Labor pains (Detroit Alert)

NRO ^ | 11/29/05 | Henry Payne

[voletti]

Massive job cuts at General Motors, America's largest carmaker — coupled with the bankruptcy of Delphi, America's biggest autoparts maker — have provoked predictable handwringing from liberal pundits who worry that America is "losing its manufacturing base." But the wrenching change now buffeting the auto industry defies the usual press formulas. Just listen to Steve Miller a turnaround specialist who is steering Delphi's restructuring process. He exploded the myth of America's "endangered" union manufacturing jobs at his October press conference announcing Delphi's move into Chapter 11: "We cannot continue to pay $65 an hour for someone to cut the grass and remain competitive."

Grass cutting is a manufacturing job?

Miller's frank assessment of unsustainable labor contracts is a refreshing dose of candor in an industry that for too long has talked around union-labor costs in a way that is totally divorced from the realities of the U.S. labor market — much less the global labor market.

While America's national press has gleefully covered the front-office shenanigans of Republican fat cats like Enron's Ken Lay, it has entirely missed the disease eating away at the roots of American manufacturing: Behind the threat of strike, greedy Democratic union bosses have built an unsustainable entitlement-wage culture that is now crashing spectacularly in America's heartland, disrupting lives, and threatening some of America's biggest publicly traded companies.

[voletti]

Here's the money quote:

UAW leaders are threatening strikes, and their Democratic allies are parroting tired slogans of government bailouts and trade protectionism. Michigan's Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm recently traveled to Washington, D.C. to stump for auto-import tariffs, while Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton demanded President Bush convene a "manufacturing summit" to examine a taxpayer bailout for the Big Five's "enormous legacy costs, including paying the health care and pensions of retirees."

[atomicpossum]

"We cannot continue to pay $65 an hour for someone to cut the grass and remain competitive."

Holy *$@)(!+_)#! No wonder a new vehicle costs a mint.

[LdSentinal]

"We cannot continue to pay $65 an hour for someone to cut the grass and remain competitive."

Forget a law degree . . .

Is this grass or marijuana grass?

[sit-rep]

I'll throw two bits in the hat for this one...

I heard here recently that around 200 employees go in and sit for eight hours a day because their contract guarantees their wage for three years... even though GM discontinued the area they were in. Indeed, the UAW is killing the car companies. I would not complain if they shut them out.

[sit-rep]

A new vehical costs a mint here. You should check out prices of new cars elsewhere...you'll be amazed.

[johnny7]

$1500.00 of every GM sale goes to retiree's health-care.

[USNBandit]

the front-office shenanigans of Republican fat cats like Enron's Ken Lay

Maybe my memory is slipping, but weren't all the crimes associated with all the accounting "shenanigans" committed during the Clinton administration. The DNC chairman was a beneficiary of the Global Crossing swindle, making $18 million off a $100,000 investment.

[pabianice]

I cannot help ruminate upon the fact that the average airplane flight instructor in the US, with a commercial pilot's license, instrument rating, and multi-engine rating, makes $18/hour, with no benefits and no vacation, and is paid only for his flight time.

[Cobra64]

Indeed, the UAW is killing the car companies.

I've been preaching this for years. The UAW causes the US auto industry out of business, and then what?

Toyota has already surpassed Ford in vehicle sales. GM droped Oldsmobile...

Mark my words, we will have no domestically owned automotive plants in the USA in 15 years.

Honda, BMW, Toyota are producing cars on US soil.

[sit-rep]

bttt

[BurbankKarl]

There is an interesting article in Automotive News about all the Japanese suppliers expanding operations in the US.....

I will post it.

[Cobra64]

I have spoken with many commercial pilots. Their pay is crap. A Captain flying a 737-300 with 150 passengers and crew is paid about U$D 100k. The pilot of a commercial twin prop is paid around U$D 30k.

Meanwhile, Jose Jimenez working in Detroit, assembling cars; cannot speak English, is here illegally, pulls down U$D 65k.

Am I nuts? ...

Don't answer that question.

[MrEdd]

Prediction: GM will fold and sell their designs. The new owners will build new automated facilities and hire part of the old design staff.

[ghost of nixon]

There is an interesting article in Automotive News about all the Japanese suppliers expanding operations in the US.....

true - GM is also in trouble for producing cars nobody wants. Healthy car companies like Toyota will continue to fill the void, and manufacture most of these vehicles on US soil.

[canuck_conservative]

Isn't this the same thing that happened to the steel industries in the 1970's? Paying some guy $30 an hour to shove a piece of metal in a machine eventually putting them into bankruptcy?

[sergeantdave]

Michigan will lose $390 million in tax revenues from the Delphi bankruptcy. Our communist governor and her castrated Republican poodles will do everything possible to rape small businesses and property owners to make up the loss.

Michigan is heading for an economic collapse. There's going to be a war in this state against the goosestepping socialists in Detroit and Lansing.