Wednesday, Dec 10, 2008
The unionised wage - Detroit
New York Times: $73 an Hour: Adding It Up
[not directly hpc related]
That figure — repeated on television and in newspapers as the average pay of a Big Three autoworker — has become a big symbol in the fight over what should happen to Detroit. To critics, it is a neat encapsulation of everything that’s wrong with bloated car companies and their entitled workers.
Posted by 51ck-6-51x @ 05:22 PM (621 views) Add Comment
11 Comments
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1. str 2007 said...
I can't see why these factories can't be put to good use making something other than cars.
Free power generating things - windmills etc.
They are not very good at making cars.
They are not viable businesses.
Japan and Germany make the best cars - simple really.
2. icarus said...
Making cars for which there is no demand is a very expensive boondoggle. You can't hassle people for being on benefits while you're paying others much more to spend their days equally unproductively.
3. plato said...
This is like reviving the Mammoth. Pointless! This industry has moved to far more disciplined and less wasteful countries. As far as exporting is concerned the US can no longer compete unless they adopt the same principles. Maybe they can supply their home market but they still have to compete with the competition that has driven them under.
Now if they concentrated on developing and manufacturing energy efficient vehicles they may kick-start their industry again and get a jump on other manufacturers.
As they have to change anyway they may as well use this opportunity to reinvent their industry with the monetary support they are getting.
4. jackas said...
Some bloke on channel four saying the UK car industry needs £13bn NOW. They need it NOW. The bankers got it, and they caused this mess. The Governement MUST do the right thing.
Sigh.
Idiot.
5. gone-to-colombia said...
The American car industry could make a profit; it has a huge home market and markets in South America.
What the industry needs is a huge shake up and a kick in the backside.
I was talking to a car worker in Michigan; he told me that he actually felt guilty at the wages he 'earned'.
Added to this, for many years they have made substandard products, and concentrated far too much on the demands of the home market.
6. fjcruiser said...
"concentrated far too much on the demands of the home market"
Euh dont think so, hence they lost the homemarket to Toyota and the likes.
7. nickolarge said...
There is so much nonsense written and spoken about US car companies. They own large chunks of other countries car industries and they make cars all over the world including all those cheap labour places that western workers are always being asked to compete with. That has not saved them and it won't save the companies that operate only in those countries either.
Also, despite the high wages of the auto workers, buying a new or used car in the US is comparatively cheaper than in most other places in the world and this has been true since long before the Japanese entered that market. Low wages equals no customers.
8. paul said...
The problem with non-Japanese car plants is that the work is so heavily unionised, it makes a mockery out of the hard work that all other industries entail.
As unpopular a thing to say as it is, that is why Rover shut down in Solihull - they had workers being paid ridiculous extra entitlement payments for 4 hours work a day.
9. Crunchy said...
Rover destroyed itself.
Very bad business model.
10. drewster said...
gone-to-colombia,
Re the south american car market: most cars in Latin America are hand-me-downs from Uncle Sam. In the days of cheap credit, Americans bought a brand new car every three years and the second-hand market was viewed with distaste. The three-year old cars that were traded in ended up south of the border, where the Latinos thought the Americans were crazy to pay full price for a new car!
11. gone-to-colombia said...
Drewster, I see this market every day, the biggest 'hand me down' market is for old school busses, there are millions of them, or so it seems.
They buy SUV's and status cars here but the vast majority of cars are small Hyundai's, Renaults, Korean Chevy's etc. There are huge import taxes here on new cars.
Some second hand cars arrive on container ship from Miami but very few. I'm thinking of this solution for a cheap s/h car.