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High wages stall Holden engine
Topic Started: 13 Dec 2013, 09:12 PM (3,025 Views)
Count du Monet
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I'll throw Moops a bone!

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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/high-wages-stall-holden-engine/story-fnkdypbm-1226779253154#

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High wages stall Holden engine

Grace Collier
December 10, 2013 12:00AM

ONLY $150 million a year will save Holden? Rubbish. The Holden Enterprise Agreement is the document that has utterly sunk Holden's prospects. It defies belief that someone in the company isn't being held to account for it.

Holden's management masks a union culture beyond most people's comprehension. Employment costs spiralled way beyond community standards long ago. Neither "pay freezes" nor more money will save Holden, but getting the Fair Work Commission to dissolve the agreement and put all workers on the award wage might be a start.

In 1991, the pre-enterprise bargaining award wage of a Holden entry level process worker was $462.80 a week. In 1992, Holden began enterprise bargaining and now a worker at that same classification level has a base rate of $1194.50 a week, a 158 per cent increase, or a compound increase of 4.4 per cent year on year for 22 years. Right now, base wage rates for process workers in the Holden enterprise agreement are in the $60,000 to $80,000 per year range and in recent times, "hardship payments" of $3750 were given to each worker.

The modern award for such workers mandates base rates in the $37,000 to $42,000 range. This means that before we add any of the shift penalties, loadings, 26 allowances and the added cost of productivity restrictions, Holden begins each working day paying its workforce almost double what it should. After you add in the other employment costs, I estimate Holden's workforce costs it somewhere close to triple the amount it should.

Many people who work at Holden don't actually work for Holden; they work for the union. Occupational health and safety people are given 10 days' paid time off a year to be trained by the union. Most companies do not allow unions to train their OH&S people because the knowledge is used to control the workplace to the benefit of the union.

Union delegates are also allowed up to 10 paid days a year for union training in how to be effective union delegates and two of these delegates are entitled to an extra Holden sponsorship of one paid month off to "further their industrial and/or leadership development".

Holden's rules on hiring casuals are shocking and unheard of in today's market. The agreement forbids Holden from hiring casuals except when a "short-term increase in workload, or other unusual circumstances occurs". If this situation arises Holden has to "consult and reach agreement" with the union. Further, "Engagement of the agreed number of casual personnel will be for the agreed specified tasks and the agreed specified periods." If any of this changes, Holden must get union agreement again. After three months of continuous full-time work a casual must be made permanent. It is impossible to run a business like this.

An ex-employee from Adelaide, on condition of anonymity, consented to an interview yesterday. He described the workforce as "over-managed", with one team leader for every six workers on the production line, when one for every 25 workers would suffice.

He said "some of us workers felt it wasn't necessary to get paid what we were getting paid to do the jobs we were doing", adding that their work is probably worth about "20 bucks an hour". A few years back, mates took redundancy packages in the order of "$280k plus". Workers are "like sheep" that blindly follow the union leadership. At induction, new workers are ushered into one-on-one meetings with the union rep who heavies them into joining. "It is made clear that if you don't join the union you will be sacked," he said. Union representatives "don't actually do any work for Holden", but rather make themselves full-time enforcers of union control.

He says workers are drug tested before hiring, but "only have to stay off it for a few weeks, get in the door and then you'll be right". Workers caught taking drugs or being drug-affected at work are allegedly put on a fully paid rehabilitation program, with special paid time off of about four weeks duration, before being let back into the workforce.

Australian workplaces have a zero tolerance for drug use, with instant dismissal the remedy, but at Holden "the union won't let the company sack" any workers caught dealing, taking or being on drugs. "If they did a random drug test tomorrow they'd probably have to sack 40 per cent of the workforce," he adds.

If the Holden scenario were playing out in a privately owned business, proper cost-cutting strategies would be used. If you have the will and can hire the skill, there are many ways to cut labour costs. The workers can be given a couple of years notice of significant wage drops and can receive lump sum payouts of entitlements to help bring down family debt.


A 4.4% increase pa.......well fuck me dead like a zombie.

The current minimum is $622.20, the Holden base week is 1.92 x the minimum rate.

Over the 20 years a startling
Quote:
 
a 158 per cent increase


The fact that the price of a common house has increased 330% over the same period shouldn't startle anyone.

The base rate has gone from a ounce of gold in 1992 to less than an ounce of gold today.
The next trick of our glorious banks will be to charge us a fee for using net bank!!!
You are no longer customer, you are property!!!

Don't be SAUCY with me Bernaisse
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themoops
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So you think I'm right now?

Well thanks for clarifying what they are paid.

