Report: UAW losing pay advantage

The UAW is losing its edge in pay compared with non-unionized U.S. assembly plant workers for foreign companies, according to the Detroit Free Press. For example, workers at Nissan's Tennessee plant got pay last year that rivaled that of UAW workers, the newspaper said.





In one instance, non-union workers made even more than their UAW counterparts. Toyota Motor Corp. gave workers at its largest U.S. plant bonuses of $6,000 to $8,000, boosting the average pay to the equivalent of $30 an hour -- $3 more than the typical $27 an hour UAW workers make.

"How do you convince someone you're better off with the protection of a union when they're making more money than the union employee?" asked Alfred McLean, a 66-year-old hourly UAW member at General Motors's Warren Tech Center.

The numbers also demonstrate an automaker can be successful with high wages. "What Toyota inadvertently shows," says Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, "is that you can compete paying higher wages."

"Toyota pays high wages in part to avoid the UAW," Shaiken said. They are part of the "union threat effect," meaning companies pay high wages to fend off the possibility of union organizing efforts and the threat of strike.