I think GM has a ways to go before everything is solved, but I hope they make it – for the company and the workers.

But there is almost no reward for advancement. You would expect, as you stated in your example, that you are supposed to increase your skill set and take on more responsibility in order to increase pay, but this is the exception, not the norm.

Take my mother for example. She’s been there for over 25 years. This time was spent doing the exact same thing–sitting in a chair and sticking a little spring into a hole in a part that comes down the line.

That’s it, a monkey or robot could do it, yet there are times when she can bring home close to 80k/year. She has worked with some of the same people in the same department for over a decade and it is the same. Nobody has advanced, and nobody wants to. Why take on more responsibility when your pay continues to skyrocket based on your seniority?

Of course there are people who want to advance their careers and can take the initiative to advance and make even more money, but since you can make so much money just by staying with the company doing the same thing, what is the incentive?

So, I agree that it may have been a bit generalized, but the union has created an environment that rewards loyalty, not performance or advancement. That is why you have so many 70+ year olds still working in the factories.

I also disagree with the idea that a college education gives a person a right to a middle class living. Hard work does, and history supports this fact. (See the book ‘The Millionaire next door’). The idea behind the Auto worker, as supposed by Henry Ford, was that the worker would be paid to a level where he would be able to buy the car that they have built. Seemingly impossible in todays world (I know I can’t afford to buy new – but hey, I’m happy to save my money for security now and use later in life). But this chicken or the egg argument is best suited for a different post…. I’ll end with pointing out that, as with many things, one bad apple spoils the bunch.

Keep up the good work Jeremy!

In the midwest, it isn’t uncommon for many professionals with graduate degrees to make less than this even years into their career, yet you have Joe six-pack with a GED sitting on an assembly line doing a simple repetitive task earning more than most middle-class Americans.

Sure, overhead costs make up a large part of disparity, but even the average of $27/hr is far above what the market says someone in this capacity should be making.

I haven’t read the AP article you got this from, but I just wanted to comment here, in case it is unclear to anyone, that this number is skewed with burden and overhead costs. The actual average pay that a UAW member receives is $27/hr. Or approx $55K per year before taxes. This is a decent middle class wage, but nothing to write home about. I know that in Japan there are no auto workers making less than this (comparatively), however the basic structure of pension and retirement in Japan.

The Dividend Guy