Comparing auto workers

Dear Editor: You are going to hear a lot of “crying the blues” by our GM workers in Oshawa for the next long while until they figure out a way to get taxpayers across Canada to bail them out.

I have a solution for them, but first just how badly have they been treated?

The average wage of an assembly line worker was $21 an hour which works out to about $42,000 a year. Remember, this is a person working at a unionized job with no previous training or education.

A comparison can be made with a Swedish assembly line worker who earns the equivalent of $27 (Can) an hour or $56,000 (Can) a year. But, while the Canadian is taxed at about 22 per cent, the average Swede pays a hefty 56.4 per cent on his wages.

The average starting salary for a teacher in B.C. is $49,000 a year, which works out to about $25 an hour with a tax rate of 25 per cent. These are people who have spent four to five years accumulating a debt load while getting degrees.

GM workers in Oshawa have known that the plant was going to close for more than five years, so they should have been prepared for it. A CBC radio program in which plant workers were interviewed claimed some of them were shocked to hear the news.

My solution. Buy the plant and start producing cheaper electric cars. There is obviously a greater demand for that type of vehicle than the high-priced Chev Impala and Buick Regal that GM produced in Oshawa. Frank Martens

Summerland