big companies are all rethinking their work practices... gm is in the business of selling/fixing cars... not paying health benifets/pensions... that is how the shareholders see it. . sad but true...
now before i get flamed...
the company i work for has the same idea... as once stated by the current ceo of CN rail, cn is in the business of moving freight, not repairing locomotives and cars... they were planning on hiring on another 8 apprentices to my shop, but that idea got squashed... now the rumor is that they are going to close down part of our shop and subcontract out the inspection work [92 day inspections we will probably keep, but semi, yearly, bi, tri, quad annual will probably go... ] it is cheaper for them to do this, as they can pay someone the equal of like $20 per person per hour to a sub contractor who pays his/her emploiees like $15 per hour, instead of paying us working in the shop $24. xx... company saves like $4 per person, per hour. . at my shop across the 2 shifts that inspections run on, that is like 30 people... 30 by 4 by 8 hours, that's close to a $1k per day... 365 a year... it adds up... do that in 2 or 3 shops and it's over a million a year saved...
the only thing that really bothers me, is that hunter harrison and other upper management [now practically all americans] doesn't seem to like us canadians much... last year when we were on stike, one of the upper management was heard [and it is on tape somewhere] calling canadians "snow [censored]" [racial "n" word]... that bothers me quite a bit... and all these subcontract jobs are down in the usa... taking work away from us up here... from the shareholders view, the company is being run great, from inside looking out, things are f'd up. .
i really hope i passed my licencing test... something to fall back on...
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