I already bought a American Car ! Why should they get my payments and my taxes too.

[js207]

Okay, I don't agree with the bailout but I also don't agree with union bashing. Why is it that the unions are being asked to make pay concessions when the bank and financial institution bailouts demanded no such concessions from their employees? Is it that the union is an easier target than CEO's?

Significant concessions were demanded from the banks - and most importantly, labor costs are not a significant component of bank operations in the way they are for car manufacturers. The problem in the financial industry is not that their products are uncompetitive with more efficiently produced rivals.

While there is some differences in the cost of health care, where the real difference in wages is from the legacy pension payments. Considering that the US auto industry has been around for 100 years, of course there are going to be greater cost associated with retirement. Below is a list from the Auto Channel about the real payroll costs. As you can see, there isn't much difference in the current average hourly labor cost of UAW workers employed at Ford and those employed by non-U.S. based automakers with plants in the United States.

Looking at your comparison in relative terms:

WAGES: (more than 10% higher than non-union)
WAGE RELATED: (more than 50% higher than non-union)

Comparing the wages this way it looks like labor is being made the scapegoat once again.

There's more to it than just the directly inflated wages, like enforcing archaic working practices and bizarre demarkation rules which impede efficiency without showing up directly in hourly costs.

No, eliminating the extra cost burden imposed by the UAW wouldn't eliminate all the Big Three's problems, but it would certainly make a significant difference; even from your figures, I doubt it's possible to render them viable while this discrimination remains.

Think about it: draw up a list of the traits which distinguish the Big Three from the other car manufacturers also operating within the US which manage to avoid these problems. You can't honestly say the UAW and its effects don't form a big part of that list, can you?

[solidus]

In regards to my comment about over expansion being a cause for this situation, this also takes into account the operating costs through internal expansion. I should have been more clear about that. Unions are notorious for cuttings profits - this is a near certainty since higher wages and benefits are paid for by driving up prices or cutting profit margins. If wages exceed what is required to keep workers competent by too much, the net result is either lower profit for the company through a direct reduction in margins or through reduced volume.

Despite this reality, given the product lines that the US auto industry was rolling out all these years, even getting rid of the unions would not have guaranteed a fix. The manufacturers just fell too far behind the competition. There is discussion regarding matching the operating costs of overseas auto makers. It must be noted that a good deal of these foreign manufactures produce their American inventory in the coastal US.

Now that the product lines are increasing in quality, at this moment, a reduction in operating cost would be greatly beneficial. As such, greater cooperation between the unions and management would help greatly.. even if the terms were just temporary. We saw this in the airline industry not too long ago, and it had a significant positive impact on the health of the industry.

These auto companies have the framework to make out alive.. but they have an internal nightmare to fix. A bailout would just be a band-aid for an industry that needs stitches.. perhaps even an amputation.

I