Pronto said:Anyone that has gotten a cost of living (inflation) increase of about 2.5 percent a year for 34 years and started about 30K a year would be making about the same.
34 years ago you could buy a house for $30K.
Bad analogy.
Pronto said:Anyone that has gotten a cost of living (inflation) increase of about 2.5 percent a year for 34 years and started about 30K a year would be making about the same.
strikeeagle said:Shortly before he retired Alan Greenspan noted that in recent years inflation in the US had been kept in check in large part by cheap foreign labor, not because of any discipline on our part. Think about it. The developing world is working for nothing to maintain OUR lifestyle. And so we should hate them? I don't think so. Will it all come home to roost at some point? You betcha. BUT - show me an American who's wlling to pay even one cent more for something made here. Hell, you'd sooner find a unicorn.
strike
Dan Buick Man said:No Reason to Leave GM
The great-great grandmother, who is the second-oldest woman working at GM, made $74,000 last year cleaning floors and emptying wastebaskets.
At nonunion plants, somebody cleaning offices couldn't dream of making the
$74,000 that Winkel earned last year. Including the pension and Social
Security she also gets, she received $114,000. Delphi Corp. Chief Executive
Steve Miller has said that janitors and landscapers should be paid nonunion
wages.
I agree. Her salary is twice what I make working as a civil servant placing my life in danger every day when I step into a 1,000 man close custody prison facility. That is not counting the Social Security benifits. The pay should reflect the value of the job and not the person. She has reached retirement age but she elected to keep working. Good for her. But for the good of the company and the consumer she should not be paid production wages for a non-production type position just because she refuses to leave. She should have the option of taking the job for what it was worth or working the job she was getting paid for until she could not work it any longer. You could take her salary and hire three janitors for $25,000 a year. Better yet hire one and take the savings and cut the price on their cars. Of course this probably would not happen because the corporate officers would get a bigger bonus.
Winkel loves her job, and she has no intention of accepting a check for
$35,000 from GM to retire.
Why should she? It's only half of her salary for empting waste baskets.
Tens of thousands of hourly workers are expected to take GM up on its
offer, which includes cash payouts of up to $140,000, depending on how many years of service they have with the automaker.
She's been with the company over 30 years and only getting a $35,000 offer. I wonder how long the $140,000 person has been working. Also at 34 years means she was @50 when she was first hired.
As GM lost market share over the years, it couldn't just fire excess
workers, due to the strength of the UAW and the protection it won for its
members in labor contracts
Which is why they are in trouble now and GM vehicles are so expensive compared to others.
Ironically, GM's attrition package comes when Winkel says that workers are
busier then ever, and their numbers are already down considerably from
years past. Years ago, the work was hard. Workers, both men and women, had to lift heavy steel auto parts, Winkel said. But workers could also slack
off or skip out of work, she said. People used to refer to her workplace as
the Las Vegas plant.
Another reason unions contributed to the problem. Once employeed they were almost impossible to fire.
Not anymore.
Good.
Clean, in part, because of the broom she first picked up about 10 years ago
when she switched jobs in the plant.
10 years. Wow as a janitor she has made 3/4 th's of a million dollars in 10 years.
"
jdpolzin said:Do you have a unicorn available?? If so, you had better send it my way and i'll split it up between almost every person I work with. I agree that people are not caring enough to spend their money on American made products, which is completely sickening. I am an electrician and I purchase many tool per year. You never want to come onto the jobsite with foriegn made tools. I am proud of this countries heritage. I would never want to become China. Unfortunately our lack of intelligence is becoming our enemy. We need to take pride in this coutnry again.[/QUOTE
I am a elevator mechanic and 100% union, and i try to buy american every chance i get, but i don't get the buying tools every year part ( and please i'm not trying to sound like a wise a$$ ) i buy craftsman they come with lifetime warranty, I was an electrician, but that market here was ruined by cheap labor that i will admit.
Pronto said:Bad analogy.
Do the math. A house with the same inflation rate would be worth about the same percent more. The point is her pay from 1972 has gone up with along with the cost of living plus any raises she got from doing a good job or promotions. She didn't just walk in from street a month ago and got a job paying 72k a year as a jantor.
So anyone that has worked a job for a long time and has earned raises and pay is signicantly higher than a new employee should just be sheetcanned for no reason other than their pay scale? Doesn't matter if they have been a great employee, with excellent work habits and skills? That really promots loyalty and desire to do the best job possible.
What would you do if you were sheetcanned only because the boss came in and said we hired a new person to do your job at the 1/2 the pay? Just say, "OK, I shouldn't have been making that much money anyways." ? How would pay your bills?
turboscott said:Considering GM losses about $10 billion a 1/4 I don't think this woman leaving is going to make a difference in them staying in business. If GM saved $50K a year by her leaving and hiring some Mexican immigrant to do the job for $12K a year we wouldn't see it on the sticker price of cars.
Most people forget that GM isn't just cars anymore. In fact, their car division isn't even their biggest line of business. Their financial division is their biggest division. GMAC actually makes a profit and the car division losses all the money. So when you see $10 billion losses in a 1/4 just imagine what it would really be if not for GMAC.
fitz3820 said:Check the news, GM sold controlling interst of GMAC.
GM lost 10B last YEAR, not in a quarter. GM isn't going anywhere - it will be a different GM but it will NOT go away. Remember they have over 20B in cash. GM still sells more cars/trucks than anyone in the world. It won't be easy - Exec. pay and Union pay must be competitive, quality better etc.