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Automotive News & Views United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
16738 messages, Last post on Dec 03, 2009 at 10:07 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: fintail (May 15, 2009 8:39 am) Those darned chosen people again! Certainly not the UAW! |
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Replying to: m4d_cow (May 15, 2009 10:42 am)  GM Nears Deal With UAW (Fox). Supposed to save $1 billion a year. "Chrysler LLC, seeking to sell most of its assets out of bankruptcy to a new company run by Fiat SpA, won’t have to contend with a strike by the United Auto Workers until at least 2015." Chrysler Agreement Prevents Strike by UAW Until at Least 2015 (Bloomberg)
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Replying to: steve_ (May 15, 2009 1:06 pm) One Billion down, $38 Billion to go. That is just to break even. If GM cannot make a profit they need to close up shop and let an automaker that can survive. GM has been a road block to the Auto industry for TOO MANY YEARS. I am betting as soon as the door shuts on GM that Ford will blossom. Along with the Ford stock I bought. So I am anticipating a quick and decisive liquidation of Government Motors along with Chrysler. Though the reality is the UAW Retirees could tie it up in court for decades. |
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"I dunno. I'd rather pay $30 for a shirt made here knowing I was taking care of a fellow American and his family rather than buying the $12 shirt made in some third-world toilet by a heartless corporation that keeps impoverished kids chained to a machine while paying them pennies. That $30 shirt would probably last a long time. I bought shirts at Wal~Mart that fell apart the first time I washed them. However, I have an American made work shirt I bought in 1984 that is still with me and in good condition despite countless washings. What's better? A $30 shirt that lasts for years or three $10 shirts you have to throw away in few months?"...obviously, you have never shopped at a Walmart, because you are using intelligent logic how you buy a shirt...most folks at W-M do not use that logic...they see the price and they know they can afford it, which is why W-M sells so many shirts... Years ago, my father told me a saying, "Only the rich can afford to buy cheap, the rest of us need value"...in my mind, a $30 shirt that lasts is better then a $10 one that has to be replaced 4 times a year... But, stop for a second: the people who "live" at WalMart do NOT think that way...while many folks shop W-M, it is the lower income folks that they appeal to the most...they, lemko, do NOT run around in Park Avenues and DTS's, and do not think ahead...they buy what is the cheapest...the Waltins are billionaires because Sam knew the vast majority thinks like poor people, not the way you think...so, while your shirt logic makes sense to the educated, WalMart thinks the other way and makes their billions... That is why we do not make shirts here, except for custom shirtmakers who sell at a much higher price to those who can afford it...and they aren't unionized either...just well paid because of a skill of a tailor... Without unions, would we go back to sweatshop conditions???...no, one of the great accomplishments of unions was the 40 hour workweek, overtime, vacations, etc, now part of federal and state laws...I always give them credit for that, which was why they did a great job in the 30s and 40s, into the 50s...and that is why they have been obsolete for 30 years but continue to run their companies into bankruptcy, because the pendulum has swung too far, and those gold-plated health and retirement benefits that sound so good are simply not affordable...no matter how you slice it, if the money is not there, the company cannot afford it...scream about "contracts" all you want, a contract that cannot be afforded is a contract that MUST be breached, leaving the beneficiaries in the lurch...no other way around it...
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Replying to: marsha7 (May 15, 2009 3:59 pm) When BMW Manufacturing was selecting a state for their US plant the company had two requirements: 1. The state had to be a "Right to Work" state 2. The state could have no auto plants located in it. In essence they wanted a non-union workforce that had not picked up any bad auto making habits. If you visit the Greer plant today you will find the employee lot filled with BMW cars and bikes. Do you think that those workers need(or want) UAW representation?
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Using that criteria, one could expect that a new auto plant from any import will not be set up in the Midwest for about, oh, 1000 years, because they have been contaminated by the UAW and it has affected their DNA...just listen to the UAW people here who continually justify workers with no skills making over 3 times what other unskilled workers make, and yet they believe they are underpaid...their entire mindset is that anyone who does not have a 5000 sq ft home on the lake with 2 jetskis, two Caddys in the 3 car garage, and at least one summer home in the mountains is practically starving and deprived...oh, and none of them should have to pay a dime toward their health insurance premiums nor should they pay any deductibles or copays...they absolutely screamed when they had to start paying a copay of a couple of bucks a visit... They simply have been insulated from reality, and suddenly someone is blowing the door off the airplane hangar and the sunshine is blinding them, as they have never seen so much reality at once...if you want an example of how little they know about reality, they are more insulated from the real world than Paris Hilton... |
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Replying to: marsha7 (May 15, 2009 3:59 pm) I mostly shop at thrift shops. I have a list of top brand Hawaiian shirts MADE IN HAWAII, that I watch for. I bought two Kahala's last week for $6. One looked like it had never been worn. I wear Hawaiian shirts about 75% of the time. T-shirts the rest. I have pants that are at least 10 years old that are still like new. I mostly wear shorts. I have not bought any for at least 10 years. I have never bought any cloths at Walmart. Everything I buy there is Made in USA. Wine, plants, birdseed. If they were to become UAW I would have to shop elsewhere. Of course they would be out of business in 6 months. those gold-plated health and retirement benefits that sound so good are simply not affordable The idea of an unskilled worker retiring at 50 years of age with a fat pension is so far removed from 99% of Americans that they are appalled to find that is what has brought GM and Chrysler to bankruptcy. I talked to a guy from Pittsburgh today that would like to retire next year when he turns 70 years of age. He is out visiting his son and family. Our Union eliminated their retirement at 45 the year I turned 45. I could have taken it. I would be a Walmart greeter getting by on much less than I now have. |
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Replying to: roadburner (May 15, 2009 6:35 pm)  Gee, Bob, you've successfully made Paris Hilton sound like Einstein by comparison with UAW. And Steve, you're not telling me that a 1987 t-shirt is still in like-new condition, are you? |
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From Steve's link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a5dC6O3Z2H.Y&refer=us "The Detroit-based union also agreed to accept a 55 percent stake in the new company to fulfill half of the automaker’s $10.6 billion liability to a union retiree health-care fund." Is this saying that 55% of the "New" Chrysler would belong to the union? And that would be used to deal with half the health care liability? Don't see how a company could stay in business that way. I'm really confused on this. Any help or thoughts most appreciated. Kip
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Replying to: steve_ (May 15, 2009 1:06 pm) My T-shirt story starts with a Crazy Shirt I bought in Kona in the late 1970s. I wore that shirt until it was threadbare. Crazy shirt's used to be guaranteed for life. So I took it back in the 1990s and traded it for a new one. It never was the same. Should have kept the original. Speaking of high labor costs. Crazy Shirts was forced into bankruptcy in 2001. The new owners moved the factory out of CA and back to Hawaii. They are now making a good profit again. States like CA and Michigan will not be satisfied until they have driven every industry out of their states with over regulation, high taxes and OVER PAID UNSKILLED WORKERS. |
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