Not good PR BMW USA

[camera doctor 25]

Car maker BMW (Ontario, CA) plans to fire 100 skilled workers, and reopen same plant next day with inexperienced, cheaper staff (this after $4 billion gov. aid), and posting biggest profits ever.

Yahoo News Story

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2963]

One of the main reasons that the North American car industry got into the mess it did (and is still in) was down to the stupidly high wage rates, and more importantly benefits (note the guy quoted talks specifically about his health care), which were demanded by the Auto Unions during the 80s and 90s.

Here again, the distribution staff (a basically un-skilled job) have benefitted off the back of a collective Union agreement with the car companies "hey, we work in the auto industry as well, we should get US$25 per hour plus health care plus pension".

Not good PR, and not a nice business decision to have to make, but I wonder if the numerous cases of GM, Ford, Chrysler, etc doing the exact same thing were reported and raised in quite the same way as this? The fact that it's a German company seems to be a big part of the issue from the reporting side.

[allan 295]

So from what you have said you would be against taking a job which gave you an income to support your family and part of the package included health benifits as well, which I believe are not cheep in Canada or the States.

[Yankus 0]

The problem is that healthcare is not an optional part of the "package". If you want union (teamsters) workers you HAVE to provide healthcare (which is very expensive). And you company is ostracized and picketed if you don't use union workers so you have no choice. How would you like to be forced to provide healthcare and dental to your emplyees (wether you can afford it or not) or be bullied until you do provide it.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2963]

So from what you have said you would be against taking a job which gave you an income to support your family and part of the package included health benifits as well, which I believe are not cheep in Canada or the States.

Not at all! But I would be realistic enough to know that if I didn't have specialist skills and expertise that could justify that level of remuneration my job would possibly be under threat as I could be replaced by someone who is capable of doing the same job for much less money. A simple fact of life and economics.

I have seen it in a number of industries in many countries where the real world suddenly impacts on gravy-trains, and it is always a mess with lots of fall out.

[allan 295]

I hear what you are saying but if the people concerned the one's with the skills are in a group type contract ie union drive. Then maybe they should have told the union to get lost and make a deal with the company on their own if they really wished to keep their jobs. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds and how in all aspects

[deeveus 81]

I remember when my old man got free private healthcare with his jobs for him and the family, this is a thing of the past. I wonder how much BMW USA is actually tied to Germany? I know it's not a franchise but it's not 100% the same company either??? Bags not buying any X series BMW's if they are to employ un-skilled workers.

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2963]

The truth of any modern day assembly plant is that the workers employed there are semi-skilled at best, most plants run on a 12 - 18 second cycle time. How skilled do you have to be to do the same task all day every 18 seconds? Mass produced cars, even BMWs are hardly hand built any more.

I am not 100% sure where the BMW Spartanburg factory is in the states, but many of the auto factories are close to the Mexican border, to take advantage of cheap Mexican labour coming over the border each day! At least the BMW factories are owned and operated by BMW Ag, the "head" company, others like Mercedes have contracted out the whole operation to other companies to do the work for them. Your ML for example was built by Magna Steyr (inlcuding quite a few Mexicans probably!!) kind of makes you think about "German reliablility" a bit!!

[Grant 4]

Healthcare benefits for me (which also covers my family) costs my employer about US$1300 a month, so that gives you an idea of what these benefits cost an employer here.

These people are distribution centre workers, and to be fair, are unskilled anyway. I can completely understand why the employer would not want to pay benefits. It is a sad reality, but it is also rare for low skilled positions to also get healthcare benefits provided by your employer. At best the costs are partially subsidised by the employer.

Most of the workers are probably earning under US$30k a year anyway, so why would an employer be willing to spend 1/2 as much again on health insurance.

Edited July 1, 2011 by Grant