tedebear: No, apparently you and a few other UAW haters on here do not get it. The official figures are now in for September 2009 versus September 2008. Honda sales are down 20% and Toyota sales are down 19%, while the UAW-run Ford is down just a mere 5%. Explain that one, boys and girls.
GM's sales were down a staggering 45 percent, while Chrysler's were down 42 percent. Considering how bad their sales were last year - remember that Honda and Toyota were actually faring well in 2008, until the stuff hit the fan on Wall Street in September - those figures are devastating.
Ford is benefiting from positive press (it didn't take a bailout; Consumer Reports has praised several of its products and the company's quality efforts) and new models in key segments (Fusion and Taurus).
"The UAW has pumped these non skilled workers full of lies. They make them believe they are indispensable."...
That sums up what the UAW is and how it has brainwashed the unskilled, uneducated and overpaid worker that their ability to tighten lug nuts was worth $30-50 per hour (w/ benefits), when you can train a homeless person in Central America to do that job in about an hour or so...
To the other poster...Conservatives and Libertarians were also against any bailout package...since Bush was NOT the conservative we hoped for, many of us on the right were as upset as you are...so, you are correct...GM and C should have filed an ordinary Ch 11, shedding all their debt and UNION CONTRACTS, and moved on...instead, Hussein Obama stepped in and protected the unions, solely due to union and Acorn corruption, so that his precious UAW jobs would be protected, WHETHER THE COMPANIES MAKE MONEY OR NOT, which means that the UAW has gone from "earned" unemployment to outright welfare..
When the UAW folks look at their children, they will be too stupid and ignornat to be ashamed of themselves, because they see themselves as "highly skilled workers" when they deserve less than a Walmart shelf stocker, because at least the shelf stocker has to read the labels...
while the UAW-run Ford is down just a mere 5%. Explain that one, boys and girls. That may be temporary if the UAW does not give equal concessions to Ford. I am personally happy to see Ford doing so well. I would imagine much of their sales is a backlash against GM and C for accepting our tax dollars and not making any radical changes. Ford is making progress by building their biggest sellers in Mexico. If the UAW does not give some on the negotiations I would look for the number one selling F series to head down across the border. You were one of the lucky ones that got out before all the UAW auto industry dissolved.
No, apparently you and a few other UAW haters on here do not get it. The official figures are now in for September 2009 versus September 2008. Honda sales are down 20% and Toyota sales are down 19%, while the UAW-run Ford is down just a mere 5%. Explain that one, boys and girls.
Many excellent points have been made in response to this. What it amounts to is that Ford is thus far surviving not because of the UAW but despite the UAW.
Toyota is now reeling after historic financial losses, a change of leadership, several lawsuits and a string of recalls. These culminated last week in the humiliating announcement that the firm whose stated goal is perfection would need to service 3.8 million vehicles due to a poorly designed and potentially deadly flaw in a floor mat.
And that could potentially be devastating for Toyota, which Bloomberg says has sold more than 1.1 million hybrids in the U.S. in the last decade -- most of them Prius cars.
Paice won a 2005 patent suit against Toyota in federal court in Marshall, Tex. And you might snicker at that, because Marshall is notorious for granting all sorts of wacko patent cases. But still, the verdict was upheld on appeal, and a judge ordered Toyota to pay royalties to Paice based on car sales.
Manufacturing's share of the U.S. economy continues its 50-year decline. Last year, manufacturing GDP fell to an all-time low of just 12 percent of the economy, according to a Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI analysis of recent data from the Commerce Department.
America is the biggest manufacturer in the world. Other countries would like a piece of our action/jobs. Wonder why? Get over it, we are the envy of the world!
"The United States has the largest manufacturing economy in the world, producing 1.6 trillion dollars in goods annually. America's global market share of manufacturing has held steady at around 22 percent for 30 years...And one in six US jobs is in or directly tied to manufacturing, which still pays premium wages and benefits."
The US manufacturing generated 1.64 trillion worth of goods in 2008. Although the value has been rising, industrial output's share of gross domestic product has fallen from 20 percent in 1980 to 11.5 percent in 2008, the report showed.
"A common misconception is making the rounds: that domestic manufacturing is vanishing," the report stated.
"This misperception is based on consumers? daily observation of foreign-made products visible on store shelves and the media's focus on the loss of jobs in the sector. But the facts do not support this pessimistic view. Manufacturing in the United States remains vital and important to the US economy and is globally competitive." http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hCdldojBGXFdaKftEoRhvmON2kLw
I agree. So what part of that 12% is produced by Union Workers? My guess is less than 10%. Which is about 1% of the GDP produced by Union workers. Sadly Union made is not what it used to be. Something to be proud of. The UAW automakers have given our manufacturing base a big black eye to the rest of the World. That is nothing to be proud of. Repressive Work rules and jobs bank are a big part of the nasty UAW stigma. A 2200 page UAW contract with Ford, mostly saying what a worker will not do for $30 per hour. Ford will survive with a lot less UAW workers to drag them down.
Many excellent points have been made in response to this. What it amounts to is that Ford is thus far surviving not because of the UAW but despite the UAW.
