UAW on strike

A little perspective from the marine sector:
"ILWU's leaders concluded a landmark agreement with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) for a generous long-term labor contract, which covers seaports up and down the U.S. West Coast. According to Reuters, the improvements include a 32 percent pay increase for ILWU members over the course of the next six years."

Basically, another industry negotiated without a strike and agreed to something in the ballpark of what the UAW wants, but without all the press coverage. And I doubt the ILWU ever made any concessions in the past to help save their industry.

 

ILWU just went chapter 11.
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/ilwu-dockworkers-union-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy-protection

 

Yes, but that is kind of a different issue related to their own malfeasance. The idiots slowed all traffic / service for 1 customer for many years over 2 -- yeah, two -- full-time jobs of plugging in refeer containers that was being done by another union. Huge loss in a lawsuit and deservedly so.

 

The source of all of this (and expect more - Kaiser unions hit the street Wednesday) is Congress' money supply addiction and the effect of devaluing every previously printed dollar. Wages can never keep up; the work force is arguably the least price-flexible commodity in the economy.

 

Actually the Fed controls the money supply. Congress controls the spigot!

 

UAW for the win!

 

Cost Pull, Wage Push.

 

"Back to work you fools!"

 

Thank an autoworker for higher prices for all Automotive related parts as well as the cars, the company’s don’t eat any of the higher costs, you and I do. Simple economics. Personally I don’t complain about what things cost, if I need it I need it.

 

And yet the same people cheerleading for the UAW will be the same chronic complainers when they have to pay a lot more for a car or parts.

 

The big three made $25B last year. This contract may add $3B to labor costs (Note: I see a $1B number mentioned for Ford online, so just guessing at $3B total). Doesn't sound too out of whack.

 

Yeah, if we all made minimum wage everything would be cheaper. Then again, we would all be making minimum wage, so what could we buy?

 

Funny thing about this notion that US organized labor is singularly causing high vehicle prices, because big 3 have off shored a lot of models chasing cheap labor, and I have never seen a line on the window sticker that says:

"Final assembly Mexico....26% discount"

I doubt I ever will.

Also, have you watched many YouTube videos - robots do an awful lot anymore. I watched a Mazda plant where a human didn't touch a Unibody SUV until it was a fully painted and assembled body.

People aren't the whole picture.

 

UAW is down from 1500K members to 400K members- a 74% decline.

I watched a video at a GM pickup plant- same deal; almost no people.
This is a decades-long trend that's going to continue. UAW's heyday was the '40s-80s.

 

The Big 3 made over 250 BILLION DOLLARS in profit over the last decade. Hmm, me thinks part of car prices being so high is that the Big 3 still get away with charging way too much.

Also, where are the complaints that the Big 3 are spending billions to pay on stock buybacks and on stockholder dividends? 66 BILLION DOLLARS over the last decade to people who don't even work on the cars -- 6.6 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.

Now the guys who ACTUALLY work on the cars are going to get less than half that much annually. I'm okay with that.

CEO and executive pay at the Big 3 is 10 times the other automakers, and total pay just for CEOs was over a billion dollars in the last decade.

So yeah, blaming the UAW for high car prices only tells a part of the story.

 

I believe in Capitalism, make as much as you can, as fast as you can, that goes for the employer as well as the employee.

 

Shareholders are the owners of the company. They should get something back for that.

 

Here's the trick:
What do company brass get for paying workers more? Absolutely nothing.
What do they get for paying huge dividends when they have stock options? Plenty.
And what do they get for stock buybacks when they have stock options? Plenty.

Stock buybacks used to be illegal to stop such chicanery and double-dealing, and employees used to come before investors.