AP: New hires in UAW no longer tops in manufacturing

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_UAW_WAGES?SITE=INLAF&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Jun 18, 5:25 PM EDT

New hires in UAW no longer tops in manufacturing

DETROIT (AP) -- Every day at a General Motors plant near Lansing, Mich., workers drive hundreds of Buick Enclaves - many with leather seats for seven and on-board video systems - off the assembly line.

Driving one home would be tough for the plant's newest workers, whose annual pay is less than the $35,000 it costs to buy even the cheapest Enclave. Newly hired members of the United Auto Workers at GM, Ford and Chrysler earn about $14 per hour, half what veterans make under their current contract.


AP Photo/Amy Sancetta

It's a far cry from the days when the union autoworker had one of the sweetest deals in American labor. And within the Enclave plant near Lansing, the disparity creates mixed emotions, including some resentment, among the 130 recent hires.

"It's difficult to look across the line at someone getting paid more for doing the same job you're doing," said Steve Barnas, the plant's union bargaining chairman.

For decades, the UAW tugged wages upward. In 1960, a UAW member made 16 percent more than the average American manufacturing worker. By 2006, the figure was 74 percent. Today, new hires in the UAW make about 20 percent less than the average.

In the old days, other industries adopted UAW benefits to compete for workers. Rival companies like Toyota would match their pay. The Federal Reserve even kept a close tab on UAW contracts because they were such a strong predictor of U.S. wages.

FULL story at link.

GM would never game the system. The corporation's run by honest people. Certainly.

:sarcasm:

Marx was right about the greedheads and rope.

About like the cuts for the banksters who nearly brought the world finance system down, I suppose.

God bless the American business gangster. They're saving us all.