Looks like $12 per hour is next and then what?

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New hires in UAW no longer tops in manufacturing
By DEE-ANN DURBIN and TOM KRISHER (AP) – 22 hours ago

DETROIT — 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.

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.

That was before high gas prices, the recession and skyrocketing health care costs brought the Detroit Three to their knees. Last year, as GM and Chrysler tumbled into bankruptcy, workers agreed to concessions, including the lower starting wage and suspension of cost-of-living raises that could amount to thousands of dollars over the life of a contract.

Demands for cuts are still coming. Workers at Nexteer Automotive, a steering plant in Saginaw, Mich., that GM is trying to sell, were asked to freeze wages for five years, lower the entry-level wage to $12 per hour and remove family members from new workers' health-care plans. Workers voted down the concessions Thursday.

Saladin Parm, who worked at the plant for 23 years before becoming a member of its union leadership team, said workers are the angriest he has ever seen.

"They're saying, 'This is not a high-school job where I want to take my girlfriend out to the movies. I have to support my family on this,'" he said.

In 2005, under a different contract, Parm's own wages were cut from $28 to $18, but the blow was softened by a one-time, $105,000 payment from GM. Workers who have come in recently make even less but pay the same union dues as those who have been at the plant for years. Parm said he understands their resentment.

"We do want our company to be competitive. That's the only way we're going to keep our jobs," he said. "At the same time, we're saying, 'Is this the best you can do?'"

It wasn't always this way. When the UAW was setting the bar for U.S. manufacturing wages, some auto workers made more than $100,000 a year with overtime and enjoyed nearly free health care and generous pensions.

But the UAW and other unions have been forced to make concessions to blunt competition from places like Mexico, where auto workers earn just $4 an hour. Between 1960 and 1969, U.S. wages grew nearly 50 percent; in the 2000s, they rose just 29 percent, according to the Social Security Administration.

The UAW, which elected Bob King its new president this week at a convention in Detroit, still sets the tone. So everyone from nonunion auto plant workers to unionized government workers could face similar pressure to lower their pay, says Sean McAlinden, a senior economist with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"The UAW is showing the way," McAlinden said. "What they're basically telling the economy is the defined-pension benefit is dead. That retiree health from the company is dead. That high wages at the start of your career are gone."

Benefits like big one-time buyout payments or cost-of-living increases made nonunion Americans seethe as their own jobs and benefits were cut. As a result, the union lost some supporters.

UAW president Ron Gettelfinger says the economy — not union wages — led to the automaker's troubles, and agreeing to wage concessions was the hardest thing he had to do as a union leader. But he says it helped the companies survive and even prosper. GM and Ford made first-quarter profits, while Chrysler narrowed its losses.

"I think we did what we had to do to get to tomorrow," Gettelfinger said. "You can have the best contract in the world, but if you don't have a job to go with it, what have you got?"

Bobbi Marsh, 32, was hired at a GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, two years ago, making $14 per hour. With raises she now makes $16, but that's still less than half the wage of her father, a machinist at the Lordstown plant.

Her father's job helped pay for her college and family vacations. She is afraid she will not be able to provide the same for her 10-year-old son.

"I feel bad for my child because I want him to have the same opportunities I had when he was my age," she said.

Marsh had several teaching jobs after she graduated college in 2000, but she was laid off each time because of enrollment declines or budget cuts. She said the job at GM has changed her life with a good, consistent paycheck. Even at $16 an hour, her pay is more than double Ohio's minimum wage.

Lower-paid workers could turn out to be the key to the UAW's resurgence. At the convention this week, Gettelfinger said lower labor costs have led to new investments. GM will be the first automaker to profitably build a subcompact car in the U.S. now that its labor costs are more competitive. Chrysler is hiring for the first time in a decade.

New hiring will boost UAW membership, which has fallen from a high of 1.5 million in 1979 to around 355,000 as the Detroit Three's sales dropped and plants got more productive. That could give the UAW renewed power to set wage standards.

King, a longtime Ford negotiator, said workers — including new hires — should benefit as the economy improves, perhaps with profit-sharing deals in the 2011 contract. But the union will have to proceed cautiously, he said. Automakers can still move work to Mexico or elsewhere.

That could mean lower wages are here to stay. Many workers are already resigned to the possibility.

"I have a lot of faith in our union. My dad came up from the South to make a better living in the auto plants, and he did," Parm said. "That's why it's hard to fathom what I'm seeing. I never dreamed I'd be seeing tears."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/arti....

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"The UAW is showing the way," McAlinden said. "What they're basically telling the economy is the defined-pension benefit is dead. That retiree health from the company is dead. That high wages at the start of your career are gone."

How do the 20-somethings feel about this?

Especially working across from a guy with a much higher pay and benefits?

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workers are the angriest he has ever seen.

I imagine the 20 somethings are the angriest.

Look for more wrenches and bolts inside the door panels at Government Motors.

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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.

Why would someone assume that an unskilled laborer SHOULD be able to afford a new (somewhat) premium automobile?

