Richard Casady wrote:
On Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:47:06 -0400, HK wrote:

There are many factors involved in the demise of the Big Three. All of
them are attributable to bad management.

You think the unions are blameless? It cost 75 an hour to have a guy
tighten lug nuts.

Casady


The number you are quoting rolls in the health care and retirement costs
of retired workers. The actual hourly rate for a new hire autoworker is
much, much lower than that.

Possibly you do not understand the role of a labor union. Its job is to
defend its members and negotiate for them the best possible wages,
benefits, hours, and working conditions. In recent years, those
negotiations have been aimed at making it possible for workers and
retirees to have decent family health care and a decent retirement.

Had GM, the other automakers, and the corporate employers of other
workers in manufacturing fields embraced the concept of taxpayer-paid
health care and retirement for workers, as most other modern nations
have, the hourly cost for assembly line workers would not be nearly as
high as it is now.

Most conservatives seem to want blue collar workers and construction
workers to toil for crap wages, without any benefits for health care and
pension. If that is the way this country goes, well, it isn't worth
salvaging.