We realize we may be getting a little bit far afield here, but we wish to voice our support for auto workers at General, Motors, Ford, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) in their quest to obtain a fair contract.
Without getting into the details of the negotiations, the bottom line is that those three automakers have been making billions of dollars in profits in the past few years, enriching their shareholders and executives. On the other hand, the rank-and-file employees who actually make the cars and trucks that make those folks rich have not seen their fair share of the profits during a time of high inflation.
And lest anyone think that giving into the workers’ demands will put the automakers at a competitive cost disadvantage, the UAW workers’ share of the overall cost of a car is just four percent, according to a statistic we heard on TV the other day.
When Henry Ford was asked why he paid his assembly line workers a high wage, he said he did so in order to allow them to be able to buy the cars they were making. We realize that when Ford made that comment more than 100 years ago, it was a different world, but the principle still is the same: Full-time workers in America deserve to earn a living wage in order to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Capitalism may be a great economic system, but only if everyone is able to share in it.