LOL - I expected someone to come up with something like that. Thank you for the late night humor.
One could just as easily say that Toyota and Honda are somehow surviving but sinking very rapidly when compared to the UAW-run Ford. Down 19.1% for Toyota and down 20.4% for Honda with Ford off just 5.1% for September as compared to same time last year.
WOODCLIFF LAKE, NJ - October 1, 2009: For the first time this year, the BMW Group in the U.S. (BMW and MINI combined) reported an increase in sales compared to the same month last year. In September, sales increased by 3.6 percent to 19,175 units compared to 18,506 vehicles sold in September 2008. The BMW Group also reported a year-to-date sales volume of 179,219 vehicles, down 24.2 percent, compared to 236,327 vehicles sold in the first nine months of last year.
BMW Brand Sales Sales of BMW brand vehicles increased 2.1 percent in September for a total of 15,047 vehicles compared to 14,744 vehicles reported in the same month a year ago driven by strong passenger car sales. BMW's sports activity vehicles saw a decline compared to last year in part due to limited inventory of the X5 after the better than expected Advanced Diesel X5 model sales volume. Year-to-date, BMW brand sales were down 26.3 percent to 144,223 vehicles compared to 195,633 vehicles sold in the same period of 2008.
I know these aren't your words as you just appear to be quoting an article:
These culminated last week in the humiliating announcement that the firm whose stated goal is perfection would need to service 3.8 million vehicles due to a poorly designed and potentially deadly flaw in a floor mat.
But come on now. Because some morons can't keep their floor mat straight by using the provided hooks it's a design and deadly flaw :P ???
I put this in the same category as what forced lawn mower makers to add "features" that would stop the blade when the operator took his hands off the handle - all because some imbeciles put their hands under the mower deck when it was running.
Ya can't legislate (or sue) everything because of someone's stupidity.
Glad to give you a laugh. Perhaps you also found this post by Andre1969 to be funny:
Well, one rationale I can think of is that Ford had been bleeding for awhile, and was already pretty wrecked as of September 2008. Ford depends more on sales of larger vehicles to keep it afloat, and larger vehicles are what took the big hit back in 2008 as fuel prices soared. Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda were riding pretty high back in 2008, thanks to smaller vehicles like the Prius, Civic, Corolla, Yaris, Fit, and even the Camry/Accord, which get good fuel economy for their size.
So fast forward to 2009, the economy crashed, pretty much hurting demand for all vehicles, not just larger ones. Plus, fuel prices fell, and a lot of new-vehicle sales had already been pulled forward as buyers scrambled to buy smaller, more efficient cars, thinking those fuel prices would stay high forever.
Well, Ford had pretty much already fallen, so it didn't have much further to go. Toyota and Honda, however, did. And I'd presume Nissan took a pretty big hit as well.
".......After reading that, I'm just about certain that you have no experience in business-to-business sales. I have, & I can tell you that it's cheaper - in many cases, much cheaper - for a distributor, wholesaler, or manufacturer to service 5 or 10 large accounts than 50 or 100 small accounts. "
I do understand that, it's just how much savings are the wholesalers sharing when the WalMarts can sell at RETAIL for less than others buy WHOLESALE?
I do understand that, it's just how much savings are the wholesalers sharing when the WalMarts can sell at RETAIL for less than others buy WHOLESALE?
Quite a bit, but that's nothing new. Before Walmart, Kmart was the top dog, & it used its then-considerable muscle to beat up its suppliers. (I know because my dad was one of them.)
Years ago, I found an article, written in the mid-1920s for a business magazine (Fortune perhaps? I don't remember), that accused the "chain stores" (today, we'd call them department stores) of the day of strangling small-town mom & pop stores.
Retailing has always been a viciously competitive business. If Walmart disappeared tomorrow, someone else would take its place. (Some analysts have speculated that Amazon might just be the next Walmart.)
Walton was furious. The mechanization of agriculture had finally reached the backwaters of the Ozark Plateau, where he was opening one store after another. The men and women who had formerly worked on small farms suddenly found themselves redundant, and he could scoop them up for a song, as little as 50 cents an hour. Now the [non-permissible content removed] federal government was telling him he had to pay his workers the $1.15 hourly minimum. Walton's response was to divide up his stores into individual companies whose revenues didn't exceed the $250,000 threshold. Eventually, though, a federal court ruled that this was simply a scheme to avoid paying the minimum wage, and he was ordered to pay his workers the accumulated sums he owed them, plus a double-time penalty thrown in for good measure.
Wal-Mart cut the checks, but Walton also summoned the employees at a major cluster of his stores to a meeting. "I'll fire anyone who cashes the check," he told them.
Besides its Dickensian shock value, this story -- told by Nelson Lichtenstein in his new book about Wal-Mart -- points to a phenomenon of wider significance. The company that was willing to break the law to avoid paying the minimum wage is now the largest private-sector employer in the nation and the world, with 1.4 million employees in the United States and 2 million overall, more than 6,000 stores, and revenues that exceed those of Target, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart, Safeway, and Kroger -- combined. By virtue of its size and its mastery of logistics, Wal-Mart is able to demand low prices from its thousands of suppliers and thus inflict low wages on their employees. Its low prices have also forced reductions in wages and benefits at the unionized supermarkets with which it threatens to compete.
