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Sure Lemko. However you forgot one tiny detail: how many of people like you are out there? From what the sales show, not even nearly enough.
But they do say that the UAW is key to survival...so, how much does the UAW scream about a few measly concessions, when the ultimate concession is losing their job???
"Welcome to UAWal~Mart!" :P
be like two years after GM survives and they've accepted reduced benefits and pay scales. Will the UAW start striking just like they did in the past? How will GM and or Chrysler handle the strike.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
When other American car companies failed such as Packard, Hudson, Studebaker, Nash, Kaiser, etc., was the UAW a non-issue in their demise vs today's scenario? The benefits/pensions back then were a smaller amount compared to today.
As Obama had been lecturing last year about wanting and being ready for Change, same is true of car buyers. They should be ready to Change into another brand when their favorite fails.
Any others you know of?
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Regards,
OW
These companies died because they didn't make what increasingly affluent post-WWII buyers wanted: large, powerful & flashy cars. Look at Packard, for example. Before WWII, it was the #1 luxury brand in the U.S. market, but after the war it stumbled badly. Not only was its restyled 1951 lineup a sales flop, it didn't offer a V-8 until 1955 - at a time when horsepower was everything. To make things worse, Packard was also suffering from quality control problems. By that time, the company was bleeding cash & desperately needed a partner, so it bought Studebaker - only to discover that Studebaker was in worse shape than it was.
So, no - union problems didn't kill these companies.
[Edit: I believe that Packard was the first to offer factory A/C, in 1939 or 1940. The unit pretty much filled up the trunk & piped cool air into the passenger cabin through vents in the ceiling. It supposedly worked quite well.]
monopoly control as of 2003. In the 18 states with private-sector monopoly bargaining below the national average, but above 5%, employment grew by 6.1%. But in the 21 states with above average private-sector unionization, aggregate employment grew by just 3.5% -- roughly a third as much as in the lowest-union-density states.
Regards,
OW
For destroyed, I know of two, the steel and now the U.S. auto industry.
hopefully toyotA wil let in uaw and ruin them too so chrysler and GM can get back some market share
Why bother, chetj? Toyota is already messed up as it is. It has lost respect in homeland Japan for years, so much there are rumors that Toyota actually brought Lexus brand to Japan not for efficiency reasons, but to recover customers' confidence.
Neil Roland
Automotive News
May 11, 2009 - 5:21 pm ET
"WASHINGTON -- General Motors plans to sell cars in the United States that it makes in China, starting in 2011. That could make GM the first major automaker to import Chinese cars to the U.S. market.
The car maker expects to sell about 17,335 of the China-made vehicles in the United States in 2011, and triple that number to 51,546 in 2014, a planning document circulated by GM among U.S. lawmakers shows.
The gains would come, the document says, as GM's total U.S. sales surge 50 percent in the next five years.
The plans are subject to change pending the outcome of negotiations with the UAW.
Many of these vehicles are likely to be small cars similar to the upcoming Chevy Spark, which will be built in South Korea, though the models will be different from any currently built in the United States by any automaker, an industry official said in an interview.
Even at the higher 2014 level, though, cars from China would still account for only 1.6 percent of GM's 3.1 million total expected sales in the U.S. that year, the 12-page document says.
The automaker is trying to meet a government-imposed June 1 deadline to restructure operations and cut over $40 billion in debt, or risk bankruptcy.
The UAW has criticized GM's restructuring plan because of increases envisioned by the plan in U.S. sales of cars made overseas.
'We are in dialogue with the UAW, and my view of a dialogue is that it is a good idea to have an open book on all the different subjects,' GM CEO Fritz Henderson said in a media conference call today. 'We have a philosophy of building where we sell, and not only do we think that is the right thing to do, but the most profitable thing to do historically.'
UAW officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a May 5 letter to senators, the UAW criticized GM plans to increase U.S. sales from other countries.
'GM should not be taking taxpayers' money simply to finance the outsourcing of jobs to other countries,' the letter from UAW legislative director Alan Reuther said.
The GM document also reveals plans to sharply increase sales of cars it makes in Mexico and South Korea while reducing the number made in Canada.
Mexico-made vehicles sold in the United States would jump from 317,763 in 2010 to 501,316 in 2014, according to the document.
South Korea-made vehicles sold in the United States would more than quadruple from 36,967 in 2010 to 157,126 in 2014.
On the other hand, Canada-made vehicles would fall from 431,708 in 2010 to 330,610 in 2014.
GM's U.S.-made vehicles would hold steady during the five-year period at about two-thirds of the total sold domestically.
I gotta agree with Mr. Reuther on this one.
But of course the Banks used the money for purposes other than the loans were intended for. Then we "loaned" them some more to reward their bad behavior.
So why shouldn't the car companies?
Kip
2018 430i Gran Coupe
GM could offer to relocate the good UAW workers to China. The cost of living there has to be a lot less than Michigan. :shades:
If GM moves from Detroit it seems logical to go where they are cared about. Not where they are just a golden goose to kill and eat.
I agree with the UAW:
By parallel that means the senators should be getting involved in foreign car companies source of their products, which is primarily from overseas. If the senators are being lobbied by UAW to control where US companies source their products, the senate needs to look at the high percentage of imports being sold here by companies who have some plants here even. They need to make the cars here on the continent and in the US and Canada.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I STILL DO!!! Where are they?
My story on USA content goes back to the 1970s. A town in PA mandated all their trucks be 100% USA made. The ONLY one was the VW Rabbit PU truck. I think the highest content USA made vehicle today is the F150 and it is below 85%.
