Thread: GM
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Old 03-08-2009, 03:49 AM   #5
xoxoxoBruce
The future is unwritten
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
Quote:
Originally Posted by TGRR View Post
Does that include the actual wages of the hourly workers who build the car?
Yes, and their benefits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TGRR View Post
Problem is, the union was too stiff-necked to bend the necessary amount when things got tough.

In the end, they - collectively - were dumb, and Adam Smith's "invisible hand" has come along to punish them for their stupidity.
Not true, the auto industry has always been cyclic with the economy and have had a number of lean times. Every time that happens the automakers pressure the unions to bend (givebacks), but then when business picks up the automakers don't resume the things they took back. That's why the unions are reluctant to give too much, it will be gone for good... while the management pocket millions.

By the way, much of what they are juggled on the spread sheets so they could pocket those millions should be going into the pension funds to cover their past agreements. Those agreements were made when the company was making billions and the deal was the people that made those billions happen were supposed to get a pension funded by part of the profits, not future profits, the profits they produced.
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