News, Ford gets UAW to accept $55/hour wages. (student loan, pension, purchase)

[scarabchuck]

Originally Posted by Dd714

Auto industry - the game is over. Or haven't you heard?

well if it is then why all the hate... let it GOOOOOOO !!

[sskkc]

Does the $55/hr INCLUDE the 9-13 weeks of paid vacation each year?

What the average person DOESN'T know about the POOR AUTOWORKER has kept the unions going for years.

[jwiley]

Originally Posted by ftlaudrn

On the other hand, why don't you tell that to the greedy managers and ceo's who take home million dollar bonuses while laying off thousands of people. Your anger is misdirected and no one will benefit from turning the U.S. into a Wal Mart nation. Workers deserve to share in the profits that they help a company make.

Nobody is saying that employees do not deserve to share in the profits of a company, however when a company is losing money, or struggling to survive, many of us do not think that anybody should be living like kings or above the average worker in the United states. Especially when they are looking to me and every other tax payer in the United states to bail their asses out. Reality is that the average union autoworker is uneducated and low skilled, try finding another job in this country where you do not have to know anymore then how to put one or two parts on a car body, that pays anywhere close to $55 an hour after the inclusion of benefits. Hell most good paint and body men/ Mechanics I know make about $55k a year, and have maybe $10 a year in benefits including their retirement. If the people on the assembly line at the car manufacturers where receiving those types of wages and benefits then I think most people would be fine with it. Instead they are receiving in the neighborhood of $114,000 a year.

Originally Posted by ftlaudrn

Without the workers the company would produce nothing.

Without the company the employees would produce nothing.

Originally Posted by ftlaudrn

Just because you are smart and come up with a good idea, you still are not an island and without the help from others i.e. employees, consumers, etc. it will go nowhere.

Just because someone is not smart enough to come up with an idea, or run a company does not ensure them an equal amount of the profits, as the ones who are running the companies.

Originally Posted by ftlaudrn

As evidenced in our current ecomomy, decreasing wages and benifits at the level of average workers and loose credit has led to astronomical debt which has bankrupted our country.

The companies did what any business man would do, they charged the prices the found that people would pay. It is not their fault that the average consumer spent much more money then they made, driving prices to a point where they could no longer afford them.

Of course while these prices were being driven through the roof, I never heard any Union employees complaining about the unprecedented wages and benefits they were receiving.

Originally Posted by ftlaudrn

The banks and corporations took advantage of decreased wages and increased prices coupled with easy credit and sh**** right to work laws to sell us all into serfdom.

This is the biggest copout I have read throughout this whole post. The banks lent money so they could make money, the companies charged what the demand would pay, it is the idiot consumers who borrowed and spent more money then they could afford. It is funny that when gas prices went up, and banks ran out of money to loan, that the market and country as a whole went on the brink of collapse. People have borrwoed and spent every penny they could get their hands on to keep up with their neighbors, nobody forced them to take the money, so in the end they sold themselves into serfdom.

Originally Posted by ftlaudrn

Sure, you can still dream it doesn't affect you and you will rise above it and get yours one day and to hell with everyone else but the reality is very few actually every get out of the working class no matter how much school or ingenuity they have. Who you know is still the key and even that is becoming harder to use these days. But that carrot dangling in front of all the lackeys eyes sure works well to keep them in their place and towing the company line while they get screwed.

Life is about more then money, it is also about principals and being happy with what you have. I personally hate class warfare, as it has nothing to do with reality. I know of plenty of people who have taken risks, and worked very hard to make it out of the the so called working class. If you make the choices not to do those things it is your own fault. For those that only want to work the 40 hours a week, and collect the paycheck that their company offers them, then they should be happy with that, they made that choice, nobody else did. To destroy your own company, regardless of the position you are in, does not make everything equal, infact you are screwing the country up more for your own slefish reasons, and sense of entitlement, for things you have not earned.

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by jwiley

Nobody is saying that employees do not deserve to share in the profits of a company...
...

Huh? Shareholders deserve part of the profits, employees do not. They work for a salary and deserve that.

Shareholders are subject to the ups and downs of the market and can only pressure the board to change company behavior; employees should be prepared for the ups and downs of the labor market using whatever mechanisms the employer provides for communication to management.

Too many people in this country have claimed 'rights' that they do not legally or morally have.

[Houston3]

Originally Posted by scarabchuck

Well you COULD fill out a job application ..... don't hate the player , hate the game.

The players seem to making the rules for the game...

[trishguard]

Does that number include benefits?

[k374]

these jackasses should not be making more than $20/hr tops, perhaps less considering the terrible quality of the products that they make.

[CMartel2]

Originally Posted by MIEng

That $27 in benefits includes the current employee benefits AND the "legacy costs". Those "legacy costs" are what is killing the D3. They include in that number the cost of health care insurance for all the hundreds of thousands of GM retirees and spouses. Considering GM is a 100 year old company that at one time was the largest in the world there is an unsustainable amount of retirees that the company cannot support anymore on the amount of sales its generating. The company has shrink so much they cannot support these costs any more.

They're almost better handing out free booze and cigarettes to all retirees.... Sad but true.

[Mr. Whips]

Why do some of you people complain about union salary? It wasn't a problem when the economy was good. Another thing I hear,union people are uneducated or unskilled? Yet, they were smart enough to get a job that paid $28 and good bennies. I thought that was the point of working. To earn a good wage and have something to look forward to when you retire. I know...... pension is becoming a thing of the past.

The auto worker isn't the blame,news flash the company is. They agreed to pay the wages and bennies. If they couldn't afford it, they could've restructure the contracts to their liking. Lock the employees out who didn't agreed to their terms. The union job is unskilled and have uneducated people working,how hard can it be to replace them right.

[Bideshi]

Originally Posted by 70Ford

Ford-UAW deal cuts wages to $55 an hour

DETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co expects operating savings of $500 million per year from an agreement with the United Auto Workers that will push hourly wage rates into the "ballpark" of foreign-based rivals, the company said on Wednesday.

A Chinese autoworkers makes $2 a day. How big a ballpark are we talking about?