[Loco Vette]

Originally Posted by Joecooool

Business & Technology | BMW finds skilled workers for less at S.C. plant | Seattle Times Newspaper

The upside is you have a job, the downside is you fall out of the middle class.

And keep in mind that the ONLY reason the plants are not unionized is because they pay the workers more than they otherwise would to keep the union out. If the union disappeared tomorrow, only a fool wouldn't believe the wages at these plants wouldn't drop.

Race to the bottom!

No, the ONLY reason the plants are not unionized is because the workers do not beleive that voting in a union and paying the associated dues will work to improve their working conditions more than the cost and PITA factor of having a union in house.

You cannot eliminate competition. If you start paying workers more than they produce, then the business closes. If you start paying workers more than others would be willing to do the same job for, then your product cost is higher and you lose business to the competition or you use the lower cost workers.

As far as your citation, it states that workers in Germany make the equivalent of $66.xx in slary and benefits while the USA workers make $33.xx in salary and benefits. So where does the $70.xx/hour that was touted so often during the bailout debates come into play?

Auto Worker Salaries

It factors in the cost of the pensions and benefits for retired workers extorted out of the Big Three by the unions. These are real costs, and the costs of those pensions (if they don't manage to bankrupt the whole industry) will ultimately benefit the current workers too.

Of course, Obama's bailout left these pensions intact while screwing over the stock and bondholders, but that's another discussion for another day.