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can the media please cut it
May. 8th, 2009 09:37 amwith the "$50 an hour" bullshit spin on how much factory auto workers.
That number (and the higher $70 touted earlier this year) came about by dividing the labor *budget*, which includes benefits, by the active number of workers.
That budget includes pensions and severances. The pensions aren't being paid to active workers, but to retired workers and those laid off or who took buyout options.
Thus, the total labor cost includes a sizeable chunk of money that is not going to current workers.
BTW, this is one of those that easily disproves the so-called "liberal media bias", since the $70 comes from an unapologetic New York Times, and the current $50 figure was repeated without comment by a reporter on CBS Radio.
Now, all this doesn't necessarily mean that GM wasn't and isn't mismanaged, but how about we cite actual facts about bad management decisions than spin lies about auto-workers supposedly making more than the engineers that actually design the cars and implement the electronic systems?
That number (and the higher $70 touted earlier this year) came about by dividing the labor *budget*, which includes benefits, by the active number of workers.
That budget includes pensions and severances. The pensions aren't being paid to active workers, but to retired workers and those laid off or who took buyout options.
Thus, the total labor cost includes a sizeable chunk of money that is not going to current workers.
BTW, this is one of those that easily disproves the so-called "liberal media bias", since the $70 comes from an unapologetic New York Times, and the current $50 figure was repeated without comment by a reporter on CBS Radio.
Now, all this doesn't necessarily mean that GM wasn't and isn't mismanaged, but how about we cite actual facts about bad management decisions than spin lies about auto-workers supposedly making more than the engineers that actually design the cars and implement the electronic systems?
