Originally Posted by
iahflyr
They don't have to bring their wages down to the level of China, etc... They just have to not set their wages outside of what the US market would bear.
Yet boards of directors have no problem setting the compensation for top level management at an ever increasing multiple of what their overseas counterparts make.
Have you ever seen what Boeing assembly workers make? Full on pension... WAY TOO MUCH COMPENSATION to do a non-skilled job.
What percentage of the overall cost of an airplane is labor related to manufacture? What's the shipping cost involved in outsourcing? The reason large manufactured items like cars and appliances tend to be built in this hemisphere are the transportation costs involved. I'd bet much of the reason Boeing and Airbus outsource their work is more related to politics (i.e. "If you buy X number of our airplanes, then we'll move some manufacturing to your country", just like Airbus said they would do with their proposal for the USAF Tanker) than cost benefits. Another big reason is the spreading of risk. If a plane's a flop, the risk is spread throughout all of the contractors rather than just the manufacturer. Also, since when did putting an airplane together become strictly "unskilled labor"? We're seeing the fruit of that mentality in the repeated delays for the 787.
Toyota has no problem using American workers. They are non-union and as a result they get paid what they deserve. What the US market will bear. If the UAW was the union at Toyota's plant, they would ship those jobs overseas in a heartbeat.
The only reason those non-union workers make as much as they do is because of the wage standards set by unions.
I don't think unions are horrible. But when unions set their wages outside of what the market will bear, they are asking for trouble. They get NO sympathy from me.
The UAW no doubt set up a system that became untenable, but if not for the UAW, those non-union auto manufacturing jobs would be worth a fraction of what they currently pay. If you want to see an instance where pay is really out of control, check compensation for upper management of the Big Three. If not for the wages set by airline pilot unions, I'm not doing this job because it's probably paying regional wages. The "we'd be better off without a union" argument doesn't hold water and non-union employees who have wages that are close to their union counterparts are essentially riding on the coattails of what unions accomplish.