Is the stage being set for automotive production to return to North America? As crazy as that sounds, I challenge you to look at the news over the last week and think about it for a minute.
After decades of artificial manipulation, the Yen has finally forced the Japanese big three to start looking elsewhere. The costs are simply too high in the motherland to compete in the world market. Production must be moved.
Fiat has exited the Italian business group that oversees union wages in Italy. Now the Italian union is genuinely fearful of their production jobs being moved overseas. The high cost of union wages are the driving force here.
The US Dollar is near an all time low and Volkswagen and Hyundai have already set up shop here to take advantage of that, and the ability to shed union jobs.
Is it possible that this crazy economic turmoil may bring manufacturing back to the US? With all four looking abroad for more production options, and the US brimming with over capacity, the choice may be more obvious than we think.
Will the lure of a non union workforce lure at one these major automakers to establish a foothold in the US?
The first line of Disneys Peter Pan and later a key mantra for Battlestar Galactica is “all of this has happened before, and it will all happen again”. But will it for the Auto industry?