general motors - STUPID, GREEDY UAW MEMBERS LOST $58 BILLION IN '98 STRIKE! But Threaten To Walk Out Again!

General Motors UAW members, apparently forgetting they lost $58 billion unrecovered bucks in their last "strike," are threatening to strike again -- this time with even less leverage than before!

Fearing reductions in their coveted but overpriced PENSIONS, the UAW drones say they'll walk out if their generous-but-outdated-pension funds are turned over to ... the UAW!

But these folks fail to remember that in these days of the globalized economy people with 5th-grade educations can no longer demand unaffordable pension and medical plans that add $2,000 to the price of an American brand car or truck.

So let these fools strike, I say. The result will be cheaper cars for consumers and gutted "plans" for strikers!

------------------------ "GM Talks With UAW Go Past Deadline"

"Negotiations Move Into Morning With Hourly Extension"

By Sholnn Freeman Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, September 15, 2007; D01

Negotiators for General Motors and the United Auto Workers union continued to bargain past their midnight deadline this morning, apparently signaling at least some progress toward a labor contract that analysts have called pivotal for both sides.

The UAW's existing contracts with GM, Ford and Chrysler were to have expired at midnight. The union agreed Thursday to extend its accords with Ford and Chrysler but remained in intensive negotiations with GM, pressing the nation's largest automaker to reach a deal or face the possibility of a walkout by workers.

Shortly after the deadline passed, a local union official in Warren, Mich., told Bloomberg News that the two sides had agreed to extend the contract on an hour-by-hour basis.

The union had mobilized its membership yesterday in anticipation of the deadline, union officials said. Local union leaders said they were told that negotiations with GM had hit a "hangup" and that they were instructed to be on alert for a possible strike.

"They just said we need to be ready," said Eldon Renaud, president of Local 2164 in Bowling Green, Ky., where GM's Chevrolet Corvette is made.

Local officials have delegated strike captains and let people know when they might have to walk the picket line, Renaud said. On Thursday afternoon, workers from the local were making stakes for picket signs, and at 4 a.m. yesterday, a union official returned to Kentucky from a trip to Indianapolis, where he picked up the signs.

Renaud said UAW members in Bowling Green would walk the line in four- hour intervals starting at midnight if they get a go-ahead phone call from national union leaders in Detroit. Union members would have to participate in order to qualify for $200 per week in strike benefits. The picket is set to take place at the property line of the Bowling Green plant.

Calls for union preparation for a strike are typical toward the end of contract negotiations. Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said the call represented not only the union's desire to win a good contract but also a dramatic reference point for the union.

"From the union point of view, it's an important symbol," Shaiken said. "It's saying, 'We've walked this picket line many times.' This ties the current negotiations into the last 70 years of what the union has done."

Renaud said he wasn't told what issues were causing the greatest concern. Sources close to the talks have said UAW President Ronald A. Gettelfinger has opened up to the possibility of the union taking on the payments for retirees' health plans, which the automakers now handle. Collectively, the Big Three automakers have more than $90 billion in unfunded obligations for retiree health care, covering about 1.5 million working and retired employees.

Analysts yesterday suggested that working out the details of a tax- exempt trust known as a voluntary employees' benefits association, or VEBA, was causing problems, though others close to the situation said talks were continuing smoothly.

"The VEBA has been viewed as crossing the Rubicon," Shaiken said. "But there's another river on the other side of the Rubicon. That's called the details."

He said the level and the character of the funding remain sticking points for the union. "Are we talking 80 cents on the dollar or 60? Are we talking cash or GM stock? It makes a difference."

The last major auto industry strike was in 1998, when the UAW shut down GM's North American production for 53 days. It cost GM billions of dollars in profits, as well as U.S. market share that it has never won back.

Analysts have said that a prolonged strike this year is highly unlikely because it represented what one called "mutually assured destruction."

GM, like the other Detroit automakers, is undergoing a major overhaul of North American operations. In 2005, GM worked out an agreement with the union to reduce retiree health care liabilities by about 25 percent, yielding yearly savings of about $1 billion. The union also agreed to a buyout program that reduced the number of GM's U.S. hourly employees by 34,000. GM is closing 12 manufacturing facilities by 2008 and sold major assets as part of the overhaul.

GM officials say they still need deep cuts to health-care costs to stay competitive with foreign automakers building cars and trucks in the United States. GM has about 432,000 retirees, compared with the

1,200 for the foreign companies in the United States.

The UAW, for its part, has been losing members for years, and any appearance of the UAW as a belligerent union could scare workers in foreign-owned auto plants that the union is trying to organize.

