...

 BA>> Forty bucks an hour plus benefits for what is basically unskilled
 BA>> labor is not nonsense.  Receiving full or nearly full pay for not
 BA>> working isn't nonsense either.  Auto workers in general, IMO, are
 BA>> grossly overpaid.

 RW> The union boys always discount the benefits of union
 RW> contracts. When they report like-wages, they don't report
 RW> the benefits, which makes them paid nearly twice as much as
 RW> a non-union worker, such as those who work here for Toyota.

 Toyota's total labor costs are about $6/hr lower than GMs. And
 under the new GM contract, as the older employees retire the
 cost will come down to wipe out the difference.

 Toyota does give benefits comparable to GMs.

 RW> And paying a retiree his full wages after retiring, giving

 GM's pension is not that good. It's about on the level of mine,
 and mine is no where near full pay.

 RW> him the same health care benefits he enjoyed as an employee
 RW> is rediculos. It's no wonder the domestic car makers are
 RW> about to go belly up.

 The problem is not that GM retirees get full health benefits,
 but that the rest of us don't.

 And GM's retiree health benefits were one of the things put on
 the block in recent negotiations. It will come out of a fund
 that is backed by GM stock. If GM doesn't make it, the benefits
 go away. If GM makes it, but the stock does not go up quickly,
 the benefits will go away anyway.



BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... At a funeral dinner the honoree does not eat.
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