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)
16668 messages, Last post on Nov 11, 2009 at 8:03 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
|
|
|---|---|
|
Replying to: cooterbfd (Jan 07, 2009 3:40 pm) But the companies now like Toyota use parttime employees and pay them less. That lowers the cost. |
|
|
Replying to: grbeck (Jan 07, 2009 8:21 am) i can understand opposition to the bailout --all of the bailouts. [ i wish i saw the same reactions against the trillion dollars we have spent on our immoral destruction of iraq. ( check a site called national priorities where you will learn that your household is spending about $120 a month on iraq and that 42% of your federal tax dollars are going to the pentagon)] but what i have been trying to do is point out the distinction of how only the auto industry loans are conditioned on the backs of hourly workers whose costs are but 10% of the product. I have also taken special umbrage at the criticisms of the UAW memberships' decision to spend some of its strike fund earning to maintain the UAW education center at black lake. everyone assumed it was some plush resort for UAW executives. at least you now know it is a forty year old member education center with a public golf course. i admit the UAW benefits, but so do the communities and thousands of other employers and entites whose futures are tied to the domestic auto industry. sorry but i see a big big distinction between between your right to tell a borrower how run his or her life and the borrower's extended family. i also see absolutely nothing sinister about the uaw hanging on to its black lake education center (anybody want a great golf course for cheap?). if the membership decided their declining dues income cannot support the center, that is the uaw's business. i am going to make one last comment and then go back to clearing snow and cutting wood till spring comes around july. if you know a little bit about the uaw, you will find the the chrysler loan guarantee act of 1980 marked an era of concession bargaining that has really never stopped. doug fraser went back to the bargaining table three times to satisfy congress and come up with two billion in labor savings to get about a billion and half in loan guarantees to save chrysler from bankruptcy. that loan was not only repaid early but the taxpayers earned almost another half billion on their chrysler stock. more important - thousand of retirees recieved their pension and health care and even more thousands have had good paying jobs for almost 30 years. i think the chrysler loan history can and will be repeated and i think that history proves this loan is worth the risk. the uaw has paid a price since 1980- its canadian region divorced from the uaw because of this and a "new directions" caucus rose within the UAW to challenge the leadership's willingness to bargain "concessions". The challenge went as far a presidential election vote and while "new directions" lost-- it is still there and making lots of militant noise right now. the uaw has been very responsible in negotiating concessions in this latest round beginning in 2006 and is re-opening its agreements now. (taking on the huge legacy liability for big3 retirees (VEBAS) and two tier wages and benefits in the auto plants is something i never ever contemplated during my 30 years on the uaw staff. i hope and pray they will pull through this.The UAW is the best union with the best and cleanest leadership in the country and therefore i know they will..
|
|
|
Replying to: cooterbfd (Jan 07, 2009 3:24 pm) That is a great question. I feel the individual should be responsible for their own health care. My Mom & Dad did not have any health care coverage when I was growing up. They paid for all the kids to be born etc. etc. I don't even know if I had health coverage the first 9 years when I worked for Pacific Telephone. It was not an issue anyone seemed to talk about or worry about. First I remember it being mentioned is when we voted to have the Teamster Union represent us in Alaska when I worked for RCA. Now it seems that every conversation gets around to medical cost and who pays what. I would like to know why it costs $15k per day to stay in a lumpy hospital bed with less than attentive care. For a couple hundred a day I can stay in a nice room at a hotel with room service. Who gets the rest of that $15k my insurance company pays the hospital? I am of the opinion that two things have happened. The medical providers have found an easy target with insurance coverage and the ambulance chasers have found an easy target with the medical providers. The key to this scam working is you and I getting sick or hurt. That and the American obsession with our illnesses has given the HMOs a free ticket to rip US off. If anyone here thinks the US government will improve the situation. I got a bridge for sale. Our Union over the 37 years I was a member went from owning their own hospital and clinics. Hiring all the staff to selling the whole mess and dumping it onto an HMO, now back to trying to administer medical payments as their own Health provider. Last contract I looked at the employer was paying over $6 per hour for mediocre health coverage.
|
|
|
Replying to: gagrice (Jan 07, 2009 4:51 pm) Absolutely with you on that. Everyone who gets medical benefits from an employer would instead get that money tax-free in their paycheck. People pay cash or credit card for medical care. The government places limits on what doctors and hospitals can charge, and that would be about 50% of current. The hundreds of thousands of people in hospitals and insurance companies who push paper (billing) are cut, and do go find productive jobs. The government severely limits malpractice lawsuits, and each doctor in this country can reduce their malpractice insurance about $50,000. Or if you absolutely want medical insurance then you buy it from your paycheck. But cash, limited paperwork and eliminating law from medicine would be much better. That is probably why countries like Canada have much cheaper care.
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: imidazol97 (Jan 07, 2009 3:45 pm) The AMA, big drug companies, managed care, and many others are lobby's in Washington. They represent their members well. As the baby boomers age the system will need adjustments. Why do Americans waste 650 billion in health care? http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Why_Americans_pay_more_for_health_care_2275 |
|
|
|
|
In a recent billing for an outpatient procedure my wife had done at a large hospital, they had billed for hundreds, I'm thinking $700-$800 for one part; they were paid $23 or something of that order by our insurance company. >I feel the individual should be responsible for their own health care. I like that philosophy. >The government places limits on what doctors and hospitals can charge, and that would be about 50% of current I can hear the screaming now about how that would be unfair. Price controls don't work right and don't work well at times, but I think here I'd be willing to try it.
|
|
|
|
|
Replying to: kernick (Jan 07, 2009 5:45 pm) the only reason i kind of disagree about limiting malpractice is that there have been horrific instances here in ct where warped individuals have been protected by the group that was supposed to oversee conduct. otoh, i was selected for jury duty on a malpractice case, but after listening to the the lawyers for the injured party, i played my 'doctor relative' card to get out of it. i would not have given the plaintiff party one cent. the case was settled for 8 million dollars! completely ridiculous, although there was a loss of spouse.
|
|
| Are we winding down on UAW stuff in here again? | |
|
Replying to: explorerx4 (Jan 07, 2009 6:05 pm) Fortunately with the insurance I have my costs are minimal but it is stunning how expensive this can be.
|
|
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
