Monday, September 18, 2023

Nice comment (3)

I find myself glued to these comments in this Yahoo article https://finance.yahoo.com/news/uaw-boss-says-workers-shouldn-104507319.html
Tesla workers "are scraping to get by?" Those workers get a decent wage/salary, bonuses, and stock options. The latter have been highly lucrative for many. I'm not aware that Tesla, despite high turnover from a pressure culture that trickles down from their demanding CEO, has a problem recruiting talent and workers due to compensation. IF the UAW cared at all about the competitiveness of the companies that pay their workers, they would be seeking a partnership agreement that minimizes labor costs with an upside on profit sharing and wealth creation that comes from a highly functioning management/labor relationship. This fencepost hard ball negotiating philosophy from the UAW is so last century, and completely out of touch with the competitive reality of this century. The "bailout" by taxpayers of GM simply burdened the company with ongoing costs from the UAW, since it was structured as a blatant political payback to the UAW by Obama/Biden. Allowing GM to go through bankruptcy, as every other company in their situation does, would have led to a healthy GM not burdened by UAW in every factory. The highest performing factories at GM were NOT UAW factories. Sadly, in a nasty payback fashion, all non-UAW factories were closed in the "bailout" negotiations. Some Unions get it, the UAW doesn't.