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How to Deal with the Automakers' Crisis in Confidence

Miken, What data are you citing those numbers from ? They just seem a bit off to me as Ford had begun it's restructuring a year or so before GM.
I want to also protest the "lavish pension" phrase being tossed around. I read an article recently saying industry standard pensions for those earning 100,000.00 a year amounted to 100.00 a year for years served. I happen to know many years ago the auto workers opted to have half of that amount to go toward paying for health care rather than to their pension. So that "lavish Pension" they will get amounts to 50.00 a year for number of years worked. Not a fortune by any standard.

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Oh by the way the union agreed in our last contract to take over the cost and management of our health care. That saved the company some 57 billion plus.

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

I am a elec. at a uaw plant. I make $31.00 an hr. plus cost of living. We "have" given up any wage increase for the last several contracts , since 2003. We DO NOT make $55.00 an hour ! WE HAVE been making concessions for years and continue to do so. We do have teams and we are very productive. We make very well made , safe autos. We DO NOT have a say in WHAT car we will make or how it looks. Don't blame the workers for bad management!!!

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Has anyone, anyone at all asked how much pay difference there is at the upper levels of management in the auto companies ??? Whats the difference in their pay!!
You also need to consider how much longer the big 3 have been in business. This means they have far more retirees to consider. You must take care of the retirees, they paid their dues in poor and unsafe working conditions to give us all the better work environment we now enjoy.
I can remember the recession of the 80's and it was ugly! Farmers across the country lost their farms. Some had been in their families for many generations. Elderly people were eating cat food and being found frozen to death because they tried to stay warm using a 100 watt light for heat. This is not a time I want to see our country go through again!!