1 - Unions bleed companies dry when they are struggling to survive 2 - The unions kill US competitiveness, as overseas companies don't have the same boat anchors around their necks. In some cases there are unions there, too, but they are not so militant.
From this week's Aviation Week and Space Technology, an article entitled "Unions Need Not Apply" talks about Boeing's new Charleston, SC plant (non-union) under construction, and the subassemblies of the 787 that will be shipped to SC:
"Boeing is scouting beyond the unionized Seattle area for second sources for the 787's vertical stabilizer and other assemblies in an attempt to guarantee a steady supplier base for the final assembly line.....
....the alternate-sourcing move is not aimed at specific assemblies per se. It is designed to preclude strikes, such as Local 751's two-month walkout last year...
...the expense of setting up the Charleston facility is estimated at $750 million to $1.5 billion. Even at the high end, that is less than half of what insiders say the strike [last year] cost Boeing."
We should be thankful that Boeing at least is keeping those jobs in the United States. I'm sure iluv will have some thoughts on this...
The UAW in the past has touted the loss to the automakers as some badge of honor. For example the $20 billion the 1998 strike cost GM. When the UAW retirees lose their gold plated medical and go on Medicare like the rest of US they can think about that strike they were so proud of. The UAW systematically killed the goose laying the golden egg. GM production was not considered when the UAW would go on strike. Time to pay the Piper.
Let's go back to 1998:
That's the real travesty of the strike. Sept, 1998 by Jim Harbour Compared with Chrysler and Ford, GM has by far the worst overall relations with the UAW and its hourly workforce. This was caused by GM failing to address its non-competitiveness during the 1980s, as Chrysler and Ford did. Consequently, it is paying the price of that inaction. The giant automaker is seen as always cutting its hourly and salary workforce during periods of prosperity.
For GM -- the world's highest-cost, least efficient automaker -- the key issue is the dire need to get competitive in cost and productivity with the rest of the industry. That, of course, conflicts directly with the union's sworn mission to maintain, and create, jobs for the next generation of autoworkers.
At my work, the company expects you to take your vacation in the calendar year that you get it. They do allow you to carry over up to 5 days (10 next year when they transition to an accrual method) to the next year, but that's it. If you don't use it, you lose it.
We also have a shutdown over Christmas that requires you to use 2-4 days of vacation, depending on when the holidays fall. Even with that, I am always running across people who's last day of work for the year is Dec. 12 or earlier because they have 2 or more weeks of vacation to use or lose.
They do make exceptions for business reasons and sometimes will pay you for unused vacation time, but it takes something like a VP's signature to make that happen. I don't believe it's very widespread.
This is for non-represented (professional) workers - not sure what the unionized folks have.
I've never paid a union worker anything for booth set up in the Dallas area
I'm talking big shows, like machine tools show/SME. The Machine tool show is a yearly event in Chicago. Is there some place bigger than McCormick Place?
I think Chicago is what we are talking about. The Unions are killing the Goose in Chicago. The UAW was not happy running the automakers out of Detroit and Michigan. The Unions are out to destroy all decent middle class jobs in the USA. You are the one that said Dallas shows were being controlled by the Unions.
We are certain you will appreciate knowing in advance that Union Labor may be required for certain aspects of your exhibit handling. To help you understand the jurisdiction the various unions have, we ask that you read the following:
Teamster Labor: Teamsters have jurisdiction for all material handling within the boundaries of the convention facility. They unload all trucks or vehicles, deliver the material to your booth and remove and reload materials at the close of the show.
Exhibitors may unload their own vehicles provided they do not use any material handling equipment such as forklifts, palletjacks, flatbeds, dollies, etc.
Installation and Dismantle Labor: Display personnel will provide labor for display installation and dismantling. Full-time employees of the exhibiting companies, however, may set their own exhibits without assistance from this union. Any labor services that may be required beyond what your regular full-time employees can provide must be rendered by union labor. Labor can be ordered in advance by returning the Labor Order form found on the Show Checklist in this manual or on show-site at the TradeshowLogistics Exhibitor Care Center.
