Thread: Do auto workers really earn $73 an hour?

Originally Posted by Greg

A.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori...ial/?uniontrib

'ludicrous “job bank,” in which 14,000-plus laid-off workers are paid to sit around and do crossword puzzles'

That job bank ended in the 2005 contract and no longer exists.

Next?

B.

http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.a...nav=menu1362_2
'The job bank would provide laidoff GM workers with an extra two years of pay after the plant closes.'

You didn't print the full quote on that. That article is about Transition Assistance payments- basically 50% of the wage, while you retrain to a different field. The Union has nothing to do with that program- that's a U.S. Dept of Labor program that gives workers 50% of their pay after they lose jobs due to North American Free Trade agreement.

And the full quote was this:
"That's especially important for workers there, since the United Auto Workers offered to eliminate the job bank in order to save the auto industry. The job bank would provide laidoff GM workers with an extra two years of pay after the plant closes."


The point of the quote is that Janesville Wisconsin workers are trying to qualify for Transition Assistance under the NAFTA Transition Assistance Prgram (50% of wages for a short period of time,) which is better than nothing at all, because the UAW offered to eliminate entirely the remaining jobs bank program if that is what would cut the deal for the loan. "That is especially important for the workers there, since the United Auto Workers offered to eliminate the jobs bank in order to save the auto industry."

C.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...A01-351179.htm

Jobs bank programs -- 12,000 paid not to work

P.S. I'm a due-paying union member and drive a 1993 Chevy everyday !

The 12,000 was how many jobs were cut in 2004, and were in the jobs bank in 2005, the time of that article. Those people are all no longer employed, and no longer in the jobs bank. Today, Chrysler has 711 workers in the jobs bank, GM has 1,404 and Ford has 1,476. Those in the jobs bank get 95% of wages for up to a year, while they try to find other jobs within the big three that come open. During that time, they do not collect unemployment. If a job comes open anywhere in the country, and they turn it down, they lose that jobs bank benefit. And the UAW offered to eliminate the jobs bank, if that is what it would take to close the deal.

I am glad you pay union dues and drive a Chevrolet.

Originally Posted by Greg

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll.../BIZ/708150406

Potter, in his last full year as president of UFCW Local 951, made $305,000.

...

Differences in union hall pay scales are often as glaring as the pay gap between union and non-union shops. Some labor organizations lavish their officers with high salaries and generous benefit packages unavailable to the rank-and-file

...

At most Meijer stores in Michigan, top pay is nearly $20 an hour for a butcher. Most make far less. Meanwhile, Potter has a condo in Grosse Pointe Park and a home on more than seven acres in Grand Haven. He owns four cars, including a Cadillac and a Corvette, according to Michigan Secretary of State records.

...

First, UFCW is not UAW.

Second, what difference does it make to you how much the Union leader makes? It doesn't come from the company, it comes from the workers dues.

In the case of the UAW, as you pointed out, Ron Gettlefinger made $156,000. To head a Union that has over 73,000 members, 400,000 retirees, and 106,000 surviving spouses. The 73,000 members set the pay of the Union leadership through their committees and a vote of the membership (the workers). The members pay 1.15% of their pay to the Union, and what the Union does with that money- i.e. negotiations, arbitrations, travel, phones, light, heat, and yes, officer pay, all come out of that amount- which has no effect at all on the cost to the companies. Companies don't pay that money, members do.

According to the LM-2 for the UAW, last year the UAW had $323 million in income, and paid it's President - Ron Gettelfinger, just $156,000 in base salary, plus he had some reimbursed expenses, for a total of $163,000 in total compensation.

Source: U.S. Labor Department LM-2, # FILE NUMBER 000-149


Which, by the way- is about on par with those U.S. Senators, and FAR BELOW the Executives of the Auto Industry, and far below the Wall Street people.

Hardly over paid compaired to others.

Originally Posted by clester

These CEO's are liars! You can't trust them, congress, or wall street. Don't fall for the mis-information.

You can't trust the union bo$$es either. They are only interested in lining their own pockets.

I guess a postal worker making $25.00 an hour, with matching the first 5% of their 401k contributions, insurance, paid vacations, retirement is making over $70.00 an hour.
I don't think so!
The union offered last week to completely do away with the job bank, which is almost mute considering all the buyouts the last couple of years.
New employees start at $14.00 with little or no benefits, no retirement(GM will contribute 6% into the employee's portable retirement account).

Maybe the GOP senators don't like unions and are taking care of their home states..
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...ly0&refer=home

Senator Shelby taking care of business.
http://blog.nola.com/nola/2007/08/ka...rd_posh_c.html

Originally Posted by eccougar

Maybe the GOP senators don't like unions and are taking care of their home states..
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...ly0&refer=home

Senator Shelby did not vote for the bank bailout this year nor did he vote for the Chrysler bailout back before there were any foreign auto plants in Alabama. He is no hypocrite.

A friend of mine sent me a nice little video of Ford manufacuring plant in Brazil. Full of Robotics, all the managers and workers alike take their lunch breaks together, and swapped ideas. They had their own tanker ships so that when they came of the assembly line they were loaded and shipped. I wish I had saved the video clip or the website it was rather interesting. A really modernized Ford Manufacturing Plant in Brazil and a fragile Ford Manufacturing Plant in Detroit that was no were near the modernized plant in Brazil. The're made in Brazil cheaper and they are trying to bailout Detroit. Talk about our jobs; we have given everything to every country and they all despise us now what? Why do they want more money the big companies along with our own government has put us in this mess? Nice going guys.

Have we given everything to other countries, or is that what our brainwashing government and big business wants average Americans and foreigners to believe? From my limited understanding of our foreign aid and investment strategies, more often than not we are lending money or requiring that the money we "give" be spent for very expensive American contracts on projects that often damage or undermine third world counties development to our benefit, not theirs. That may not always be the case, but often is.