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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
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: gagrice (Jan 02, 2009 9:01 pm) Yep! A few weeks ago, On C-Span, some congressman was addressing Palosi and company about this subject. From what I gathered, all manufacturer and sales of incandesent bulbs will stop in 2012, as you said. The law also states that no CFL bulbs can be manufactured here. Something to do with the EPA and mercury. Therefore China, the only country manufacturing them, will have us as a captive audiance and be able to charge whatever they wish. That is, unless GE, Phillips, and the rest decide to move their manufacturing facilities off shore or south of the border. How many folks will that put out of a job? Needless to say, he was addressing deaf ears. FWIW: I recently replaced one of my outside spotlights with a CFL. What a piece of crap. The long "bulb" extends to the front glass so the reflector is severely hampered. To stand in front of the bulb and look directly at it, it is quite bright, but the light can't make it's way into the yard. To add insult to injury, when first turned on, it is not bright at all. On a warm night it takes a couple of minutes to reach it's full potential. On a cold night it takes 5 minutes or so and never does reach the same brightness as on a warm night. Tried a second bulb and the results were the same. Wonder how much energy is involved getting them up to speed ? So if we need instant light, we are out of luck.  Guess we could stock up on incandesents. But that would be cause for the government to create a new department. They could burn fuel riding around at night looking for yards that were properly illuminated and make arrest.  Kip
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Replying to: steve_ (Jan 02, 2009 9:12 am) The Center for Union Facts is a secretive front group for individuals and industries opposed to union activities. It is part of lobbyist Rick Berman's family of front groups including the Employment Policies Institute. The domain name www.unionfacts.com was registered to Berman & Co. in May 2005. In May 2006 the Center for Union Facts, launched its first TV ad campaign. The 30-second spot, running on Fox News and local markets, has "actors posing as workers" saying "sarcastically what they 'love' about unions," like paying dues, union leaders' "fat-cat lifestyles," and discrimination against minorities. The ad campaign cost $3 million, which was raised "from companies, foundations and individuals that Mr. Berman won't identify." http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Union_Facts
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Source: Seacoast Online (New Hampshire), August 17, 2008 From a Center for Union Facts adThe Center for Union Facts, one of lobbyist Rick Berman's front groups, is railing against the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would "allow employees at a work place to unionize as soon as a majority signs cards expressing support to join a union." Labor rights advocates say the bill is needed, because of employer intimidation and union-busting tactics. Berman's Center, as the "Employee Freedom Action Committee," says the bill would allow "union bosses" to "stand over workers' shoulders and use coercion." It's launched a $30 million campaign, including radio, television, print and online ads and "a substantial grassroots organizing effort." The "Coalition for a Democratic Workplace," which is comprised of "virtually hundreds of businesses, chambers of commerce and trade associations," is also spending millions to defeat the bill. Both groups are targeting Senators "in what they see as key states," including Maine and New Hampshire. The bill has passed the House and is before the Senate. "The folks behind the ad campaign fear that if Sen. Barack Obama, an Employee Free Choice Act sponsor, is elected president and power shifts to the Democrats in the Senate, the bill will become law." http://www.prwatch.org/node/7681 foot notes Berman has lobbied on behalf of pesticide, alcohol and tobacco companies, and against the Americans with Disabilities Act, checkpoints to catch drunk drivers, minimum wage increases, and card-check. A 2006 USA Today article reported that his lobbying firm brings in $10 million per year for his work on ultra-conservative, anti-union clients. Berman has even waged a campaign against Mothers Against Drunk Driving. |
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To help explain its deep slump, General Motors Corp. often cites "legacy costs," including pensions for its giant U.S. work force. In its latest annual report, GM wrote: "Our extensive pension and (post-employment) obligations to retirees are a competitive disadvantage for us." Early this year, GM announced it was ending pensions for 42,000 workers. But there's a twist to the auto maker's pension situation: The pension plans for its rank-and-file U.S. workers are overstuffed with cash, containing about $9 billion more than is needed to meet their obligations for years to come. Another of GM's pension programs, however, saddles the company with a liability of $1.4 billion. These pensions are for its executives. This is the pension squeeze companies aren't talking about: Even as many reduce, freeze or eliminate pensions for workers -- complaining of the costs -- their executives are building up ever-bigger pensions, causing the companies' financial obligations for them to balloon. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06177/701286-28.stm
