Quote:
Originally Posted by robvuk
I heard that union labor is $25/hr higher than the competitors. If a Corvette takes 160 man hours to build, that's $4,000 added on to the car right there and that's on the manufacturers COST level. by the time that hits the dealer and the dealer hits retail, make that an $8,000 premium, even after discounts.
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What I find
EXTREMELY ironic is people talking about a union assembly line worker that
ACTUALLY averages $28 an hour, and we have the CEO that pulls down 15.7 million in 2007 (huge bonuses) & many other big whigs not far behind. Private jet anyone? ESPECIALLY when the company's Profit/Loss looks PATHETIC! Let's call a spade a spade. If someone can dispute this information below, I'm all ears.
1.) The Return of the $70 Per Hour Meme
You might expect it from right-leaning commentators like Will Wilkinson. You wouldn't expect it from someone like Mark Perry, who lives in Flint, Michigan. And you certainly wouldn't expect to see it in the New York Times, from the likes of Andrew Ross Sorkin. But all of them are perpetuating the meme that the average GM worker costs more than $70 an hour, once you include health and pension costs.
It's not true.
The average GM assembly-line worker makes about $28 per hour in wages, and I can assure you that GM is not paying $42 an hour in health insurance and pension plan contributions. Rather, the $70 per hour figure (or $73 an hour, or whatever) is a ridiculous number obtained by adding up GM's total labor, health, and pension costs, and then dividing by the total number of hours worked. In other words, it includes all the healthcare and retirement costs of retired workers.
Now that GM's healthcare obligations are being moved to a UAW-run trust, even that fictitious number is going to fall sharply. But anybody who uses it as a rhetorical device suggesting that US car companies are run inefficiently is being disingenuous. As of 2007, the UAW represented 180,681 members at Chrysler, Ford and General Motors; it also represented 419,621 retired members and 120,723 surviving spouses. If you take the costs associated with 721,025 individuals and then divide those costs by the hours worked by 180,681 individuals, you're going to end up with a very large hourly rate. But it won't mean anything, unless you're trying to be deceptive.
2.) DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Rick Wagoner's salary and other compensation rose 64 percent in 2007 to about $15.7 million, mainly due to option grants, according to a proxy filed on Friday.
The GM compensation committee cited significant progress over the past few years in reducing the automaker's health care cost burden, increasing growth internationally and improvements in its cars and trucks in the 2007 awards to executives.
Wagoner's compensation rose from about $9.57 million in 2006. The figure was arrived at based on Wagoner's salary, all other compensation and the basis of annual grants.
GM paid Wagoner a salary of $1.6 million in 2007, along with $1.8 million in non-equity incentive compensation and nearly $700,000 for other compensation that includes insurance benefits, security, aircraft expenses and other factors.
GM, which reported a record $39 billion net loss in 2007, released the figures in a proxy statement on Friday afternoon that was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The automaker, which has been restructuring, reached a contract in 2007 with the United Auto Workers that has permitted buyouts for its UAW hourly workers, a second-tier wage for new hires and a plan that will push billions of health care obligations into a union-aligned trust.
Wagoner had accepted a reduced base salary in 2006 and 2007 and only about 16 percent of his compensation is guaranteed. In March, GM granted Wagoner a raise to $2.2 million per year, restoring his salary to 2006 levels.
Fritz Henderson, who was promoted to president and chief operating officer in March, received compensation of about $9.3 million in 2007, up from about $5.1 million in 2006.
Henderson's salary was raised to $1.8 million from $1.3 million in March with his appointment as president and COO, the No. 2 position to Wagoner.
Vice Chairman Bob Lutz's compensation rose to about $9 million in 2007, from about $5.1 million in 2006. The product chief's salary was raised to $1.75 million, from $1.3 million.
The issue of executive compensation in the struggling U.S. auto industry has become something of a hot-button issue because of the United Auto Workers union.
A report earlier in April that Ford Motor Co (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Alan Mulally had earned more than $22 million in 2007, drew a sharp rebuke from the UAW as excessive, given concessions UAW members had agreed to in the 2007 contract.
Ford, which posted a $2.7 billion loss in 2007, reported a first quarter profit on Thursday that surprised analysts.
GM and other major automakers have been hit by a slowing in the U.S. economy and rising fuel costs that have driven a major shift in consumer preferences toward cars and crossovers and away from large sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks.
GM also said E. Neville Isdell, chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Co (KO.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), has been nominated to GM's board. He would join the board August 6 if elected at GM's annual meeting in Delaware on June 3.
Corvette Store
2010 corvette changes
these guys are bleeding now, they'll be lucky if they are still breathing in 2010, of course, a paddle shiftter, and a nice steering wheel will be nice 
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