As they killed efforts late Thursday (December 11, 2008) to help the Arsenal of Democracy survive to fight another day, Senate Republicans were demanding the UAW agree to wage parity with foreign automakers.
Which foreign-owned plants did they have in mind -- the ones that pay roughly the same $29-$30 an hour as the American-owned plants, or the ones that pay $14 an hour?
As Automotive News reports, wages at foreign-owned plants are a moving target, and they are moving down and down and down.
It reports:
"There are currently pay differences even between the U.S. auto plants owned by Toyota Motor Corp. Toyota workers in Georgetown, Ky., earn $27-$30 an hour, similar to the hourly wages of UAW workers in Michigan.
"But vexed by the rise of lower-wage competitors, including Hyundai Motor Co. in Montgomery, Ala., and Nissan Motor Co. in Canton, Miss., Toyota has been on a campaign to establish new plants that can pay lower hourly rates than its more-established U.S. plants.
"Starting wages for workers at Toyota's San Antonio Tundra pickup plant, which opened in 2006, began at $15.50 an hour and are scheduled to grow to $21 an hour in 2009. And assembly workers at the company's planned Prius factory near Tupelo, Miss., are expected to earn $20 an hour when it opens in 2010. Yet Toyota's Corolla-Tacoma plant in Fremont, Calif., is a UAW-represented joint-venture with General Motors that pays national UAW rates.
"The nonunion transplants' decade-long efforts to reduce their wages further marks a reversal of their earlier practices.
"Since they first arrived here in the early 1980s, the Japanese transplants made an effort to pay workers at levels that were close to -- but just under – UAW wages.
"As a result, union organizers were repeatedly stymied in their efforts to convince well-paid nonunion workers at Honda Motor Co.'s plant in Marysville, Ohio, and at Nissan's operations in Smyrna, Tenn., that the union could help them.
"In recent years, that wage gap has widened.
"Hyundai made a point of paying less than Toyota, Honda and Nissan when it entered Alabama in 2002. Its sister company, Kia Motors Co., is now hiring workers for a new assembly plant in rural west Georgia to start at $14.90 an hour.
"The transplants are a moving competitive target.
"This summer, Nissan North America offered employee buyout to hundreds of workers at two Tennessee vehicle and engine plants.
"Nissan has not said what it plans to do with its Tennessee workforce in the future. But by reducing the headcount of more senior employees, Nissan now has the option of hiring new workers at lower starting salaries in the future.
"Last month, Honda opened a new car plant in Greensburg, Ind., where workers are starting at $14.84 an hour."
The UAW already has agreed that new hires will start at $14 an hour. Any idea what the foreign-owned plants would do if that became the widespread wage?
No comments:
Post a Comment