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Replying to: mnf (Jan 02, 2009 9:27 pm) And for the first time, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan have each asked to lease space from the port for these orphan vehicles. They are turning dozens of acres of the nation’s second-largest container port into a parking lot, creating a vivid picture of a paralyzed auto business and an economy in peril. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/business/economy/19ports.html?_r=1&em |
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Replying to: kipk (Jan 03, 2009 4:59 am) I replaced 56 lights in my home with CFL bulbs. SDG&E had a promotion through WalMart selling different styles at 79 to 99 cents a piece. I figured they would not get any cheaper. You are right, they all take some time to get up to full brightness. Many times we turn them off before as we do not leave lights on around the house. My problem is the CFLs are supposed to be long life. I have taken 4 back as they already burned out. Two popped and had a bad smell when I originally turned them on. WalMart reluctantly returned my money. The bright side is my electric bill is about $25 per month less with the CFLs. I also replaced all my Christmas lights with LED type this year. Have not gotten a bill yet. It is another industry sent off shore by Democrats. The bottom line is, how the Democrat Congress can throw all those UNION workers under the bus? The Unions are fighting back to no avail. The Eco bunch in Congress do not care about the US worker. WARREN – Union members working in General Electric Corp.’s light plants have launched a “Screw That Bulb” campaign to save their jobs. The campaign was announced Thursday here and calls on GE to reinvest in technology so workers can compete with compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs, manufactured in China. |
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Mike, I have read many of your links with interest, from the earlier post. What is your take on the UAW golf resort? I realize that GM made promises to the retirees over the years. My personal belief is the UAW failed to assure those promises were properly funded. Now they have this lame VEBA plan that will probably fail. As a life long Union member in 3 different Unions. My question is why didn't the membership see this mess coming back in the 1970s when jobs were being lost by the 1000s. It was not hard to see that a diminishing membership would not be able to support a much larger group of retirees. It is poised to get even worse as the baby boomers start retiring en masse. Buying out 30 year members will only worsen the situation. A 30 year UAW worker could be as young as 48 years old. Way too young to retire. Yet what kind of job will he get? Nothing like the $100k per year he was making as a UAW lug not assembler. The truth of the matter is most line worker jobs are only a step up from minimum wage burger flippers. Unless the person has the skills and ambition to get further educated they will be on the welfare roles in a short period of time. The UAW is a failed attempt at Socialism. So I agree the UAW leadership has sold the workers out. The Workers and retirees have been betrayed by promises the UAW knew were not possible to keep.
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Replying to: gagrice (Jan 03, 2009 6:59 am) This Family Education Center, which is open to all of the membership has taken the label of resort. The classical Orwellian lexicon to redefine something good into something bad. Orwell wrote about how language would be manipulated to reduce the ability to ever speak the truth. Over 10,000 UAW members and their families use it yearly. Have you taken, or for that matter has anyone asked any of those who have attended for their take on this? "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." -Isaiah 5:20- I realize that GM made promises to the retirees over the years. The Workers and retirees have been betrayed by promises the UAW knew were not possible to keep. Who made the promise? Did they not both go to the negotiation table in good faith? I'm thinking that both parties here failed to see that health care would rise at a level beyond inflation. They failed to see the power the medical lobby, managed care, and drug companies presented in Washington. The UAW is a failed attempt at Socialism. Can we then say that the socialist program of "no investment banker left behind" is an enormous success? |
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Replying to: dallasdude1 (Jan 03, 2009 5:22 am) Oh, we do this all the time over in Are automobiles a major cause of global warming?. Someone will post a link and then the people behind the link turn out to have a nefarious agenda and that helps detract from the point made. I do it all the time.  Meanwhile, either Black Lake is either worth $x or it isn't. Doesn't seem exactly kosher for the UAW to be using a low number for the tax value and another for the pension funding.
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