chris955

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-0...016-17/5138942

Although not officially confirmed it seems inevitable. I dont think anyone will be surprised by this bit of news, Australia has well and truly priced itself out of the manufacturing market with high wages and penalties. It will be a huge blow for Adelaide especially.

Vash the Stampede

Three cheers, it's about bloody time. Fed up with these corporate parasites gulping down my tax dollars and pissing them up the wall.

old.sparkles

Why would you assume that manufacturing wages are higher than in the UK - did you work in manufacturing?

chris955

No I didn't.

chris955

Well that is of course one way of looking at it, not great for the 1000's that will lose their jobs of course.

old.sparkles

I did - they're not (not from my limited enounters with manufacturing wages in Adelaide anyway)

chris955

Well it must be all the other costs that make it uncompetitive. Apparently Holden production workers earn $50 an hour which is unsustainable.

old.sparkles

I'm afraid I don't know how much a car costs to manufacture in Aus - Holden's wages look to be on par with Mars in the UK. Unless of course that doesn't include their penalty rates, and in which case it's higher than I thought

Edit - sorry, from what I remember froma colleagues pay at BMW, they would be a little lower at Holden, again assuming you've already factored in penalty rates

chris955

Anyway what are your thoughts on how it would impact on Adelaide especially?

old.sparkles

If it goes ahead, I'm a little concerned obviously as I do work in manufacturing from a technical side. At the moment, there are enough vacancies to keep people on the move and happy. A sudden influx of technical workers onto the market wouldn't help. And then when you look at semi-skilled workers it's got to be a concern. It's definitely one to watch.

Of course their is still a fairly large manufacturing base in Adelaide - have to wait and see

chris955

I think the biggest loser will be the companies supplying parts and services also the area has a much higher unemployment rate than the State average.

GarryP

Actually, from what I remember, it isn't labour efficiency that's the issue. That's actually been improving over the past decade. Rather it's the capital efficiency that's been falling back - the investment in new machinery, processes and plant to enable more output for unit labour input.

Or put another way, the money that the board should have been investing, hasn't been. The implication is that this money was going into plant in SE Asia/China/India etc. where the base labour cost was low - and Australia was being milked as a cash cow - to be killed off when it got too old and decrepit to go on.

Given that Australia cannot (and never should want) to have wages that match India, if it has allowed that global shifting of resources it can't be surprised that the game plan plays out. However, put the blame where its due - with the GM & Ford boards, and with the Oz politicians that let them get away with it whilst providing handouts.

Edit : here you go

scottishcelts

Well thank **** for that. Coz they iz totally shit innit.

Jon77

Never really understood this whole Holden thing. Surely they were just Vauxhall car parts stuck together and a Holden badge stamped on at the end of the process.

spouse of scouse

So that just leaves "football, meat pies, kangaroos...."

I feel for all the people who'll lose their jobs.