As the unionized General Motors was big enough to set the pattern for the employment of nonprofessional Americans in the three decades following World War II, Wal-Mart is now so big it is setting the pattern today. Each created a distinct national buying public for its goods that was far larger than its immediate work force: in GM's case, workers who could afford to buy new cars; in Wal-Mart's, workers who could afford to shop nowhere except Wal-Mart. With Wal-Mart's rise, the same traditional values that underpinned Sam Walton's cheating and threatening of his workers -- contempt for Yankee laws and regulations, and a preference for the authoritarian, low-wage labor system of the South -- have become more the norm than the exception in America's economic life.
The result is an unprecedented migration of high-paid executives to the northwest corner of Arkansas -- professionals from amenity-rich cities like New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and Miami, who bring not only their six-figure salaries, but an appetite for Jaguars, sushi, pet day-care centers, Gucci shoes and Chanel sunglasses.
In Rogers, just north of Bentonville, nattily dressed executives from Kellogg Co. and Colgate-Palmolive Co. sip lattes and lunch on cold Thai salmon at the Market, a gourmet grocery store that offers sushi-making lessons. Up the street, at Murphy's Jewelry, the latest Versace fashion show flickers on a flat-panel television and $100,000 necklaces glimmer from behind a glass case.
The Jacobs fiefdom was mentioned, then the name of the king of the empire was mentioned, then I commented about this royalty. Seems pretty clear to me.
I know a few people that work for WalMart and like their job. Not sure about elsewhere, but in So CA they pay well above Minimum wage to start. Last I checked a new hire gets $8.50 per hour. About what a UAW worker should get to start.
If I read your post correctly, a person can go to college while working odd shifts at WalMart and then get a high paying job with them upon graduation. How is that bad?
advocate breaking the law, regardless of how much I admire Sam Walton & WalMart, this does have one meaning to me
"he could scoop them up for a song, as little as 50 cents an hour. Now the [non-permissible content removed] federal government was telling him he had to pay his workers the $1.15 hourly minimum."...
It means, in his own way, that he knew back then that someone who stocks shelves was not worth "minimum wage" as the skill required was quite low...
Which brings is right back to the UAW, far overpaid for the skill level (if one can use the word "skill" with a straight face) they exhibit...
The difference???...Walmart is still in business, GM and C are worthless, and it remains to be seen if Ford will follow them or not...
Who was he to determine what minimum wage "should" be? Will religion keep the poor from killing the rich forever? Oops...I hope that wasn't too frightening to the devotees of the top few.
Walmart is still in very profitable business, but it betrayed its promise of American made goods so the top few in the corporate hierarchy could reap giant compensation, and is now the greatest enabler of glorified slave labor dependent flagrant human rights violator China. That will come back to haunt...
You keep forgetting the facts. Walmart sells cheap Chinese goods because the American public (including those over paid UAW non skilled workers) are buying the stuff. Last count Detroit the city that has the most to lose with the loss of the auto industry has 18 Walmart stores. You don't think they would be there if the people were not spending money in them?
You question Sam Walton's right to set minimum wage. I question Congress' right to set minimum wage. Which by the way is subject to political pressures. Don't forget Pelosi giving the Sar-Kist Tuna co a bye on paying their 12,000 workers minimum wage. Farm workers have always gotten the short end of the stick along with many other jobs. My guess is the average Chinese worker is better off today than when Nixon opened up the country to trade with the USA.
I think some of the laws and high corporate taxes in this country have pushed more jobs out than Corporate greed. With the loss of value in the dollar more auto manufacturing will return to this country. Just not in states that have repressive Unions like the UAW.
Of course people are buying, as the socio-economic gap continues to increase, endless millions don't have a choice. It's kind of a incestuous prophecy - the more who are forced to shop there increases the demand to offshore which makes even more shop there.
The welfare of the average Chinese worker is completely and totally irrelevant, as it was not the goal of opening the place. The neocon globalists do not care about human conditions, only about consolidating their own power. And it still doesn't address the gross social and environmental criminality of the state which we fund via our deceptive old leadership. The future of the western world is much bleaker than when Nixon and his cowardly cronies opened up China. They want us to devolve to those conditions, and they will do anything to get it.
Maybe the tax burden should be shifted from the corporations to those who control the corporations. Yeah, like that's going to happen. The least accountable segment of society.
Anyone can work and go to college. They can work many places and better themselves. By the way the Walmarts here in Texas pay about the same as there in California. However, the cost of living is much less here. That is rather strange, because Walmart prices by location. The same IPOD here is half the $300 in South Carolina. Unfortunately they don't do shipping.
The correct wording of the phrase that you're trying to use is "at a loss for words".
And no, I didn't read it. As I've said before, I don't bother with copy & paste jobs. For the most part, they're not educational & they're certainly not entertaining.
