Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragoneye
If only it were that easy. The labor costs were not a cause but an effect of the same reason that brought GM down....this thing snowballed out of control starting in the 70s. Nailing any one group/person/thing down for it would be inaccurate.
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Not to be rude, but what in the world does that mean?
And the unions were the main cause. Another thing the Big 3 did was 'backend' the autoworkers compensation packages. Instead of just giving large per hour raises when the unions demanded more, management often agreed to bigger healthcare and bigger pension plans. So each year as the workforce aged, and thus more and more workers retired and got older, labor costs went up. And not only did they go up, but the retired guys receiving the large pensions and healthcare benefits were no longer producing anything for the company.
One of the reasons Ford did not need a bailout was that several years ago they made a deal with the UAW that was better for them than the deals GM and Chrysler had with the UAW.