Re: OT UNION BUSTING

UNION BUSTING

> > Republican Senator Admits Opposition to Auto Bill is All About UNION > BUSTING > > Why were Wall Street workers not asked for concessions? > Autoworkers stepped up to the plate to save the car industry. White- > collar workers, on the other hand, weren't expected to do the same > when financial firms went to Congress with hat in hand. > > Its all those damn workers fault for trying to get pay raises and > this > crazy thing called "health care. > > Millwright Ronwww.unionmillwright.com
Reply to
one80out
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It would make no sense to ask financial industry workers to make concessions. The financial industries problems flow from bad investments in the trillions of dollars. Cutting pay and benefits in the millions or even billions would have no effect. By contrast, ALL of Detroit's problems have to do with its assembly line workers. First they have nearly destroyed the market for domestic products with their crappy workmanship and their crappy attitudes, beginning with the strikes of the Sixties and continuing at least through the mid Nineties. Economic meltdown or no economic meltdown, the result of these decades of crap products is that it is difficult to find anyone under the age of 50 who will even consider a Detroit product. Second, Detroit's assembly line workers' pay packages and work rules and benefits put Detroit at a competitive disadvantage. That competitive disadvantage is sending the industry to the bottom. Modifications to the pay packages and work rules and benefits can have an effect on that competitive disadvantage.

Now do you understand why financial workers have not been asked to make concessions, while Detroit's assembly line workers must make concessions or else lose their jobs completely? Moreover, your argument is not against concessions, it is in favor of spreading the concession mandate more broadly. Or, if I misunderstand you and your argument is that Detroit assembly line workers should make no further concessions, then you better start that job search right now.

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Reply to
one80out

I agree. To that end, Congress and President-Elect O! should devote their energy to propogandizing in favor of buying American. What they should not do is "loan" money to guaranteed losers, or worse yet nationalize GM or Chrysler.

Of course, this new marketing effort would have to exclude Canadian, Mexican, Australian, and Korean built products, like the Chevy Aveo and the Dodge Challenger and the upcoming Camaro, and include made-in- the-USA Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, and BMWs.

[snip]

Your quoted/linked item from the NY Times is the factually challenged story. See a thorough debunking here:

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. A quote:

Retirement Benefits Alone Cost $31 an Hour

The argument that retiree pension and health benefits inflate the hourly labor costs of the Detroit automakers cannot withstand basic scrutiny. For instance, General Motors UAW retirement plan paid $4.9 billion to 291,000 retirees and surviving spouses in 2006. That works out to $31.04 an hour when apportioned among active workers. That figure accounts for virtually all GM's benefit costs--before accounting for health care costs, disability benefits, supplemental unemployment benefits, or any of the other benefits GM provides. GM pays too much in retirement benefits to have labor costs of only $70 an hour if that figure included benefits to current retirees.

Labor Costs Similar Despite Retiree Differences

The Detroit automakers pay similar wages at each company despite having very different numbers of retirees to provide for. . . . General Motors has far more retirees per active worker than Ford or Chrysler. For each active worker at GM, there were 3.8 retirees or dependants in 2006. At Chrysler this ratio was half as much: two retirees for each worker. At Ford there were only 1.6 retirees per worker. If the hourly labor costs included retiree benefits, hourly wages at GM would be much higher than at either Ford or Chrysler.

But this is not the case. General Motors did not have the highest hourly labor costs despite having more retirees. Chrysler paid $2.60 an hour more in labor costs in 2006 than GM did. Ford paid only $2.75 an hour less than GM did, despite having half as many retirees relative to workers to provide for. All three automakers had roughly the same hourly labor costs despite having very different numbers of retirees to provide for. Hourly labor costs account for the expense of providing wages and benefits to current workers but do not include legacy costs.

Taxing the Many to Pay the Few

UAW spokespeople have roundly condemned the estimate of labor costs in excess of $70 per current worker hour. They assert these figures include the cost of current retiree pension and health benefits. They have done so, however, without marshalling evidence to support their case.