The story dallas posted shatters the image of a saintly Sam Walton. He was as ruthless, underhanded, and conniving as any Wall Street shark. Sam, say hello to Roger for me!
Henry Ford & John D Rockefeller were not saints either. My question to all that think the worker is more important than the guy on top. Where would this country be without the leaders, inventors and ruthless builders of this great country? Take away the incentive to excel and you get what the UAW has become. A bunch of over paid whiners. Always wanting more than they actually contribute to the company.
As most know Sam Walton's parents operated a store that did OK but was somewhat stagnant. His parents lived on the income from the store and got by.
He had some better ideas and started building the store into something better. Then expanded to what Walmart is today. He took the risk and he sweated the blood. Most likely had a lot of sleepless nights.
A friend of mine (Joe) would not shop Walmart, because he felt that Walmart moves into an area and drives the mom and pop stores out of business. He felt the same about Lowes and Home Depot. My take is that, if there is enough business in the area for those Stores to function, the moms and pops should have been building their own businesses instead of just getting by.
Joe was driving an 18 Wheeler for Tru-Value hardware at that time, and getting by. Another friend was hauling for Walmart. He told Joe there was an opening for a part time driver and he could make nearly as much as he was making at Tru-Value full time. He applied for the job and got it. Right off he was pleased because when he backed the trailer up to the store, he didn't have to unload it as he had done on the other job. Store employees did that. He eventually became full time and had a choice as to how he operated. He chose the 4 day on the road and 4 days at home option. He has low cost health insurance, and a 401K. I don't know about retirement.
My brother in law isn't very ambitious and has worked for grocery stores most all his life as a stocker and eventually shift supervisor with keys to the store. When that food chain folded, he got a Part time job at Walmart stocking groceries . In a short time he went full time. He makes more there as a stocker than he did at the grocery chain as a supervisor. He has been offered a supervisors position (assistant manager) but doesn't want the responsibility. He also has low cost health insurance and 401K.
I know several managers and assistant managers that work for Walmart. They seem to be living OK ! They all started Part Time as far as I know.
Side note: Several post have criticized Walmart for hiring Part Time people with no bennefits. Especially during peak periods. That is all that some people want! It is stupid for a company to hire someone Full Time when they won't really need them most of the time and without knowing their work habits.
When my son went to work at one of Yamaha's manufactoring plants, he started Part Time. They liked his work and hired him full time. He now has a fairly high position and a lot of responsibility, but doesn't make anywhere near as much as an Entitled UAW lug nut installer. Still, he has good bennefits and is able to buy all he needs and most of what he wants. And so far Yamaha hasn't needed a bail out from taxpayers.
Walmart does the same thing. When they find a good Part Time worker, they will offer them a full time position as soon as one becomes available. And NO they don't pay them big bucks to stock shelves or say "Welcome to Walmart". If the person has plenty of ability they will climb the ladder. as far as those abilities allow them to go.
The local Walmart moved into our sleepy little town many years ago and people said they would run the locals out of business. And that did happen to some. However, people from other areas started coming here to shop Walmart. A few years ago Walmart build a "Super Walmart". They put it on a street north of town in a new shopping center. The "Pavilion" is now a mile long and full of all kinds of shopping. Other shopping centers attached to the Pavilion or across the street. For those that went out of business, they were replaced by dozens of profitable stores that hire lots of people. Electronics, clothing, groceries, home and garden, book, stores, appliances, you name it. Stores that specialize in things that Walmart also sells. But those stores have better selection and higher quality.
And where are we going with the corrupt and cowardly "top" continuing to consolidate power and wealth, with everyone else dividing a smaller and smaller piece of the pie? We're going to hell, that's where. Do we need a repeat of past labor conditions? Do we need to emulate the more brutal and repressive regimes on this planet? If you haven't noticed, we aren't moving forward anymore. Cheap TVs and sheeple distracted and silenced by Chinese-made gadgetry bought via easy credit is not progress.
I can't wait to see which war these guys concoct next to increase their wealth and knock the first world down a little more. They did a bang-up job with WW2, and the "cold war".
"The United Auto Workers and Ford Motor Co have reached a tentative agreement on contract changes the automaker wants to bring labor costs in line with U.S. rivals, the union and company said on Tuesday.
With Ford already in better shape than its U.S. rivals, some local leaders expressed opposition to more concessions during a meeting with the top UAW leaders in August.
Ford also wants concessions from the Canadian Auto Workers union. The CAW said on Thursday that it would resume full-scale discussions with Ford on October 26."
Heard on the radio today that Detroit is the US city that is totally failing. They had $20mill in the bank on day one of their fiscal year -- and their monthly payroll is $50mil! They are cutting services even though a high fraction of the city relies on them. There are still burnt out buildings from riots over 30 years ago. Entire blocks of homes that have been torn down and the vacant land is sitting empty for decades. Detroit is a miserable failure. The city that relied on those "fair wage" jobs of the auto industry.
So when we look at the UAW and what it has done for the auto industry, let's look at TODAY'S labor conditions caused by the UAW in Detroit. The biggest big-city failure in the country, in the heart of that progressive fair wage entitled labor market. Is that what we want everybody to go to? Demand high salaries and benefits for low level work ==>> drive jobs overseas ==>> epic city failure!
