sixgunford
CEG'er
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2005
- Messages
- 67
Here's the way it is.
Here's the way it is.
To start, for those bashing Corker and being anti-union and pro-transplants here is what he said - "be competitive with the rest of the industry" i.e. take market share away from the Japanese, take jobs away from my state and my constituents if you can. Period.
The argument that HOURLY pay is comparable is correct, FRINGED cost is not even in the ballpark. This is largely due to the "legacy costs" that are mostly due to pensions not health care benefits. The Japanese auto makers employees and the large majority of the non-union world must save for their own retirement as a result of competing in the global economy we live in today.
In response to a previous post that the "new" UAW is not stereotypical union of 30 years ago, I have spent time in both domestic and transplant OEM's as a Tier 1 employee and sometimes you're amazed that a car ever gets built at a union plant - and I'm 30 so this is not an obsolete problem.
Furthermore (and this is not union-bashing just a non-PC assessment), the union requirements for jobs that must be maintained force the Big Three to keep component manufacturing in house at twice the price that the suppliers could make the parts, while they expect the suppliers to assemble said parts at or below cost to try to control their costs. Same goes for the union die shops who cannot deliver on time or at a reasonable cost, while the suppliers are FORCED to source tooling overseas to meet the OEM's pricing targets - Chrysler even has a contract company that sources these dies for the suppliers, splits the cost with them, and drops the tooling on the suppliers to finish and attempt to maintain - you can guess how much concern they have for the quality of tools.
Another previous post stated that the auto companies should be allowed to go bankrupt to allow them to remove the unions - it doesn't work that way. Long term contract are exempt from bankruptcy restructuring, the most the company can due is threaten to close a plant if the union doesn't renegotiate their contract, it's a bluff if they all say no. Only legislation can reduce the power of the unions and that won't happen in Michigan.
As for people not buying cars from a bankrupt company, people still fly and the airlines are always bankrupt (except for Southwest).
If any one of the Big Three goes under the economy will tank, the state of Michigan will go bankrupt also, and several suppliers will go under also as they will lose the revenue for the past 3 months worth of parts they shipped and most likely any money they have invested for any new programs they are working on (these start around two years in advance and are in the millions for a small job, easily in the tens of millions for a large one).
As it stands right now GM has stated that they cannot survive without a merger and acquiring Chrysler was detailed in their bailout plan, however the union has blocked this merger as there WILL be jobs lost - but it obviously won't on the scale as if they both went under. Things are bad. I work for one of the most profitable suppliers and I'm laid of for half of January. Traditionally the auto workers are more proud to be union that employed; we'll see what happens this time around, but we're not off to a good start...
If you made it this far, thanks for reading my rant.
Here's the way it is.
To start, for those bashing Corker and being anti-union and pro-transplants here is what he said - "be competitive with the rest of the industry" i.e. take market share away from the Japanese, take jobs away from my state and my constituents if you can. Period.
The argument that HOURLY pay is comparable is correct, FRINGED cost is not even in the ballpark. This is largely due to the "legacy costs" that are mostly due to pensions not health care benefits. The Japanese auto makers employees and the large majority of the non-union world must save for their own retirement as a result of competing in the global economy we live in today.
In response to a previous post that the "new" UAW is not stereotypical union of 30 years ago, I have spent time in both domestic and transplant OEM's as a Tier 1 employee and sometimes you're amazed that a car ever gets built at a union plant - and I'm 30 so this is not an obsolete problem.
Furthermore (and this is not union-bashing just a non-PC assessment), the union requirements for jobs that must be maintained force the Big Three to keep component manufacturing in house at twice the price that the suppliers could make the parts, while they expect the suppliers to assemble said parts at or below cost to try to control their costs. Same goes for the union die shops who cannot deliver on time or at a reasonable cost, while the suppliers are FORCED to source tooling overseas to meet the OEM's pricing targets - Chrysler even has a contract company that sources these dies for the suppliers, splits the cost with them, and drops the tooling on the suppliers to finish and attempt to maintain - you can guess how much concern they have for the quality of tools.
Another previous post stated that the auto companies should be allowed to go bankrupt to allow them to remove the unions - it doesn't work that way. Long term contract are exempt from bankruptcy restructuring, the most the company can due is threaten to close a plant if the union doesn't renegotiate their contract, it's a bluff if they all say no. Only legislation can reduce the power of the unions and that won't happen in Michigan.
As for people not buying cars from a bankrupt company, people still fly and the airlines are always bankrupt (except for Southwest).
If any one of the Big Three goes under the economy will tank, the state of Michigan will go bankrupt also, and several suppliers will go under also as they will lose the revenue for the past 3 months worth of parts they shipped and most likely any money they have invested for any new programs they are working on (these start around two years in advance and are in the millions for a small job, easily in the tens of millions for a large one).
As it stands right now GM has stated that they cannot survive without a merger and acquiring Chrysler was detailed in their bailout plan, however the union has blocked this merger as there WILL be jobs lost - but it obviously won't on the scale as if they both went under. Things are bad. I work for one of the most profitable suppliers and I'm laid of for half of January. Traditionally the auto workers are more proud to be union that employed; we'll see what happens this time around, but we're not off to a good start...
If you made it this far, thanks for reading my rant.
