[ZTWsquared]

NOS2Go4Me,Dec 12 2008, 03:04 PM Wrote:Ford's in the best shape of the three, but they're not out of the woods by far.

I agree that the entire company, at least in Chrysler's case, needs to be overhauled.

Not even going to start on the Canadian guys (trying to not crack on some of our fellow members here), but when Toyota and other US-based manufacturing plants pay far less to their workers and yet their products have better overall quality and reliability... that says something. The fact that a Toyota line worker also makes 20-25 less an hour at least also tells you something - they're not starving!!!

It's called living within your means and something tells me that the US Big 3 employees who barely "live" off 70+ dollars an hour are in for a rude awakening.
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This isn't to disagree with you, but to clarify the info you're relying on ... the $70 + per hour figure as widely reported INCLUDES the cost of providing benefits to retirees - extrapolated back to the hourly rate ... so although it costs GM etc $73 "an hour" to produce a vehicle, that isn't what they pay their active workers ... you're right to the extent that non-union workers seem to be making a decent living and decent benefits without the power of the union, but their hourly rate isn't much different than what active CAW / UAW workers get.