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Reply to
Twatala Cunzler
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You are one ignorant asshole! The vast majority of the American Auto Workers have at least a high school education.And many have college educations.Stick to something that you know.How about sucking ass and c*ck?! Bet your good at that!

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Reply to
Brian

They may have lost that much in the particular strike, but look what they would have lost in the next 9 years if they hadn't. It is people like you that don't understand what the factory worker has to go through, while some fat cat is sucking the cream off of the top. You look at all these corporations, look at the salaries in those top positions, there is nobody that is worth that kind of money. Maybe they should look at those salaries instead of the person out doing the work.

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Reply to
Doug Adams

Do you have figures on that? It would be interesting to see. Some strikes work, others don't.

And somewhere in the middle lies the truth. While I'm not pro-union in most cases, there are some CEO salaries that are truly obscene. As well as many others that deserve to make a damned good living while providing jobs for others.

Rather than be jealous of the executive or business owner's pay, just start your own and take that for yourself.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Cheaper cars? Have you noticed any price drop on "American" vehicles that are manufactured in Mexico?

Does any product that is manufactured overseas, then exported to the U.S. sell at a cheaper price than when it was made in America? Hell no it doesn't!

Reply to
Deerfoot

The quality is higher. My Toyota and Honda cars are the first cars I've had that exceeded 100,000 miles, The Ford, GM and Chrysler crapmobiles all were dead by 100,000 miles.

The union adding $2000.00/car for US cars to cover employee benefits is part of that difference. The non-US manufacturer's employees are probably smarter and take more pride in their work too.

I'll take higher quality at the same price.

Reply to
Mike Philips

I was just at a Ford plant in Mexico, they get paid 42.2 pesos per hour (about $4.20), the cars still cost 300,000 pesos ($30,000). The make the Fusion, Milan, and Zepher. This facility is better than any place I have been in the states. It looks more like a Honda plant, they bring coils of steel in one end of the plant and run a car out the other. I haven't seen a Ford plant in the states do that! There is a whole lot less trucking of parts in these facilities and these plants have all the newest equipment. This is similar to what I've seen a Honda, Nissan, and Toyota. No wonder the "big three" have been blown out of the water!! Toyota is paying similar wages to GM and Ford, but the plants are just ran smarter. That is what the guys in the office with the big salaries need to figure out and make happen in the "big three".

Reply to
Doug Adams

You're the exception to the rule I guess. I've got a 1996 Olds 88 with 192,000+ miles on it and it runs like a champ. Other than replacing a power window motor it's been trouble free. BTW, are you aware that Toyota & Honda are manufactured in the U.S. by American workers?

Reply to
Deerfoot

If you do a little research you will find that I'm not the exception. The US Car maker's poor reputation for quality was well-earned.

The American workers are non-union, wheich explains a lot.

Reply to
Mike Philips

If you can't keep a car (*any* car) past 100,00 miles, you are an idiot who doesn't take care of his car.

Reply to
80 Knight

Or owned a Vega.

Reply to
Jim Higgins

Yeah - a 2001 Vega that has 320,000 miles on it and all I've ever done is change the oil...

Reply to
Mike Marlow

The many names of Mikey Hunter.

The Vega was trash and the world knows that.

Reply to
Jim Higgins

Damn, Higgins. If you can't tell the difference between Hunter and Mike Marlow, then you are more screwed up then I already think you are.

Reply to
80 Knight

Not Mike Hunter at all Jim. Sheese! That was my light jab at anyone who introduces a vehicle from 20 rears ago into a conversation about today's cars. Or was it 30 years ago? Damn - it sure was!

Reply to
Mike Marlow

Geez, here we go again. What are you doing to these "American" automobiles to kill them at 100000 miles????

I hate going through this again, lest some out there think I am either bragging or lying (I have no reason to do either), but here goes:

I go "American". almost always GM, because I have NEVER had any major problems out of them in the 31 years I have driven them. They are reliable, look great, and get good gas milage. 100 000 miles is the STARTING point at which I begin looking at how long a vehicle is going to last. My Gm's, to this point have NEVER let me down,

Please return to your Toyota-Honda groups and sing the praises your cars that you seem to never have any trouble out of, and leave us here, alone.

Reply to
coachrose13

I figured you that you would try to explain that the workers were illegal immigrants, and not Americans, as the reason the Toyotas, and Hondas, are so "superior".

Reply to
coachrose13

No, just non-union.

Reply to
Mike Philips

Nothing, other than normal routine maintenance.

GM, Ford and Chrusler made cars just don't have the quality

Reply to
Mike Philips

You sir, have zero credibility.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

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