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Automotive News & Views United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
16663 messages, Last post on Nov 08, 2009 at 9:32 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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well, I knew I wasn't going to make any headway with you regarding Kia Motors. I, however, have a lot of respect for them, having owned two Kia's. They could use some powertrains that enable owners to get better gas mileage, but they share that with the majority of the automakers. You will get a generous Warranty and a good, solid car when buying a Kia. I liked their bodystyling before Peter Schreyer of Audi Motors joined them and Peter makes them an even better Company. The new Spectra Coupe is going to be a gorgeous sporty looking Coupe from Kia. It's Mitsubishi and Kia fighting for my spending dollar for cars. rockylee...I am interested in the new Chevy Volt for 2010. I have read up on it's engineering and it appears they've designed a propulsion system that is truly green and is innovative as well. With a small ICE motor that kicks in after burning up the initial 40 miles of electrically-propelled cruising. That small gas motor ignites to charge up the generator inside that will then start generating big-time and propel the wheels directly with that energy. Then you can drive for another 350-400 miles. I am really interested in this type of technology and I am interested in a Chevy Volt. I didn't like hearing that Chevy decided to charge $40,000 instead of $30,000 for one. They should've just kept their mouths shut until they knew for sure what the pricing for the Volt would definitely be. But they can be forgiven for that-they are truly hurting and in a crisis. I have been turned off big-time by GM for about 40 years. I loved the GM cars of the 60's. The problem with getting interested in a Chevy Volt now is that Chevy may not be there in 2010. I am guessing they will be, though. rock, go knock 'em over and get that job, man. I am pulling for you. I like a lot of your ideas about the economy and "free" trade and truly what has been going on for years is not completely working. But I made it after Boeing. A lot of job things are personal and are up to you. Go get that job, dude!  And, as far as the UAW goes, they have won these high wages through strikes. gagrice, you have to agree, they have won those high wages fairly. And people don't like things taken away from them after getting them. These times are truly unique, I now hear Obama is working on not only middle-income tax breaks(for example, someone earning $50,000 a year will only pay 1/2 the Federal taxes under Obama's administration)but he is also working on an economic "stimulus" check like we got under Bush. Humm...I'm thinking Band-Aids, but, like I said, we will get one in 2009 because a lot of us have already heard about this "stimulus" check, right? To take that away from us now would be tantamount to...ummm......treason?  Before the new Administration has even began? Understand, people, my thoughts are so now because my son and his friend have just visited us. My son grew up in the liberal NW(Everett, just north of Seattle)and he has been going door-to-door for Barack Obama in Colorado. He left because their economy is horrible. They are on their way to Hollywood to pursue music careers. Yeah, I know. To give you an idea where he's coming from, he is one that truly believes the Bush Administration was behind the World Trade Center disaster in Sept. of 2001.  Yikes, that's a hard on to wrap my mind totally around. So, imagine him visiting us and having to stay longer because his '85 Cadillac Seville needed a starter put in. And in Willcox that meant waiting for parts and service my son hand-picked in order to get the lowest price. Taught him well! He's so liberal I can almost see Ted Kennedy in his eyes sometimes. So my comments this morning reflect a strong Bush-bashing mentality from him. They have decided to further populate California if they can't get a record contract signed. Probably get a job flipping burgers at Pink's. Knowing my son he might try getting a job in politics. I really differ from him in so many ways. I avoid politics like the plague. A side benefit would be that LA is only about a 7 hour drive from us here in Willcox, Arizona and I could groove to driving over there to visit him and play in LA while I'm there. 
