Are the auto companies also going to cut the price of their cars by 2/3 now? Are they going to replace their executives with some new ones that work for 2/3 of the current rate? I doubt it.
Welcome to the new less-than-middle class. The autos are systematically undoing what Henry Ford did a century ago. When they are done, they will be whining that no one is buying their cars. Well, DUH! You eliminated your buying market to save cost.
This statement seems to indicate that you believe that a sustainable model is for a car company to pay employees to build cars, and then buy those cars they built.
They didn’t cut wages for the 290,000,000 Americans who aren’t car builders.
My heart really does go out to folks who’ve based their entire career and middle-class aspirations upon standing there and bucking rivets all day long, but really, there comes a time when one has to wake up to the fact that it’s going to take more than that to be middle class. That time was like 40 years ago. What’s taking them so long?
Have you ever been in an auto factory? I’m guessing not.
$30 per hour is what a master technician makes in a good dealership in LA (lower elsewhere)
to get that wage, they must have spent 2-5 years learning their craft.
Go to school
Become a master rated technician (awarded by the car company after various classes, and other requirements)
Become an ASE master automotive technician
Buy their own tools ( I currently have about 80-90K worth)
must have computer skills
Learn how to diagnose
remove, replace, repair, or overhaul various components in the car
Learn all of this all over again when a new model comes out.
The guy in the auto factory has to know:
Put the bolt in the hole and tighten.
Put the other bolt in the other hole and tighten it.
The op thinks these jobs are worth equal pay? :rolleyes:
Hell a barista at Fourbucks has a more challenging job than most auto workers. I know, let’s raise the pay of all the Fourbucks employees to 60K a year. I’m I’m sure the public wouldn’t mind paying $25 bucks for a Latte, and the Fourbucks company will do just fine.
Or do you think that the public will balk at paying $25 bucks for a Latte and the company will go tits up?
But the deals made by the automakers and the unions may well be strong indicators for declining wages in other low-skilled sectors that currently enjoy high union negotiated rates.
From this article it looks like Detroit is finally waking up to the fact that union auto workers are grossly overpaid and that’s one of the main reasons US cars don’t compete well in the global market.
I for one think it’s about time. The quality of work I have to deal with every day isn’t worth 28 bucks an hour. From the guys who build the cars to the workers that load freight trucks with parts is for the most part is piss poor. The bottom line is the customer is the one who suffers. I’m sure not every UAW worker does a crappy job but the ones that do fuck it up for everyone all the way down the line to the customer.
They didn’t? You need to look at what happened in the IT industry associated with the autos. They went to the lowest cost provider regardless of quality of service. They contributed to cratering the wages there as well. I would argue that they also had a fair hand in driving down wages in many other areas as well as they “contained costs”. However, I did not notice the prices of cars being contained or lowered. Did you?
You certainly are confused. What in my post gives you any indication of the number of times I have been in an auto factory?
My point was that the companies were built by creating a consumer class of people who could buy the product. The problem is that it seems short-sighted to attempt to save their way to salvation by eliminating more from the roles that can buy them without a corresponding cut in the price tag. How exactly is this smart?
And now that there is a consmer class, it will purchase the least expensive vehicles in any given automotive class. Thus the manufacturers and their suppliers must either be competitive or go extinct.
If manufacturers and suppliers start having difficulty finding or keeping good employees, they will offer better wages and better working conditions, which is the reason that [Henry Ford offered $5 per day](Henry Ford offered $5 per day). Presently, there is a great surplus of good employees, so there is no reason for employers to go out of their way to maintain or raise wages when that would mean being less competitive and increasing the chance of going bankrupt.
Is the MAJOR cost that is killing Detroit! I’d wager that the cost of health insurance is a huge part of Detroit’s problems-and paying for the HC of retired workers is enormous,
untill we deal with the cost of healthcare (and the legal industry which continually drives the cost up), we will not be able to save any manufacturing jobs in the auto industry.
No I’m not, you are. I have toured the factories, and seen how hard these people work. You have not. As I stated before, the barista at Starbucks has a greater skill set than the average job on the assembly line.
The barista has to know how to create various different drinks. The auto worker has to know put the bolt in the hole and turn it clockwise till it is tight.
Starbucks doesn’t pay their people $30/hour to start, why should Delphi?
Furthermore if you read the article for detail, the employees mentioned were all making more money at their auto jobs then they were at their previous jobs.
I believe these employees are taking as step up, not down.
Amen- what other assembly job pays on average anywhere near what the auto industry pays? Ones that make money don’t even do it, which is partly why they make money! Starbucks would at least be justified in paying that wage because their company isn’t billions in the hole. Does anyone think the below pay was reasonable? 28 bucks an hour for a freakin janitor??
The new contract agreement between General Motors and the United Auto Workers is setting several historic precedents, including the creation of a new class of workers who will be paid half the current rate. The UAW had traditionally insisted that all its members be paid equally. The contract states that new employees will begin in “non-core” janitorial and maintenance roles at a rate of $28 per hour in salary and benefits. They will move to the higher, $51 per hour tier when they advance to assembly-line or other higher-rated work. The two-tier pay system ranks with the shifting of member healthcare benefits to a trust managed by the union itself as a turning point in the UAW’s relationship with its Detroit employer. “This is a really big deal,” said David Lipsky, Cornell professor of collective bargaining. “The UAW has always prided itself in being an egalitarian organization: ‘We all hang together, with equal treatment for everyone.’” The changes will help GM narrow a $25-30 per hour cost gap with Toyota’s U.S. workers. The agreement will not take effect until it is ratified by UAW’s members, but ratification is expected. “The company likes [the contract] because it cuts compensation costs, and the union can swallow it because the people affected aren’t going to vote because they don’t exist yet,” said Richard Block, a labor professor at Michigan State University.
