The Homa Files

Excerpted from WSJ, “UAW Gives Concessions to Big Three” Dec. 4, 2008

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The United Auto Workers union Wednesday offered two major concessions to the Big Three auto makers

Two weeks after insisting his union had already done enough to help the car makers, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union would allow the companies to delay billions of dollars in payments into funds that will cover health-care costs for retired workers. The union also will suspend a “jobs bank” program under which workers continue to collect most of their wages after they are laid off.

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122832097499675993.html?mod=testMod

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Ken’s Take: Earlier this week, we noted: “under the UAW “job bank” program, over 12,000 laid-off workers get nearly full-pay to play cards or do crossword puzzles in a congregating hall.  That program costs the Detroit 3 over $1.5 billion annually — about over $600 per car sold.

The Detroit 3’s  total labor cost disadvantage (vs. ‘transplant’ carmakers in the South) is more than $1,500 per car.  UGH !”

Coincidence, or is the UAW monitoring The Homa Files?

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Ken’s Take #2: Next step, the 12,000 laid off workers who won’t be getting paid any more will stop making their mortgage payments and the 57% of Americans who pay income taxes will end up buying  their houses for them.  The vicious cycle never ends, does it ?

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This entry was posted on December 4, 2008 at 7:47 am and is filed under Autos - Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.