Hanging Signs: Hanging signs and graphics are permitted in all standard Island Booths, to a maximum height of sixteen feet (16') from the floor to the top of the sign. Whether suspended from above or supported from below, they must comply with all ordinary use-of-space requirements (for example, the highest point of any sign must not exceed the maximum allowable height for the booth type). Hanging Signs and Graphics should be set back ten feet (10') from adjacent booths. All Hanging signs must be approved by TradeshowLogistics by Friday May 9, 2008 and include drawings for inspection. All assembly, rigging and sign/truss hanging must be performed by the Official Contractor.
Electrical Labor: Responsible for assembly, installation and dismantle of anything that uses electricity as a source of power. This includes wiring, hookups, inter-connections, electrical signs, videotaping, and camera operations, including audio and lighting, and TV and VCR connections.
Plumbing: Responsible for all plumbing supplies: air, water, waste, gas lines, tanks, and venting.
Booth Cleaning & Porter Service: TradeshowLogistics has been selected by Show Management to serve as your official contractor for this show. In that respect, TradeshowLogistics has jurisdiction over all booth cleaning and porter service. Exhibitors and/or Exhibitor Appointed Contractors (EACs) are NOT PERMITTED to have vacuum cleaners or any floor cleaning equipment on the show floor unless it is the property of the official service contractor and is operated by a person or employee appointed by the official service contractor . For your convenience, a Booth Cleaning form has been included in this service manual.
If you encounter any difficulty with any laborer, or if you are not satisfied with the work performed, please bring this to the attention of TradeshowLogistics. Please refrain from voicing complaints directly to craft personnel.
The person in charge of your exhibit should inspect it carefully and sign all Work Order forms. If there are any questions about any bills, bring the bill to the Exhibitor Care Center and discuss it with a TradeshowLogistics representative.
It's business as usual on Wall Street. The bailed-out banks are raking in cash again, the stock market's starting to froth nicely, and juicy bonuses are in the offing for the privileged few lucky enough to be on the inside. Granted, there's fewer of the few than there was two years ago. But little else appears to have has changed. Regulation? We don't need no stinkin' regulation...
The UAW rank-and-file clearly think it's business as usual in Detroit, too. Okay, both GM and Chrysler are on taxpayer-funded life support, mere shells of their former selves. But bail-out refusnik Ford seems to be doing okay. A no-strike clause in the contract with Ford? We don't need no stinkin' no-strike clause...
The only problem is it's anything but business as usual in Detroit, even at Ford. The Blue Oval might have had some encouraging financial results lately, but the company is mortgaged to the hilt, and hanging on by its fingernails. That it's doing better than GM or Chrysler right now only means it's the healthiest guy in intensive care.
Ford says it needs concessions from the UAW similar to those secured by GM and Chrysler earlier this year to ensure it doesn't have a labor-cost disadvantage against the two bailed-out automakers. With the economy still fragile, and demand for new cars and trucks still running way below the level it was a couple of years back, Ford's request makes sense. Except, it seems, to a significant majority of Ford's UAW members.
Clearly these guys have learned nothing from what's happened to their industry -- to America -- over the past 18 months. There's still the same old sense of entitlement, the same distorted sense of reality that made the UAW complicit with inept management and poor government regulation in driving the once mighty American auto industry into the ground.
Maybe it's too much to expect any different. After all, the financial sector is already starting to behave as if last year's catastrophic economic meltdown was nothing more than an unfortunate Act of God. So why shouldn't a bunch of Ford line workers feel the same way? Crisis? What crisis? Not our fault, buddy.
Having the gall to throw stones at Americans buying foreign cars that are better? The UAW should look deeply into the mirror and change course....or most of their jobs will go away....forever.
Fortunately there is very strong bi-partisan support against that flaky bill. You won't see the Teamsters getting behind it. I don't see the UAW wanting more workers willing to work for minimum wage flooding across the border unchecked. The bill does not address securing the borders. That should be the first step. Then a work visa with a work history showing good citizenship. I know what the Dems want a slug of votes with no accountability.
In 46 years as a telephone man only two supervisors had my respect. That pretty much says it all. Just because you get a job in management does not mean you are any good at managing people. That being said. Only once in 46 years did I need the Union to back me up. That was on my first craft position in 1963. I learned the rules and played their silly games. Well over half of my career I was a shop steward dealing with the morons that were put in charge of people that should not have been. Also a good share of the craft people were less than worth while employees. For me the best thing about the Union is the retirement benefits.
