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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan40
I agree with everything you said.
And I agree with those that say the unions suck.
And I agree with those that say the unions are great.
And I agree with those who say the B-3 management sucks.
And I agree with those who say management is great.
And I agree with those who say Congress sucks.
And I agree with those who say Congress is gre........... Hmmm, I'd be all alone there, scratch that!
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Good one. As usual, the truth probably lies in the middle. Still, it seems the working class takes it between the cheeks again. Something isn't right.
I have a hard time accepting that $76/hour is not spun far beyond reality.
Granted, the $76 seems to be accepted as common knowledge but I think it has been repeated so often, it has "morphed into common knowledge".
As evidence, I offer this Dilbert cartoon,
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2008-11-09/ .
Note the "morph into common knowledge" panel.
Note the timing (date) on this cartoon altogether.
At one time I had a small construction company. My business ran with wages plus 15%. If an example of base UAW wages were $28/hr, what the hell kind of math list, produces wages plus 170% ($28+$48=$76/hr)?
To my employees earnings per hour, I had to add about 7.5% for Social Security and another 7.5% for Workmans Compensation. Starting wages were $6/hr, I paid overtime after 8 hours, there were no other benefits and I had 12 employees. I had pride in paying better than average wage in my area. I looked into an open shop (mixed union/non-union) as a ticket into powerplant projects. I was even looking at about $400/mo/man healthcare until the 1979 Carter/interest rate debacle hit. Deja vu.
Where is an insightful breakdown in the UAW/OEM case? If an additional $10/hour over $28/hr went to health care (a biggy), a 40 hour week would generate $400/wk or $1600/mo. That might cut it. What about the other $38/hr after base wage and health care? ($76-$28-$10=$38)
The most alarming amount is: if $76/hr equals 10% cost of an auto(per UAW propoganda), then $760 is the total cost per hour per auto. I'd really like to see a piechart of where that $760 goes.
I will submit one of the reasons labor may not be a large chunk is: consider a factory run with one employee and two acres of robots. Obviously wages would be the least cost. So if that is the case, I'd like to see the books ...why the robots seem to cost so much per hour.
In one huge way, the present wage dilema is the UAW's fault.
If management should have known that gas guzzlers were at a precipice, so should UAW have known, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
Money up front is all that really counts.
Everybody wants the biggest piece of pie.
The working class invariably picks all the berries for the absolute entire pie, including the "free pie" (an average 10% longterm normal annual growth in the market).
- All the berries, including all the berries that become all the taxes.
- All the berries, including a very large piece
...for those that get a bigger berry filled piece
than any one lone man could possibly pick
...and then whine about their taxes as though they paid them themselves.
- All the berries, including a very small piece for those that get it just because they exist inside our borders.
And that's why I wonder where the $760 an hour goes more than anything. There's simply not much pie left after that.
Wes
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