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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: snookered (Dec 07, 2008 10:09 am) Thats about the same thing Phil Gramm said about all Americans. He authored the infamous ENRON clause and snuck it in as congress was leaving in 2000. His wife was on the ENRON payroll too. What a guy. This ENRON clause is the smoking gun behind this whole sub prime economic mess. Deregulate and they will come.
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Your not going to tell me that if that employer is having economic issues, that an employee should work below the prevailing wage so as to bail out the employer? This says everything in a nutshell. We will put this on the UAW's tombstone. |
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 07, 2008 9:46 am) That is NOT the same as a 30% tax on income. If income is 6% of the total sales price, then the tax to Japan is about 2%. A big difference from 33% of the cost of the import. This is where the "all the money goes back to Japan" argument falls apart. But for the Japanese nameplates manufactured in the USA, 50%-80% goes to the USA in the form of jobs and services. Two percent in my example goes to Japan.
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 07, 2008 9:16 am) We have a few simple choices here: 1 - Do as you suggest above; 2 - Become competitive. This means welcoming efficiency and keeping costs low. The UAW wants to keep costs high but complains about jobs leaving. Which is it going to be? They ARE NOT going to have both. |
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The sooner you work on alternate skills and training, the better. Don't put all of your eggs into the UAW basket. Over one third of UAW jobs have been lost since 2000 with your friend Gettlefinger at the helm. Skills diversification is the name of the game. Be ready to move to another part of the country if necessary - jobs are around if you look. Those who prepare will do fine, and many will find life is even better post-UAW. The golden UAW goose - those days are coming to a close. GET OVER IT. Hopefully with your bigger than average incomes and benefits you have been socking some of it away for a rainy day rather than squandering it all. |
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 07, 2008 8:42 am) No, that's not what I'm saying. |
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I don't know how many of you have read my lengthy posts on here before about my personal job situation. I was a Boeing Company worker who had just over 20 years with them and I was laid off in 2003. I decided to take Uncle Sam up on Trade Act funds and get re-trained. I am living testimony to the fact that a guy who used to build jet airplanes(from the Illustration-Engineering side of Boeing's house)can now completely change to another field. I chose Respiratory Therapy because I researched it on the net and found that Nurses were at a 50% demand rate and Respiratory Therapists were in demand at a 45% growth rate. And because of all the baby boomers retiring(OK, it's now reduced somewhat by this financial crisis, they're having to keep working more and more)the need for Allied Health Care workers continues to keep growing. I can find a job anywhere in the 50 states that I want to live in. I'm currently looking at a job back in Washington state, in the Olympic National Park area of Port Angeles. Port Angeles is on the Strait of Juan De Fuca, is gorgeous, and if I can get this job I'll be coming back home. I have lived in Port Angeles and Forks(the Twilight movie spot) both in the 80's. It is God's Country, truly gorgeous country. A lot of the Olympic Peninsula area of Washington state is Olympic National Park. Large herds of Roosevelt Elk just walk out on to Highway 101 along Lake Crescent(on the way from Port Angeles to Forks). Mountain goats cling to the sides of the Olympic Mountains. The mountains rise hard and fast up from the waterways of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan De Fuca, Hood Canal and the Pacific Coast. It rains a lot in Forks, about 144 inches a year. But Port Angeles is more like 33 inches a year of rain. And there is a "banana beIt" of weather where it is actually sunny most of the time. Sequim, about 15 miles east of Port Angeles, is in this sunny zone. Don't know where we might live there, but I'll find us a place to buy. I was born in Seattle, raised in Edmonds and I lived in Everett, Stanwood and Burlington, WA, during my Boeing career. Laid off in May of 2003, and after being in strange states for 5 years, school for 2 years and working in three other states(South Dakota, Idaho and my current work state, Arizona) for the other three, I think I'm coming home(I haven't interviewed for the job yet...I just turned in my application for Washington State Respiratory Therapy licensure and these things will be taken care of in the next 2-3 months...Wa.St. DOH takes a full 2-3 months to process RT applications, then I need to fly up and interview, etc. find housing, etc. They do offer relocation pay, thank goodness...it's expensive to move.) Great benefits package including a comprehensive life insurance program, 24 days off a year for