SkyHigh

One of the biggest expenses they can cut is their pension plans. The news made it sound like American Auto companies are top heavy with union extorted retirement funds of past and present workers to support.

They could take a play from the airlines and in Chapter 11 they could jettison their burden.

Skyhigh

de727ups

"But it's a sure thing to be able to make $300,000 and work 4.5 to 5 days per week."

There you go. You "leaving the career" folks just got your guarantee. It's a sure thing. Just follow your way to the TonyM school of medicine.

And they call ME a "flag waiver"....

Pilotpip

For those of you buying the six figure auto career hype, take a look in the mirror. Since you regional FOs make $30 an hour, you're making $60k a year right?

OH wait, all airline pilots make $300k a year in the eyes of the public, so that holds true for all of us right?

USMCFLYR

I don't know how much those auto factory workers are making an hour or a year but a friend of mine just interview with a company flying Lears out of SD and offered him between $30-35K per year. Now this company also has a simulator contract where they pay over six figures. The disparity comes because both contratc pay about the same ($48/hr), but the pilots are guaranteed only 651 hrs per year while the sim instructors are working almost 2,000 hrs per year.

USMCFLYR

SkyHigh

To me the issue is that doctors and pilots have about the same invested in regards to the cost of education and training and in the time it takes to reach their career goals.

Doctors however have a much better chance of seeing good return than pilots and have more control over their lives. Doctors can choose to be a small town GP or move to the big city and be a surgeon. Doctors are in demand and are needed all over the world. Doctors have value in their educations that transcend their abilities in the hospital. As a doctor if you try harder and are better than the next guy your efforts can be rewarded. Doctors still hold a high place in society. Hollywood makes an endless stream of TV shows based upon what doctors do because it is interesting. And lastly, they make a measurable difference.

The nicest planes at the airport are owned by doctors and business owners.

SkyHigh

Luckydawg

A typical UAW worker earns between $28 and 32 dollars an hour. Here is the great disparity in the press quoted rates and the actual. The big three are caring on a legacy of costs.

Why is the figure cited as hourly labor costs by the companies so much higher than the wage rates?

In addition to regular hourly pay, the labor cost figures cited by the companies include other expenses associated with having a person on payroll. This includes overtime, shift premiums and the costs of negotiated benefits such as holidays, vacations, health care, pensions and education and training. It also includes statutory costs, which employers are required to pay by law, such as federal contributions for Social Security and Medicare, and state payments to workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance funds.The highest figures sometimes cited also include the benefit costs of retirees who are no longer on the payroll.

Wages and labor costs - UAW Bargaining 2007

TonyMontana

Flag waiver and flame baiter. Only you don't censor yourself.

HercDriver130

Just once I would like TM or Sky to admit that there are people in other professions that hate their jobs and move on.... even doctors and sleazy real estate people.....

tomgoodman

Sky,

I will charitably assume that you are not suggesting that they do this, but merely pointing out what might happen. Pensions are legal, agreed-upon obligations incurred for work already performed, just like the price you charge a homebuyer or the fee a doctor charges a patient. Calling either one "extortion" is false, and reflective of "buyer's remorse". Such thinking by airline managements and bankruptcy courts explains, in part, why your aviation dream was snatched away.

SkyHigh

I believe that unions extort American companies into business arrangements that make them uncompetitive. Most other industries have abandoned the future burden of retirement funding in favor of self funded plans. If GM were to go out of business tomorrow what would happen to all the UAW retirements? They need to be able to compete in order to survive. We now live in a global market. America is going to have to adjust their wages to match other countries or get out of some markets altogether.

I have never worked for a company that offered a traditional pension plan and if I did would not expect it to be there by the time I reached retirement. I don't expect to get any social security either.

Skyhigh