AUTOS

BMW Assembly Line Workers to Earn $12 an Hour: The workers at BMW’s new plant in Greer, S.C., will earn about $34,000 a year by 1997, wages that are competitive with the contract just signed by the United Auto Workers union and Ford Motor Co. The company plans to eventually employ 2,000 at the non-union plant. Employees will be paid $12 an hour, with an increase to $16 an hour after two years, BMW said. The Ford contract calls for newly hired workers to start at $12.69 an hour and receive 10% raises for three years, topping out at $19.33 in three years. That starting rate is 70% of the pay of existing Ford workers, but, with the raises, the new workers will be at 100% after three years. The wage package announced by BMW Manufacturing Corp. President Al Kinzer is still far below the average German BMW worker’s pay: the equivalent of $28 hourly.