Door #1 Layoffs
Door #2 Improved productivity and delivery
All other doors go back to Door #1 (layoffs or bankruptcy)
My in-laws are multigenerational UAW members going back to Rochester products, Delphi and are GM diehards. Dinner table conversation recently centered around how the workers have much less influence in the final product due to automation and efficiency inducing process controls.
The days of “another breakdown on the line” forcing overtime on the weekend every.single.week are less likely.
Without these systematic labor manipulations, they’ll have to resort to outright pay changes to get more for their efforts.
People will continue to be selfishly motivated when the group culture fails to keep interests aligned.
At my company, we do gain shares at a significant rate. I’ve written about this from time to time. Last month, the workers received more than $3100 for their efforts above and beyond the contract rates.
As of July 2023, they had given themselves almost $20,000 in excess compensation for working hard to make the factory run smoothly.
Hmmm. Looking at the stock price of a company such as Ford certainly doesn’t scream ‘record profits’. In fact, this year so far Ford’s net profit margin has averaged 2.1%. Not exactly up there in Apple or Nvidia territory. GM is higher at 5%, but Stellantis squeaks by at 0.1%. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/F/ford-motor/net-profit-margin
Is this “profit sharing”? Or some other bonus type incentive?
A YouTube a few days ago, discussing the strike said that the CEOs claim that while hourly wages are low, the profit sharing puts the actual income over $100,000/year.
*IIRC the actual claim was over $175,000/year, and 4 to 5 times average income.
*Note: 175,000 is not even 3 times the average household income of about 65k. I didn’t back the YT up to verify the comments.
The CEO claim was that workers are still making quite good incomes, relative to the average or median household income.
Is the worker pay of $33/hr base (not including profit sharing, or other bonus) being compared to CEO total pay (all bonuses, etc)?
BTW, I am a union supporter!
I was a teamster back in the 80s. I learned the value of solidarity!
There is probably some quote about “the fog of negotiations”. I have heard management claim workers would make $300,000/year, while people working at Sterling Heights Assembly (locally known as SHAP, which builds Ram 1500s) say the only way you can make that kind of money is to “live in the plant, work seven days a week”.
An offer by Ford today, as reported by the local news, gives temp workers a raise of over $4/hr, bringing them all the way up to $20/hr, so, yes, what a guy at Wayne Assembly said yesterday was about right: right now, entry pay is on a par with McDonald’s.
The gainshare that we use is in addition to performance bonuses that they get every quarter.
I believe the rates are 11% bonus paid quarterly, with gainshare in addition when performance, attendance and tardiness align.
We pay the gainshare to just less than 70% of our employees. The other 30% are on disciplinary action, have excess tardy points or no-call/no-show issues.
(I know things happen, but the gainshare is roughly 10x their standard STI pay. How could you leave that money on the table!?)
We are a tier 1 and tier 2 supplier where our products are destined for automotive. We also serve building and construction, distribution (billet, rod, bar, etc), and specialty products like heat sinks, compressor internals, and myriad other industries.
One more thing. We are not fully union. Our plants have a 60/40 mix depending on location, nationality and size. All employees are eligible for gainshare and this is NOT part of any union contracts.
Make a better product under that moniker. GM and F keep trying to screw up their cars to save money. That is so obvious it is sickening.
Tesla is not shy about making a better product and reducing costs. But that is over GM’s and F’s heads. No wonder the C-suite makes the big bucks, heavy heavy sarcasm!
Look GM and F have been MOSTLY rolling backward since 1973. Want to face that and blame the correct people or just keep up the crap? Or crappiness? The lying blame game has been never-ending. If that is your capitalism it is a loser.
How? I would be very interested in how forming a union is going to tank the economy. There is a whole flip side to commerce called the demand side. If there supply does not match the demand, then the demand will dry up.
So, prices get too high people will stop buying. Then someone will come along and figure out they can create a supply that people will want, and the demand will shift. It happens ALL the time. This thread is focused on the big three…but there are MANY other car companies in the world. As for innovation, if none of us want gas guzzling cars anymore, now we have electrics. It will happen.
There is no end of days when it comes to commerce. Humans need stuff, and when one supplier is stupid, other suppliers come on the market.
While I general support workers making more money, let’s focus on your claim a bit. the CEO of GM (the highest paid of the three) made $29 million last year. With 167,000 GM employees, that is about $173 per employee. Even if the CEO was paid nothing and all that money went to the workers, it would be less than what GM is currently offering for pay raises.
Yes, I know the CEO gets other forms of compensation but the fact remains it isn’t really the admittedly outrageous CEO pay that is the fault of worker pay.
But the company this year will make over $10 Billion. It is over 6% net margin. Heavy industry really rides at 5% in a good year. If GM rode at 4% next year would it really matter? Yes because it sets up a more competitive US auto sector. The cheap route during the supply side period was a flop for GM and F.
The truth is profits are up but Berra has not done a decent job. She is not in an innovative way cutting costs. She is useless to GM. Holding down employee pay is pathetic.
