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floridasandy I agree however there is another thread started that has a solution that's fair and balanced for all parties concerned. Michael Moore suggested we just buy GM outright for $3 billion and get them to work on mass transportation systems and their own designs (2-3 yrs away) on hybrid/ electric vehicles. 34 billion or 3 billion? I think we have a better idea with 3 billion and reap the rewards to pay down our debt once it reverts back to privatized ownership. Mgmt shell games with money need to be shut down entirely by firing them. The new team needs to be paid on performance basis only, similar to any real estate agent or insurance agent on commission.
Sink or swim mgmt and union need to be bound to one another on one ship & equal consequence if it's going to work and I'm afraid these current mgmt teams are too institutionalized by ill business paradigms to make meaningful changes that will end long term anemic conditions in the industry. They're saving their own skins forever at the expense of everyone else. Don't like your marriage? Fire your spouse and get another one on and on until you realize YOU were the problem all along.
Retroactively changing a retirement contract-- turnabout as fair play--- can we confiscate the millions paid 30 + yrs to mgmt who were the architects of gross malfeasance? Union salary was in large part an insurance plan purchased with labor and an insurance company claiming broke because they weren't indemnified is no excuse.
The OP didn't really bring up American vs. foreign manufacturers, only the UAW and its role in the industry.
If you're going to start comparing to foreign owned US plants, how are the tax breaks and other incentives granted to many figured in?
Comparing American/foreign direct labor costs is only a piece of the puzzle, there are many more overhead factors to be considered if a true picture is to be drawn. Otherwise, the thread title certainly fits in with the description of 'scapegoat'.
You have to compare with foreign manufacturers of vehicles. Without that comparison, how can you benchmark what constitutes a mean direct labor cost for a certain class of vehicle? Without the mean, you can't do a variance analysis, so the discussion becomes nothing more than one's unsubstantiated opinion.
All this other stuff you've mentioned, like executive compensation and tax breaks, is subject to isolated separate analysis to determine the true cost of goods sold. But direct labor per vehicle (loaded cost including all direct labor overhead pool distributions) is a specific and measurable cost.
Grew up in NE Ohio and knew a lot of people who worked for GM Lordstown and GM/Delphi/Packard Electric. Gotta tell you - heard of a lot of abuses of the system by workers and the union protected them. Sort of hard to believe it only occurred in that area. Really believe this type of behavior was one of the many spokes in the wheel which led to the current condition of the car industry.
Grew up in NE Ohio and knew a lot of people who worked for GM Lordstown and GM/Delphi/Packard Electric. Gotta tell you - heard of a lot of abuses of the system by workers and the union protected them. Sort of hard to believe it only occurred in that area. Really believe this type of behavior was one of the many spokes in the wheel which led to the current condition of the car industry.
Yeah, alot of crap went on, but i have to tell you personally that it has cleaned up significantly [emphasis added] just in the last ten years alone.
You have to compare with foreign manufacturers of vehicles. Without that comparison, how can you benchmark what constitutes a mean direct labor cost for a certain class of vehicle? Without the mean, you can't do a variance analysis, so the discussion becomes nothing more than one's unsubstantiated opinion.
All this other stuff you've mentioned, like executive compensation and tax breaks, is subject to isolated separate analysis to determine the true cost of goods sold. But direct labor per vehicle (loaded cost including all direct labor overhead pool distributions) is a specific and measurable cost.
One more thing that was brought to my attention is that some UAW shops share platforms with a "foreign" vehicle. Does that figure in the equation or is it irrelevant?
They, as we speak, are getting rid of that. The corporation has been, for the last two years, getting labor-required in line with labor-needed. There has been lots of buyouts and "forced" retirements. Most of the people i work with in my plant are from the job-bank all over from SE Michigan.
The gears turn slowly in a behemoth of a corporation....
That's like the parasite leaving the host after the host dies.....
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NewToCA
You have to compare with foreign manufacturers of vehicles. Without that comparison, how can you benchmark what constitutes a mean direct labor cost for a certain class of vehicle? Without the mean, you can't do a variance analysis, so the discussion becomes nothing more than one's unsubstantiated opinion.
All this other stuff you've mentioned, like executive compensation and tax breaks, is subject to isolated separate analysis to determine the true cost of goods sold. But direct labor per vehicle (loaded cost including all direct labor overhead pool distributions) is a specific and measurable cost.
You seem to continually brush off costs other than labor as they're more difficult to measure, without them direct labor cost per vehicle is relatively meaningless as we have no other information on what a vehicle actually costs to produce.
Is the UAW to be made the scapegoat solely because direct labor cost is more readily calculated than other costs?
How about labor cost/management cost ratio? Do we have those for US vs. foreign manufacturers?
I feel sorry for em - they must get cramps in their hands from playing cards all day.
One can imagine how you get cramps in your hand.
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