Comments on: We know already

By: zachary

zachary — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:54:54 +0000

i blame the wilderness. its that damned sasquatch.

By: zachary

zachary — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:53:53 +0000

except for kenny cause he drives a ford. and jerry cause well jerry doesnt drive. or does he?

By: zachary

zachary — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:52:44 +0000

clearly yall is nutz

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081119/OPINION03/811190380/1148

too bad you couldnt wait and bought a japanese car already.

By: Kenny

Kenny — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:12:09 +0000

In fairness to the news, it is a column, so the views are simply those of the writer. Obviously another thing that stretches credibility is any attempt by me to criticize an Harvard Economist, but at the same time I do feel comfortable saying that blaming the UAW contracts for the industry’smess is a gross oversimplification.

By: indeedindeed

indeedindeed — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:59:02 +0000

ultimately, the biggest issue is that the big three aren’t making the cars that people want to buy, by and large. it’s not like the ford explorer is going to be competing with the corolla if we started paying toyota wages to ford workers.

now the question of to what extent the big three was forced to build bigger, more expensive cars because the UAW had negotiated so well is a real question.

By: indeedindeed

indeedindeed — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:55:12 +0000

right, and thanks for putting that in context that i should have supplied in my original post.

By: Kenny

Kenny — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:21:46 +0000

It’s frustrating that this type of of thing comes from a newspaper that should be well aware of the state of labor negotiations between the Big 3 and the union. They covered last year’s contract negotiations exstensively.

The chart Matt posted on that other post shows the gap. Clearly the Big 3 tend to pay more for labor than some of their foreign competitors who make cars in other parts of the U.S. but that gap is going to close with the new contract, as high payed employees retire and get replaced by new employees coming in on the lower tier. But even with that gap, it’s only a small part of the problems auto makers are facing.

A column that claims that demanding more concessions from the union is the only way the auto makers are going to survive long term ignores so many other factors that it loses all of its credibility.