Are American automakers failing due to the greed of autoworkers? Why do they demand things like healthcare?
Add commentsAuto workers in countries like Germany or Japan do not demand healthcare or pensions from their companies. Healthcare is a HUUUUGE expense for US companies. It is gigantic!
I know this for a fact; I looked up translations of the current agreements for a Mercedes factory near Stuttgart, Germany, and a Nissan factory near Yokohama, and compared it to a UAW agreement for Ford USA.
American autoworkers are mega-greedy. They have things like health care coverage and long-term pensions that are not included in the German or Japanese agreements.
Why is this? Why are American autoworkers so greedy compared to their counterparts around the world?
Universal healthcare is communist socialism; we don’t want that in America. Just have the autoworkers buy insurance from the open market from their normal salaries.
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April 7th, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Because this is America where ALL middle income workers receive health care through their employer.
April 7th, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Greedy! Healthcare is greedy? Those countries you mentioned have socialize medicine..that’s why they don’t make as much.
April 7th, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Universal Healthcare would remove this immense financial burden from the Big 3, and possibly help these companies, and many more, rescue themselves from the brink of elimination.
April 7th, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Perhaps unions in these other countries don’t fight for healthcare because they have socialized medicine.
April 7th, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Unfair comparison, since Germany and Japan have national health care systems.
Otherwise, though, you have a point - although you can’t blame anyone for being greedy. People try to get what they can get.
Bottom line: Management shouldn’t have given in to union demands that robbed the automakers of the efficiencies and flexibility they need to survive … and ultimately guaranteed their sure, slow death, which is a disaster for everyone.
A lesson there for all of us.
April 7th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
haha, cause around the world the government pays for it.
April 7th, 2011 at 10:58 pm
er… they have universal health care… so they don’t need GM to give it to them…
this is sarcasm… right? it’s hard to tell on here anymore
April 7th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Germany and Japan have health care provided by the government. I hope that helps you understand the situation better.
April 8th, 2011 at 12:30 am
Excuse me, missy, but all Germans get healthcare through the government and other ways. Germans also have a shorter work week and extended vacations. The German pension system is paid by the government, but the employers contribute to THAT, not to a private pension plan.
Yes, the union members that are left get good wages, but they are not “greedy” as you claim. The Japanese situation is much different. It is not greedy to want to have a healthy family and not have to worry about high healthcare costs.
Detroit has higher costs due to the fact that many of the factories are older and take more maintenance compared with the Southern factories of Japanese and German carmakers.
Yes, healthcare is a big issue. If we had general healthcare, this would not be such an issue, but the German companies pay more in taxes to support the government-provided benefits.
April 8th, 2011 at 1:12 am
Don’t know. I would disagree with you if I didn’t know what I was talking about. Fortunately I do because one of my grandfather’s worked the press thing for Ford here in NY.
But if he was to lose his job his wife that has cancer, my grandmother, would probably die.
I’m not saying you are wrong but you aren’t seeing the entire picture.
April 8th, 2011 at 1:57 am
yep it sank them, the big three,
If the unions would have been willing (like the rest of american companies) to pay part of their premiums that is one nail in the big threes coffin that wouldn’t have been there.
April 8th, 2011 at 2:01 am
Do other employees in the Banks get healthcare?
Don’t other companies offer healthcare?
The reason auto workers in Britain, Japan, France and Germany don’t demand it is because they already get healthcare - these countries have a national universal health care program. They don’ t have workers turning up with illness.
April 8th, 2011 at 2:24 am
well, part of it is the fact that in Germany and Japan the government provides for a lot more in the way of healthcare and retirement pensions. But they also pay much higher taxes to pay for it. The US autoworkers are very greedy but it might be a bit unfair to make head to head comparisons with other countries. Try taking all of the variables into account. You will still find that UAW is pricing themselves right out of a job. But its not quite as simple as you make it out.
April 8th, 2011 at 3:08 am
I dont think the union workers would want what people are pushing for Solialized medicine. They have the cadillac plan and pay no premiums.
I would think companies wouldn’t want it either, their employees would be sitting in the doctors office for hours instead of at work.
April 8th, 2011 at 3:09 am
We dont’ want our standard of living to be the same as people in the Turd World. That’s the whole point of being American. We don’t want to live in a sewer or a shyt-hole like you do.
April 8th, 2011 at 3:44 am
It’s going to be fun to watch.
Workers making $15.00 and hour, bailing out workers making $85.00 and hour.
Cool.
That’s what Obama meant by “spreading the wealth around.”
April 8th, 2011 at 4:12 am
Hahaha, those countries have universal healthcare, which makes them more competitive than the United States!
You’re going to have to grow up soon. Those businesses that oppose socialism are using it as an excuse to screw over regular people. These are the same people groveling to the government for billions of dollars for screwing up. Yet, their Republican beliefs state that less government interference is good, and that people shouldn’t expect help from the government?
You had better realize you are being scammed. Socialism is a part of life, it’s not evil. It’s not BAD. No system of government is bad, there is only bad leadership.
Those people in corporate America have figured out it’s about getting yours. You are allowing yourself to get robbed by them. You are going to be the sucker in the end!
April 8th, 2011 at 4:57 am
I bet that in Germany and Japan CEO’s don’t make thousands of dollars per hour either.
April 8th, 2011 at 5:38 am
Mega-greedy, hey I like that. It truly describes the whole American auto industry and it’s been this way for years. UAW workers have abused the system with their outrageous demands and it’s finally jumped up and bit them on the @ss. It’s really hard to feel sorry for this union or it’s membership.
Equally to blame, if not more so, is the spineless auto management, both in it’s dealings with the unions and it’s inability to make the right vehicle for the moment. It has continued to ignore fuel efficiency. It has failed to do aggressive R & D on alternative energy vehicles, and it has almost always been on the wrong page when identifying consumer demand.
Further, the auto makers have failed to establish plants in open shop states that would have allowed for a different atmosphere other than the dictatorship of the UAW.
There’s nothing wrong with a company providing a reasonable health care program for its employees. Family and dependent insurance should not be at company expense, and pension plans are killing the golden goose. These are issues that need to be brought down to earth. Maybe then, car companies can get back to the business at hand, profitably. Let us not forget management salaries and bonuses that need to be slashed to the bone. Do this, and they just might survive !