That $78 figure (which seems to get bigger every time I see it, at first it was $70, but I digress) includes retiree benefits....which are deferred compensation....which would be like Toyota booking an expense today for workers they paid 20 years ago.
The problem is an accounting rule from ERISA that was passed in the mid 1980's, which bascially allows companies to grossly underfund pensions and assume unrealistic returns on investment...this means that companies like GM have been underfunding their pension plans for the past 20+ years, and have to make up for it now....the "catch up payments" that they are making now, because of their 20+ years of mistakes, is a big part of that $78/hr figure.
Today's UAW worker doesn't take home much more in pay and benefits than their non-union counterparts in the South (those non-union workers only make the good wages they do because their employers fear the UAW anyways....but that's another discussion)
Quote:
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In 2006 a typical UAW-represented assembler at GM earned $27.81 per hour of straight-time labor. A typical UAW-represented skilled-trades worker at GM earned $32.32 per hour of straight-time labor
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So now everyone wants to UAW to take a massive pay and benefits cut...basically ask retirees to take smaller pension checks and give up their health care. Well that's bullshit.
The retirees should be first in line in a bankruptcy (unfortunately our bankruptcy laws aren't written that way..and retirees get fucked in the ass when a company files Chapter 11)
Making retirees take a cut would be like the company my father worked for seizing half of his savings today or putting a lien on his house because they're having financial problems today and they obviously "overpaid" him while he was working.
Underfunded pensions and health care accounts are the fault of management over the past 20-30 years, not the fault of the workers
This whole idea that potter is putting forward that this is all somehow the union's fault is just right wing propaganda. It's a red herring just like the corporate jets were.
It's the right wing trying to find a way to justify letting 3 million people lose thier jobs because those 3 million people mostly vote Democrat......whereas the banking lobby and insurance lobby can have all the bailouts they want because we know whose campaigns they fund and what lever they pull on election day.