Or rather, were. :lol

I wonder how many of them had ips too. :bye:
stinkbug omosessuale


Frank Castle is a liar and a criminal. He will often deliberately take people out of context and use straw man arguments.
Frank finally and unintentionally gives it up and admits he got where he is, primarily via dumb luck!
See here
Property will be 50-70% off by 2016.
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Count du Monet
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themoops
13 Dec 2013, 09:48 PM
So you think I'm right now?


Right about what? In 1992 I was getting $405 pw doing a shitkickers job in Richmond a stone throw from port Melbourne. So the Holden base rate was 1.15x what I was getting, no skills and not even fork license at the time. Part of it is that laboring wages inner city were much higher than outer suburbs.

Stay under that rock of yours Moops, you wouldn't survive on the outside. :lol
The next trick of our glorious banks will be to charge us a fee for using net bank!!!
You are no longer customer, you are property!!!

Don't be SAUCY with me Bernaisse
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themoops
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Count du Monet
13 Dec 2013, 10:01 PM
Right about what? In 1992 I was getting $405 pw doing a shitkickers job in Richmond a stone throw from port Melbourne. So the Holden base rate was 1.15x what I was getting, no skills and not even fork license at the time. Part of it is that laboring wages inner city were much higher than outer suburbs.

Stay under that rock of yours Moops, you wouldn't survive on the outside. :lol
Yeah but they're now getting 60k-80k base rate, plus OT would take it to 90-100k.

Not much less than a white collar who's gone through hell at school and uni.

Maybe you'd like them to be paid more than them? :lol

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I agree big corp and the rich needs sorting out too in some ways. Which was Labor's job? But so do these types.

Don't blame me that the Libs are more competent when in government. :lol
stinkbug omosessuale


Frank Castle is a liar and a criminal. He will often deliberately take people out of context and use straw man arguments.
Frank finally and unintentionally gives it up and admits he got where he is, primarily via dumb luck!
See here
Property will be 50-70% off by 2016.
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Count du Monet
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themoops
13 Dec 2013, 11:15 PM
Yeah but they're now getting 60k-80k base rate, plus OT would take it to 90-100k.

Not much less than a white collar who's gone through hell at school and uni.

Maybe you'd like them to be paid more than them? :lol

Posted Image

I agree big corp and the rich needs sorting out too in some ways. Which was Labor's job? But so do these types.

Don't blame me that the Libs are more competent when in government. :lol
Moops, I'm a year 11 dropout. I've worked all worked all my life as manual labour. I've virtually no work skills.

Quote:
 
Holden began enterprise bargaining and now a worker at that same classification level has a base rate of $1194.50 a week


Analyze the statement carefully. "now a worker at the same classification". Typical journalist spin. I'd hazard a very good guess that they now have a lower classification for entry level these days.

The article is spin, you have to analyze it carefully to elicit any truth. Now I can work that out even though I'm a year 11 dropout with no skills. What's your excuse?

And at that the claimed base rate is 60k.....not 80k....can you tell the difference between those two figures?

What are you?, a congenital SOB who spends his day being picked on by his boss and who is good for nothing else?

What a pathetic civilization this has become. What a a race of jealous impotent weaklings. This snobbish materialistic godless culture that has no right to exist..........destroy it all, flatten every last part of it and grind it into the dust. It is no longer worthy of respect.

The next trick of our glorious banks will be to charge us a fee for using net bank!!!
You are no longer customer, you are property!!!

Don't be SAUCY with me Bernaisse
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Foxy
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Zero is coming...

Count du Monet
14 Dec 2013, 12:19 AM
Moops, I'm a year 11 dropout. I've worked all worked all my life as manual labour. I've virtually no work skills.




Analyze the statement carefully. "now a worker at the same classification". Typical journalist spin. I'd hazard a very good guess that they now have a lower classification for entry level these days.

The article is spin, you have to analyze it carefully to elicit any truth. Now I can work that out even though I'm a year 11 dropout with no skills. What's your excuse?

And at that the claimed base rate is 60k.....not 80k....can you tell the difference between those two figures?

What are you?, a congenital SOB who spends his day being picked on by his boss and who is good for nothing else?

What a pathetic civilization this has become. What a a race of jealous impotent weaklings. This snobbish materialistic godless culture that has no right to exist..........destroy it all, flatten every last part of it and grind it into the dust. It is no longer worthy of respect.
It's just supply and demand really.
If you want the car buy it.
If you don't, don't.
Peter
:pop:
http://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/g/n/2/1/u/8/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1456285515560.png
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Count du Monet
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foxbat101
14 Dec 2013, 01:33 AM
It's just supply and demand really.
If you want the car buy it.
If you don't, don't.
Peter
:pop:
Unfortunately the facts are million times more complex than that.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/each-holden-staffer-costs-taxpayers-50000/story-fn59niix-1226779290245#

Quote:
 
Each Holden staffer costs taxpayers $50,000

David Uren
The Australian
December 10, 2013 12:00AM


TAXPAYERS are covering about $2500 of the cost of each Australian-made car with subsidies equivalent to as much as $50,000 for every employee directly involved in their manufacture.