Wow, that really hit home as we just went through year end appraisal time. That's the GE style of people management where they're always churning the bottom 10% of the employee work force. Even if any of the bottom 10% are decent employees, they still turn them over. It's brutal. My manager was told by some bean counter in HR that there weren't enough "basic contributors" (the bottom 10%), and he had to pick someone.
According to this style of people mgmt, there is the top 10%, the next 40%, the next 40%, and then the bottom 10%. In the event of layoffs, it's the bottom 10% that go. I hate it because it's a huge disincentive to get promoted because if you're in the upper 40% bracket before the promotion, you will then be in the lower 40% bracket after the promotion and if you get on the wrong side of your manager, you could easily end up in the bottom 10%.
Luckily I've always been in the top 10% or the upper 40% bracket.
"Boeing is scouting beyond the unionized Seattle area for second sources for the 787's vertical stabilizer and other assemblies in an attempt to guarantee a steady supplier base for the final assembly line.....
....the alternate-sourcing move is not aimed at specific assemblies per se. It is designed to preclude strikes, such as Local 751's two-month walkout last year...
...the expense of setting up the Charleston facility is estimated at $750 million to $1.5 billion. Even at the high end, that is less than half of what insiders say the strike [last year] cost Boeing."
We should be thankful that Boeing at least is keeping those jobs in the United States. I'm sure iluv will have some thoughts on this...
Well, I am actually proud of the Starbuck's swilling, raspberry jelly donut munching set of Boeing managers who decided to put the 787 Dreamliner's 2nd production line in South Carolina. Now, it is unclear to me about something in your article. I think that the production crew for the 2nd production line are non-union. Just the people building the new Boeing line buildings. But the Boeing personnel that will assemble the Dreamliner by all IAM/SPEEA Union rights will be Union-represented. I would be shocked if they had the kahuna's to fully pull the rug out underneath the IAM and SPEEA and went non-union for the 787 assembly/production/engineering personnel.
Having commented on that I am thinking that Boeing is pulling a smart move to pull some production out of the spoiled Seattle/Puget Sound area Boeing megamopoly. It's the strikes, similar to the GM 1998 strike, that can kill Boeing. They are already some 27 months late on delivering the first Dreamliner and a strike anytime in the next 12 months would really hurt Boeing at this point.
Makes some good aerospace sense to me although it's gonna really piss off the Puget Soundians big-time. Not that that's a bad thing, as I sip my SE Arizona margarita from here in the desert. Have at it boys!
Hopefully Christine Gregoire and some of the other Washington politicians can start working on restoring NBA basketball to Seattle. That was a full farce if I've even seen a sports farce. Don't even mention the thug ref's in Super Bowl 40 Seattle vs. the Pittsburgh Stealers. :sick:
Iluv....my impression is that the SC plant will be non-union, and they are looking for even alternate subassembly outside suppliers outside the plant where possible. They are basically spending about a $billion to try and prevent the horrendously expensive disruptions that occur when strikes happen. It ruins the business.
The UAW is stuck in the 1940s and 50s when a strike did not lose the company much of its market share. I would not blame the UAW for GM going from 50%+ market share to about 15% of the US market. They did play a big part in the demise. Same goes for the Unions striking Boeing. If the planes are not delivered on schedule it costs $millions of dollars to all involved. Boeing is competing against Airbus the EU conglomerate. So how bad have the US Unions hurt Boeing's bottom line?
Boeing 2008 net profit $2.67 billion with 157,555 employees AirBus 2008 net profit $2.29 billion with only 57,000 employees
Looks to me like Boeing needs to cut about 85,000 employees to be competitive in the business of building airplanes. How many are union members wanting to strike on a moments notice?
That's the GE style of people management where they're always churning the bottom 10% of the employee work force. Even if any of the bottom 10% are decent employees, they still turn them over. It's brutal
I think Ford had a similar evaluation plan in place maybe 20-25 years ago, though can't say for sure.
My company tried something like that a number of years ago, but it didn't last long. Every group with a supervisor (first line manager) managing it, come evaluation time, had to show an approximate bell curve distribution of performance. It never made sense since the company typically never hired anyone with a less then 3.5 GPA. One of the things it did do was provide an incentive to keep a real turkey around so he/she could be the bottom-10%-worker.
The new mayor may "Rock the Boat" for the UAW as well as the city staff...
