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Automotive News & Views United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
16710 messages, Last post on Dec 01, 2009 at 8:06 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: rockylee (Dec 21, 2008 7:08 pm) Well given that the UAW on average is less educated than many other fields, what are you saying about them? 
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Replying to: steve_ (Dec 21, 2008 3:51 pm) Q: Some senators have criticized the UAW workers’ contracts as too lucrative. How do you respond to that? A: It’s just the excuses they’re using to be able to put a dagger into the heart of the labor movement. Labor is 10 percent of the cost to produce a vehicle. That includes all the pensions and health care for our retirees and it includes everything for the active person. . . . All the rest of it is either the research and development or the steel or the parts that all comes into it. Now we’re willing to sit down and talk about things, but this garbage about, you have to take lower wages — the wages and benefits have been negotiated for years. The only reason that the wages and benefits are the same or very close to being the same in the [foreign-brand] factories in Alabama, in Kentucky, in Tennessee, is because the UAW is here. If the UAW goes away, do they really think the wages and benefits are going to stay where they are? Absolutely not. http://www.buffalonews.com/145/story/529299.html
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Replying to: jimbres (Dec 21, 2008 5:55 pm) Many patriots are against the current war in Iraq. However, those folks in Washington don't care and bill them regardless. Maybe those folks who have no children have heartburn about paying school taxes. Certainly many lobbies are in Washington looking for handouts (including organized labor/UAW). There is no end to the role govt plays in this society. They spend you pay. Its that simple. Regardless if you benefit or not. Don't get me started on welfare for the rich. Stadiums/arenas for rich folks who have found a way to avoid the risk inherent to being an entrepreneur.
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Replying to: lokki (Dec 21, 2008 9:40 am) Knowledge is superior to ignorance. First of all I work in aerospace and defense. Yeah, business is good. Then too I have outside interests. Multifaceted and have invested very well. My offspring went to private schools. Sorry I don't fit your typical stereotype of the UAW worker. Sorry the GOP has let America and you down, supply side, trickle down, and silly tax breaks have this nation in dire economic straits. Then again I live in a rather affluent area and assume your depression is due to your environment. All I hear from you is problems and no solutions. While I don't like front wheel drive cars or anything Toyota/Honda has to offer, BMW might have something that I may be interested in. If that price is right. Maybe even a Porsche. Or perhaps a two seater Lexus with the orange leather interior. They want way too much for that one, more than $50,000. Unfortunately I have acquired a taste for fine cars and the Cadillac CTS is priced right with the right options. I was all for the Catera, which is small and delivers ride, performance, and creature comforts such as Recarro seats, Bose sound. But a stripped down econo box is stupid and rides more like the mechanical bull at Gilleys/Billy Bobs. By the way Rocky mentioned Norway as better than any for national health care. However, everything American is the best, except for the autos, according to you. |
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Wonder why the foreign manufacturers locate most of their assembly plants below the Mason-Dixon Line? Wonder why many components are sourced offshore? Wonder why the jobs are disappearing or moving away from the epicenter of the automotive industry? Wonder why any person would get hard-assed when they had a tin cup in their hands looking for a handout? It's all in the logo folks. Problems always start at the top. This time the honchos got a taste of humble pie. |
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Replying to: jimbres (Dec 21, 2008 1:00 pm) Thought you would never ask. Boeing and Airbus are the greatest examples. Airbus being overtly subsidized by European countries and even Lobbing McCain here in Washington, among others. Would we better off with only one big commercial airliner maker? Whatever became of MD and is Canada going to make any big airliners? In fact, the China Airlines order needed big time, high-level juice in the form of arm-twisting from President Bush to reverse an all-Airbus order that would have eliminated Boeing from future CAL plans altogether. Originally the order was to be for 20 Airbus aircraft and none to Boeing. But in the end, each manufacturer sold ten aircraft. http://www.aircargonews.com/archives/BoeingGetsDownToEarth.html |
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In September, Congress approved a $25 billion subsidy to the major automakers under the guise of financing improved fuel efficiency technologies. The Energy Department soon is to be disbursing these monies. Republican resistance, so far, to a bailout for the Detroit Big Three automakers means that an additional $25 billion may not be forthcoming in any lame duck Congressional session before the Christmas recess. But it would, most certainly, be part of any new stimulus package once the next Congress and the new president take office in January. Or under the fear of one of the Big Three going under before the end of December, the Treasury Department may be "persuaded" by the current Democratic members of Congress into using a portion of existing $700 billion bailout money to bolster the automakers' sagging balance sheets. But regardless of how this plays out, the Detroit automakers are no doubt expecting that they will get these tens of billions of dollars from the politicians in Washington, D.C. After all, they’ve paid for it. According to OpenSecrets.Org, which tracks lobbying expenditures by special interest groups, the Big Three auto companies have been spending a fortune on winning friends and influencing people in the halls of Congress and in the White House. http://www.aier.org/research/commentaries/760-millions-for-billions-bailout-rewa- rds-big-threes-lobbying
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So everyone is buying Honda's/Toyota's and avoiding Big Three cars? Where oh where is that P R O F I T ? The Detroit News reports that: Honda Motor Co. stunned investors Wednesday when it revealed at its traditional year-end news conference that it expected to lose around $1.3 billion in the second half of the year, a period that coincided with the collapse of the U.S. auto market. Meanwhile, analysts said Toyota "is highly likely to report operating losses during the second half of the current fiscal year" and will remain under pressure in the next year. Once again, I'm looking to the Republicans to explain how this is the UAW's fault. http://www.samefacts.com/archives/unions_and_organizing_/2008/12/worldwide_labou- - r_conspiracy_take_2.php
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 22, 2008 2:27 am) The industry may face more trouble if the auto market fails to improve, Edmunds.com analyst Jesse Toprak warned. He expected 9.8 million vehicles to be sold in the coming year but added "no automaker can survive as a viable business in the United States if fewer than 11 million vehicles are sold annually industrywide." Only the bailed out survive. Regards, OW |
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 22, 2008 12:16 am) If the UAW goes away or diminishes to a smaller union than it is today, the threat of Unions still exists. The UAW is not the only Union that could represent Toyota workers if they become downtrodden. The Teamsters would be glad to represent them. The Teamsters are probably the most diverse Union in the USA. We have bakers to telephone workers. Airline workers to my local Costco. I only shop at the Costco warehouses that are Union. Only the ones that used to be Price Club are Union. What distinguishes Teamsters from other Unions is acting like they are partners in the industries they represent. That means the Union is concerned about the profits of the company. Running a company into bankruptcy does not help the Union members. The UAW needs to get a grip on reality. They are hanging by a thread provided not by Congress. But by a President that the Unions have rejected. |
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