How Detroit Benefits from NAFTA

[Octafish]

Here in Michigan, there aren't as many UAW members as when NAFTA got passed. A lot less. NAFTA went into effect on Jan. 1, 1994.



It's not all bad, though. What were once-bankrupt car makers and car suppliers are doing great, hiring like crazy. The problem for U.S. workers is that most of the hiring is for new plants overseas.

Consider the case of DELPHI Automotive, a parts maker spun-off when General Motors couldn't make it sufficiently profitable:

Talk about a turnaround. Delphi's epic 2005 bankruptcy exacted high costs on communities, unions and the pensions of salaried retirees. Yet the creative destruction of the four-year ordeal, shaped by management, private equity investors and the demands of the Obama auto task force, produced a global supplier that now offers 33 product lines from 141 manufacturing sites in 33 countries and employs 160,000 worldwide — only 5,000 of which work inside the United States.

-- Daniel Howes, Detroit News

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/columnists/daniel-howes/2015/02/18/howes-delphi-surges-quietly-one-regret/23655511/

The above is from a business columnist describing the good work of DELPHI's then-president in turning the company around. "Good work" is, of course, defined in maximizing shareholder value. "Shareholder," seems to me, is defined as "Owner."