Here Are Some Autoworker Jobs That Should be Outsourced

I've posted before on the woes in the U.S. auto manufacturing business, and I heard this story on the radio this morning, but couldn't believe it could be true...until I found the article in the Detroit News. Maybe this explains why various auto industry giants are downsizing or going bankrupt:

Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working -- on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits.

"We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper," he says. "Otherwise, I've just sat."

Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers and Delphi Corp. as part of an extraordinary job security agreement with the United Auto Workers union.

The jobs bank programs were the price the industry paid in the 1980s to win UAW support for controversial efforts to boost productivity through increased automation and more flexible manufacturing.

As part of its restructuring under bankruptcy, Delphi is actively pressing the union to give up the program.

Here are some jobs that should be outsourced. I'll bet you could get Indians or Chinese to sit around doing nothing for a lot less than $31 per hour.