Edmunds.com | Inside Line | Auto Observer Your Account | Help | Directory
You are here:
![[F]](http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com/media/townhall/webxicons/site.gif){kind=small}
Forums
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
|
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.
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
Replying to: rockylee (Dec 26, 2008 9:18 pm) Really? What facts support this perception?
|
|
|
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? |
|
...Walter Reuther would make of Gettlefinger and Alfred Sloan would make of Wagonner? We are living in an age of midgets.
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
Replying to: dallasdude1 (Dec 26, 2008 1:22 pm) Bringing in one or two crackpot person's opinions of the AMA as being some sort of government controlling powerhouse and the implication of all doctor's being flawless super human's (although some think they are) that don't make mistakes, yet make an unbelievably high income serves no purpose here. It does a great job at distorting the reality of becoming a physician and maintaining credentialing using cherry picked opinions and pseudo-facts. Are doc's making too much? If so, when you need emergency surgery or a loved one gets cancer, call Oprah Winfrey or A-Rod.
|
|
|
Replying to: gagrice (Dec 27, 2008 6:07 am) The union in the past would strike only the most profitable GM plant, Janesville, Wis. Mgmt has now eliminated that plant The union would strike a key car part plant without which, a car could not be completed. Mgmt has outsourced all parts The union had half a million members Now they have about 50,000 Mgmt wants some concessions from the union to restore some of the competitiveness There has to be another place for GM to find competitiveness. I can't figure out what it could be Bankruptcy will only help if it relieves GM of it's pension and healthcare obgligations. The 1% savings from UAW wage concessions will not be enough to save GM. There are some factors that will turn in favor for GM but not until we climb out of the recession and start buying cars. Local dealer is advertising new 2009 Corolla's, Impalas or Malibus for 14,900. You have to be in a current GM lease and add destination charge so it would be $17,550 for me for the 2 Chevys. Not sure if the Corolla has $2k of the discount as a lease turn in too. But even these deals aren't getting people out to buy. |
|
|
|
|
UAW retirees are dying at an unprecedented rate? Can you give a link or give some personal information that you know about this purported fact? Is it one of those things like the oldtimers at Boeing would always tell me? I'll tell you about it, it goes like this. "See him over there?" "Yep." "He's gonna die once he retires from the Lazy B!" "Oh yeah, why is that?", I would ask. "Because he needs to keep working. Once he stops working, it will be as if all of his self-worth and importance to others and himself will be gone. He'll just die." Scary thing is, as I worked more and more years at Boeing...and watched more and more of the people I knew retire, this played out to be true. Not always, though. Now I know that some of the UAW presently working are die-hards who love their job, and love to do a good job. Some of them will pass away when they retire. Trouble is, the present-day working crowd at GM of UAW's have stabbed the monster that is trying to feed them. What's nuttier is that GM management just went along with their bloated demands! That's the Gary Payton jumper that swished right through to beat the Bulls, people. They just went along with it, to their eventual early demise.
|
|
You are here:
Forums
Automotive News & Views United Automobile Workers of America (UAW)
New? Join Now!
Forum Tools
Search Forums
Browse by Vehicle
Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
Today's Chats
