Posted on 05/29/2009 7:25:37 PM PDT by Timeout
Been hearing all week about the HUGH and SERIES concessions the union made to get the GM deal done. But I couldn't find any details...just the union guy's talking points.
Finally discovered more at a paper that won't let us post from it. Someone posted those facts in a comment section at the WaPo, so I'm calling that my "source".
Here are the truly depressing details...for which you and I are picking up the tab:
* GM agreed not to terminate or freeze its hourly pension plan or reduce benefits and
* It didn't cut workers' base pay.
• The UAW is barred from striking GM until September 2015.
• Cost-of-living adjustments and performance bonuses for UAW workers are canceled throughout the contract and one paid holiday, Easter Monday, in 2010 and 2011, is eliminated.
• UAW workers can get $20,000 in cash to retire and a $25,000 vehicle voucher. Workers with more than 20 years can get $115,000 in cash and $25,000 vehicle voucher to quit early.
• Tuition assistance for UAW workers is suspended for at least a year for all current and retired employees.
• Dental and vision coverage and some prescription drugs for hourly retirees are eliminated, including erectile dysfunction medication. Low-income retirees who previously had no co-pay must now make an $11 monthly co-pay.
• GM UAW employees will no longer be paid for unused vacation. Breaks will be shortened and overtime rules tightened.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Especially not Ford. Fords have been built by the largest Muslim population in the US for decades. And everyone knows old man Henry was an anti-semite. I'll stick with Jap cars. Period.
Most Fords are built in America. I bought an 09 Mercury Mariner last September that was made in Kansas City.
See my post at #20. Especially the last line.
Remember: Some must be flushed so that other will be flush.
Shhhhhhh. Don’t say stuff like that too loudly...:)
"...you were simply allowed to use work for it".
So, this will lower GM’s per vehicle labor cost by what, 2%?
If the unions still control GM’s labor supply, they will go chapter 7 in less than 4 years.
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/gmuaw.pdf
Not with all that “government” money flowing in.
Yes. Which is one of the major reasons why I am dead set against any kind of bailout.
Another issue with unions is that they take an adversarial approach to dealings with a company in order to wring more benefits from a company.
Through strikes, intimidation and other union tactics, they hold a company over the barrel until they force them to submit.
This submission by the company removes market forces from the equation, and the costs of doing business are no longer driven by the market, but are instead driven by intimidation, emotion and a variety of other factors that have nothing to do with market forces of supply an demand.
These costs of increased wages and benefits are simply passed on to the consumer, where market forces WILL take effect. The company then is faced with having to produce a product or service that is unsustainable in the face of market forces, and consumers will not buy the same (or sometimes inferior product) at an increased price, and the company will do poorly, often going out of business. This is one of the key reasons the US Steel Industry went belly up in the Sixties and Seventies, because they refused to modernize (which would have required fewer people to produce the same amount of steel) The unions were not interested in staying competitive with a market, they were interested PRIMARILY with increasing wages and benefits while ensuring no jobs were lost.
The Japanese did not have the same kinds of issues, because their unions are not the same as our unions. Their unions work WITH the company. Our unions work AGAINST the company.
The UAW is going to ensure that the US auto industry goes the same route as the US Steel industry. And the same thing is going to happen to the autoworkers.
The people in charge at the unions are going to pull up their tents, shrug their shoulders and say “Sorry folks, we tried! The evil company would rather fold than meet our demands, so...you all have a good life and all...Bye!” They will find some other unionized industry to get involved in.
Union members love to point out that the higher wages enjoyed by many non-union people are due to their efforts. It is also worth noting that the higher prices paid by all of us for damn near everything that comes out of a unionized industry is also due to their efforts. Too many of them view their unions as operating in a vacuum, but they don’t. If a company has to pay higher prices to a truckers union, you think they are just going to eat those profits? If an electricians union sets a floor on wages for their members, do you think any of us as homeowners don’t simply pay more for those services?
It will be Amtraked. A permanent money sucking hole.
“Old man Henry” is dead, Jim.
I'd be willing to bet that the UAW would be at the bottom of the stack.
There is nothing wrong with a labor cost of $75/hour as long as their productivity is something much higher than that.
In the case of the UAW, you know damn well it's below the labor cost.
Ugh. Thanks for that link. There it is...
How do I find out where my 2002 Mercury Mountaineer was made?
It’s weird, but I know that my 1998 BMW Z3 was made in South Carolina, just 4 hour’s drive from me.
“Been hearing all week about the HUGH and SERIES...”
Hugh Hefner? World Series? Wow, no kidding?
I have no problem with people being paid $73 an hour, but...that $73 is AVERAGE!
AVERAGE!
Good Lord. That means there are a bunch of people making a BOATLOAD of money more than that, and a bunch making less, but that is where the AVERAGE comes to rest? $73 an hour?
I work my frikking ass off, and just spent the last year and a half of my life engrossed in a project, working nights and weekends as a salaried employee making a lot less than that. A LOT less. And I feel like I am well paid, so I don’t begrudge working my tail off.
But $73 an hour????? For WHAT?
I thought we were boycotting Ford for pandering to homosexuals?
yitbos
No I will buy Ford they didn’t go for the bailout
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