Gosh... such a thought, I have to laugh.
Yea, GM workers are over paid- NOT!
I have a copy of the 2009 UAW/GM agreement summary which goes into much detail of the many many hits the UAW members took on to keep the company in the black. The media, such as CNN, has broadcasted fairy tales about production workers making around $75.00 an hour, well counting everything such a worker may get, it does not come close to that number.
Much, if not most, of GM's labor content comes from outsource plants that pay workers a tiny fraction of what UAW members get, and the newly hired on full time GM production workers start out at $14.00 / hour for some of the hardest labor I have ever seen in a plant first hand. GM outsources labor to CHINA even, and I'm sorry, but I do not see anything smart about that. And they are now using temporary workers to a large degree that can be paid any amount they agree too without the UAW being able to say anything about it! I used to work production involving SMT electronics for a auto part that was sold 80% to G.M. MY SALARY WAS 8.00 an hour!! Everyone feels they deserve there OWN salary, but other workers don't. The fact is most of the workers that are involved with building a typical G.M. car make far far less than the news media tries to say. I should know because I have worked for a few companies that supplied GM for many years.
GM has been mis-managed for many years, and that is of no fault of their workers. They had CEOs take millions of $$ in bonuses even in the years they lost market share and were laying off a large chunks of their work force. Yeah, real good job guys, the president of GM deserves 50 million in bonuses because you just lost only 10% market share last year. Nobody thinks about how many workers they could pay with all of that CEO money, or how much less they could price their cars at, all some site is the "workers" which seems to imply the white collar managers do not work- but they work too. Many auto analyst even express their feelings that the ones that screwed up GM were the managers. All of the stories of pop bottles inside of doors that made noise until a mechanic found it with a nasty note should of NEVER EVER got out of that company if they had good managers overseeing the lines. And those managers should of fired if not sued those employed for destroying company property, goofing of on company time, and impacting the good name of General Motors. Good managers would not of let a company that had such a large market share dissolve to where they are- the vast majority of their current workers are only doing what they are told today because they fear greatly for their very livelihoods now just as they have in my entire life growing up ever since I lived in Flint Michigan- now a ghetto.
The middle class, middle income earners are quickly becoming a dyeing group here. And I see nobody doing anything to stop it. The media is not always correct, as we all have clearly seen, but recently there was some outfit that claimed that nearly 80% of recent College Graduates ended up working at McDonalds due to the lack of jobs in the fields they majored in, and because it seems McDonalds offers a decent health care and retirement package. Man, who would of ever "thunked it"?
Alright, with that said... Has anybody got a clue what OIL CLOSED AT last Friday? I missed it! 