If the senate wishes to help the UAW they can mandate more US/Canada built products rather than 100% Japan or Korea or Belgium or sweden, etc.
Just because the foreign companies have been successful in making people believe it has to be okay to import most of their cars since they produce a percentage here with their factories and some US suppliers does not make it right. If the UAW can continue to tell GM (as in the past 4 decades) where and how to do things, then the senate whom they are lobbying can tell foreign companies what they will have to do to sell cars here.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Same goes for GM & C. People that invest in those companies hold the cards. The UAW just represents part of the company. They are not real property that can be sold. In many cases the Union becomes a toxic asset. That was the case with Eastern Airlines and now with the Domestic auto industry.
We have had it so backwards for decades. I think the failure of this stimulus package to create jobs will show the glaring error in the thinking that labor is more important than money and good management in growing a business. Jobs are a result of someone with money and an idea creating a business. We have a GLUT of labor in this country and many others around the world. We need more people with good ideas to create businesses.
This just keeps getting worse. Whatever happened to those ancient words of wisdom: "The customer is always right"? If you're unhappy because American customers are buying too many non-U.S. cars, then you should demand that American car makers do a better job of figuring out what these customers want to buy & then delivering it to them at prices they want to pay. Companies that can't do that should go out of business as soon as possible.
If I don't like what your company is trying to sell me, it's not my fault. It's yours. Don't go whining to the government, asking them to hold my arms back while you pick my pockets. Instead, change your way of doing business & do what you have to do to honestly earn my money.
These half-baked socialist "mandates" will never produce lasting prosperity.
Sort of like GM.
Based upon the experiences of GM and Toyota, why wouldn't you want to be Ford or Honda instead? :P
The Eastern mechanics of yesterday are the WalMart greeters of today!
At the rate the UAW is going, they will be greeting in a few years.
Sometimes being #2 is a big advantage. If you can be a little smaller and happy with that, then it's all good. Honda has been very successful as a large but not huge automaker. Toyota, in their quest for size, has begun to cheapen and have problems - just like GM did. Similarly, Ford is the scrappier player with less size to bog them down. They are making an impressive effort to pull themselves out of their mess. At this point I'd buy Ford before GM, partly due to survival prospects, but also because the player who is doing it more successfully ought to be rewarded. Mulally is earning his salary, unlike Wagoner did.
I also doubt the Wal-Mart staff would tolerate the Union's B.S.!:
"You mean I have to push a shopping cart toward the customers AS WELL as greeting them? That should be a different position, not my job. I'm filing a grievance."
Nobody ever got a job from a poor person, and it is amazing how people forget that...labor is never the important thing, never was, never will be, at least in a capitalist society...labor will always be groveling at the foot of the employer, because no employer means no jobs...period...
If you're unhappy because American customers are buying too many non-U.S. cars, then you should demand that American car makers do a better job of figuring out what these customers want to buy & then delivering it to them at prices they want to pay. Companies that can't do that should go out of business as soon as possible.
If I don't like what your company is trying to sell me, it's not my fault. It's yours. Don't go whining to the government, asking them to hold my arms back while you pick my pockets.
Right on the bullseye, Jim!!!!
Nissan is a curious case IMO, I guess being the most respected car manufacturer in Japan doesn't help much, afterall. Sales dropped and now Nissan's even asking for government help. My theory is that Honda can still rely on global sales, where they already have the reputation unlike Nissan.... yes, it's coming there but Honda got there first.
"You mean I have to push a shopping cart toward the customers AS WELL as greeting them? That should be a different position, not my job. I'm filing a grievance." "
Well done!
If somehow the UAW started a subsidiary union and was able to organize Walmart, then the contract would be about 2,000 pages in length. And, there would be three greeters at each store at all times. Greeter 1 would simply say hello and welcome each customer, greeter 2 would be getting a cart ready, and greeter 3 would move the cart over toward the customer. In addition, the union would require that another union member be stationed at the exit to thank each customer for shopping at Walmart. Then, union would require 3 to 5 roving union helpers in parking lot at all times to offer help to customers to remove purchased items from cart and place in vehicle. These rovers would then return carts to proper stalls.
And the UAW leaders have the gall to say they are not at ALL responsible for the demise of the Domestic auto industry. I can tell you what the Unions would do to Walmart. The same thing they have done to the retail clerks at Safeway, Albertsons, Ralph's etc. The Starting wages before their scatter brained strike was well above minimum wage, just as Walmart is today. When the strike ended a new hire at the major supermarkets here in So CA receives MINIMUM WAGE & minimal benefits. Top employees are also worse off. Those that are so naive to think unionizing the country will solve our labor problems are totally out of touch with reality.
A Union would put all those people now on SS working as greeters out of a job. Walmart cannot afford to pay someone to greet us at the door $12-$15 per hour. The greeters are supplementing their meager SS incomes. The Unions such as UAW will cut the throats of 1000s of needy retirees that can help support themselves with these small income jobs provided by Walmart. Instead of denigrating Walmart we should be applauding them for hiring people no one but the Goodwill or Salvation Army will hire.
IIRC that's what unions did to the railroad. Every train had to have a conductor, brakeman, electrician, and one other person, don't recall his title, so every train had to have 4 union guys. Alocoholism was at an all time high with railroad workers as well in my home town.
...uh, the engineer?
Eminem Takes Auto Workers to Show
Job Openings Scarce
2.7 million job openings for 15 million unemployed? Not good! I bet most of those openings are crummy low-paying McJobs too!