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Automotive News & Views United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
16701 messages, Last post on Nov 20, 2009 at 3:39 AM
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Replying to: lemko (Dec 26, 2008 8:58 pm) Perhaps the UAW is also responsible for the sub prime and the Edsel too? It amazes me that when economic times get bad, we seek a scapegoat. The facts are there. They (engineering/management) opted to build an aluminum unsleeved motor. Them compounded the error by trying to inject silicone carbide into the motor. Bet that did wonders for the rings, mains, bearings, and other moving parts within the engine. Aluminum oxide and silicone carbide are abrasives commonly used to make grinding wheels to sharpen/hone metal tools. When exactly does someone take personal responsibility? http://www.failuremag.com/arch_history_edsel.html
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 27, 2008 5:49 am) That would be Dodd, Frank & Jimmy Carter. Not really sure about the Edsel. Who really cares? Ford survived that joke. GM has had plenty including the Aztek most recently. I don't think anyone is blaming the UAW for poor designs or even cheap content. Those are management decisions. It would even be fair to blame the UAW contracts on Management. Which I do. However the UAW should accept the fact that when they go on strike they are sticking a knife into the goose laying the golden egg. GM in particular has proven they do not have bright CEOs. The UAW has all but killed Union auto workers in this country.
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Replying to: gagrice (Dec 26, 2008 6:32 am) To the other poster about UAW families, they obviously do not know many UAW families, only the ones they see on tv, which again, obviously is not in a family scene? A lot of UAW workers are supporting or helping to support other family members who struggle to get by due to the lack of universal health care sapping whatever meager earnings they have. One I know has two sons, both work for major companies, one in software, and one in pharmacuticals. I know one guy who sent his wife to school with UAW won wages and she is a Nurse practioner, another's son is a chemical engineer with a major firm in Texas, one's daughter is a music teacher, and on and on. Thousands of Drs, Lawyers, etc. have come from UAW families. UAW members donate thousands of dollars each and every Christmas and then donate the time to deliver food to each and every name they are given. Being under 62, I have no supplemental insurance policy, and to the point of another poster, I am almost 100% positive that if you retire early from GM, they require you to sign up for Social Security at 62 and Medicare as soon as you qualify also. UAW retirees are dying at record rates, new hires don't get the same insurance or pension package the older senior employees get, so GM's obligations are slowly falling on their own. And yes, there is a surviving dependent charge if a retiree wants their spouse/dependents to have coverage if they die (this effectively means that coverage is free to GM since the retirees pays for it out of their own pension?). The common thread I see with people I know who are struggling, aside from no good jobs being available and the ones they had being outsourced out of the country, is what being sick for even a small surgery (say appendicitis, a common surgery) does to their lives. It can often bankrupt them. Universal health care, hopefully with the option to keep the present insurance you have earned as a retiree from a company that promised you in good times they would provide it the rest of your life, is a great step. The only other solution is to provide plenty of great paying jobs in the U.S. with great health benefits. It would seem, most of the U.S. citizens don't see the need to save the Big 3, who are providing most of these good jobs now.
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Replying to: 04cad (Dec 27, 2008 8:43 am) Sounds like ordinary American's. Excellent post! When we all get away from pointing fingers/scapegoating, we can see that were all in this together. If anything the "prevailing wage" in any given area is driven up by union wages in general. So we all benefit even Honda/Toyota calculate this wage. We don't need to envy others either. Be they the wealthy, or those whom are more fortunate. We need to attract the work, show that we can do the work better than others, and just show them the unbroken American spirit. Bad things can happen to even good people. Do we just give up? Go long and look for the ball.
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Replying to: rockylee (Dec 26, 2008 9:18 pm) Really? What facts support this perception?
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 27, 2008 9:24 am) So then why is the UAW killing it's master companies rather than trying to help make the company successful together? Go long and look for the ball. Wouldn't the union not have striked GM even THIS YEAR if they had been going long and looking for the ball? The company was nearly insolvent yet the union had to strike at one of the most successful plants?  The union should "go long" and realize "we're all in this together". Unfortunately Goldfinger has not been doing that. Perhaps he needs to be replaced? |
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...Walter Reuther would make of Gettlefinger and Alfred Sloan would make of Wagonner? We are living in an age of midgets.
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Replying to: lemko (Dec 27, 2008 10:52 am) "among the union's biggest fixed assets, have lost $23 million in the past five years alone, a heavy albatross around the union's neck as it tries to manage a multibillion-dollar pension plan crisis." Fox
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