Ford UAW employee (Bill Pugliano/Getty)
Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have reached an agreement that will reduce wages to $55 an hour for it’s workers, bringing labor costs more in line with it’s Japanese rivals. The estimated cost savings associated with the concessions is $500 million. This brings wages down a total of $15 per hour since the last contract negotiations two years ago, where pay levels were more than $70 per hour. This figure is supposed to drop even further to somewhere around $50 an hour by 2011.
While labor costs only account for 10% of new vehicle costs, this will help Ford become more competitive, not only with transplant automakers, but also GM and Chrysler, who have made similar concessions with their UAW members. For more, head on over to Reuters.
While I understand that the UAW members have made very good wages for awhile, this is just another example of how foreign companies are destroying the standard of living here in America. Why did the D3 have to cut it’s employee’s wages? It’s simple, the transplant automakers (Toyota, Honda, Kia, etc.) all pay their workers less. If this battle keeps up, there won’t be any high paying jobs left in the country. What will we do then? Not everyone is cut out to do work at $10 an hour…
