Look at what kind of tech jobs there are around, and what they pay. Pick one f them, example, computer programming, and make an effort to learn it. Take Java for example. There's the free online Java Learning Trail. The book to get certified in Java is $30. I did that exact thing and now my pay is triple what is used to be. You have to take responsibility and make the effort.
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EV's won't save the Big 3 from the UAW.
Panasonic-Tesla has built the world's largest on-highway vehicle battery plant here in Reno known as the Giga Factory. Rank and file worker wages at Giga average around $20.00 per hour. With the future of on-highway vehicle propulsion being electric, GM in all it's financial, technical, marketing might, and hard lessons learned the past four decades, should convert the Lordstown facility, originally built for their failed Chevrolet Vega, which really should have been their Toyota Corolla, ( a hard lesson learned) into a on-highway vehicle battery plant. Lordstown is centered in the heart of what is left of the great American manufacturing belt for motor vehicles and metalworking. The skills, know-how and transportation network is already there. Lastly the militant attitude of the workers in the rust-belt has favorably begun to turn to create a great human resource in the upper Midwest. Corporate decision making for the past couple of decades has been to move production into right-to-work states in the Mid South, South and offshoring to Asia and points beyond.
It's interesting that the Japanese can manage and operate productive, happy and profitable operations in Ohio such as Honda in Marysville. US management needs to revisit what they taught the Japanese after WW 2 and reapply it. Bring back Lordstown and manage it like the Asians. Kudos and accolades to GM for their success the past few years with their Chevrolet division.
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The men and women on the picket line are approaching an important milestone. I have done the math many times in in 45 yr. career and it always comes out at about two weeks on a strike.
If you look at the final pre-strike offer from the company, and the settlement offer that ends the strike, at about the two week mark the strikers start losing money, big money. Beyond two weeks they will not make up their lost wages due to the increased pay they earned by staying on strike during the length of the contract.
The union bosses of course are still getting paid their full salary, so they don't care. Perhaps especially on this strike, when they need to distract their membership from the federal allegations of corruption.
It might be time to instruct your union bosses to take what they can get and go back to work. If you don't get everything you want, work on that at the next contract. Oh, BTW, before you vote on the contract, ask your union bosses if there are any unwritten or side deals that are part of the agreement.
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General Motors is not in the business of employing a set number of people or paying them more then they need to. G.M.’s job, in our capitalist society, is to make profits for the benefit of its’ owners- stockholders. No one is required to work for G.M. and G.M. is not required to employ anyone.
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And I am required to buy a GM product.
The American public bails out the auto industry...and then the auto industry betrays the American worker?
I have never been a fan of unions; there's been too much abuse of power over the years.
I now stand behind unions, flaws and all, after watching American businesses drain the American worker of benefits, a secure job, and reasonable work-life balance; all the while those same companies received enormous tax benefits from Republicans...
...and instead of investing those benefits to help workers recover from the Great Recession, instead of re-investing in their companies...they bled workers dry, moved overseas, and/or ran up enormous debts...and gave all the profits to themselves and stockholders.
This is not now, nor was it ever...the American way. So if unions need to expand their base...so be it.
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This reflects the lose of labor jobs that do not in the main require a college or professional degree yet IBM which had over 250k jobs in the US in its heyday is now down to less than 50k while its global workforce is almost the same around 365k. These were some of the best jobs in the US and many required advanced degrees yet they too left the US due a mgt decision to use labor arbitrage mostly to India where the labor rate was one fifth the US yet iBM continues to struggle and lose revenue.
The current corporation always optimizes labor cost over social costs yet until the government figures out how to factor in that social cost to their decision making the bleeding will continue. How it could do that without destroying the very heart of the capitalist system is unknown and the main thrust of those that want socialism instead.
Of course those corporations that benefit globalism like Wall st which has made billions off it will fight it day and night and were one of its biggest proponents insisting on any new IPO to have an outsourcing plan as part of their business plan.
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GM is facing some grim market realities, in both the short and long term, and as a result so is the UAW. GM is trying to plan for those realities - unlike its eponymous predecessor - so that the company doesn't blow up in the next few years. The UAW wants to defy gravity.
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GM Killed the Electric Car in the 90's only to then Buy Hummer and the rest is history. They could have lead the drive to a clean and profitable future but instead invested in the heaviest and gas guzzling vehicle they could find. Think The Koch brothers had anything to do with their thinking. GMS history of denying the changes needed goes back to their fight against the removal of lead from gasoline when they owned 40 percent of the production of leaded gas. They are always looking out for the amereican citizen and their employees.
