Labor costs and production costs: where factories are sited

With regard to why American factories are closing and the reasons why:

Considering that less than 10% of the total cost of a vehicle goes into wages, I would suspect that there has become a huge disadvantage in taxes from an operating standpoint, which I find ironic. Our unfavorable business taxes have been the main reason that lobbyists like the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have been promoting off-shoring and outsourcing for years. Labor differences have also been present, but have been insignificant in comparison to the tax benefits. It has just always been more P.C. to blame labor cost differences, as opposed to being upfront and honest about trying to skirt our tax laws, and exploit weaknesses and loopholes. As with any business, it has always been less about how much you make, and more about how much you get to keep for yourselves in the end. The new “Globalization” mantra makes it all seem all right: they are just trying to be competetive.

By citing labor differences, corporations count on a certain amount of resentment from consumers who believe they are paying too much for their cars, and narcissism from jealous laborers in other industries of lesser pay scales, or skilled/educated labor with similar annual incomes. It seems to work well enough: automakers are able to shift the blame and any public resentment for them moving, or outsourcing, right onto the workers themselves.

Professionals that make comparative incomes and are resentful tend to forget the fact that they do not work weekends and work a fraction of the hours it takes to put a factory worker at that income level. They are seldom at risk of harm or repetitive movement injuries, and are unaware of the dangers that are always present inside the plants. They tend to forget that they work in air-conditioned offices, have comp time, flexible hours, and a whole slew of benefits and perks that U.A.W. workers would kill for. They do not know what it is like to be moved, bumped or man-powered from shift to shift, let alone be forced in on weekends that could mean hardships for major family functions, not to mention marriages. Most employees outside of the industry would be in shock at the attendance policies and procedures that have been put in place at many of these plants.

Many do not know what it is like to work inside with building temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit , let alone while wearing mandatory personal protective gear. Many assume that all U.A.W. workers do is push buttons, having never set foot inside a plant to see different. Granted they are not all hard jobs either, and not all U.A.W. workers are deserving of the jobs they have either. There are always exceptions. What is unfortunate that it is those exceptions that always seem to attract the most attention. Negative publicity and perception gets sensationalized and winds up portraying the U.A.W. and all of it’s membership in that same manner. Suddenly every worker at every plant is cast in the same image and is under the same amount of scrutiny. It’s so easy to believe the bad stuff. The cold hard reality is that those exceptions are no different than the bosses kid or relatives that happen to be a screw ups at any other place though. Due to the size of these plants and the number of workers in them I do not believe that the number of screw-ups are disproportionate with that of any other place though, when you calculate the percentage of screw ups versus the number of good workers.

I am by no means complaining or trying to sensationalize how hard the workers in these plants have things, but to bring about an awareness of issues that are seldom portrayed in the media. I know that there are workers in other industries that experience the same hardships for less. I am merely trying to present a human side of the story where, more often than not, the UAW worker is portrayed as a villainous greedy monster.

Most workers are just trying to earn a living and support our families in the same manner expected of everyone else. They show up for work on time and do their jobs to the best of their ability. Most do care about quality and how well the company does as well. They try to hit their production numbers that have been set for them by management and try their best to look for defects and other problems that can cost the company money and create havoc latter. It is in their best interest to do so.

Please bear in mind though that they are not the ones behind poor designs, inferior materials, bland styling, lousy components, cheap plastics, or bad gas mileage figures… the list could go on. They do what they are told to do and work with the materials that are provided to them. They work within the control limits that are given to them by management.