GTCritter

i really have nothing against the US auto companies. they do support the US economy for than the imports. the problem is the damn unions. they've grown into a beast that cannot be fed. when it costs you nearly twice as much per employee to run your business, it's just a matter of time before you're cleaned out.

bpark8824

Thats a big part of it. Unions are IMO stupid. They demand more and more and more and then eventually can drive themselves out of buisness. Basically they get greedy and keep demanding more. That is why the employees at I think it was GM make literally 2x as much as the ones that work for Toyota in the U.S.

Im not saying its bad that they make more money but its rediculous to keep demanding more and then you get one of the worlds largest companies to go down the drain. Not to mention the unreal benefits and retirement they get. If they settled for decent wages and benefits instead of very high ones, they might all still have jobs...

On the news one night they said GM assemble line workers make somewhere around 75k/yr. Anyone know if this is true or what the going rate is for one of those workers??? Just wondering if that was true or not, seemed really high to me.

Ato

A lot of the reporting on wages by the news media is done so for sensationalism and I think to insight anger among the general public. Yes I'm sure there are some line workers making that amount, but is that everyone's wage? Doubtful. It's probably people that have a number of years on the job or are in a specialized position, possibly a supervisor, but maybe it's just a kid out of high school, no ones knows b/c they don't tell you that info. I know when you hear about how GM employees making 60, 70, 80 dollars an hour that number is greatly exaggerated. When they use those numbers that takes into account their hourly wage, plus heal benefits, retirement, etc. The average person in a decent job is probably pulling in the same if not better when they factor it that way, I know I am.
I'm not saying its right or it's wrong what they are making v. the job they are doing but I wish people would people would receive all the facts and not just some small sound bits of information to base their whole argument on.

01 P-51G t

i have a funny story about this.
my wifes cousin bought a pathfinder and i ragged on him about not buying american and supporting the us economy. he was indifferent to all my arguments and insisted that imports employ and support just as much as the big 3. well a month later he lost his job at motorola and i told him maybe the uaw workers started buying samsung or sony phones.
he now makes less than half of what he did, cleaning up construction sites.

just thought id throw that out there.

bpark8824

That makes sense, they must have been including retirement, health benefits, ect. I found it hard to believe that just in wages they were pulling in 70-80k a year.

Don Nguyen

Interesting find.

smoothy

Well, actually the Pathfinder is made in Smyrna, Tennessee. Which do you think would benefit the American economy more, the Nissan Pathfinder (built in America) or the Chevy Aveo (built in South Korea)? If you really want to help the economy, look past the brand name and see where the actual model is built, then you buy from a factory that builds in North America, with North American workers earning wages and paying taxes in North America.

ahddm

I don't think you can look at where a car is built and see if it benefits America. A car designed, engineered, marketed here is what it takes for me to consider it American. They are putting all that R&D into a foreign market and the building it here, sure it give people jobs but when the area that is the most beneficial has been done oversees it's pointless. I'd rather have an "American Designed" car produced overseas than a foreign car produced here.

Ato

So wait, an R&D team of say 50-100 people developing a new platform has more beneficial effects then say a few thousand workers, not to mention all the corresponding businesses that have an impact on workers making a livable wage. Lets see, that's real estate, construction, restaurants, grocery stores, retal stores, auto dealers like GM/Ford/Crystler, and the list goes on and on. Besides he never once said it was an American car or asked for it to be considered as such, only that it benefited North American workers.

ahddm

The building of the cars may benefit the work force the most, but the R&D is what drive the industry and the company forward. If we had all R&D outsourced there would be no innovation here. True it doesn't employ the most people but it has the biggest impact on moving us forward. It encourages education, and innovation.

And it says value not how it benefits workers, and to me the hundreds if not thousands of people developing new things have more value than thousands on a production line.