This would be a terrible investment with my money; it is simply not sustainable

Out of date – GM, Ford & Chrysler’s labor rate drops in less than fourteen months to within $1.50 of Toyota.

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/10/05/gm_pact_cuts_pay_in_half_for_those_in_noncore_jobs/

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/11/02/1069322-ford-uaw-reach-tentative-contract-deal

Took all of five minutes to find this information out.

I was talking about GS-11s and above, while some long term Customs or ICE agents may reach GS-11 (and top out there), they hire in at GS-5 and GS-7.

The Federal Government also employs many people with specialized skills sets and advanced degrees. People with PhDs in math or hard science don’t come cheap.

Some scientists can be GS-11 or 12, it’s true, but I figure that my aunt knows something about the Civil Service and the federal bureaucracy. She retired as an administrative law judge for Social Security. I was talking to her today and mentioned those figures I quoted, that there were almost 300,000 GS-11s and above and her response was, “And what do they do? Sit on their asses all day”.

You mentioned productivity standards. What productivity standards do federal employees have to meet?

The Federal Government also employs many people with specialized skills sets and advanced degrees. People with PhDs in math or hard science don’t come cheap.

Its more the work rules, duplication and featherbedding that kills the no so big 3.

My last job was at a trucking company that serviced a GM parts distribution center. My anecdotal observation for their warehouse is that GM pays 150-200% of the going rate for labor while getting 60-80% of the norm for productivity.

The contract for warehouse workers has NO productivity standard. A worker could pick 1 part per hour and Every night (except Friday) the warehouse crew would screw around for the first few hours as they felt entitled to their 1-2 hours of daily OT. A typical worker would spend 1hr+ per day smoking, BSing on his cell phone, etc. Heck they had two guys who loaded trailers who would watch portable DVD players between activity. In any normal setting one person could cover both jobs working at a regular pace.

But still… while I am way into cutting the federal payroll, the fact that they are a bunch of overpaid bozos is really no justification to protect another bunch of overpaid chaps. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Rebee… do you really think that it helps the comparison to say that you could pay the entire federal payroll for a year for what GM wants?

Please reread my comment. “That’s nearly 1/5 of all Federal employees.”

There are about 1.6 million civilian non-postal employees of the Federal government. I was only talking about those at the level of GS-11 and above. There is far more waste in the Federal payroll than in the domestic auto industry.

We have two classes of people in this country, government employees, and everyone else. Unfortunately, many if not most of those employees not only think they don’t work for us, but the reverse, our job is to support their high salaries and benefits.

Did you get a raise last year? Federal employees got a 2.5% bump.

Uhm…yeah right.

The second piece also ignores the success of the “K” cars and minivans

Is TTAC really prepared to sing the praises of the K car as “solid” product? Sounds a little disingenuous to me. And BTW, the minivan didn’t appear until 1983, 4 years after the bailout.

The Detroit News is center right. The Free Press is at least slightly to the left of center left so it’s no shock that the Freep carries water for the UAW and Democrats like Jennifer Granholm. While there are still some union stalwarts holding a grudge against the Freep for their JOA with the News, for the most part the Free Press is reliably in the tank for organized labor.

I’ve read both papers, pretty much daily, for more than 45 years. The Freep has probably had some more talented writers (with the exception of the late, great Tony Snow) but the News’ editorial page makes more sense. Coverage of sports is about equal, though Rob Parker at the News (formerly at the Freep) is insufferable.

The Detroit newspapers treat the auto industry pretty much the same way the LA Times covers the movie biz.

It really doesn’t. Especially when you consider the raw fact that 25 billion is not the solution to the problem, but only the money to tide them over until the real bailout.

The entire 2008 federal payroll to tide them over until they can really pry some money out of the government! Doesn’t sound so cheap to me.

Say something like “its only 6250 Abrams tanks” or “half of Bill Gates” or “enough to host one Olympic Games” or something.

Detroit – $73.21 per hour
Toyondassan – $44.20 per hour

Did you know that there are almost 300,000 non-postal civilian employees of the Federal government making over $77,000 in salary a year. Toss in another $70K or so in lavish benefits that are simply not available in the private sector. That’s nearly 1/5 of all Federal employees. The cost of their salaries alone is $23.2 billion a year, not much less than the Detroit 3 are asking for. UAW employees may not be the most productive employers on earth, but at least they actually build stuff. What do all those GS-11s and above do that contributes to our GDP or GNP?

Get over it. Those two make a few reliable cars and a lot of mediocre to awful ones.
There is always a better choice.

Cherry picking the data is lame, jettison your letter sweater and pom-poms Phelan.
*\o/* RAH!

Bunter

Her minions of bastard children are twice as ugly.

Detroit – $73.21 per hour
Toyondassan – $44.20 per hour

This would be a terrible investment with my money; it is simply not sustainable.

http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/paygap.jpg