The Tyranny of Average Cost - part the twenty second

While listening to one of the talking heads on MSNBC, I heard one of the Union folk confirm a number that felt right: the labor cost in the BoM of a car is 5%. Now, of course, that could just be aggressive posturing by one side in a fight. But, then I let my fingers do the walking through the Yellow Googles, and found this YouTube piece:

Both sides in the long strike at General Motors by the United Autoworkers Union agree on one thing, the labor deal is only 5% of the product cost to the company.

And, for the record, there are myriad other sources. And, that was the 2019 fiasco.

In the Olde Days of my undergraduate yut, it was a given that the capital/labor ratio was, is, and always will be - 80/20. Manufacturing on the whole, is really feeling the pinch of The Tyranny. Ever more automation seemed to be the way to go; get rid of all those slackers. But The Tyranny begins to bite should demand/output slacken. You can't fire a machine, now can you? Since they ain't be smart enough to increase demand, thus increasing output, and reducing capital cost per vehicle, they're resorting to the same-old same-old: squeeze the help. Problem is, how much squeeze is there? With a reported $21,000,000,000 in profit the last year, they ain't much blood left in that stone.