According to a CBS News story I watched last night, that "$70 an hour" figure being tossed around for UAW-built cars at GM actually INCLUDES the costs of GM's retirees, which this story estimates to be about $35,000 a year per active UAW worker. So that part of the "$70 an hour," the current worker never sees in HIS pay or benefits.
But it IS a cost of labor to GM, and labor is labor, past or present. Had GM allowed for the costs of these retirees at the time the costs were accruing--that is, while these retired workers were still working--and put the money away then, we wouldn't be talking about whether or not to bail them out now...because that $35,000 per active worker per year would've been put away to cover the retirement costs, and not have been paid out as mulitmillion dollar bonuses to executives in years past.
And remember, not all UAW workers for the suppliers to the Big Three get the same type of retirement plan. I worked for a Tier 1 supplier under a UAW contract, and our retirement under our UAW contract was a 401(k) plan, not a defined-benefit pension. We didn't have a "job bank," either.
Anyway, here's a link to that CBS video...unfortunately, they stuck a 30-second ad in front of the actual news video, so be patient.
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Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
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