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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (458854)	2/23/2009 3:33:46 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573458

National insurance would be transferring the cost from GM to the government and thus the taxpayer. Sure it would help GM, since they have promised too much in the way of insurance to their employees and esp. to their retirees. But transferring the costs around isn't a net gain. Also it probably would not be enough for GM. For one thing to the extent the unions have power to make GM pay for all that insurance, they may have the power to demand other forms of compensation instead if GM is no longer providing the insurance. And even if that isn't the case, even if it amounts to a net reduction of total employee compensation expenses, the inflexibility of the unions will still cause problems, compared to competitors who can change their work practices, and grow, shrink, or rearrange their workforces with much less difficulty.