FAIR Action Alert: ABC misleads public on autoworker pay!

See www.fair.org.

ABC's World News used a wildly misleading statistic on autoworkers' pay on its December 3 broadcast, saying that Ford, Chrysler and GM pay union workers more than $73 an hour in wages and benefits, compared to $44 in Japan. Actually, according to the Center for Automotive Research, "average wages for workers at Chrysler, Ford and General Motors were just $28 per hour as of 2007." The much higher figure results from a mathematical sleight of hand--costs related to retired workers are used to create an inflated figure that is misleadingly labeled as current labor costs.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• unions
• ABC News
• media criticism
• FAIR

[Dutchoven08]

Re: BEANERxKILLER

Hey 'Foriegner murderer' since when is assembling the most advanced automotive technology this nation has ever known "Unskilled"? Or do you just like using words with the word 'killed' in them?

The Auto, Steel and other manufacturing industries built our middle class. Now kids like you don't know what middle class used to look like. Back to your video game, blasting 'aliens', drinking beer and masturbating.

[Cmorton2971]

It wasn't too many years ago GM (with their hi paid workers) were making more profit than Wall Mart (with their poverty pay scale employees were). Point being is if the 1% doesn't spread the wealth among their employees this country will fail in it's current state.

[Cmorton2971]

$28hr. is what most of us should be making. We don't have the option of putting everything on credit cards anymore. $25k for a new car, $200k for a new house and much more like health insurance premiums, deductibles and homeowner Insurance Just to name a few. The cost of living is far surpassing the median income of Americans. GM is failing not because of how much their workers receive. They are failing because they choose to make a bad product and health care costs reached a breaking point.

[BEANERxKILLER]

Guess what: $28/hr IS STILL TOO MUCH MONEY FOR AN UNSKILLED WORKER!

[mrsdomi28]

what a bunch of bs....get the facts straight before doing a commentary...$73.12 an hour- what a joke....autoworkers dont make near that amount of money and people who believe that are just as naive and out of touch as abc...put away your petty jealousies and tour the plant and see what we do before condemning us and our pay. ive seen many people quit before their shift ended becuase the work is herendous...so stop attacking us-we dont attack you!

[xaoslegend]

Rediculous, these numbers are a lie firstoff and secondly why don't you compare the executive and owner pay of the Big 3 to the exec pay of the foreign companies? Guess what the foreign companies pay their execs a fraction of what ours do, but of course "efficiency" means treating workers like livestock and manager's owner's and investor's profits as a measure of the health and profitability of the company it's total BS, if workers can make more that's part of profit too.

[buermann]

It's not even honest to call it "labor costs", being as the retirees are not laboring. That's just plain ole debt.

[Snicki1946]

Except the $73.12 is a lie. The Big 3 have $73.12 per hour in labor costs, but the employees working today don't GET $73.12 on their paychecks. Their pay is around $28 per hour. Good pay but a far cry from $73 as reported by the media. Truth does matter.