Detroit probably failed 30-40 years ago. When the exodus began, the writing was on the wall. It's been lost as long as I've been alive, and it's not going to be reclaimed, not as the first world moves down a level so the existing elite can increase their ROI.
I won't defend the abuses of the UAW, I have no love for assembly line workers making upper middle class wages and having benefits that most of the private sector never could have imagined. I also won't defend the corporate "leaders" who will offshore jobs simply to increase their own bottom line - we know which part of the wage spectrum has been growing faster over the past 25 years, it's not the bottom 90%. It's just not overpaid spare tire installers who have been replaced. The UAW is barely a blip in the overall scheme of things, and in the brave new world to come. Personally, I would target the abusive public sector unions for waste and idiocy more than any other.
"You question Sam Walton's right to set minimum wage. I question Congress' right to set minimum wage"...Took the words right out of my mouth...
others: While some may consider the business titans as megalomaniacs (John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Sam Walton) it also takes a special person to be able to do what they did, build multi-billion $$$ nationwide (worldwide) companies from scratch...those "below" them (of the worker mentality) will always see them in a negative light, when, for the most part, they probably did more good than bad, and advabced Society as a whole (Rockefeller, oil, Carnegie, railroads and libraries, Ford, cars, Walton, retailing)...
Mom and Pop were never worth saving...period...they charged too much and I don't care if it was due to low volume purchases...why should I be made to pay more to them when, by the definition of good business, Home Depot can buy in greater quantity, get a lower price from that higher volume, and pass that cost savings onto me...why do you pro-UAW people have a problem with me spending less of my money for any given product, which, leave money left over so I can go to a local restaurant, patronize the local owner, and maybe pay a tip to your daughter who might be working there as a server???
Why do you think you have the right, or the power, to make me pay more just because you are enamored by the "romantic notion" of Grandma and Grandpa running the local store, charging me out the wazoo with their obscene higher prices???
Which fits in line with your pro-UAW stance...pay more for the unskilled union labor that you can find anywhere else, smarter, better and cheaper...
Please don;t try and respond with the "skills" of the UAW...remember, they are the "redneck, toothless idiots" of yesteryear...suddenly, they join the UAW, and, in your eyes, their IQ jumps 50 points, they can actually read books, and their skills make them "craftsmen" because they can tighten lug nuts...
Comments
GM's sales were down a staggering 45 percent, while Chrysler's were down 42 percent. Considering how bad their sales were last year - remember that Honda and Toyota were actually faring well in 2008, until the stuff hit the fan on Wall Street in September - those figures are devastating.
Ford is benefiting from positive press (it didn't take a bailout; Consumer Reports has praised several of its products and the company's quality efforts) and new models in key segments (Fusion and Taurus).
That sums up what the UAW is and how it has brainwashed the unskilled, uneducated and overpaid worker that their ability to tighten lug nuts was worth $30-50 per hour (w/ benefits), when you can train a homeless person in Central America to do that job in about an hour or so...
To the other poster...Conservatives and Libertarians were also against any bailout package...since Bush was NOT the conservative we hoped for, many of us on the right were as upset as you are...so, you are correct...GM and C should have filed an ordinary Ch 11, shedding all their debt and UNION CONTRACTS, and moved on...instead, Hussein Obama stepped in and protected the unions, solely due to union and Acorn corruption, so that his precious UAW jobs would be protected, WHETHER THE COMPANIES MAKE MONEY OR NOT, which means that the UAW has gone from "earned" unemployment to outright welfare..
When the UAW folks look at their children, they will be too stupid and ignornat to be ashamed of themselves, because they see themselves as "highly skilled workers" when they deserve less than a Walmart shelf stocker, because at least the shelf stocker has to read the labels...
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
That may be temporary if the UAW does not give equal concessions to Ford. I am personally happy to see Ford doing so well. I would imagine much of their sales is a backlash against GM and C for accepting our tax dollars and not making any radical changes. Ford is making progress by building their biggest sellers in Mexico. If the UAW does not give some on the negotiations I would look for the number one selling F series to head down across the border. You were one of the lucky ones that got out before all the UAW auto industry dissolved.
Many excellent points have been made in response to this. What it amounts to is that Ford is thus far surviving not because of the UAW but despite the UAW.
Toyota is now reeling after historic financial losses, a change of leadership, several lawsuits and a string of recalls. These culminated last week in the humiliating announcement that the firm whose stated goal is perfection would need to service 3.8 million vehicles due to a poorly designed and potentially deadly flaw in a floor mat.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/has-toyota-lost-its-way.asp- x
And that could potentially be devastating for Toyota, which Bloomberg says has sold more than 1.1 million hybrids in the U.S. in the last decade -- most of them Prius cars.
Paice won a 2005 patent suit against Toyota in federal court in Marshall, Tex. And you might snicker at that, because Marshall is notorious for granting all sorts of wacko patent cases. But still, the verdict was upheld on appeal, and a judge ordered Toyota to pay royalties to Paice based on car sales.
