Dirty Dealing In Detroit
The Big Three in Detroit — Ford, GM and the Chrysler complex — are demanding major cuts in employee benefits as the industry and union get ready for a new contract. This is a reversal of what has over the years been the customary procedure. Traditionally, the union made demands and in collective bargaining has made steady progress so that at present an auto worker working under a United Auto Workers contract earns the equivalent of about $50,000 a year when fringe benefits are included.
The employers now contend that they can no longer continue in the traditional way because Japanese auto companies that produce cars in the United States pay far less in wages and fringe benefits. To compete, American employers claim that wages and fringe benefits must be cut.
The obvious question is why the UAW doesn’t organize the workers employed by Japanese companies in the U.S. Our guess — and it is only a guess — is that the Japanese employers in the U.S. would probably threaten to shut down their production in the U.S. and transfer it to Japan.
What happens in Detroit, however, will affect American families who have nothing to do with the auto industry. In the course of a year, billions of dollars will be lost to the families of autoworkers. The loss of their purchasing power will be a blow to the entire American economy.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
