The assembly line workers aren't killing, GM, corporate management is.

[xray s]

I am sick and tired of labor being the whipping boy for failed management leadership at the top of GM and other American manufacturers.

I had to go to a Chevy dealer today to get some warranty work done. The showroom was jammed with huge gas hog SUV's and jumbo pick ups. Just try to find a fuel efficient car on the lot. They are tucked away in the back. The fact is, GM is loaded down with the gas hogs and they have to move that metal so that is what gets promoted.

The top exec's, the ones getting paid millions, are the one making these decisions.

Now the corporate ass kissers in the media wail about how some people on the assembly line make $65 per hour when you include benefits. Like health care and retirement. Yeah, blame the workers for the bloated wasteful private health insurance system in this country. And tell them they don't deserve a retirement pension. Make their salary sound big by factoring in that retirement and then go to the media with a load of crap about how much they make "per hour".

Hey, why don't we all start complaining about how much more corporate managers make in America, compared to managers in other countries? Why don't we start outsourcing CEO's to India? Why doesn't the media report on how much CEO's make per hour, factoring in their retirement benefits and stock options?

Corporate America sucks.

[billbuckhead]

1. GM spent 2 billion not to buy FIAT

You can't make stuff like this up.

[Coastie for Truth]

2. I saw that in the 1980's

and Roger "Squeaky" Smith was part of the problem. And Bob Lutz is an A - Number One - A Hole.

[msgadget]

3. GM agreed to such generous pay and benefits

to encourage workers to help them find ways to be more productive. Employees were wary of helping the company find ways to get rid of them GM paid up and set up the retraining program and job bank. Hell, even the employees on some of the lines knew the vehicles they were building weren't winners...

[Sinti]

4. CEOs make more than 400 times the typical worker's salary, on average.

According to Business Week.
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/nov2005/nf20051118_5196_db_085.htm

Labor is a commodity now, you can't blame management failures on the price of the commodities you use.

[Capn Sunshine]

5. If the minimum wage had risen as much as CEO pay in the past 5 years

It would be around 26 dollars per hour.

The imbalance between executive pay and union man is huge, too huge given the litany of failure GM has become.

[Sinti]

6. Hey, $26 an hour is a livable wage

Not a fortune, but I wouldn't fight with that :)

Edited to add:
not to suggest that assembly line workers should make that little.

[Rob H.]

7. I worked at an American semiconductor manufacturer years ago

and based on that experience, it's always the people on the assembly lines who get jettisoned when times get tough, imo. That's what happened where I worked--workers who'd been there a long time and were very good at their jobs got laid off when the company sank in a sea of red ink while the jackasses who'd guided the company into the dire financial straits in which it wound up kept their jobs.

The CEO voluntarily drew no salary until the company got back in the black, but he had also cashed in around $18 million in stock the year before, so it isn't as if he was really hurt by that. Yeah, $18 million in the bank and you're not drawing a salary right now but you will once you fix what you screwed up? Cry me a river. :eyes:

(FTR, I didn't get laid off, but my dad did. I finally got fed up with the core management team's rank incompetence and quit less than six months later.)