Subsidies to the industry have averaged about $550 million a year for the past six years, not including the benefit of tariffs and the luxury car tax, according to the Productivity Commission.

The subsidy is equivalent to 10 per cent of the average cost of a motor vehicle while the tariff on imported vehicles is set at 5 per cent. Department of Industry figures show the subsidies have not been sufficient to restore the profitability of the manufacturing operations, which have been losing money since 2004, with a combined loss last year of $666m.

Holden and Toyota both say their manufacturing costs are about $3750 per car higher in Australia than in other markets.

Holden's submission to the Productivity Commission inquiry said the higher cost of Australian-made parts accounted for $1500 of the additional cost of local vehicles, compared with imports, while transport added $250.

Manufacturing costs added $2000, mainly as a result of labour costs, which it said were double the cost per vehicle compared with European manufacturers, and four times the cost of Asia.

Holden, which has about 2000 staff directly involved in manufacturing at its Elizabeth plant in South Australia and its engine plant in Port Melbourne, received $96m in subsidies last year, or just under $50,000 per employee.

Toyota, with 2500 manufacturing employees, received $72m in government grants, or $29,000 per employee.

The manufacturers do not disclose their actual production costs either in Australia or elsewhere, however the $30,000 cost of a Toyota Camry is understood to be about two-thirds manufacturing and one-third sales and distribution.

The largest single cost in manufacturing is the initial investment in design, engineering and tooling for a new model. Because these are sunk costs, high production volume is important to achieve profitability. Labour costs are about a fifth of the total.

The burden of fixed costs makes it hard to achieve savings, especially when the volume of sales is falling, although Toyota has set itself a target of saving $3800 per car by 2018.

Motor industry analyst Richard Johns, who heads the consultancy Australian Auto Intelligence, said that while the domestic manufacturing operations had been losing money, the industry overall was profitable until 2011-12, boosted by buoyant sales of imported vehicles. Mr Johns said the 25 per cent rise of the Australian dollar against the yen and the US dollar had severely damaged the profitability of domestic manufacture, with local inputs accounting for an average of about half the total manufacturing cost.

The big cars, Holden's Commodore and Ford's Falcon, have risen in price by about $10,000 in the past decade, during which car prices in the market overall have fallen by about 5 per cent.

In the absence of additional government assistance, the level of subsidy is expected to fall in coming years. The Gillard government abolished the Green Car Innovation Fund in early 2011 to redirect funds to pay for the Queensland flood damage. This was worth $100m to the industry in 2011-12, the last year for which there are complete figures.

The Automotive Transformation Scheme was budgeted to provide $300m a year of assistance tied, in part, to the level of production. With domestic sales by the Australian manufacturers falling 16 per cent this year and exports also down, the level of subsidy under this scheme is expected to be lower.

The annual industry subsidy tied to production under this scheme was planned to drop to $200m a year between 2015 and 2020, although that already includes a period beyond Ford's scheduled shutdown in 2016. There is a further untied component under this scheme worth about $90m a year.

The capped assistance is distributed, with 55 per cent going to the manufacturers, and 45 per cent going to the parts manufacturers. The funding is tied to investment in research and development and general production.

The Department of Industry says the value of production from the Australian motor industry peaked at just under $9 billion in 2004, dropping to $5.2bn last year.
Edited by Count du Monet, 14 Dec 2013, 06:39 AM.
The next trick of our glorious banks will be to charge us a fee for using net bank!!!
You are no longer customer, you are property!!!

Don't be SAUCY with me Bernaisse
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themoops
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Count du Monet
14 Dec 2013, 12:19 AM
Moops, I'm a year 11 dropout. I've worked all worked all my life as manual labour. I've virtually no work skills.




Analyze the statement carefully. "now a worker at the same classification". Typical journalist spin. I'd hazard a very good guess that they now have a lower classification for entry level these days.

The article is spin, you have to analyze it carefully to elicit any truth. Now I can work that out even though I'm a year 11 dropout with no skills. What's your excuse?

And at that the claimed base rate is 60k.....not 80k....can you tell the difference between those two figures?

What are you?, a congenital SOB who spends his day being picked on by his boss and who is good for nothing else?

What a pathetic civilization this has become. What a a race of jealous impotent weaklings. This snobbish materialistic godless culture that has no right to exist..........destroy it all, flatten every last part of it and grind it into the dust. It is no longer worthy of respect.
Fair enough, but we still don't know what pay rates are across the board.

If these unions and workers want any sympathy they should be clear straight away.