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2009/10/07/toyota-s-prius-th- reatened-by-probe.aspx
America is the biggest manufacturer in the world. Other countries would like a piece of our action/jobs. Wonder why? Get over it, we are the envy of the world!
"The United States has the largest manufacturing economy in the world, producing 1.6 trillion dollars in goods annually. America's global market share of manufacturing has held steady at around 22 percent for 30 years...And one in six US jobs is in or directly tied to manufacturing, which still pays premium wages and benefits."
The US manufacturing generated 1.64 trillion worth of goods in 2008. Although the value has been rising, industrial output's share of gross domestic product has fallen from 20 percent in 1980 to 11.5 percent in 2008, the report showed.
"A common misconception is making the rounds: that domestic manufacturing is vanishing," the report stated.
"This misperception is based on consumers? daily observation of foreign-made products visible on store shelves and the media's focus on the loss of jobs in the sector. But the facts do not support this pessimistic view. Manufacturing in the United States remains vital and important to the US economy and is globally competitive."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hCdldojBGXFdaKftEoRhvmON2kLw
LOL - I expected someone to come up with something like that. Thank you for the late night humor.
One could just as easily say that Toyota and Honda are somehow surviving but sinking very rapidly when compared to the UAW-run Ford. Down 19.1% for Toyota and down 20.4% for Honda with Ford off just 5.1% for September as compared to same time last year.
WOODCLIFF LAKE, NJ - October 1, 2009: For the first time this year, the BMW Group in the U.S. (BMW and MINI combined) reported an increase in sales compared to the same month last year. In September, sales increased by 3.6 percent to 19,175 units compared to 18,506 vehicles sold in September 2008. The BMW Group also reported a year-to-date sales volume of 179,219 vehicles, down 24.2 percent, compared to 236,327 vehicles sold in the first nine months of last year.
BMW Brand Sales
Sales of BMW brand vehicles increased 2.1 percent in September for a total of 15,047 vehicles compared to 14,744 vehicles reported in the same month a year ago driven by strong passenger car sales. BMW's sports activity vehicles saw a decline compared to last year in part due to limited inventory of the X5 after the better than expected Advanced Diesel X5 model sales volume. Year-to-date, BMW brand sales were down 26.3 percent to 144,223 vehicles compared to 195,633 vehicles sold in the same period of 2008.
No UAW workers here!
Here's the article
These culminated last week in the humiliating announcement that the firm whose stated goal is perfection would need to service 3.8 million vehicles due to a poorly designed and potentially deadly flaw in a floor mat.
But come on now. Because some morons can't keep their floor mat straight by using the provided hooks it's a design and deadly flaw :P ???
link title
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Ya can't legislate (or sue) everything because of someone's stupidity.
Well, one rationale I can think of is that Ford had been bleeding for awhile, and was already pretty wrecked as of September 2008. Ford depends more on sales of larger vehicles to keep it afloat, and larger vehicles are what took the big hit back in 2008 as fuel prices soared. Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda were riding pretty high back in 2008, thanks to smaller vehicles like the Prius, Civic, Corolla, Yaris, Fit, and even the Camry/Accord, which get good fuel economy for their size.
So fast forward to 2009, the economy crashed, pretty much hurting demand for all vehicles, not just larger ones. Plus, fuel prices fell, and a lot of new-vehicle sales had already been pulled forward as buyers scrambled to buy smaller, more efficient cars, thinking those fuel prices would stay high forever.
Well, Ford had pretty much already fallen, so it didn't have much further to go. Toyota and Honda, however, did. And I'd presume Nissan took a pretty big hit as well.
I do understand that, it's just how much savings are the wholesalers sharing when the WalMarts can sell at RETAIL for less than others buy WHOLESALE?
Quite a bit, but that's nothing new. Before Walmart, Kmart was the top dog, & it used its then-considerable muscle to beat up its suppliers. (I know because my dad was one of them.)
Years ago, I found an article, written in the mid-1920s for a business magazine (Fortune perhaps? I don't remember), that accused the "chain stores" (today, we'd call them department stores) of the day of strangling small-town mom & pop stores.
Retailing has always been a viciously competitive business. If Walmart disappeared tomorrow, someone else would take its place. (Some analysts have speculated that Amazon might just be the next Walmart.)
????
Translation, please.
http://www.unionlabel.org/
http://www.unionplus.org/
Wal-Mart cut the checks, but Walton also summoned the employees at a major cluster of his stores to a meeting. "I'll fire anyone who cashes the check," he told them.
Besides its Dickensian shock value, this story -- told by Nelson Lichtenstein in his new book about Wal-Mart -- points to a phenomenon of wider significance. The company that was willing to break the law to avoid paying the minimum wage is now the largest private-sector employer in the nation and the world, with 1.4 million employees in the United States and 2 million overall, more than 6,000 stores, and revenues that exceed those of Target, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart, Safeway, and Kroger -- combined. By virtue of its size and its mastery of logistics, Wal-Mart is able to demand low prices from its thousands of suppliers and thus inflict low wages on their employees. Its low prices have also forced reductions in wages and benefits at the unionized supermarkets with which it threatens to compete.
