Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
Automotive News & Views United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
16668 messages, Last post on Nov 11, 2009 at 8:03 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
|
Replying to: gagrice (May 14, 2009 3:17 pm) Now, if they're stupid enough to be buying 1/2 million $ houses, Escalades, boats, Ski-Doos, plasma televisions, and vacationing in the Bahamas, then they've got some fierocious money-management issues. I make way more than a UAW worker and I don't have or want any of those things. Outside of my cars, I live rather modestly. Heck, I can really be a super-miser if it weren't for my girlfriend! |
|
|
Replying to: marsha7 (May 15, 2009 6:16 am) OK, let's assume labor unions are obsolete. What's to keep companies from reverting back to 1890s sweat shop conditions, company stores, physical abuse, a wanton disregard for safety and virtually slavery of the workforce? Can we trust them to treat their employees well? Is the government going to protect them? I wouldn't count on it! They didn't do a good job protecting wealthy investors from the likes of Bernie Madoff. Who's going to look out for a bunch of lower middle-class and working class schlubs?
|
|
|
Replying to: gagrice (May 15, 2009 5:04 am) Well, if GM start importing cars exclusively from China or goes out of business altogether, I guess I will be too - a Mercedes S-Class or E-Class. I could buy a Ford product, but if find them as palatable as cold Brussels sprouts. I cannot for the life of me see myself in any Asian luxury car. I'm not paying a premium for what is essentially a Buick Park Avenue with a psychotic price tag. I better get used to the fierocious maintenance and repair bills that come with those Teutonic tanks. |
|
|
Replying to: dino001 (May 15, 2009 4:48 am)
|
|
|
Replying to: lemko (May 15, 2009 6:46 am) I work in the software industry. No software company I know of has a union. Yet the working conditions are better than most industries, and I do not see any "sweat shop conditions" developing - even the jobs outsourced to India have a working environment which is comparable to US (if you visit the campus of an Infosys or Wipro in India, it is at par with any campus in Silicon valley). So, my point is - Motivated employees deliver value to the company (which then gets monetized in the form of higher revenues and profits). Unfortunately there will be industries where the only differentiation is cost, and "sweat shop" conditions may develop - but that is a part of the Anglo Saxon model of capitalism. For every 100 underpaid shoe assemblers in a Vietnamese factory of Nike, there is one Nike employee in the US vacationing in St. Moritz. To sum it up - The company management needs to maximize the value creation by its employees. In most cases, it will depend on their motivation - which depends on working conditions. So unless the management is blind to this (and therefore deserves to fail), it is not going to short change the employee..... |
|
|
Replying to: andre1969 (May 15, 2009 5:42 am) |
|
|
Replying to: lemko (May 15, 2009 6:46 am) Guess what? Even in the bad old days of the 1890s, the average American worker enjoyed the world's highest blue collar standard of living. Those sweat shops were ugly places, but most of the people who worked in them were recently-arrived immigrants who left for better jobs as soon as they learned some English & acquired marketable skills. Working 14-hour days in a lower Manhattan sweat shop beats hell out of a short, bloody career as cannon fodder in the Czar's army. Here's a basic economic fact: a strong & expanding economy does much, much more for a worker's standard of living than membership in a union. |
|
|
Replying to: lemko (May 15, 2009 6:36 am) Yes, I wish my mother and step father had what your dad had also. Like Rocky you were raised UPPER MIDDLE CLASS. There were a lot of US that were not. We fought to get ahead. Saving as much as possible for that day we could enjoy it. Now the stinking government wants to give it all away to a bunch of overpaid UNSKILLED auto assemblers. We just have different views of the past and present based on our childhood memories. Vacation for us was visiting grandma in Oregon or CA. We NEVER took a vacation anywhere we did not stay with relatives. Even if all of us had to sleep in the car on long trips. That was two adults and 5 kids. I have NO pity on these people that did not think beyond next payday. 10,000 UAW workers filing for Bankruptcy when they lost their Overtime. Give me a break. Could not make it on $87k per year, so sad I just want to PUKE. |
|
|
Replying to: lemko (May 15, 2009 6:36 am) I have no problem with that as long as you are not BK your company and asking for tax dollars to maintain that level of income. That is what the UAW workers are pleading for. They could care less about GM or Chysler. It is their own greed that drives them. I would bet you are not interested in sending the UAW a check to help them out.
|
|
|
Replying to: lemko (May 15, 2009 6:55 am) That surprises me. After all, it was the Germans - not the Japanese or Koreans - who wiped the floor with your beloved Cadillac & made it into an object of ridicule for luxury car buyers. The head of the Toyota team that designed the first Lexus LS made it clear that their target was the S-class Mercedes. They didn't consider the Caddies of the time (late 80s) to be worthy rivals. Drive through the parking lot of any exclusive country club in the greater NY metro area & you'll see 6 or 8 German cars for every Lexus or Infiniti. I'm a little surprised that you aren't more anti-German.
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Automotive News & Views United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
