You kidding, right? Your logic is full of holes...
I never said the work in the plants is easy (physically) or not challenging to some degree. What do I do? I work in finance with mathematical models. Physically challenging? - hardly. Requires a high level of education (MBA, CFA, PhD, etc.) and a higher level of acumen? Absolutely!
So to answer your question - Just like a brain surgeon, judge, astronauts, biochemist, etc. get paid top dollar for all the long years of education and grueling hours they had to put in order to be licensed and certified to do, so am I. I'm not trying to brag here or pretend I'm a better human being than any given UAW employee. I'm just trying to explain to you why some professions come with higher incomes. Are you really sitting here claiming a UAW employees is as valuable as a cancer researcher for example? How about a rocket scientist? Hedge fund manager?
Any able body can assemble cars. Not every able body can operate on a brain. You can teach an illegal immigrant how to stamp a piece of metal or assemble a car's dashboard. You can't teach mathematical models or aeronautic engineering to a guy off the street. There's a reason why different professions get paid differently. Otherwise, what's the incentive in going to college and busting my a55 for 6,7 or even 10 years, just to be paid the same as a high-school grad? Where's the incentive to dump a 5hitload of money and waste years, or even DECADES in education just to end up getting paid minimum wage? Or put the other way around - why bust my *** studying for years, when the high school dropout UAW worker will end up making just as me?
And speaking of minimum wage - UAW personnel get paid WELL ABOVE minimum wage.... better yet, try comparing them to a non-UAW assembly line worker... Toyota? Mercedes? how much their guys are getting paid?!? Give me a break!
I'm not claiming the UAW has been treated fairly by the big three. I'm not claiming some of their demands are not justified (healthcare, permanent vs. temp, tiers, COLA, retirement, etc.). But when it comes to hourly pay, to claim you want a 46% increase in your income AND work only 32 hours a week (laughable), is utter comedy! This is America! You want to work 32 hours a week? Go live in France... Show me one CEO who works 32 hours a week.... what a joke.
CEOs get compensated for their education, long career, and the cooperate ladder they climbed to get to where they are. If UAW workers want the same pay increase rate as that of a CEO then they should become CEOs themselves. Get their a55es back to school, go through the rigorous long educational path, work hard in corporate America, climb the corporate ladder, and then become a CEO of company themselves one day. Until then, if all they did was finish high school (some didn't even manage to do that) and never bothered to better themselves educationally to take on a more intellectually challenging career, they can't and shouldn't expect to be compensated like those who did. Not in this country. The UAW's approach is communist in nature - the collective should make the same, regardless if all he does is mount wheels on a new truck, or has a corner office and calls the shots. That doesn't work in a capitalistic system. If you want something in life, you need to work for it - not through whining and striking, but through education and hard work!
I can't believe I actually have to explain something as rudimentary as this to an adult. That's the type of conversation I have from time to time with my slacker youngest son.... You want to get somewhere in life? You have to work for it! Get your grades in shape!