As the unionized General Motors was big enough to set the pattern for the employment of nonprofessional Americans in the three decades following World War II, Wal-Mart is now so big it is setting the pattern today. Each created a distinct national buying public for its goods that was far larger than its immediate work force: in GM's case, workers who could afford to buy new cars; in Wal-Mart's, workers who could afford to shop nowhere except Wal-Mart. With Wal-Mart's rise, the same traditional values that underpinned Sam Walton's cheating and threatening of his workers -- contempt for Yankee laws and regulations, and a preference for the authoritarian, low-wage labor system of the South -- have become more the norm than the exception in America's economic life.
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=in_walmarts_image
The result is an unprecedented migration of high-paid executives to the northwest corner of Arkansas -- professionals from amenity-rich cities like New York, San Francisco, Atlanta and Miami, who bring not only their six-figure salaries, but an appetite for Jaguars, sushi, pet day-care centers, Gucci shoes and Chanel sunglasses.
In Rogers, just north of Bentonville, nattily dressed executives from Kellogg Co. and Colgate-Palmolive Co. sip lattes and lunch on cold Thai salmon at the Market, a gourmet grocery store that offers sushi-making lessons. Up the street, at Murphy's Jewelry, the latest Versace fashion show flickers on a flat-panel television and $100,000 necklaces glimmer from behind a glass case.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/26/AR2005062600899.- html
If you have a point of view that you want to share with us, use your own words. Sorry, but I won't read a post that you haven't written yourself.
If I read your post correctly, a person can go to college while working odd shifts at WalMart and then get a high paying job with them upon graduation. How is that bad?
"he could scoop them up for a song, as little as 50 cents an hour. Now the [non-permissible content removed] federal government was telling him he had to pay his workers the $1.15 hourly minimum."...
It means, in his own way, that he knew back then that someone who stocks shelves was not worth "minimum wage" as the skill required was quite low...
Which brings is right back to the UAW, far overpaid for the skill level (if one can use the word "skill" with a straight face) they exhibit...
The difference???...Walmart is still in business, GM and C are worthless, and it remains to be seen if Ford will follow them or not...
Walmart is still in very profitable business, but it betrayed its promise of American made goods so the top few in the corporate hierarchy could reap giant compensation, and is now the greatest enabler of glorified slave labor dependent flagrant human rights violator China. That will come back to haunt...
You question Sam Walton's right to set minimum wage. I question Congress' right to set minimum wage. Which by the way is subject to political pressures. Don't forget Pelosi giving the Sar-Kist Tuna co a bye on paying their 12,000 workers minimum wage. Farm workers have always gotten the short end of the stick along with many other jobs. My guess is the average Chinese worker is better off today than when Nixon opened up the country to trade with the USA.
I think some of the laws and high corporate taxes in this country have pushed more jobs out than Corporate greed. With the loss of value in the dollar more auto manufacturing will return to this country. Just not in states that have repressive Unions like the UAW.
The welfare of the average Chinese worker is completely and totally irrelevant, as it was not the goal of opening the place. The neocon globalists do not care about human conditions, only about consolidating their own power. And it still doesn't address the gross social and environmental criminality of the state which we fund via our deceptive old leadership. The future of the western world is much bleaker than when Nixon and his cowardly cronies opened up China. They want us to devolve to those conditions, and they will do anything to get it.
Maybe the tax burden should be shifted from the corporations to those who control the corporations. Yeah, like that's going to happen. The least accountable segment of society.
Its almost halloween, great site below.
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
The correct wording of the phrase that you're trying to use is "at a loss for words".
And no, I didn't read it. As I've said before, I don't bother with copy & paste jobs. For the most part, they're not educational & they're certainly not entertaining.
Look in the mirror, -- what do you see? Oooops....
He had some better ideas and started building the store into something better. Then expanded to what Walmart is today. He took the risk and he sweated the blood. Most likely had a lot of sleepless nights.
A friend of mine (Joe) would not shop Walmart, because he felt that Walmart moves into an area and drives the mom and pop stores out of business. He felt the same about Lowes and Home Depot. My take is that, if there is enough business in the area for those Stores to function, the moms and pops should have been building their own businesses instead of just getting by.
Joe was driving an 18 Wheeler for Tru-Value hardware at that time, and getting by. Another friend was hauling for Walmart. He told Joe there was an opening for a part time driver and he could make nearly as much as he was making at Tru-Value full time. He applied for the job and got it. Right off he was pleased because when he backed the trailer up to the store, he didn't have to unload it as he had done on the other job. Store employees did that. He eventually became full time and had a choice as to how he operated. He chose the 4 day on the road and 4 days at home option. He has low cost health insurance, and a 401K. I don't know about retirement.
My brother in law isn't very ambitious and has worked for grocery stores most all his life as a stocker and eventually shift supervisor with keys to the store. When that food chain folded, he got a Part time job at Walmart stocking groceries . In a short time he went full time. He makes more there as a stocker than he did at the grocery chain as a supervisor. He has been offered a supervisors position (assistant manager) but doesn't want the responsibility. He also has low cost health insurance and 401K.