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Reply to
one80out

There was another article in the Detroit Free Press, "7 Myths about Detroit Automakers."

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...beginning with Myth 1: Nobody Buys Their Vehicles. All of these myths are familiar to me, and I confess that I believed more than one of them.

It's interesting to me that we here discuss the overpaid assembly line workers who are dragging down their own industry, while in another newsgroup we discuss the appallingly low pay of retail clerks, whom we expect to be experts in their fields. It's irrelevant, just interesting.

My own company has switched completely from pension to employee-funded

401(k) retirement plans. This will prevent that company from finding itself straddled with a growing number of retirees (which, of course, was the whole idea behind the switch by many, many companies to employee-funded retirement plans, rather than company-funded, as in the past). Detroit, too late, is already saddled with a growing number of retirees, and these fixed costs cannot be addressed. Even if the current workers took a 1/3 cut in pay, it's a non-issue. The UAW is a distraction, not the root cause of the problem.

Even the automotive offerings of the Big Three compare favorably to other marks. From pickups and SUVs to fuel-efficient smaller cars, their lineup is very similar to what the other brands are selling. Other than the sudden surge in oil prices and the ensuing economic collapse, Detroit could have soldiered on, trying to build what they thought the American public wanted. But there was, in fact, a surge in oil prices, and sales dried up quickly. Detroit never saw it coming and was unprepared. That may have been the big failing.

If Detroit was meeting its sales quotas, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Now that they are not, we're focusing on the hourly pay scale of the average UAW worker.

Whenever a Republican politician opens his mouth, I know that I'm about to hear a distraction. It's their favorite tactic. Rather than address the real issues, they point to strawmen and fall guys, to draw attention away from themselves. Republicans of late have spent an INCREDIBLE amount of money, and we are now supposed to find new respect for them because they balk at making a $14billion LOAN... And the sticking point? The UAW doesn't want to come right out and say that they'll cut back their wages by 1/3 by next September 1st.

The Republican party should be disbanded. Today.

dwight, disenfranchised Republican

Reply to
dwight

While I don't disagree with you on the points regarding the UAW's culpability in the automaker's troubles, the rest is simplistic and in error. Concessions from the financial industry workers is not the major problem with this ridiculous bailout. What frosts me is that congress is willing to throw Billions with no strings attached at an industry that cannot stop living high off the hog. Some of these companies are using taxpayer money to expand their business, continue to fund executive pay/bonus packages and hold meetings at exclusive resorts. Congress has done nothing to curb this except continue to fund these practices. Then they have the gall to rake the auto industry over the coals and demand some unspecified new business model in exchange for a few paltry (in comparison) dollars. I find this totally obscene. For decades the UAW (and all other unions) have voted for Democrats as the "party of the working man". As these working men get left behind by congress, maybe they will rethink their position on politics.

Mike

Reply to
Michael

One of the things that nearly killed finance is "easy credit".

Not a week went by that I didn't get pre-approved credit card offers in the mail... in my "in-box".. over the telephone. Companies were desparate for me to borrow their money.. "Take it!!! Please!!!".

I am uncomfortable owing money... many aren't - and they will constantly borrow enough money to get in trouble.

While finance ius raking in big profits in interest and user fees. it is upper management and capital investments that are the winners... The "grunts" in the trenches... clerks, number crunchers, rank and file employees don't appear to receive staggering wages....

However.... UAW assembly line workers.... their wage/benefit package is reported to cost the manufacturer over $70 per hour... "Put tab A in slot B is worth over $70 per hour"? This is nuckin' futs.... Based on this principal, a packet of McDonalds french fries would be something like $10 if not more.... but cooking fries is pretty dangerous what with all that hot oil and the shop steward might shut down production at any time.

A task is only worth a finite value... to unionize in an attempt to make that task "worth" more will only serve to artificially inflate the cost of those goods... fuelling inflation along the way.

Reply to
<mechanic

Reply to
razz

For years, the unions have given political money to the Democrats and bad-mouthed the Republicans at the same time. (Gee, just like you are doing)

Can you really blame the Republican senators for trying to bust up the union?