I'm a SOB who's been fucked over by high house prices and mass immigration. War has been declared on me, and a lot of them are everyday joes with ips like your Holden workers. It's every man for himself.

Don't blame me I tried to be a good guy and voted and spent time advocating SPP, and I was spat at in the face for it.

I don't run the government or anything.

I agree our society is certainly not worthy of respect. It's become one of it's important cornerstones. :lol

I say take comfort in the cheesiness. Get yourself an xbox or something, watch the cricket, eat maccas, take up golf. Whatever you might find fun. :lol


Edited by themoops, 14 Dec 2013, 07:21 AM.
stinkbug omosessuale


Frank Castle is a liar and a criminal. He will often deliberately take people out of context and use straw man arguments.
Frank finally and unintentionally gives it up and admits he got where he is, primarily via dumb luck!
See here
Property will be 50-70% off by 2016.
Profile "REPLY WITH QUOTE" Go to top
 
Count du Monet
Member Avatar


Let's see, Holden builds around 60,000 cars in Aus pa. The cost to build is an average of $25,000. That's a factory door total of $1.5 billion.

The cost of plant employee's averages about 100k pa x 3,000 = 300 million. So the cost of each plant employee is no more than $5,000 per car. According to Holden that is $4,000 too much.
themoops
14 Dec 2013, 07:20 AM


I say take comfort in the cheesiness. Get yourself an xbox or something, watch the cricket, eat maccas, take up golf. Whatever you might find fun. :lol

No, I'll get a weekly dose of White Trash, Merle Dixon in the Walking Dead.



Edited by Count du Monet, 14 Dec 2013, 07:59 AM.
The next trick of our glorious banks will be to charge us a fee for using net bank!!!
You are no longer customer, you are property!!!

Don't be SAUCY with me Bernaisse
Profile "REPLY WITH QUOTE" Go to top
 
Foxy
Member Avatar
Zero is coming...

Count du Monet
14 Dec 2013, 06:33 AM
Really,
I tell you if i want a car i buy it, if the dealer wants to sell it to me they do.
I bought a Lexus hybrid because i like the fuel economy (8.2L per 100 km) and the fact that it has a 7 year warrantee and an all wheel drive plus active cruise control.
It cost $100,000.00 i could have bought a holden but they refuse to build a fuel efficient modern vehicle.
Lexus make a vehicle thats is ranked number 1 in reliability.
Why are Australian cars not meeting these targets??
Should under performance be rewarded??
I say no.
So no demand from me.
Peter
:pop:
The Australian car industry is A classic example of the fat lazy son that is constantly told by mom and dad he is the best, he then competes against a hard working highly trained opponent and fails spectacularly.
The socialist utopia takes a hard upper cut from the lean mean Jap car making machine.
Reward excellence not stupidity.
It has nothing to do with the wages.
It is the quality of the offering.
Peter
:pop:
Please note that these two top brands are built in relatively high wage environments.


Although BMW has many factories worldwide, the only factory that produces Rolls Royce cars is the original one, located in Goodwood, England. The only Rolls Royce models that are currently being manufactured are the Rolls Royce Ghost and the Rolls Royce Phantom. Both are luxury cars that sell for no less than two hundred thousand dollars. This factory is home to the entire process of Rolls Royce production, from the designers who work at the factory to develop the next generation of Rolls Royce models, to the assembly line of workers who put the cars together, to the testing of those cars to check for problems with the vehicle's inner workings. Since this is the only factory where Rolls Royce models are made, residents of Goodwood are lucky to be the only ones to enjoy the relatively low prices on Rolls Royce afforded by low shipping costs.


Lexus cars are symbols of excellence and quality. They bear a name that has risen above many names in the car manufacturing industry. But where does this quality product come from? Where are Lexus cars built?

The first Lexus factory was in Japan, with production beginning in 1989. There are currently four Lexus manufacturing facilities in Japan, located in Tahara, Kyushu, Araco and Motomachi. These locations are responsible for producing Lexus models LS, LS Hybrid, GS, GS Hybrid, ES, IS, IS F, LFA, LX, GX, RX, RX Hybrid and HS Hybrid.

In 2003 Lexus opened its first North American manufacturing plant in Cambridge, Ontario. It is the pride and joy of Lexus, producing the famous RX Sport Utility Vehicle. The very first RX SUV ever manufactured at this Lexus factory sits proudly on display in the Cambridge showroom. Surrounded by polished wood and sparkling glass, this gem of a vehicle stands in a place of prominence, serving as an ever-present reminder to Lexus employees that quality is everything.

Yes, Lexus vehicles come from the geographic locations of Japan and Canada. But over the years, Lexus has built more than vehicles. It has built a name that comes from the solid ground of precision, excellence, quality and performance.
Edited by Foxy, 14 Dec 2013, 11:52 AM.
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