My readers know two thing's: I'm
Radically Pro-Business and I
DESPISE Unions. The UAW and it's co-conspirator in The White House is doing wonders for the Economy.
GM, has(d) that Beaming Commercial running for The Masses about how they'd paid themselves out of debt; and did it "straight", while having $52 BILLION worth of stock owned by the
Mother Government. Today, they're touting a "profit" of $865 Million! It is a co. I wouldn't consider if I could take 20% profit a week (but I'll still drive a Cadillac, which I consider their only "saving grace brand"). One has too much Disease Risk when he jumps in bed with a Whore.
Remember how much more competitive GM was going to be coming out of bankruptcy. Aside from shedding a lot of its debt and attendant costs, the company was going to emerge with a competitive labor cost structure. Here's a blip which does not change my opinion:
From the WSJ:
Three years after General Motors Co. won wage and benefit concessions from its union, the company has yet to realize savings from a key provision that cuts pay by more than half for new U.S. hires.
GM’s deal with the United Auto Workers cuts the combined wage-and-benefit cost for a newly hired factory worker to $25.65 an hour, compared with about $60 an hour for current workers. By comparison, the nonunion workers at Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. plants cost the company approximately $48 an hour in wages and benefits, Toyota says.
But GM can’t add new workers at the lower wage yet. It still has 5,000 laid-off workers who, under their contract terms, have first crack at any union jobs that the company adds, and most would return to work at the higher pay level.
Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC have similar union contracts allowing them to hire workers at the lower wage, but they also haven’t hired significant numbers of new workers.
“That’s probably one of the reasons the UAW agreed to [the lower wages]. They knew right off the bat there wouldn’t be a lot of leeway for the companies to hire new workers,” said David Whiston, an auto analyst at Morningstar Inc. “There will always be this fundamental difference—that the Detroit companies have union shops” and the U.S. plants of foreign makers don’t.
If you want to find a pony in all of this I guess it would be that the company is managing to make a profit despite getting no relief from its labor costs. Nevertheless, you might want to keep this little bit of information in mind just in case you have an urge to take a plunge on the upcoming IPO.
Still LUV my Ford! (Vehicle and Stock)
