In Ford’s defense - everyone in the plant that actually works for a living and doesn’t just play fantasy football all day - is on strike so it’s not surprising their management is paralyzed by indecision for weeks on end.
Majority of inflation is largely greedflation, i.e. corporate profit driven not in anyway compensational towards wage costs. Hell even the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics agrees.
I expect so, but most corporations aren’t going to roll back and make less money than they do now. I read that the UAW workers want to make $100,000 a year after 4 years on the job. I don’t see how that can make vehicles any more affordable.
Corporations will do whatever they need to maximize profit.
If people had higher standards, businesses would have to meet those standards in order to stay in business.
I don’t see how that can make vehicles any more affordable.
That’s because you’re not paying attention to the people who are making too much profit. They’re having a fat payday because vehicles are expensive and employees are paid peanuts. There’s plenty of room for vehicles to go down in price and employees to get paid more if the people making profit made less profit.
Keep in mind, they will still be making more money than you can ever hope to achieve.
Imagine thinking the automotive industry actively looks for areas to cut the fat and somehow simultaneously you manage to completely ignore the fact dealerships still exist
I think the companies already charge whatever they can get away with. They are always going to charge the maximum price they can without losing more money in lost sales.
The workers getting a pay rise would increase the minimum cost they could charge but they already charge the maximum which is what the market will bear. To not do the latter would mean these companies are willingly leaving money on the table
The workers getting a pay rise would increase the minimum cost they could charge but they already charge the maximum which is what the market will bear.
No it wouldn’t. They would simply make very slightly less profit. Christ. Thatcher really did a number on y’all
The minimum cost they could charge is the amount it cost them to make it which would go up but they charge the maximum which is the price that generates the most profit without sacrificing sales therefore a pay rise would mean the company would just have to eat the cost and make less profit
UAW factories don’t make affordable economy cars anyway. In fact, the Big 3 abandoned that segment altogether in favor of higher margin trucks and SUVs. They didn’t choose to strike at the plants that build the Wrangler and Bronco randomly. Chinese EVs are slowly taking over Europe because they offer more car for less money. Our steep tariffs are the only thing preventing a Chinese takeover of the US market that would dwarf the Japanese invasion of the 80s.
It’s still going to affect the whole car market. A truck buyer might switch to a smaller car, limiting those, driving up used car prices. If workers get what they want and we get more appetite for car alternatives, win win.
Rather than spending less, they want to make more.
It’s about quality, not quantity.
That said, it’s not fair for workers to get shafted while owners get richer. I believe they all should be making less money so those who have less can have more, but I’ll settle for workers at least getting proportional compensation.
Even if that wasn’t complete nonsense, it would be a good thing. The world needs to stop making and driving ICE vehicles. High prices are a great deterrent.
this take kinda ignores the large number of people and places that do not have that option. it’s not up to consumers to stop driving. infrastructure has to come first in more than just major cities.
This is true, but I also think a rise in auto prices will present a problem that more infrastructure can fix? Like, it’s a pressure that public transit can release. You’d probably want a gradual change if that was the angle, though. Hm.
I was about to rant about how important it is for things to change and people being inconvenienced doesn’t matter. But let’s be real. It’s already too late.
At this point it’s a race to see whether the workers will band together before the magats go full fascist. This decade is about to get really interesting.
I think they have been intentionally making a bad offer so the union strikes and thus production is cut while they blame it on the union to stockholders.
They just make a reasonable offer then. Most strikers cannot afford to last much longer - the union pays less than minimum wage for carrying signs (I haven't checked this strike, but that is typical)
I’m not sure what this particular contract looks like but UAW is huge. Likely with a lot of money in their strike fund. I’d suspect they’re getting something like 60+% of whatever their pay was.
It’s gonna take everyone being on strike I think. Ford doesn’t give a single fuck as they’ve made clear through years and years of abuse towards its workers.
I would love to see a few go bankrupt over this. Considering last time car companies were at risk they got a bailout, I'm sure the government will quash the strikes if they start to hurt.
I believe it’s become much more apparent to people including law makers that we can afford to live without these companies. So many startups for electric cars these days could take over those plants and offer better pay (hopefully). We should’ve moved past these shit companies as a world back when that bailout happened, maybe we learned our lesson and can do it this time.
Unfortunately I don’t think any of the new electric car manufacturers are unionized. So a lot of these people would lose union gigs and end up with less pay/benefits at a non-union shop. Sire they could unionized again but that’s it’s own battle just to get back to where they started.
New companies don’t usually treat their people shitty while starting up. Otherwise they’d never make it in the first place. I think it’s later down the road when the greed kicks in and workers start getting screwed. So at least for a few years it should be win/win even without a union.
That’s not true. Start ups tend to take advantage of people’s hopes and dream of working for a start up. Not sure what the big deal is with start ups. Here’s the first article I found from a quick google search sifted.eu/articles/mental-health-workplace
A data set of 133 europeans isn’t much to base anything on. I do believe there are plenty of startups that are shitty to work for due to the reasons outlined in the article. How many are like that is hard to say.
“Ford’s Kentucky Truck plant builds the Ford F-Series Super Duty, Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs. The plant is one of the largest auto factories in the world and accounts for $25 billion a year in revenue, according to Ford which issued a statement shortly after the walkout.”
Fain wasn’t bluffing, they’re hitting them where it hurts. Go UAW!
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