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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
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Replying to: rockylee (Jul 06, 2008 11:09 pm) I have given you plenty of places to look. Companies are NOT going to move into Michigan with the political climate that exists there. Just talked to one of the guys that retired after I did. He is back working in his home town in Tennessee. He cannot believe the level of incompetence in the workplace. He is wiring schools and hotels for network access. He is 55 and claims these young guys are so slow. He did not want to go back to work but a friend begged him to at least work part time so the company could get caught up with all the work they have. Pulling cable through big buildings is not easy work. That is why they have a hard time getting help. Young people in general feel entitled to a paycheck for doing little or NOTHING.
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 07, 2008 4:56 am)
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Replying to: rockylee (Jul 06, 2008 11:40 pm) A better question is who wants to eat? Who wants a decent lifestyle? Anchorage weather is very much like Michigan weather. Alaska was settled in the 1930s by people from Michigan. This is not the first time that Michigan was in the dumps. During the great Depression the Feds helped relocate several hundred families from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin to the Matanuska Valley of Alaska. That was obviously a tougher breed of people than the current Michigan populace. I have NO sympathy for someone that will not move to get a job. I say let them starve where they like. I hated to see my daughter and family move from here to Indiana. It was a good opportunity for them to own a home and get out of apartment living. His company gave him a raise to move out there from San Diego. They would have never been able to afford a home here. There they can have a home and a better life style than was possible here with his level of income. The UAW workers that do not get re-trained in other skills are headed for the homeless shelters when the unemployment runs out. Obama is NOT going to save your jobs or the state of Michigan. He has no interest in the plight of the working man. NAFTA is here to stay and be expanded. Better to work within the confines than to be walking the streets digging in dumpsters. |
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Replying to: lemko (Jul 07, 2008 5:41 am) I can tell you in TN he is making less than half of what he made working in Alaska. He just wanted to spend more time fishing with his grandkids and decided to take early retirement. He probably took the job to keep that big Dodge Ram filled with diesel and his 200HP bass boat motor running. |
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Replying to: dtownfb (Jul 06, 2008 9:27 am) Amazing statement. We are part of the global market when it comes to the wages which the companys wish to pay the worker actually making/handling/selling the stuff. We are part of the global market when it comes to importing stuff. We are part of the global market when it comes to the salaries paid executives in the companies NOT. Through the years I've watched the executive compensation packages swell on the stocks I've looked at. But the worker compensation drops. The executives are understood by the people who end up in congress much better than they understand the working guy. The executives are the ones carrying the money to congress ( the housing industry is giving more and more as the legislation to bail them out with taxpayer money increases ). Now we're up to an $8000 tax credit for a new home mortgage to help the industry pawn off the costs of their bad mortgages onto the taxpayer. And we have people ranting about UAW workers who soaked the industry through the years with the executives carrying the water buckets for them to do so. Overpaid yes. For those gleeful that people are losing their jobs in Michigan, sometimes that comes home to roost. I have to admit there's no sympathy from me for those who sucked at the benefits of having those well-paid UAW workers. I cut cross country through an area I used to drive on the way back from an antique shop yesterday. Many small businesses run out of small buildings along the route are GONE. It's been 3-4 years since I went that way and looked; but it's obvious they've gone with the decline in the economy.
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Replying to: imidazol97 (Jul 07, 2008 5:59 am) That is just one of the American Dreams. To own a little shop along the highway for your retirement income. Along come the Interstate highways and bypass all those old state highways. The best example I can think of that shows what a person does when the clientele are removed is Kentucky Fried Chicken. I try to only drive on the back country highways and avoiding the Interstates when possible. You are right, more businesses have gone broke than have survived. Life is all about change. The UAW workers will have to adapt to the changes that are coming. I am not happy to see the Unions go. I hope my Union stays strong to keep my retirement going. If worse comes to worse I do have a 401K to fall back on. Everyone should have contingency plans for now and for their future. That is each persons responsibility. Not the job of the government. It used to be called "Saving for a Rainy Day".
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"Also your anti-union/michigan rant from a earlier post is sad. Marsha7, you said something to the fact that workers don't have capital invested in the company thus they have no right to strike. Funny you rail on communist, socialist, dictators, but capitalism breeds that same mentatlity"... Yes, but there IS a difference that you fail to recognize...in a capitalist society like ours, EVERYONE has the opportunity to start a business and try and make it to the top...whereas someone who works for Ford IS at the mercy of Ford, s/he can leave and use their talents to start or run a business, whereas that is quite hard to do under communism and socialism... Capitalism is a cruel master...those who don't make it will go down in flames, but thay had the chance, and, can try again...to use a worn out example, Colonel Sanders started KFC when he was 66, and when he was 66, 66 was considered very old, now it is considered middle age...he could not have done that in Russia... But, those who make it have earned it...it is simple...capitalism is the equivalent of Business Darwinism...some computer guy years ago called it Creative Destruction, where successful businesses die off because of newer and better technology, and Society is better off for it...in the company that dies, the workers lose their jobs, but that is the consequence of capitalism...the economy is certainly stronger when weaker compaies die off, and the stronger economy will absorb the displaced workers, PROVIDING THAT THE WORKER TRIES TO IMPROVE THEIR TRAINING AND LOT IN LIFE, instead of simply lamenting the loss of the "jobs bank"... Just like the drug addict who finds himself in the gutter, and then wakes up and realizes what he has done to himself, so it is with the Big 3...after 25 years of Japanese imports, they are FINALLY realizing they are in a fight for their lives, and THAT is what will bring change to the industry...they will shed the unions as the albatross they are, and motivated workers WILL come to work for them, like they line up when Honda builds a plant in Alabama and Kia builds a plant in Georgia...people who want to work a day for a day's pay... What you cannot yet see is simply the gut-wrenching change in the auto industry called Creative Destruction...it may take the near destruction of GM or Ford for them to throw out the deadwood and get back on track...they got big, they got arrogant, and they thought they could sell us anything THEY wanted, until competitors came in right under their collective noses and gave us what WE wanted... The entire state of Michigan will forever be caught up in the union "gimme gimme" mentality until they finally bury the state...not because I say so, but because anyone who can see the fluorescent handwriting on the wall (since 1985) will realize that Michigan is about as business-unfriendly a state as one can be... No one is moving into the state, people and businesses are leaving in droves, and the wishful thinkers think Obama will "bring jobs to Michigan"...he can't and he won't...the rust belt will continue to rust because they refuse to change with the times... If you insist on staying in Michigan, get into an industry that caters to retirees, because that is all that will be left when the workers have no jobs... Juts like the nation changed dramatically when the auto industry grew from 1910, and workers came to Michigan in droves, now the pendulum has reversed and you won't see it...the jobs are elsewhere, but Michigan pretends that it is still the center of the auto world...it isn't, it lost it years ago, and it will never return... Michigan rode the top for 75 years, and now it is time to acknowledge that its time has come, and passed... 10 years from now, rocky, you will be posting about how President XYZ will bring jobs to Michigan...while the state will probably turn into the next Mississippi...
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Welcome to the 21st Century American Workplace! http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0705biz-blogspot0705.- html |
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Replying to: gagrice (Jul 07, 2008 7:25 am) Yeah, and it seems we've been going through an eight-year monsoon! Every one of those closed shops has a story behind it. Could be the owners just got very old and wanted out. Could've been a family legacy that was promised but wasn't passed down to the younger generation or the young people didn't want anything to do with it. Could be a young person threw his whole life savings into it, went bankrupt trying to compete with the big boxes, and then went home and ate a pistol. |
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Replying to: rockylee (Jul 06, 2008 11:28 pm) |
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