I have to say also, with regard to the labor concessions -- Mr. [Ron] Gettelfinger [UAW president], I wanted to review some of those. Because I am stunned by the kind of -- when you hear the talking heads on television and when you read what some people say in this town and across the country about the mythology that's out there about how we're -- how we got to this situation. And, frankly, the scapegoating of the men and women of organized labor, and in particular, autoworkers.
Point number one: In 2005, cuts in wages for active workers and health-care benefits for retirees -- point number one. I'm reading from your testimony. Cuts for new workers, bringing the wage level down to 14 bucks an hour. How many industries are doing that? Reducing the company's liability for retiree health care by 50 percent. And I realize these have been in the record before, but it is very important.
And wages and benefits. You said yourself that they're about 10 percent -- 10 percent of the budget? You would think listening to some of the people talk out there, some of the so-called experts, that wages and benefits were 70 percent of the cost. So there's a lot of mythology, a lot of myth generally that has been put on the record.
In 20-- since 2003, downsizing by the companies has reduced their workforce by 150,000 people. That doesn't get said very often. The labor-cost gap with foreign transplant operations will be largely or completely eliminated. OK? So, it's -- I think it's important to put this information on the record for this hearing. And then we've heard this garbage about 73 bucks an hour. It's a total lie, and some people have perpetrated that deliberately in a calculated way to mislead the American people about what we're doing here. It's a lie, and they know it's a lie.
My comment: According to a bit on MSNBC the other night the average wage for a line worker at the Big Three is $28/hour. the average wage for a line worker at one of the "Transplants" is $25/hour. $28/hour is a far cry from $73/hour.
From where I sit the big difference in the price of cars between foreign manufacturers and domestic manufacturers is a health care issue. Japan, home of Toyota and Honda, has Universal Health Care. Germany, home to Mercedes Benz and BMW has Universal Health Care. Korea has Universal Health Care. Virtually every civilized country on the planet has some basic Universal Health Care. If you want to know why American companies have trouble competing in the global market, looking into Universal Health Care would be a good place to start. Our companies, in all industries across the board, shoulder the burden for employee health care. The companies based in other countries are not saddled with that burden. Products are priced accordingly ... and when employee health care costs are factored in to the price of products, that cost is a liability. I know from my own corporate experience that the health care costs paid by the company I worked for represented a 25-30% add on to my salary. It was a Japanese company and that health care factor went a long way to explain why our products were manufactured in Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam ... not here. I worked for a sales entity ... a means of transferring cash from the US to Japan. We basically bought our products from the parent company ... and product was priced in such a way that the subsidiary I worked for was barely profitable. It wasn't supposed to make money! The manufacturing arm was the place the money was made.
Why don't we have Universal Health Care? Because we don't want no stinking government bureaucrat making decisions about our health care. We'd much rather have some clerk with a high school education, working for an insurance company making those decisions. After all, getting health care is a privilege in this country - not a right. We'd rather see second rate health care (or none) for a significant segment of our population than have our industries compete on a level playing field. No! Wait! That doesn't make sense?
Sure it does ... if you're blinded by ideology!
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