Why a millionaire wants autoworkers to take a pay cut

[Peter1x9]

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/why-millionaire-wants-autoworkers-pay-cut-160603932.html

Former auto czar and wealthy Wall Street financier Steven Rattner told a luncheon in Detroit on Thursday that while the $50 billion GM bailout was successful, "we should have asked the UAW to do a bit more. We did not ask any UAW member to take a cut in their pay." He also said that "friends on Wall Street" were concerned by GM's earnings and communications with the market, pushing the stock down to a level that would lose the goverment $14 billion if it sold its shares today.

Meanwhile, at General Motors' Orion Township, Mich., plant about 45 minutes away from where Rattner spoke, there are three tiers of hourly workers. Roughly 900 workers at the top tier, the most senior UAW workers, make $29 an hour, a rate unchanged since 2008. Another 500 or so UAW workers are paid about $16 an hour — a rate, adjusted for inflation, equal to the famed $5 a day Henry Ford started paying his workers in 1914.

And at the bottom scale are 200-odd workers technically employed by an outside supplier but who work in the plant moving parts to the assembly line, jobs once done by GM workers paid $29 an hour. The contractors' pay: $9 an hour with no health care, a rate which over a year's work would leave them below the poverty level for a family of four.





This is the same mentality that wrecked the country. You can't expect people with American level expenses to be able to live and buy your products on 3rd world wages. Even way back at the start, Henry Ford knew you had to pay workers a decent wage. Now his same company is paying new workers way less than Henry Ford (adjusted for inflation) did.

The current model of American expenses on 3rd world wages is unsustainable...and credit has all but dried up now. And then there's all those companies that ship their jobs overseas, yet still expect to be able to sell things here. The Rich and their puppets in the government have destroyed the country.

[Enthusiast]

1. Kicked and recommended.

:fistbump:

[CJCRANE]

2. Exactly, Henry Ford knew

that one person's spending is another person's income, so if you pay your workers enough they'll plow their money right back into your company.

For example, Porsche sells a large percentage of their cars to their own employees (that's a big reason for their success).

[femrap]

3. Steve Rattner...

his last name says it all.

Government and Corporations working hand-in-hand equals fascism.

1 in 2 Americans live in poverty/low income. That says it all. Guess they're not going to be happy until it's 99% are living in poverty/low income.

Wall Street disgusts me. May they choke on their money.

[WildNovember]

4. K&R. what a bunch of crap, they most definitely did take a pay cut and hits

to medical/pensions.

Isn't it great that modern workers make exactly what they did in the twenties in inflation-adjusted terms, even though they're something like 600% more productive (and thus theoretically 600% more valuable as workers)?

not to mention that "contract workers" make only 60% of what ford's workers did.


what crap. rattner can bite me.

[rpannier]

5. Another whiny millionaire

It's amazing how much they hate people in the middle making money

[classysassy]

6. Mr Rattner and his pals aka wealthy criminals

are protected by the people we elect to represent us.The congressional enablers make laws to protect criminals,but we keep sending the same greedy crooks back to Washington.My fellow citizens nothing will change until we change our reps and hold their feet to the fire.There arer laws that say any congressman or women taking bribes(gifts) are guilty of a crime let us demand that the abide by those laws,resign or be impeached.