Wage Increases Quotes
The practice worked fine in the Automobile industry, until there was intense competition from imported cars, and price increases were not easy to sustain and keep market share at the same time. When the automobile executives made some bad decisions, there was great conflict with the Unions who argued that it was the management that made the big mistakes and therefore the workers should not have to reduce their remuneration, and the automobile companies were caught in a death spiral where there costs were too high for the cars they made, the quality had slipped in an effort to save costs, and they did not make the smaller, low gas mileage cars that were in demand. The industry would have failed completely had it not been for the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations working together to bail out the American auto companies to the distress of many conservative ideologues in and out of Congress. See {637913} for a classic right wing ideological response to bailouts earlier.
While it was true that wages did not increase beyond inflation, the enormous increase in productivity—about a doubling—was not only due to the workers but was also due to the capital investment that the companies made in computers, robots, job restructuring, advanced training, and other management initiatives. Historically, when there are substantial productivity increases, the benefit is shared between the workers and the company as both were necessary to produce the increase in productivity. But since 1980, the workers have not obtained any significant share of the productivity increase.
This is one of the earliest political recognitions in the 20th century that the significantly longer lifespan would extend the working life of many people and cause them to retire later. The left wing Labour Party at the time saw this as a positive happening. However, 60 years later, extending the age of retirement in England and the United States was very controversial even though the lifespan and health improved even more. Many people wanted to keep it at age 65 where it had been since the 1930s.
