Welcome to the Best of the Left Podcast with clips today from Counter-Spin, Democracy

Now, NPR, Slate.com, and Carton.

Today's episode uses a perfectly reasonable and appropriate amount of foul language

while discussing a rather foul topic.

Like the big stuff, pay and benefits that remain a fundamental problem.

Ford Chrysler in GM pay union workers more than $73 an hour in wages and benefits.

Japanese plants here shell out just over $44 for GM that translates into $1,500 more

per car than Toyota has to pay.

Close quote.

Well, Bury's claim is pure management propaganda.

And what's worse, propaganda that's been debunked many times over.

As Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic pointed out, average wages for workers at Chrysler

Ford and General Motors were just $28 per hour as of 2007.

The fanciful figure, according to Cohn, results from a slight of hand in which the cost

of all employer provided pay and benefits, including health insurance and pensions for

retirees, is figured into the hourly pay of current workers.

This anti-worker trope has also been debunked by the Center for Automotive Research, Media

Matters, the United Auto Workers itself, and two weeks ago on counterspin by labor

notes editor Mark Brenner.

And as the Wall Street Journal reported, one industry watchdog figured labor costs for

the big three are about $260 per car above Toyota's, much less than the $1,500 ABC was

touting.

...