Have the Big 3 tried pay cuts like Honda?

As someone from the UK here i will explain what happened to the Uk car industry (we no longer have a UK car Company). You will see how it compares to the US.

- The UK car industry had weak management (same goes for the US)

- They made different type of cars to what people wanted (same goes for the US)

- the unions really ran the shop floor (same goes for the US)

- the unions wouldn't help the the company and just made larger and larger demands if they was not met they just went on stike (not happening in the US yet but just wait and see)

- the government would bail them out no matter what (even if they don't do the things they promised) (looks like this is whats going to happen)

- in the end the company's are nationalized (not happened yet but expect it to happen when this current bail out fails)

-then the goverment just keep building cars at a lose just to keep people in jobs unions will never give into the goverment.

- while this is going off forign companys are building cars people want without any of the above problems

- in the end the goverment sell the car companys to the forign company just to get rid of them (they are broken down)

The End of the UK car Industory

Don't make the same misstake in the US

No. The unions aren't budging. They are exaggerating and saying that if they take a pay cut from $30 an hour that they'll be making minimum wage. The extravagant benefits given to retired auto workers are hurting the economy but they don't want to budge either. In other auto companies, workers are expected to cover their own retirement cost through employer-matched 401k's rather than have the company foot the entire bill. UAW won't even consider such a thing. That's just something that the rest of us tax payers need to do.

I have quite a few friends who work at Honda and they love their jobs, receive a fair wage and benefits. But to hear the UAW talk, anything less than $30 an hour and full retirement benefits is living in utter poverty.

The UAW and other unions need to make concessions soon in order for any pay cuts to happen. I think they wil but the negotiation process will take time that the big three don't really have. What these unions need to realize is that whats the point of a strong union if all of your members are unemployed.

The american auto workers have given up a lot. I am not a fan of unions, but information that has come out about the union workers is not true. Sure, some of them make $30 an hour; none of them make $70. Those figures that came out was the cost of an employee, which includes the cost of all of their benefits and the cost of taxes that the employer has to pay. Salary is usually only about half of that figure.

Not sure which foreign auto company it was, but by comparing wages with them, they were actually being paid more per hour than the union worker.

If everyone is only making minimum wage, who is going to pay all the taxes for all of the governments social programs?

My opinion... foreign auto makers need to go back to where they came from. Americans need to quit buying foreign and start supporting our own country.

the pay is based on union scales and that was the reason the bail out failed in congress last week .. they wouldn't budge on the pay scale til at least 2010 which wasn't fast enough for some republican senators

UAW benefits are out of control. UAW is sinking America with the support of Dems and Obama.

Yes in addition to closing 20 plants. 1 out 10 jobs in this country are auto-related. How does 25% unemployment grab you?

The GM CEO will be taking a $1 salary next year.

The Unions keep that from happening to any great extent.

Read up on "protected status employees"

http://www.uaw.org/contracts/07/chrysler/hrly/chry...

http://www.cnsnews.com/Public/Content/article.aspx...

I can name that tune in three letters;

UAW