vacation, sick leave, reduced cafeteria costs, a fitness center deal you can't beat, a wonderful medical/dental benefits program, etc., etc. OMC in Port Angeles is a progressive rural hospital and I am confident that the RT skills I've honed as a RT so far at work in the industry will suit them well. I want to move back home so I will be putting my "Hire Me" sign on pretty brightly during the interview. The Trade Act will pay for your books and tuition completely while you study. And if you keep a 'C' average up you will get weekly unemployment benefits for as long as you need to get your 2-year Degree in the field you choose. I just want UAW workers to know that it's possible to work in other fields. Is it easy to earn college degrees? Hell no, it's not easy at all. But it can be done. If I were a UAW worker I'd be at the library, on the Internet, etc., working these things out now. Gettlefinger won't be able to save your bacon, nor will Ford(Ford has the best chance, though)Cerberus/Chrysler, nor GM. But, UAW workers, take note of this. Once you earn your AAS degree and your NBRC(National Board For Respiratory Care)credential, I'm a CRT(Certified Respiratory Therapist)and you can reach for the RRT credential as well(Registered Respiratory Therapist), you can work in basically any state in the 50 states of America you want to work in. Wages and benefits are good, too. Let me explain how it all works. You get your pink slip, right? You then make sure GM has done their homework and linked your Company up to the Federal Aid program called The Trade Act(started during the Carter Adminstration). It's also called TRA(Trade Readjustment Act). GM should be setting up explanatory meetings for you as I type this out, or hopefully they already have. Boeing was actually fairly helpful for us Trade Act nominees in the spring of 2003. Then pick a career, see that the Trade Act will cover it, and decide what college you want to attend. Without writing a book in this subject, let me just tell you that you are going to have to be your own advocate for what you want to do, what forms you'll need, etc. Work hard at it and keep at it. I am saying this from experience, there will be frustrating times with this. And once class starts you will have to bust your hump to get your degree. But it pays to go after this. Go after it like a Banshee(whatever a Banshee is). Don't just crumple up in a ball and cry yourself to sleep, thinking oh boo-hoo, I'm losing my job. Pick yourself up by your swimming trunks, take a deep breath, and just breathe. Just breathe. Then dive in and have a ball. 
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 07, 2008 10:30 am) You mean like Congressman Dingell's wife that was a GM Lobbyist before they wed? Then given a very high paid executive job at GM. Is that the kind of insiders you are referring to? The blame for this travesty not only belongs to the auto executives, but must be shared equally with the entire Michigan delegation in the House and Senate, virtually all of whom, year after year, voted however the Detroit automakers and unions instructed them to vote ... Indeed, if and when they do have to bury Detroit, I hope that all the current and past representatives and senators from Michigan have to serve as pallbearers. And no one has earned the "honor" of chief pallbearer more than the Michigan Representative John Dingell, who is more responsible for protecting Detroit to death than any single legislator. Dingell’s ability to stick up to the Big Three, it turns out, may have been compromised in more ways than one. Dingell’s wife, Deborah, is a former General Motors lobbyist. After the two wed, she moved into a non-lobbying administrative position inside the company. On his latest financial disclosure form, Dingell listed G.M. stock worth up to $300,000, between $500,001 and $1,000,000 in stock options, a vested G.M. pension and his wife’s G.M. salary, the value of which was undeclared. On top of that, CBS News reports, the Dingells had G.M. options worth up to $5 million as recently as 2000, and in 1998, they sold options worth as much as $1 million. http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/12/04/dingell_detroit/index.html If any pensioner is left hanging by GM when they go bankrupt, Wagoner and crew should be tried for the crimes committed. That means knowingly spending money that should have been preserved for the retirees. |
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"The more thuggish the UAW becomes, the less sympathy they will get from the average citizen and congress, and the more they will lose. Big 3 management may have been stupid enough to be held hostage by the UAW but the rest of the US is not." When they come South to protest and block accesss to the import auto plants, they forget one thing...down South we have guns, and a lot of them...and most of us really do know how to use them...  First, we will call law enforcement to break up the crowds...but, if they can't do it, we can always use...uh..."self-help"...
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Replying to: marsha7 (Dec 07, 2008 3:37 pm) Not like some guy up north named Plaxico huh? |
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