Is that 200 cut/2000 wage true or was it just propaganda? ie, the union wanted it to sound as bad as possible knowing most people won't do the math so they, say, morphed a $100 cut in to a $200 cut to make it sound worse. If not, they are long overdue a pay cut. Although, it may result in a few mortgages not being able to be paid... This country is a disaster waiting to happen...
Well how the f!!! are we ment to keep up with the cost of living???? How can someone make payments on a 3-400k mortgage on $200 a week?????
What Holden need is a cylinder cut by 2 from 6 and 8 to 4... Then they might sell some cars... Just like the Us car makers in Detroit, didn't see it coming... Bad management, bad government bail outs an now bad for our country. Regards Errol 43
Jesus Christ! The average wage in Holden factories is $2000?! No wonder they can't compete. I think I can confidently say that even with that salary, few probably have enough saved to survive a year without work.
And you dont need any qualifications or skills to join!! lol. As mentioned the STARTING wage at ford for NON SKILLED labor is $870.00 pw. Thats just a starting wage. As the worker becomes competent at different work stations the wage rises with each machine/robot they learn how to use ( push buttons).
Not knowing anything about the difficulty of "pushing buttons" as a worker/owner in a small-medium business where capital/skills matter it is very normal for the internal "fixed wage" labour to share in the incremental gains from productivity improvements associated with automation etc and resultant specialisation. Hence, over the decades the Holden employees have (presumably) been able to produce more cars per worker as the automation has made lots of jobs redundant and the remaining staff have shared profitability benefits with the owner's/management (the rule of thumb over the past few decades in most industries seems to be that about half of the profits remaining after sale price changes to customers are split between the internal workforce and the owners of the capital). This is a complicated way of saying that although the wages may seem to be high they need to be taken in context of the productivity etc benefits and automation changes that have happened over the decades. Hence, I don't begrudge them. The real issue is that the profit sharing is only possible based on the business actually being profitable and the incentives of a militant union over a long enough time period are usually misaligned with this objective (and govt. subsidies aggravate it further) with the typical result that the business goes bankrupt and everybody loses. It's a continual balancing act and the role of the "overpaid" managers is - in theory - to protect the interests of the capital owners from it's own internal labour force from destroying itself from within. When things go well, everyone is happy but when external factors mean that both groups need to reduce their returns and bear some losses (even if it's just forgoing future gains) then it is critical that people are flexible. The ability to have downward flexibility in wage rates is a critical factor. Bearing a fall in your wage really sucks (which owner-operators regularly feel month-to-month, so I do not have much sympathy for people unwilling to budge) but at the end of the day none of the Holden workers are slaves and none of the capital owners are forced to employ them (mostly). If a wage cut can save Holden, then great. If the business can continue without wage cuts/job losses then that's even better. Whether or not someone is "overpaid" depends on the situation (but in recent years, the answer seems to be a resounding "yes").
i found this article from Feb 2012 ... http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nat...r-cent-wage-rise/story-fn59noo3-1226270229745 Including ... Hardship???
You don't begrudge them?????????? Obviously there are no productivity benefits if the company needs $2.17 billion of taxpayers money over the past 12 years in order to maintain average wages of over $100 000.
This is the usual underlying truth of union spin. I have seen manufacturing businesses shut down time and again because of situations like this, but the unions will still cry foul.
So the unions extort the company and then the company extorts the government taxpayers. It's fascinating the way business is done in this country. Corruption at all levels which is labelled as law by the government and so therefore isn't corruption. Amazing.
Big thank you to willrocks and mmm...shiney! for deliberately taking one line out of a generic discussion and putting it out of context and making it look like I support Govt theft to subsidise unprofitable industries. It's reminded me of why people like Richard Dawkins are so careful with their words
GM is a zombie company that has reached it's use-by date due to their refusal to adapt to an evolving market. The important issue here is the livelihoods of it's staff and of the businesses that support them with parts. Since the unions have been bleeding off workers pay for so long perhaps they had better start working on finding other ways for their members to earn a living instead of flogging a dead corporate horse. They need to adapt and start looking after their members interests instead of following a non-viable paradigm. The world has changed, unions have not.
You would think I would have a learned the lesson for good after my company sacked me and called Child Protective Services after I rolled out these for the big Vaseline contract.
We all know the truth Bord. Methinks you doth protest too much. EDIT: incidentally aren't Holden overpriced, ugly pieces of crap? I remember going to buy a car a few years ago, not really having anything in mind. There wasn't one Holden that I found interesting, even though one of the salesmen tried to convince me it was a "real man's car".