I know several managers and assistant managers that work for Walmart. They seem to be living OK ! They all started Part Time as far as I know.
Side note: Several post have criticized Walmart for hiring Part Time people with no bennefits. Especially during peak periods. That is all that some people want!
It is stupid for a company to hire someone Full Time when they won't really need them most of the time and without knowing their work habits.
When my son went to work at one of Yamaha's manufactoring plants, he started Part Time. They liked his work and hired him full time. He now has a fairly high position and a lot of responsibility, but doesn't make anywhere near as much as an Entitled UAW lug nut installer. Still, he has good bennefits and is able to buy all he needs and most of what he wants. And so far Yamaha hasn't needed a bail out from taxpayers.
Walmart does the same thing. When they find a good Part Time worker, they will offer them a full time position as soon as one becomes available. And NO they don't pay them big bucks to stock shelves or say "Welcome to Walmart". If the person has plenty of ability they will climb the ladder. as far as those abilities allow them to go.
The local Walmart moved into our sleepy little town many years ago and people said they would run the locals out of business. And that did happen to some.
However, people from other areas started coming here to shop Walmart. A few years ago Walmart build a "Super Walmart". They put it on a street north of town in a new shopping center. The "Pavilion" is now a mile long and full of all kinds of shopping. Other shopping centers attached to the Pavilion or across the street. For those that went out of business, they were replaced by dozens of profitable stores that hire lots of people. Electronics, clothing, groceries, home and garden, book, stores, appliances, you name it. Stores that specialize in things that Walmart also sells. But those stores have better selection and higher quality.
Kip
I can't wait to see which war these guys concoct next to increase their wealth and knock the first world down a little more. They did a bang-up job with WW2, and the "cold war".
With Ford already in better shape than its U.S. rivals, some local leaders expressed opposition to more concessions during a meeting with the top UAW leaders in August.
Ford also wants concessions from the Canadian Auto Workers union. The CAW said on Thursday that it would resume full-scale discussions with Ford on October 26."
Ford and UAW reach tentative deal on contract changes (Reuters)
Heard on the radio today that Detroit is the US city that is totally failing. They had $20mill in the bank on day one of their fiscal year -- and their monthly payroll is $50mil! They are cutting services even though a high fraction of the city relies on them. There are still burnt out buildings from riots over 30 years ago. Entire blocks of homes that have been torn down and the vacant land is sitting empty for decades. Detroit is a miserable failure. The city that relied on those "fair wage" jobs of the auto industry.
So when we look at the UAW and what it has done for the auto industry, let's look at TODAY'S labor conditions caused by the UAW in Detroit. The biggest big-city failure in the country, in the heart of that progressive fair wage entitled labor market. Is that what we want everybody to go to? Demand high salaries and benefits for low level work ==>> drive jobs overseas ==>> epic city failure!
I won't defend the abuses of the UAW, I have no love for assembly line workers making upper middle class wages and having benefits that most of the private sector never could have imagined. I also won't defend the corporate "leaders" who will offshore jobs simply to increase their own bottom line - we know which part of the wage spectrum has been growing faster over the past 25 years, it's not the bottom 90%. It's just not overpaid spare tire installers who have been replaced. The UAW is barely a blip in the overall scheme of things, and in the brave new world to come. Personally, I would target the abusive public sector unions for waste and idiocy more than any other.
Absolutely agree with this. (speaking as a Californian!)
"You question Sam Walton's right to set minimum wage. I question Congress' right to set minimum wage"...Took the words right out of my mouth...
others:
While some may consider the business titans as megalomaniacs (John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Sam Walton) it also takes a special person to be able to do what they did, build multi-billion $$$ nationwide (worldwide) companies from scratch...those "below" them (of the worker mentality) will always see them in a negative light, when, for the most part, they probably did more good than bad, and advabced Society as a whole (Rockefeller, oil, Carnegie, railroads and libraries, Ford, cars, Walton, retailing)...
Mom and Pop were never worth saving...period...they charged too much and I don't care if it was due to low volume purchases...why should I be made to pay more to them when, by the definition of good business, Home Depot can buy in greater quantity, get a lower price from that higher volume, and pass that cost savings onto me...why do you pro-UAW people have a problem with me spending less of my money for any given product, which, leave money left over so I can go to a local restaurant, patronize the local owner, and maybe pay a tip to your daughter who might be working there as a server???
Why do you think you have the right, or the power, to make me pay more just because you are enamored by the "romantic notion" of Grandma and Grandpa running the local store, charging me out the wazoo with their obscene higher prices???
Which fits in line with your pro-UAW stance...pay more for the unskilled union labor that you can find anywhere else, smarter, better and cheaper...
Please don;t try and respond with the "skills" of the UAW...remember, they are the "redneck, toothless idiots" of yesteryear...suddenly, they join the UAW, and, in your eyes, their IQ jumps 50 points, they can actually read books, and their skills make them "craftsmen" because they can tighten lug nuts...