Originally posted at Eclectablog.
Donald Trump's "Let Detroit go bankrupt" moment?
Donald Trump has something to say to Detroit autoworkers: you make too much money. Talking about U.S. vehicle manufacturers moving production to Mexico in an interview with The Detroit News, Trump said this:
He said U.S. automakers could shift production away from Michigan to communities where autoworkers would make less. “You can go to different parts of the United States and then ultimately you’d do full-circle — you’ll come back to Michigan because those guys are going to want their jobs back even if it is less,” Trump said. “We can do the rotation in the United States — it doesn’t have to be in Mexico.”
He said that after Michigan “loses a couple of plants — all of sudden you’ll make good deals in your own area.”
See? The problem we have is that Michigan autoworkers are getting paid too much. We need to destroy their jobs and starve them until they are willing to go back to work at a lower wage.
Trump is, of course, dead wrong about this. The article goes on to say, "Although wages are lower at non-union U.S. plants owned by foreign automakers, hourly employees for Detroit’s Big Three are paid the same no matter what state they’re in, under the terms of United Auto Workers contracts."
And we thought Mitt Romney was out of touch...
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[Photo by Gage Skidmore | Flickr]
