C'mon Laz.. read it:
In the follow-up memo, Toyota pointed out that workers at Georgetown and at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. in Fremont, Calif., which Toyota owns with GM, are the highest-paid autoworkers in the United States.
What that says is that Toyota the non-union Toyota Georgetown plant and the Toyota/GM UAW Fremont plant are
are the highest-paid autoworkers in the United States.
.
So Toyo Non-Union workers are as highly paid as their UAW compatriots in Fremont. It would seem that toyota is doing so well that they can afford to pay UAW wages in BOTH plants.
so you are saying that if management got hold of their salaries that the auto companies would not be in trouble? that the workers costs is nothing?
Nope. Didn't say that at all.
Here's what I said: What you miss is that the rank and file are exactly LIKE management. Management TAUGHT them to be like management.That's why both sides are greedy and stupid.
See..it's BOTH sides. Both greedy, stupid sides would rather eat the goose that lays the golden eggs than work together to harvest golden eggs.
I'm sure it's unpopular to point out but some of the best times this country ever experienced were when the US auto industry had execs that cared about their companies rather than themselves, built cars that suited the buying public, paid decent wages to their employees, built employee loyalty by caring for their employees with benefits like health care, retirement and vacations and had union employees that were proud to work for those companies.
This country had a middle class and that made this country a great place to live.
We've lost all that. We have Boardroom Bandits whose only interest is how much they can steal from the company in the short amount of time before thier lack of leadership drives it into bankruptcy and workers who've been taught by the Golden Parchute Corps to grab for all they can before the company goes down for the last time.
Greed and stupidity... the mantra of both management and unions. They're both destroying the middle class.
I ask again: how long will the country survive when the majority of the folks work for minimum wage? What happens to the economy when the average joe can't afford housing, clothing and food for his family despite working two jobs?
A lot of factors tie in to this; the easy availability of cheap, illegal immigrant labor is also destroying the middle class. You can argue all you like about the effects but it's clear they drive wages down. Further, they do not reinvest in this country like regular citizens would. Much of what they earn leaves the country forever. They don't buy new cars up here, they don't buy new houses for each family; those are things the old American middle class did do. Those are things that kept this economy growing.
Tell me what happens when there is no middle class; what happens when there is a very, very small percentage of extremely rich people and an overwhleming percentage of two-worker families that can barely house, feed and clothe themselves. That day isn't here yet but it is most certainly ahead of us at some time unless we figure a way to pay the average joe a living wage.
/rant
