Subject: Re: OT: Drive a Ford or get off the lot.

From: Peter A Athens (athynz@verizon.net)
Date: Fri Feb 03 2006 - 07:49:42 EST


Rick Barnes wrote:
> The unions are what are killing our automakers
> and adding so much cost to a car that there may be no hope for the big 3
> or
> at least the big 2.

With all due respect and as a union member myself I have to disagree with
this particular assessment.I'll grant that the use of union labor costs more
in terms of manhours vs. non-union labor, it's not the use of union labor
that's killing the big 2 considering that Toyota for a fact also uses UAW
members in it's plants here in the US. While I cannot make that claim for
certain with other import manufacturers with assembly plants here in the
U.S. I suspect that the majority of them also use union labor. In this day
of slowly decreasing worker's rights and skyrocketing CEO benefits, a lot of
companies including the auto manufacturers are looking to cut costs wherever
they can and since the only way the unions could kill the automakers is that
their salaries and benefits cannot be reduced. So for the CEOs to be able
keep making the obscene amounts of money, the powers that be would rather
make sacrifices elsewhere by cutting corners on the materials used and
outsourcing whatever they can. A big part of what is killing the big 3 is
that the majority of Americans are brainwashed into believing that domestic
vehicles are inferior to their imported counterparts. And I suspect that the
CEOs of the import automakers make a bit less and have less benefits than
their domestic counterparts.



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