A three year old can figure that out, but the unions can't.

Reply to
Kruse

The Republicans want to bust unions because their feelings are hurt? Seriously?

dwight

Reply to
dwight

It will be if they don't move toward fiscal conservatism. As Ronald Reagan said about the Democrat Party I now say about the Republican Party. That is, "I didn't leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me." There are a small handful of Republicans in Congress that are true fiscal conservatives but they don't stand a chance of influencing the direction of anything there.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

The unions have done a far more effective job of busting themselves than any Republican.

Reply to
Michael Johnson

The truly sad part is that the UAW has been allowed to get away with what they do for so long.

Reply to
WindsorFo

Well, this past Thursday we had a record sneaux fall in South Louisiana so maybe Hell is freezing over. So much for global warming...

Reply to
WindsorFo

Uh huh and that's hard, how? In fact, there's a there is an F body tuner around here that taught his dog to do it so he wouldn't have to pay a mechanic for that.

Reply to
WindsorFo

That reminds me of that episode on "Cheers", where they taught the chimpanzee to paint and deliver mail.

Reply to
Kruse

LOL

Reply to
WindsorFo

I agree with these statements. I did not read your Seven Myths story, but if the list did not include the one that the Democrats/Greenists/ Statists are currently disseminating -- that the problem with GM and Chrysler is that they do not build "the kinds of vehicles that Americans want to buy" -- it should have. How else does GM retain the largest market share (albeit a dwindling one) if it does not build "the kinds of vehicles that Americans want to buy"? How does Ford sell one million F series pickups every year (as opposed to 170,000 to

180,000 Toyota Priuses, and as opposed to, e.g., the Honda Accord hybrid, which Honda canceled for lack of interest) if Americans do not want them?

The first statement is self evident. More to the point, if GM and Chrysler were not coming to Washington asking for a DOWN PAYMENT of $34,000,000,000,000, just to see them through mid 2009, we would not be having this discussion. Because they ARE asking for the money, all aspects of their operations are fair game.

The question is not, should we loan $15,000,000,000,000 GM and Chrysler to see them through to mid January? The question is, will they EVER be able to repay the money? Assuming that the total "loan" principal that the Government finally hands out comes to $34,000,000,000,000, and assuming that GM and Chrysler sell 3,000,000 vehicles per year for the five years during which they are supposed to pay it back, that's more than $2,000 per vehicle just to repay the principle. Add in interest at 5% per annum and the numbers just get worse. Add to that the $1,500 - $2,000 per vehicle UAW burden (vs. the wage scales at non-UAW factories), and the $500 per vehicle legacy costs burden, and you've got a $4,000- $5,000 financial burden attached to every vehicle, that the competition does not have. There is simply no way for this to work.

Specifically with respect to the UAW, I am glad they it was able to win the wage and benefits and retirement packages it has achieved in a free market over the years. However, I do not want one nickel of my money to go to prop it up. I work forty to sixty hours per week, and I do not make $71 per hour in wages and benefits. Nor (at age 54) do I have any prospect of retiring at age 56 -- or even age 66 -- as many UAW workers do and have done. Either the UAW rank and file makes the concessions that are necessary to keep their employers afloat, or their employers go out of business. It's really simple.

That sure is a collection of nonsense. Let's just agree that, yes, it was the UAW's unreasonable refusal to agree to make concessions today, which in any event will kick in in 2010, and which will probably be made irrelevant when GM and Chrysler do finally go under due to the UAW's obstinacy, which caused the $15,000,000,000 bailout bill not to pass.

Also, let's remember that, with 60 votes needed in the Senate to bring the House's $15,000,000,000 bailout bill to a floor vote, the vote last Thursday was 52-35; that voting "no" were 4 Democrats; and that voting "yes" were 10 Republicans. If those 4 Democrat "noes" had joined the 10 Republican "ayes," just 4 more Democratic votes would have been sufficient to have passed the bill. The 4 missing Democratic votes include Joe Biden (who evidently cannot leave his hotel room in Chicago in case someone, ANYONE calls); John Kerry (who found it more agreeable to be in Poland for photo ops at the latest UN IPCC global warming hysteria-fest); and Senator Wyden of Oregon (who has not publicly stated a reason for his absence (out shopping for a new Prius, maybe?)). Also MIA was President-Elect O!'s Illinois Senate seat, which remains unoccupied because of the usual DEMOCRATIC morass of corruption which characterizes his home state's politics.

