The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Ford:
Things They Don’t Tell Us:

Aug 6, 2007

About labor costs

Using the auto companies’ exaggerated claims of $73 an hour labor cost and the companies’ own statements of income, the UAW"S research department calculated that labor costs, both direct and indirect, amount to only 8.4% of the average price the Big 3 got for its vehicles. So where did the other 91.6% go?

It’s too bad, by the way, that union leaders don’t publicize this fact in the plants to counteract the constant company propaganda about high labor cost.

About health care costs

Between 1976 and today, the company has been taking money from our COLA "supposedly" to pay for health care. Every contract they increased this diversion. And they took our 3% raise last fall.

This adds up to $2.35 an hour "almost $4,900 a year, not counting overtime and more for skilled trades, to pay for health care.

It seems we are paying for most of our own health care–not the company!

There’s a lot more the companies distort when they start exaggerating medical care costs. Every year, they get money from the government to help them pay for it, in the form of a tax deduction.

They don’t mention this when they complain about health care costs.