Check the $73.00 per hour ref above ~ it's just like no one here had ever discussed it.
That wasn't $73 per hour PAY but $73 per hour COST. It cost GM $73 per production line worker hour but the workers on the line weren't getting that. Most of the money was going to support costs, which included engineers, designers, management, and retirement plans for people already retired; medical plans for retirees,retiree dependents, etc., paying coupons on bonds and so forth.
The big difference between the non-union plants in the Souf' and the UAW plants generally in the North was the fact the newer non-union plants simply did not have a large group of retirees who continued to cost the company a fortune long after they were no longer productive.
BTW, UAW and management agreed to deals both sides recognized were not economically sustainable.
> Most of the money was going to support costs, which included engineers, designers, management, and retirement plans for people already retired; medical plans for retirees,retiree dependents, etc., paying coupons on bonds and so forth.
Everywhere has these costs, not just Detroit:
engineers, designers, management,
That leaves:
retirement plans for people already retired; medical plans for retirees,retiree dependents, etc.
AKA, exactly the problem.
As far as:
BTW, UAW and management agreed to deals both sides recognized were not economically sustainable.
Management did that because it had no choice at all.
The unions simply shut the company down so the management kicked the can down the road.
Where I come from they call that Rape & Blackmail, not mutual agreements reached at arms length.
Yes and no, that number is not overhead. Rather it is the cost of pay, insurance, vacation, pension and whatever else Detroit paid that was part of a worker’s package.