Word: buick
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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...
...share of the U.S. market going to imported autos has fallen from 22% in 1991 to under 14% now. Profits are booming; GM turned a record $4.9 billion loss in 1991 to a profit of $2.5 billion in 1993 and $2.8 billion for the first half of this year. Buick City is running flat out to keep up with demand...
Worse still, the Buick City employees gripe, each is being asked to do what used to be several jobs. "If somebody retires, all they do is take the work and give it to other people" who already have their hands full, says one worker. That complaint is echoed by workers, blue collar and white collar, in varied industries all over the country...
Finally, when it absolutely could not avoid adding workers, GM at Buick City and elsewhere turned to temporary-help agencies, which now supply blue-collar workers as well as stenographers, computer operators and other office hands. Once more the reason is economics: "temps" draw only wages, not health insurance and other expensive fringe benefits, and they can be used and let go as needed, without drawing the supplementary unemployment benefits GM and other companies must pay to laid-off regular workers...
...blacks because long ago his ancestors owned theirs. "When I came home from the Army in 1945, 20% to 25% of our land was owned by blacks. But the welfare system has just undermined the incentive to work. When Daddy died, they'd sell their property, buy a Buick and go out West to Las Vegas or somewhere. They lost their work ethic; they lost their discipline with all this gimme stuff. Who would have thought that Negro girls would get pregnant to get on food stamps? Now they do it all the time." Wyly's biggest fear is that...