Also let's not forget that the Democratic leadership in both houses of Congress found it more important for the membership to begin their Christmas vacations on DECEMBER 12, than to stick around for another week and work it out -- something which undoubtedly could have been done.

So blame the Republicans for the failure of this $15,000,000,000 bailout down payment if you like, but first tell me why they the 32 Republicans were wrong to vote "no," and second tell me why the UAW and the Democrats were not more to blame than the 32 Republicans.

Wow. Now that would be a great day for our country. I question how anyone who claims ever to have been a Republican can make that statement. It's like the Judas Colin Powell, saying he was throwing his support behind Obama because, among other things, Obama's judicial appointments were likely to be more to his liking than Senator McCain's. Anyone who can make that statement was never a Republican to begin with.

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Reply to
one80out

Eh, you should have read it. This would have been covered in "Myth 1: Nobody Buys Their Vehicles," and "Myth 5: GM, Ford and Chrysler are idiots for investing in pickups and SUVs."

They should have come to Washington as GMAC, Ford Credit, and whatever banking arm of Chrysler. They'd have gotten all the money they needed, no questions asked.

If you don't mind calling up the UAW website in your browser, here are some startling numbers:

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Look at "active" vs. "retired" and "surviving spouses," and you get a good picture of what's actually going on with the UAW contract. Problem is, you can't suddenly tell all of those UAW retirees that, sorry, the deal is off. Well, you can't do that any easier than telling Americans under the age of

50 that Social Security will be ended prior to their reaching retirement age... It could be done, but no politician wants to be the one to come out and say it.

(Neither does anyone in the UAW.)

The union wage scale is NOT that far removed from the non-union shops. That being said, I don't doubt that the UAW, if pressed, would vote to cut their own wages, rather than become unemployed. While I have the UAW page up, it points to a percentage of 8.4 to represent the labor cost of a typical new vehicle. Obviously, the vast bulk of the cost is related to non-labor events, from design and marketing to raw materials, "executive compensation," and more. I'm sure that the UAW would join in to address lowering the costs, so long as the other 91.6% of the costs are also put under the microscope.

That sure is a collection of nonsense.

Not, judging by every election cycle in recent memory.

No, I don't agree. I don't agree that the UAW is the cause of the failure of any auto manufacturer, and I do not agree that the UAW was unreasonable in recent days.

Are you trying to argue that the Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans?

Yes, I believe that you are...

In this instance, in this particular vote, the dissenting Democrats are every bit as wrong as the naysaying Republicans. At no time did I praise the Democratic party.

The bottom and inescapable line here, and the one which even the reigning Republican leader has to admit, is that we simply cannot allow any one of the Three to go into bankruptcy. Not merely for the benefit of the lazy and overpaid UAW workers ("Myth No. 7," by the way), but to protect ALL of us - you, me, and the guy down the street. In the current economy, this would spell widespread disaster, the extent of which none of the experts can predict.

A couple of years ago, perhaps, if General Motors had gone belly-up, we would have suffered, would have spent far more in resulting costs, but we would have absorbed it and moved on. To potentially double the unemployment rate (currently 7%?) today would be an incredible burden for this country. $15,000,000,000 to even $125,000,000,000 is a relatively small price to pay to stave off this catastrophe.

Ah, yes... "Judas." The man speaks his mind, gives a cogent, reasonable explanation for his decision, and he's "Judas." Great.

The Republican Party of just a couple of decades ago is all but gone and forgotten. The Social Conservatives who have run the party of late have destroyed everything that the Party stood for, and stand - speaking of "180 Out" - almost diametrically opposed to its principles. . Now that the Dems have retaken the White House, you see a small number of "true conservatives" beginning to surface (beware those who seek only to re-label themselves), talking about taking back the party. I wish them luck.