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We are fast approaching an era when persons without high technical skills or a strong college education will find few employment options. The rise of artificial intelligence, corporation's never ending pursuit of profits without regard to societal impacts and the chaos of the US government are all factors working against men and women who seek dignified work that will support their families. Andrew Yang and those calling for expanded educational financial support may be onto something. We all need to listen.
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GM’s decision to close the Lordstown plant, rather than retool it for another model, was just plain stupid. When one looks at the daily losses that GM is incurring from the strike, retooling Lordstown would have been cheap by comparison.
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@Michael McLemore Keeping Lordstown open is only one of the strike issues, and the cost of retooling it likely would have been extremely high, since they'd have had to build an entirely different vehicle. Also, the existing plants building whatever that vehicle might be are already producing enough of them, so another location isn't needed.
1
Deja vu.
Saw the same thing, starting in the 1980s: corporate reorganization and downsizing; many jobs outsourced; people out of work, sometimes for over two years; new jobs finally created but paid half as much as old jobs; and the rich got richer. No wonder populism is so... popular!
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Capitalism, freedom from government restrictions and pursuit of the almighty dollar are why so many labour and capital intensive businesses leave. People say they want the best products, but they only want to pay Costco or Walmart prices. Businesses are punished by investors if they don't return massive and increasing profits. The outcome is that the businesses will look for the most cost effective (e.g. cheapest) ways to produce their merchandise. All those companies that moved manufacturing from the North to the South and then into foreign countries, because they could maximize their margins and returns to investors. Executives are richly rewarded by investors for the massive returns and the wealth gap expands.
Anyone who believes that labour intensive manufacturing (or other labour intensive businesses) will return is fooling themselves - unless there are corresponding disincentives to moving to the cheapest place to manufacture, which will result in higher costs to the end consumers and lower returns for investors. It's not going to happen; these folks will have to find new employment and adjust to a different lifestyle.
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Capitalism is incredibly creative, incredibly vigorous, and incredibly productive. It's also incredibly dynamic, and that dynamic nature makes it sometimes cruel. Technology changes, the labor market changes, consumer tastes change, the economy changes.
Members of the UAW are still longing for the great old days, when the UAW held a labor monopoly over an oligopolic industry, but those days are gone forever. Low or semi-skilled labor will never again command middle-class compensation in this country. There is only one true way forward for them, and that is to make sure their young people come into adulthood with marketable skills.
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The UAW is having it's last hurrah, Win, lose or Draw. My money is on lose, but they might win in the short term. In the long term the results are unpleasant & inevitable. The UAW is 1/3rd the size they were 30 years ago and shrinking. The economics of the situation are unavoidable. Labor in Mexico costs 20% & is in no position to make demands. The reality is very plain perhaps slowly but definitely inevitably these jobs are headed out of the country. The UAW and a lot of people refuse to face the fact the era of the Unions & the Blue collar middle class in the US is done. Globalization & "Free Trade" put them on life support & AI will finish them! The UAW is handing their members fantasies. "Protect those jobs for the next generation" ? They'll be lucky if they can protect them for the next 5 years. And reopen a plant making unprofitable cars? Newsflash for the UAW GM is all about the bottom reopening isn't going to happen if the union leadership is claiming anything else it's a fantasy.
If the UAW was wise they would read the very LARGE writing on the wall & get their members trained in something that can't be shipped overseas and might provide a decent living. Because the Blue Middle Class, Unions, & manufacturing in general are locked in a death spiral with NO way to pullout. Unless of course the Unions would like to work for Chinese or Mexican wages??? I'm not holding my breath for that! The unions & their members need to face the unpleasant reality of how things are!
5
My heart goes out to those factory workers who are losing their jobs or seeing their wages and benefits greatly reduced. However, the auto industry is poised for significant changes over the next 10-20 years.
Millennials are not going to buy gas-guzzling SUVs, pickup trucks, and minivans as their parents and grandparents did. Electric cars and smaller gas vehicles are the future. We are going to continue to see more vehicles built overseas. That's the reality of capitalism and the UAW needs to have a strategy for adapting to these changes.
9
Welcome to the ugly side of capitalism and technology.
The UAW should purchase a surplus factory and farm out their labor to the highest bidder along with creating an electric propulsion certificate program. Times are changing and UAW better get ahead of the curve.
On another note I have to ask who is gonna be able to pay taxes, buy a home, raise a family and retire on $17/hr? Lot of back breaking work for a paltry salary. Talk about delusional.
What’s even more delusional is some segment of the population affected by this change see nothing wrong with accepting lower standards...
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