Word: auto
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Even to experts, the economy displays two faces, both of which are on view in Flint, Michigan. It is the site of General Motors' Buick City works, which is central to all GM auto production because it makes parts for assembly plants throughout the country. Buick City, in turn, was the scene in late September of a strike that, says Roach, "was symbolic of an issue that is really at the core of the debate right now: do workers get to reap the benefits of the improved efficiencies that they are delivering to employers...
Again, GM's strategy is typical of the auto industry and American companies generally. At the Ford Motor plant in St. Louis, Missouri, nearly 3,400 full- time employees make around $57,000 a year thanks to overtime pay. But the plant also uses 200 temporary employees who do essentially the same jobs but make only $20,000 annually because they work only two or three days a week. Economywide, the number of temps in the labor force has more than doubled in the past decade. Says Roach: "The ((job-creating)) leader in this recovery...
...total. That still represents less than 1% of the 4 million cars sold in Japan annually, but Detroit's modest progress belies the traditional view of negotiators in Washington. The Clinton Administration had based its trade policy on the idea that the only way to open up Japan's auto market was to intervene forcefully. Now it is becoming clear that Detroit can make headway on its own, helped by some good economic luck and a little prodding by U.S. trade officials...
Caterpillar, which has been embroiled in a United Auto Workers strike since June, will hire 1,000 workers in China in the next few years to build engines and excavators there. That infuriates Jerry Brown, who heads the U.A.W. local in East Peoria, Illinois. Says he: "They're selling the quality and technology that we helped build over the years. We're being forced to suffer from our own success...
...fuel-efficiency comeback of American auto makers -- they won the top spot in the last five years -- has been lost to the Japanese. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Top 10 list of gas-savers, released today, the Honda Civic HB/VX offers the best deal on a gallon-of-gas-or-less commute with 47 m.p.g. city and a whopping 56 m.p.g. highway. The good ol' U.S.A., represented by General Motors' two Geo Metro models and Ford's Aspire, took the only three non-Japanese spots. BTW: Owners of the bottom 10 can afford the gas guzzling. Eight...