I hope they refind their fiscal conservatism (NOT in this case, thank you Mr. Hoover). I hope they seek to restore rights and liberties. I hope they work to keep government out of my home.

Of course, while I'm hoping, I hope that BOTH parties take a sensible, long-term approach to the current economic crisis and work to restore full faith and measure to the U.S. economy. And if they could lower my credit card interest rates, great.

dwight

Reply to
dwight

You should see the ECM reset procedure for Nissan LOL

Reply to
WindsorFo

You are conceding my argument, first that it is the fat UAW contracts of the past that have led GM to its present state of collapse, and second that there is no way for the Government ever to get this bailout money back.

Surely the modification of those fat benefits will be a hardship for the beneficiaries, but that is not a problem for the rest of us. The UAW and GM negotiated their contracts at arm's length, and now we see the results. It didn't work out as they planned. That's too bad, but it's hardly unexpected. Just look at these figures for GM (as of

2006), from the UAW link you posted: 73,454 current workers; 269,614 retired workers; and 69,288 spouses of retired workers; total of all three: 412,356. Anyone can see this upside-down pyramid is not economically viable.

Later in your post you state that $125,000,000,000 would be a bargain. (I don't know if you are aware of it, but this is the ballpark number that industry analysts are quoting as the true price tag to keep GM afloat.) Assuming, again, 3,000,000 vehicles sold over the next five years, that would come to $8,000 per vehicle, exclusive of interest. That overhead, combined with the costs of supporting the

400,000 workers and retirees, is a set of numbers which will never work.

The unavoidable conclusion is that, once we start down the bailout road, we will either end up writing off all the "loan" principle, or we will be stuck permanently with a nationalized GM. The good news with respect to the nationalization scenario is that, with Greenist whackos like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama dictating product choices, the entire enterprise will wind down to nothing within about the same five years as the "loan" payback is assuming. You don't really expect this crew to keep Uncle Sam in the business of continuing to produce the current 50/50 mix of cars and planet- destroying trucks and SUVs (or even the 60/40 target that GM announced in June), do you?

The correct set of choices is, do we let GM and the UAW reap what they have sown and take GM into Chapter 11, or do we resolve ourselves either to a nationalized GM (eventually to be ground to dust by the Greenist values of its federal overlords), or a taxpayer gift to a private enterprise (and its workforce) of at least $100,000,000,000? The correct answer is obvious to me, and apparently to you as well. However, each of us has a different answer.

Not true. Your UAW web page states this: "In 2006 a typical UAW- represented assembler at GM earned $27.81 per hour of straight-time labor. A typical UAW-represented skilled-trades worker at GM earned $32.32 per hour of straight-time labor." That figure does not include the cost of benefits or overtime. It also does not define what "typical" means. The choice of that word, as opposed to "average," suggests that the UAW web page is cooking the books, for obvious reasons.

That's fine. That's what they should do. But the process should not involve the U.S. Government.

Your doubling of the unemployment rate -- by an additional 7 percentage points -- is hysterical and has no basis in fact. Detroit has already eliminated one-third of its UAW workforce in recent years. Did anyone notice? Another one-third would not be noticed either. A

100% elimination of GM jobs, through a Chapter 11 process, would be highly unlikely. The truth probably lies somewhere between 50% and 100% job elimination. Tens and hundreds of billions of handouts is too high a price to pay to save a few tens of thousands of jobs.

Are you implying that Judas did not have "cogent, reasonable explanations" for his betrayal? As I recall, he did; he wanted to force Jesus's hand to call down a heavenly army or some such to save himself. No, Gen. Powell is a great traitor. Furthermore, go find the Meet the Press podcast where he presented his 15 minute infomercial for The Chosen One -- uninterrupted of course by any cross- examination on the part of Tom Brokaw -- and tell me this decision was based on anything but shared skin color.

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Reply to
one80out

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