hates the big guy ... especially if they have union workers! It is all about stripping the worker of any power or influence and again letting business operate as freely as possible without oversight or balance of control or check.
Today, Ron Gettlefinger, UAW President said UAW members average or median out (I'm not sure which), at just under $30 per hour, and that Toyota has claimed parity for its factory people. So that's about $60,000 per year, with comparable health plans, and better pensions for the UAW.
New UAW hires are making $14 per hour with no pensions.
That is the average hourly pay earned by autoworkers. Nonunion autoworkers earn a bit less - around $22. - $24. per hour.
Factory workers include highly skilled people, tool and die makers, machine programmers, inspectors, and supervisors that are included in the hourly wage pool.
They all earn their pay.
Their benefits, on the other hand, are too liberal, such as pay for no work. These excessive contract items should be negotiated out of the contracts.
I'm pretty sure that most of the UAW would allow a reduction in benefits rather than to close the factories.
Their benefits, on the other hand, are too liberal, such as pay for no work. These excessive contract items should be negotiated out of the contracts.
It's not in their contracts.
The program to pay for no work was started by upper management for skilled labor and middle management to prevent them going to work for a competitor.
Don't be fooled by the propaganda issued by the MSM.
I'm not a huge union fan; though I am sympathetic to why they exist, they are generally a pain in the butt for me and my clients.
But the UAW has been quite flexible over the past couple of years; they have conceded a lot. They had their eyes open; they saw where the Big 3 was headed (what they, and everyone else, didn't see was the credit freeze). What they or anyone else hasn't been able to do is deal with the legacy (retiree) costs.
Union busting isn't about busting heads and threatening individuals any more. It's about threatening to further bust up a busted economy if the UAW doesn't prostrate itself before you.
I'll give the southern wing of the GOP credit- they do brinkmanship better than anyone. I'm guessing they calculated that GWB would come through with TARP funds, so if their union-busting effort failed, they'd still look like heroes to their paymasters and consituents (who'll take a job with bad benefits over no job), and wouldn't have to actually suffer the Big-3 failing (which, guess what, could take out a fair amount of the supplier base for the southern automakers as well).
There are a lot of ironies here. American car companies that for years have tried to substitute jingoism for quality products are sold out by the uberpatriotic GOP. The UAW being blamed for refusing to spontaneously cut wages to some arbitrarily, politically set level. The GOP confederacy being driven by the contributions of international firms.
I was all for the bailout--and still basically am--but then a thought occurred to me, a heartless thought perhaps, but still a thought. What's better for the environment? If the Big 3 go bankrupt, the working class loses its cash and ability to be automotive (that it got from Detroit in the first place) and hence to burn carbon, if the global economy goes into deep recession / depression and oil consumption drops: is that better than trying to prop up the automotive age?
I realize the recession is stifling green energy / recycling markets, too; but if we're honest, which is more important: curbing the levels of human exploitation or somehow 'greening' that consumption? We've go to do both, but I wonder if a civilization-ending depression isn't what we need now.
Easy for me to say, I know, given I have a job that for now seems secure. Heartless on a personal level, and no doubt screwed up reasoning to enact any policy. But just as an abstract proposition, would the end of the Big 3 be good for the environment?
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