Re: {OT ? } A Sea of Unwanted Imports

We get! What you are saying is you cant afford to buy and operate the kind of vehicle you would like to have so you buy and run what you can and rationalize that fact as best you can

Take heart! Keep on saving and investing, particularly right now when cars, stocks and Bonds are relatively dirt cheap. I was once in that same position but with the help of the good lord, I worked hard, took several jobs, earned myself an Engineering degree, got a job in the automobile design and manufacturing, changed employers three times, till I got the job that I wanted in that field, saved and invested so I could retire early, got an easier job in automobile retail, at a much high salary, started a completely NEW type of automobile repair business, made it grow by being smarter and better at doing the same type of work others were doing, then sold it for a fortune.

Now I'm giving most of it away to schools, hospitals, relatives and friends and at 83 trying to spend what's left before I die, with the help of the good lord. Not bad for a now black, then Niger kid from Sothern Georgia, born in the throws of the great Depression. ;)

How can that be when the ONLY power a Union has over management is to require management to abide by the contract they signed.

Actually a robot installs wheels on Cadillacs and most other GM cars. The skilled technician who maintains the robots earns around $1,080, for a forty hour week, before their 28% federal income tax, and the various other state and city taxes are taken out.

If you 'actuaaly' saw what unions DID FOR the workforce you saw the advent of the five day forty hour week, down from the six day seventy two hour week, paid vacations, paid holidays, safety laws that prevented FIVE coal miners every DAY from being killed, safety equipment for steelworker that have also saved literally thousands of lives. Do you think OSHA would have passed if nto for the Unions. Even as we speak union are creating better wages and working conditions for NON Union workers. Every time they talk to non-union workers, like those at Wal-Mart or those assembling cars for the Japs, their employers offer them improved raises and/or better working condition so they will not JOIN the Union LOL

Um actually, I've seen what unions have done to the workforce in this country and to the prices and quality of goods offered in this country. Sure, you had some good people. That's great. Not everyone in the union is a slug. But that s*****ad on the assembly line who puts "wheels on cadillacs" all day every day and makes $1200 a week for doing it because of a union is a slug.

not report off when scheduled to work, did not come to work, left work early, did not consistently do their job to our standards, stole things, got into fights, reported to work drunk or under the influence of drugs.

The ONLY power the Machinist Union had over me in our contract, was to require me to abide by the contract we signed. Except for stealing or fighting, where I could fire them on the spot, I had to give them a warning discipline, second offence was four days off without pay, third offence ten days off with intent to terminate. At the termination hearing the union and I would try to find out WHY someone who dad been a good employee want wrong. Often time things like being intoxicated was the result of family problems, like a cheating wife.

I certainly did not WANT to fire a good employee in whom I had invested thousands of training dollars, hence the several opportunities to straighten up and fly right, that I agreed to in the contract.

The truth is when my techs joined the union I ended up with the best of the best who were trained to work at my three standard work classes working for me, because paid a little more had better benefits that gave me a much more stable work force and far more productivity.

Where do you get the idea management can not fire a union employee? Who