I watched the Senate hearing today.
I was amazed by Gettelfinger's (President of UAW) arrogance. He basically said "we did our negotiations last year. We made concessions and now these guys (Big3) need your money to pay us."
Please read this article from 2007
UAW contract: All the details | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
My favorite parts:
"The UAW said GM will pay $29.9 billion in cash and other assets into the trust, which Gettelfinger assured his members, will remain solvent for 80 years, regardless of GM's financial condition."
"The Center for Automotive Research estimates that the Detroit automakers spend an average of $63.65 an hour on hourly production, not counting its buyout and jobs bank costs, while Toyota spends an average of $47.50."
So the "Average" Big3 worker makes $63 X 40 hours X 52 weeks = $131k plus full health care with no co pay + retirement benefits + guarantee of no layoffs without compensation.
With all extra employee cost (health care /retirement / training/ layoff funding / and who knows what else) the big3 gotta be running north of $150k per annual worker.
So even if the big3 get the $25B+ they will never be competitive.
It has and will continue to show up in the products. If the cost to mfg is 20% more than your competition then you must skimp on product r&d and materials in order to hope to be close in price.
The consumer has seen this operation for the last 30 years and has made a choice.
If congress wants to "give away" money they should cut out the middle man. Make check payable to: UAW
I Hope they are not given the money and are forced into some negotiated reorganization.
If any of them go to bankruptcy court, then the Feds can step in and seize all warranty funds. Then Feds could guaranty all U.S. consumers that their warranty's are valid and backed by U.S.A. and will be for years to come.
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