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Replying to: lemko (Nov 13, 2008 6:23 am) I was reading a blurb the other day talking about how all the "fallback" retail jobs are going away in this economic climate. All the laid off Circuit City workers aren't going to be able to go to the mall and get hired on at Linens 'n Things or Mervyns. And soon they'll be competing with a bunch of laid off UAW workers? Retail Losses Sap a Jobs Safety Net (WSJ) |
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Replying to: rockylee (Nov 12, 2008 10:25 pm) Don't know for sure, have not examined, nor have each of them in garage and drive equal amount of miles. But, let's say that Camry and Malibu of similar quality of materials, assembly and reliability for sake of argument. So, what extra value has a UAW assembled car have over non-union to warrant their $73/hr overall cost vs half of that for non-union? List specifics. Let's say the Rock were like Joe the Plumber wants to be and started up a business with a couple people, stayed private and kept ownership and was President. With Rock's savy and vision he grew the company to 10, 20, then 50 people. Rock would take care of his people in providing continuous training, employee growth and responsibilities, benefits, empowerment, respect and above average wages for comparative positions. But, one day, one of the Rock's operations managers hires someone with proper qualifications and in a couple months, this guy starts to try to organize workers to be union represented - perhaps UAW, Teamsters, whatever. What would the Rock do?
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Replying to: steve_ (Nov 13, 2008 7:48 am) |
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Replying to: lemko (Nov 13, 2008 6:23 am) Remember "Be true to your school". If Obama/Pelosi/Reid give bailout to Big 3 in late Jan, will UAW workers do early morning chants, cheers, to be thankful to Obama? Didn't some kind of union have their members have a song they would sing on tv commercials promoting themselves?
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| don't think I haven't thought those very same thoughts. Sad, really. People are really going to have to start thinking hard about the right kind of training. Healthcare is something people need to keep in mind. It's still a booming job market, training can take as little as 6 months on up to a vet, who will end up training for a total of 12 years! | |
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Nov 13, 2008 8:05 am) One thing I think you forgot. Union members are rarely visionaries. They feel they should have a big piece of the pie without any risk. They feel they should be paid when the company is not making any money. When was the last time a Union created a job that produced anything? The Unions have done a good job of alienating about half the population in this country. My wife's company was Union. Her husband that started the company was a Union Iron Worker. He kept it Union and retired with an Iron Worker's retirement. When he died his son took over the business. His son was a Union member. He quickly busted the Union. My wife who helped start the company, was never a fan of the Union. She made less doing all the job bidding, than most of the Iron workers. She felt they were a bunch of whiners and cry babies. She was a workaholic and expected everyone else to be the same. Workaholic capitalist create jobs. Unions members do not.
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"Geeze, the way things are going, a Wal~Mart job is going to look prestigious! What will become of all these people at the bottom of the jobs ladder? Are they simply going to fall off into oblivion? Desperate people do desperate things. Look for a huge upswing in violent street crime, alcoholism, drug abuse, homicide, and suicide. " Save a little panic for when thing get terribly worse why don't ya. Europe's been at 10% unemployment for years. Our standards are high and ya'll act like its the end of the world. 6.5% UE sucks for those folks but the best we ever see is around 4% (considering that at any time 4% of us are changing jobs/careers/family development). It's hard to be an undereducated worker in these times. I guess that's why my mom always said college will not be a choice like it was for her. I pray for these folks that struggle to survive but they live in the best country in the world. Don't forget that this economy completey propered after the 1970's-1980's manufacturing decline where we restructured to become leaders in the information age with technological advancement, high tech job creation, and became the most productive workforce in the world. Maybe we should fund the space programs some more and so we can develop the next teflon, velcro, personal computer and thousands of other things. Maybe we need another cold war? god help us. These are smart creative people even if Rocky doesn't want them to work for 14 bucks an hour and would have them bussing tables.
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Nov 13, 2008 8:18 am) I remember that. Look for the Union Label.
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| Wanna talk about unions: Try and get a event planned in the Philly Convention Center. Wanna build out your office space in center city. It's cost 40% more than non union job of equal quality. And they WILL find out about your non union contractor and they will then picket you. We actaully had the gall to try and hire a non union builder for our space and by the end of the first week the contractor wouldn't do the job. Good thing, the union got to someone and we had to change the GC before he even had a change to quit. It's legalized strongarming AKA rackateering. | |
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