Another Side of the Coin
D3 - Detroit 3 Automakers - Union Wages ----- According to Forbes: Labor cost per hour, wages and benefits for hourly workers. 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. Many industry analysts say the Detroit Three, must be on par with Toyota and Honda to survive. This year's contract, they say, must be "transformational" in reducing pension and health care costs. What would "transformational" mean? One way to think about "transformational" would mean that UAW workers, most with a high school diploma, would have to accept compensation equal to that of the average university professor with a PhD. Then there's the "Job Bank" When a D3 (Detroit 3 carmaker) lays an employee off, that employee continues to receive all benefits - medical, retirement, etc., etc., PLUS an hourly wage of $31/hour. Here's a typical story.... Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working -- on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits. "We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper," he says. "Otherwise, I just sit." Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers as demanded by the United Auto Workers Union - UAW - as part of an extraordinary job security agreement. Now the D3 wants Joe Taxpayer to pick up this tab in a $25 Billion bailout package - soon to be increased to $45 Billion if Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton have their way. The "Big 3" want this money - not to build better autos. No. They want it to pay the tab for Medical and Retirement benefits for RETIRED auto workers. Not ONE PENNY would be used to make them more competitive, or to improve the quality of their cars. We ALL have problems paying for our Medical Insurance - but the Democrat leaders in Congress now want us to pay the Medical Insurance premiums of folks who have RETIRED from Ford, GM and Chrysler. Not a good deal for us. How about Chapter 11 - and getting rid of these ridiculous union contracts? 
7 comments:
Notwithstanding that the rate of pay and benefits package for the unionized workers is outrageous - I will support a drop in pay for the union workers when I see the CEO's stop getting absurd bonuses for doing absolutely NOTHING.
Being reasonable works on both sides of the management/labour issue.
Linda Yuill
Here, here!
No point blaming the workers when management seems to be feeding off the trough.
I say, let the auto makers go bankrupt!
Hi,
By any chance are there any links to the original Forbes article? I've seen this reprinted on a number of sites but I haven't been able to verify these figures. I'm wondering if this is one of those emails circulated to reinforce a "union=evil" mentality.
I'm not pro union, I just like true facts. Some verification for these numbers is definitely in order. If true, they are completely ludicrous.
Thanks
It drives me crazy that the Republican Senators are getting criticized by the Moderate and Radical Left for:
1. Insisting that workers be paid reasonable, competitive wages compared to the rest of the industry.
2. Insisting that the management only get bonuses when the companies are making a profit.
If the majority of people think such demands are "NUTS" then our society is truly doomed.
Try this URL and see if you can find the story and the numbers:
http://search.forbes.com/search/find?MT=D3+-+Detroit+3+Automakers+-+Union+Wages&tab=searchtabgeneral
Hi David,
I had a look on Forbes and found this article. It is quite interesting how the email pasted here manages to slant the facts of it a bit.
Quoted from the article:
Detroit's current average labor cost is about $71 per hour, compared to $47 an hour at Toyota, which has no unions. But it's misleading to suggest that Detroit autoworkers are paid $71 an hour. About $17 of that is the cost of health care insurance for retirees. General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) has 442,000 retirees in North America, four times as many current employees. Toyota has only 371 retirees in the U.S.; Honda has 2,400.
What do autoworkers really make? Detroit's hourly workers earn $28 an hour, or $57,000 a year. (Toyota workers make $25.) Benefits and payroll taxes bring the total cost per worker up to $54 an hour, versus $47 at Toyota. Under a breakthrough labor contract in 2007, new hires in non-assembly jobs will be paid only $14 an hour and will receive less generous benefits, which will narrow that remaining gap considerably.
--Endquote--
In that context the unions do not seem to be quite the boogeyman. The problem is the onerous pension being paid to the many retirees. I have no idea how that is handled in the USA, however I wonder if the companies had handled the investment of the pension funds better (a la the Ontario Teacher's Pension Fund) it might not be in quite the bind today. It sounds more and more to me that both sides (union and management) were at fault in this huge screw-up that is the big 3.
they should hire robots.
They don't waste their time with crossword puzzles, nor do they need retirement benefits.
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