@Caddyman Chinese workers don’t work for $1/day; their wages are rising rapidly and will approach those in Mexico soon. And China is now the world’s largest car market.
The wealth of a country is built by constant improvement of the means of production financed by risk taking entrepreneurs. Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, and others being good examples. Education and training of workers adds to the value of products produced. When production is efficient, the owners can pay good wages.
Unions played a very useful role to counter abuses during the industrial revolution in the 1800s. In North America they similarly influenced a decent working environment and led the movement to better wages. However, since the 60s it has been mostly a donwnhill process, with inflexible work contracts and excessive demands making those industries less competitive.
At this stage of the game, non-union car plants pay about the same in wages and benefits to their worker as UAW plants. The main difference is that non-union companies are more efficient and have optimized work processes that result in higher quality and lower cost production. But it is nice to see GM trying to build small cars again at a profit in the US.
Keep in mind that before the recession and bankruptcies, only Honda, Hyundai and Toyota made money on their small cars built in the USA while Ford, Chrysler and GM lost as much as $1400 per car while working under these restrictive UAW contracts and low efficiency plants. That was one reason to move small car production to Mexico.