US car workers protest at wage cuts demanded for bail-out

[CHIMO]

Source: guardian.co.uk

Disgruntled car workers staged a noisy protest outside the Detroit motor show to ram home the message that they will not accept swingeing cuts in wages and benefits demanded by the US government.

Under the terms of a $17bn (£11.2bn) federal bail-out package, General Motors and Chrysler are required to reduce employees' earnings to the level of their Japanese rivals – closing a gap estimated at $10 an hour.

Ford, which has not taken bail-out funds, also wants reductions to keep itself on a level playing field with its rivals. Crucial talks, initially between GM and the United Auto Workers' union, begin this week.

In sub-zero temperatures, the mood on a snowy pavement outside Detroit's Cobo convention centre was defiant. Some blamed Wall Street's excesses for the credit crunch, which has frozen car loans to consumers, leaving showrooms bereft of customers.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jan/13/us-car-workers-protest-at-wage-cuts

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[pokercat999]

1. This is totally wrong headed bullshit. We should require BMW,

Toyota, Honda etc to increase their workers pay to meet US Automakers or leave the country and take their cars with them. I own a Honda and BMW, both cost about the same as a similar American vehicles, where did that $10 an hour go? I bought the Honda because of the incomparable quality and the BMW because it was the only comfortable sports car (two seat roadster) for someone as dimensionally challenged as myself.

We have got to bring the world up to our wage, osha and epa standards. The only way we can do this is to outlaw imports until those requirements are met.

Why is it that the rethugs can be real hard asses when it comes to denying voter rights, health care, minimum wage laws, etc but the dems can never play hardball when we want to expand those rights or wages?

[Synicus Maximus]

3. So all the autoworkers should lose their jobs

You are saying that all the autoworkers at BMW, Toyoda, Honda, Kia etc should lose their jobs? Just because they are not union does not make them non-American workers.

[digidigido]

4. Just a conceptual point

The whole deal about FREE TRADE is to bring everyone UP to our standard of living. If it means that in order to do that we
have to bring US workers down to the level of 3rd world countries, then it shouldn't be done. END OF DISCUSSION.

[Romulox]

7. Sorry, but I'd rather they lose their jobs than the entire US lower our standards of living

to those of some of the areas in question.

[pampango]

13. To some there is a hierarchy of value placed on different classes of workers.

Foreign workers are at the bottom. Non-union workers in the US come next. And American union workers are at the top. Anyone is a lower category is expected to sacrifice for those in the higher categories.

If foreign workers (much poorer) have to sacrifice for our (American) benefit, that's tough (so the sentiment goes), but that's the way it has to be. Likewise, if non-union workers in the US have to sacrifice, so that union workers can prosper - again that's tough, but they will thank us in the long run. :)

[pokercat999]

15. Think a Little bit who controls the wages? Management in a non

union shop. The WORKERS aren't different in these (BMW,Toyota) plants the MANAGEMENT is the problem. If they want to sell their products in the US let them operate on a level playing field meeting our standards or would you rather live in China?

[Romulox]

19. What part of democracy = enlightened self interest don't you understand?

You can attempt to make the case that our "self interest" should include lifting the standard of living of every other person on the planet while devastating that of the American middle class (a tough sell, admittedly.)

But this politics of "who cares what's good for Americans; I'm a citizen of the world!" is a nonsense in a representational democracy. You understand that, right???? :shrug:

[Seldona]

2. I am sure the lawmakers will agree to work for 10 bucks an hour as well.

Right? I am all for helping these industries, and doing it with maximum oversight. But this is just draconian imo.

[silver10]

5. I am missing something

$17 billion loans, and to get it, workers must take huge cuts in pay and benefits - financial companies, who are taking a $700 billion bailout, don't have to take any cut in pay or benefits, and hold no accountability? They continue to receive bonuses and company resort retreats. I don't get it? And to get a story like this, we have to go to the foreign media, and not see it in our own media headlines?

[dweller]

6. No, you pretty much got the gist of it.

welcome to the nightmare of the everyday majority that is in thrall of the 1/10th of 1% of the uber rich.

SSDD,
dp

[excess_3]

12. they don't HAVE to do anything

they can get jobs somewhere else

[fasttense]

14. How low will they go?

OK, so now the neocons have conned their way into getting $10 per hour cuts out of the Unions.

Maybe next year, they could match the Chinese worker wages.

The year after that, wages could drop down to the price of starving children. That's the way to improve our economy and get out of this 2nd Republicon Great Depression. Keep cutting wages of people who actually work.

Soon we will have full employment at $1.00 a day.

Of course we wont cut the wages of CEOs and executives to match those in Japanese car companies. Oh no, cause we need the uber wealthy elite like the Prescott bushes, Paris Hiltons and Rockefellers to tell us what to do when we are all too hungry to think clearly.

I welcome my new overlords and bow to their superior wealth. Do you?

:sarcasm:

[Brucie Kibbutz]

8. We're supposed to keep taking pay cuts

until we're like the Chinese. Making just enough to pay for a bed in an 8 person dormitory room next door to the factory.

[spag68]

9. dorm rooms

Then to your surprise, you find out that those are the good jobs.

[Brucie Kibbutz]

10. No kidding!

You might even get one of those premium bids where you get to sit while you work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTsrf2OoBCk&feature=channel_page



:wow:

[madrchsod]

11. why should americans bow and scrape to the japanese

if wages were the problem-which the us auto executives say are not-why is`t toyota and others thousands of dollars cheaper than us made autos...

[groundloop]

16. Apples to Apples (not)

I've read that the labor cost of US autoworkers has been skewed because the BIG 3 include pay and benefits for retirees in the numbers they quote.

Also, don't German workers have govt. sponsored healthcare (thus reducing what their employers have to pay)?

[SlowDownFast]

17. Choice between pay cut or job loss.

Whatever the reasons why the auto co's are failing, the fact remains that auto workers cannot hope to keep their standard wages AND retain employment. There simply is not enough money and the economy is stagnant. No one is buying cars, and chances are it will remain that way for some time.

Time to suck it up. If they want to seize CEO's mansions and such, I say go for it. Break out the guillotines. Just don't expect to squeeze water from a stone. Reality sucks.

BTW, my whole family is UAW.

[Doctor_J]

18. Wage cuts, benefit concessions, and strike prohibition

Tell me again what the bankers have to give up for their bailout. :puke:

[raccoon]

20. How 'bout the management at the Big Three taking pay cuts so that their

salaries line up with their Japanese rivals?