Moneywar,
I don't know if Wisgod was ever in a union or not. Doesn't really matter.
I was in a union once. All they did was take my dues and when I got violently sick and missed a week of work, I was fired. The union did NOTHING to help me out. That was the first and last union I was in. My Father was in the UAW for 31 years working for EMD-GM and hated it. My brother was in the Teamsters for years before losing his job. They did as much for him as they did to find Jimmy Hoffa.
So you can sing the praises of unions from now until doomsday, it doesn't impress me.
The fact is that GM is a union shop. They built 9.75 mil cars last year and LOST somewhere between $50-75 mil doing so.
Toyota is a non-union shop. They sold 9.75 mil cars, same as GM. But they MADE $27 mil in profits.
The difference? Not shoddier cars, since Toyotas score above GM cars on quality and durability.
It is management, making cars people actually want and not paying $81/hr per worker in wages, benefits and retired worker benefits to build a car. The person building cars is getting only $27 of that $81.
$15 billion is just pissing in the wind because the industry that Congress is trying to keep afloat will still sink, only now every taxpayer's money will sink with them.
While The Big Three are on the verge of bankruptcy, Japan is building plants in IN, MS and KY. While Detroit crumbles and moves manufacturing OUT of the USA, Japan is building NEW factories IN the USA and creating THOUSANDS of new jobs.
While UAW workers made an average of $27/hr in take home pay, Toyota workers in KY made an avg of $30/hr in wages and bonuses. Remember that Toyota workers pay NO union dues while UAW workers do. UAW dues equal 2 hours of pay per month, so at $27 an hour the annual dues are $648. While non-union Toyota workers in KY average $62,400/yr, UAW workers average $55,512 after dues are deducted.
A new Toyota plant in Mississippi will be paying their workers appx $20/hr, but this is in an area where the average worker now makes $12/hr.
Toyota's Indiana plant has 18,000 applications for 1,075 jobs that may avg about $24/hr. Honda's plant that opens in 2010 had 5,000 applications for 37 front office jobs!
