According to Forbes:

(Forwarded to RiteOn by CA Guest Editor W. H.)
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The big three contracts provide that if you are laid off you continue to receive salary and benefits.
Labor cost per hour, wages and benefits for hourly workers.

Ford: $70.51 ($141,020 per year)

GM: $73.26 ($146,520 per year)

Chrysler: $75.86 ($151,720 per year)

Toyota, Honda, Nissan (in U.S.): $48.00 ($96,000 per year)

Many industry analysts say the Detroit Three, must be on par with Toyota and Honda to survive.  This year's contract, they say, must be "transformational" in reducing pension and health care costs.

Then there's the "Job Bank"  

When a D3 (Detroit 3 carmakers) lays an employee off, that employee continues to receive all benefits - medical, retirement, etc., etc., PLUS an hourly wage of $31/hour.
Here's a typical story.... 

Ken Pool is making good money.  On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working -- on a crossword puzzle.  Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits.

"We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper," he says. "Otherwise, I just sit."

Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers as demanded by the United Auto Workers Union - UAW - as part of an extraordinary job security agreement. 

Now the D3 wants Joe Taxpayer to pick up this tab in a $25 Billion bailout package - soon to be increased to $45 Billion if Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton have their way.  
The "Big 3" want this money - not to build better autos.   No.   They want it to pay the tab for Medical and Retirement benefits for RETIRED auto workers.   Not ONE PENNY would be used to make them more competitive, or to improve the quality of their cars.  

We ALL have problems paying for our Medical Insurance - but the Democrat leaders in Congress now want us to pay the Medical Insurance premiums of folks who have RETIRED from Ford, GM and Chrysler.   
Not a good deal for us.   

How about Chapter 11 - and getting rid of these ridiculous union contracts?  

Comments

[Bugsy]

The facts above are distorted. The Big 3 rates include health care & benefits.

The Japanese employee rates listed above do not include health care & benefits.

The actual rates are not that far a part. The story is an anti-union ploy.