I agree, Unions do favor the employee, that’s why they were started. Pensions are a plan that the company devises, sure the Union was all for pensions, but the company needs to negotiate better then. This is part of the problem with GM as you have read I am sure. And I wasn’t even talking about pensions. People should take some of their wages to pay for retirement, not a guaranteed pension, but that’s not up to me to decide. Most people invest into 401k’s and such, instead of receiving pensions, this isn’t that common anymore. This is what congress is telling GM (I keep saying GM, but I mean all 3 when I say it, I am just lazy), is that you need to devise a better business model/structure.
There are still co-pays and such, that’s the benefit (pun intended) for working for a big company, to have these things paid for you by your employer. These are physically demanding jobs, this isn’t sitting behind a computer. And again, these people don’t make 80-100K/yr. That’s not how it works. Let’s take an example the average:
$28/hr * 40hrs *52 weeks = $58,240/yr for a not so fun job to begin with. But, that is the average, the guys getting into the union start around $12, how many years of busting your balls and physical labor do you have to do to get to $28 bux an hour. Another thing you aren’t taking into account is that most of these assembly line workers only work 30hrs/week, they deff. don’t work 52 weeks/yr. Overtime doesn’t happen often. So, even if you do make $28/hr say you work 30hrs a week for a full 52 weeks, that’s still only 43/yr. Do you want to work on an assembly line for that kind of money?