They are gonna try to do the same thing for all the government workers. All it will do is accelerate the class war between the special union folks and the rest of us.

Because they are UAW Finplayer. They are also entitled to a 5 bedroom, 4 bath, 3 car garage home with a pool. Oh and 0% LIBOR loan.

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Marsh had several teaching jobs after she graduated college in 2000, but she was laid off each time because of enrollment declines or budget cuts. She said the job at GM has changed her life with a good, consistent paycheck.

A college degree is not what it used to be.

It's enough pay to buy an inexpensive Hundai. How much are workers in a Ferrari factory supposed to make?

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It's enough pay to buy an inexpensive Hundai. How much are workers in a Ferrari factory supposed to make?

Exactly. It's like bemoaning the fact the guys who framed the house I'm currently building can't afford to buy the house.

I make 6 figures and I doubt I will ever buy a new car that costs >= 35,000$

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How do the 20-somethings feel about this?

Plainly they ain't happy. When I worked at a union steel mill there was a rumor going around that newer hires weren't willing to go on strike with the rest of the local when our 1996 contract expired. Story was when the union reps told them about picket lines, etc they were told to **** off because people had a family to feed.

We got the same pay as the old timers if we worked the same jobs but most new hires got stuck working at the coke plant which was no fun, especially when your shoes melted from the heat. The union was really big on pension increases which most of the younger employees figured- correctly as it turned out- we'd never see.

So from personal experience I bet those UAW new hires have few warm feelings for their union and wouldn't mind seeing it flushed down the toilet.

It hasn't done a ****ing thing for them.

The 20-somethings have a right to be angry.

They are getting fisted by every group imaginable. Politicians don't give a **** about them, corporate world has forced them into enormous student debt loads to obtain degrees so they can hope to get a job, they're taxed like crazy while the baby boomers and retirees offload their **** onto them.....

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Buick Enclaves

What's next? Ford Shelters and Jeep Grand Bunkers?

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Why would someone assume that an unskilled laborer SHOULD be able to afford a new (somewhat) premium automobile?

Maybe they should, maybe they shouldn't, and maybe they're all leach****s.

But at least somebody has finally stumbled on something I've been saying all along: The important thing about a pile of money is how much stuff it will buy.

What really matters is the wage to price ratio. It's perfectly okay for wages to drop, so long as prices drop faster. (My personal desire is to have 99.9999% price deflation. That way I can get the effect I want without anybody having to hand me a dime!)

CANYONARO!!!!!!

Half the 20 somethings are too fat to riot.

Every time I see all the fat kids I say to my wife, "don't worry honey, those people are the ones that will be paying our social security and medicare."

Then we both look at each other and laugh and I say, "actually their medical bills at 40 will be more than ours at 80."

So sad really, but more than likely true for a bunch of them.

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Look for more wrenches and bolts inside the door panels at Government Motors.

They called this disgruntled worker sabotage "Lordstown syndrome" and claim it is now non-existent. Good luck with that!

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'Lordstown syndrome' is healed by hard times
Managers, workers seldom clash now
Article published January 08, 2010

LORDSTOWN, Ohio - For the better part of three decades, the Lordstown car plant was a seemingly endless source of trouble for General Motors Co.

In the 1970s, the factory's 7,000 workers were so bitter toward management that thousands of Chevrolet Vegas rolled off the assembly line with slit upholstery and other damage. The hostility eventually led to a 22-day strike in 1972 that cost GM $150 million, and the term "Lordstown syndrome" became shorthand for rebellious U.S. factory workers.

http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20100....

>>"The UAW is showing the way," McAlinden said. "What they're basically telling the economy is the defined-pension benefit is
>>dead. That retiree health from the company is dead. That high wages at the start of your career are gone."

Showing the way? ROFL.

All they're doing is catching up to the non-unionized part of the private sector that has not had pensions, retiree health care, or high starting wages for years, or EVER.

Cry me a river.

Lower wages, lower pensions, lower health care benefits.

HOW ABOUT SOME LOWER PRICES ON THE CARS!

Re Grody: see my response above.

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What really matters is the wage to price ratio. It's perfectly okay for wages to drop, so long as prices drop faster.

Good idea, Burya.

Unfortunately, we have not seen the second part of that equation happen yet.

6 months ago I got offered $20 an hour for a non-entry level mechanical engineer position....Not working there, but it puts $14 an hour in perspective.

Mechanical engineer pay (can't vouch for the credibility of the site)- Krush would know better.

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Total Pay - Total Pay combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions, overtime pay and other forms of cash earnings, as applicable for this job. It does not include equity (stock) compensation, cash value of retirement benefits, or the value of other non-cash benefits (e.g. healthcare).
$52,420 - $73,423

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=....

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Half the 20 somethings are too fat to riot"

Well said Wyo.

CardioRiot might be a good workout for them

Remember "equal pay for equal work"? Different context but it was supposed to be an undeniable call for justice.

I say cut the old workers back - or with whatever adjustments for skill sets and versatility are just - to what the new guys get.