By DEE-ANN DURBIN and TOM KRISHER
AP Auto Writers
DETROIT – Every day at a General Motors plant near Lansing, Mich., workers drive hundreds of Buick Enclaves – many with leather seats for seven and on-board video systems – off the assembly line.
Driving one home would be tough for the plant’s newest workers, whose annual pay is less than the $35,000 it costs to buy even the cheapest Enclave. Newly hired members of the United Auto Workers at GM, Ford and Chrysler earn about $14 per hour, half what veterans make under their current contract.
It’s a far cry from the days when the union autoworker had one of the sweetest deals in American labor. And within the Enclave plant near Lansing, the disparity creates mixed emotions, including some resentment, among the 130 recent hires.