Posted by MoparNorm on Sunday, September 25, 2005 at 12:08PM :
In Reply to: Interesting posted by Paul (in NY) on Saturday, September 24, 2005 at 9:22PM :
...for several years has been to outsource supplies from lower cost suppliers in an effort to cut costs. Most auto manufacturing companies originally did everything in-house but spun these units off into seperate divisions,mainly because of Fords' experience with the Dodge Brothers. In the 80's when outside vendors became more competitive, auto makers started to shed their in-house operations to put their suppliers on a competitive bid basis and use more competitive bid parts from outside vendors. The problem was that many of these spun off divisions still were tired to the parent companies health and welfare fund because of past union contracts. It will be a painful weening process as companies need to trim to stay competitive with foriegn suppliers and car makers, while unions try to maintain their grip on market share. The end result will be fewer people making more product at a higher wage, the cost per unit will come down but many workers will be displaced and need to be retrained...or start their own companies and under bid their old employer.
MN