Dave Bing is no Milton Friedman when it comes to economic solutions. He's praying for lots of federal aid to help the city pull out of its ditch, he wants to borrow against future tax revenues, and he hasn't ruled out tax increases "if they have a sunset" to pay the city's bills. He believes it's a core responsibility of government to help people.
Yet Mr. Bing is a realist, something Detroit hasn't had at the helm for a long time. "We've been paralyzed by a culture in the city of Detroit, and maybe the state of Michigan, of entitlement," by which he means ever-rising union wages. "Our people, I don't believe, truly understand how dire the situation is. There are ugly decisions that need to be made and I'm surely not going to be popular for making them. But I didn't take this job based on popularity."
One group that surely isn't a fan is the public employee unions. He grumbles that there are 17 unions with over 50 separate bargaining units. "I can give you a data sheet that will show you we've got several of those bargaining units with less than 100 people, and each one of them has a president that's paid by the city to negotiate against the city," he says. "Coming from the private sector, I find that insane."
Your statistics are probably why Boeing has outsourced so much of the 787 other than final assembly. In that way they push off the union problems to other manufacturers, and Boeing can compete for contracts with price.
I wonder if that could work for Ford or GM? Steadily reduce the amount of assembly work hours through buying more complete subassemblies? I'm sure the UAW would scream, but if Ford did that then they could become more profitable and help ensure their survival. Ford could deliver an engine design with specifications to a subcontractor and say "sell us 50K engines per year, fully assembled". Same for seats, transmissions, suspensions, etc.
He sounds like just what Detroit needs. I hope he has what it takes to really take on the public worker unions.
He reminds a little bit of Michelle Rhee, the superintendent of the Washington DC schools. She too, is finding that one of the biggest impediments to improving the schools is the teachers union.
Well, I think the creative improvements to drive down assembly costs to circumvent the UAW-related differentials with non-union competition will result in new production methods that should also increase quality to boot!
So my theory is that Ford is trying to jettison UAW jobs as fast as possible. Then if their sales pick up they can add back capacity in non-union locations (Mexico?). If they ever end up needing to go BK they can ditch the UAW and build plants in the Carolinas without unions!
Just like GM and C, they can't downsize fast enough to be a truly profitable business.
The old business model will take a loooonnnngggg time to unravel in order to reinvent a modern top-line firm. It will be interesting to see how many smartly take the payout...and then move to a RTW state and apply!
You are somewhere between 35 and 45 years old, give or take, and you can’t shake the feeling that things just aren’t adding up for you, your family, your generation.
The bosses and politicians in charge — many of whom are older than you — don’t talk about you much, even as your job bites the dust or you gripe about money in the cubicle next door.
You’re still so young, they say. (No hair dye yet.) You can reinvent yourself. (Presto, change-o!) You don’t even like job security. (You Pearl Jam-loving free spirit!) The real sad sacks, they say time and again, are the Baby Boomers. Don’t you read the papers? (You little brat.)
Well, to all 45 million of you sandwiched between the 80 million Boomers and their 88 million kids, I say this: You are not hallucinating. You are in trouble. And I have the facts right here.
You don’t read the papers, true. But they don’t talk much about you, and neither does TV news. Maybe an uncle, parent or co-worker would be a darling and share? A Facebook post also would do.
Because listen to this, Generation Xer:
If you are a man born between 1964 and 1974, you were earning 12 percent less in 2004 than your father was when he was your age three decades earlier, according to a study by the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Let’s attach a dollar figure to that — so that we truly register the generational grand larceny here.
Fathers were making $40,000 as thirtysomethings, compared to $35,000 for their Gen X sons. With help from an Inquirer colleague, I tabulated that Gen Xers lucky enough to continue making that meager $35,000 for the next 30 years without a single pay raise (but at a 2.2 percent annual inflation rate) will have pocketed $227,680 less than the dad who told them to believe in the American Dream.
And that was before the stock market crash of 2008.
In the immortal words of Sex Pistols front man Johnny Rotten (a Boomer, no less): “Don’t be told about what you need / No future, no future, no future for you.”
If you think I’m an alarmist, take comfort in the fact that Pew considered this finding “very disturbing,” too.
“This suggests the up-escalator that has historically ensured that each generation would do better than the last may not be working very well,” wrote authors Isabel V. Sawhill of the Brookings Institution and John E. Morton of Pew.
And yet, the May 2007 report got little coverage, despite its horror-show revelations. Scanning the print-news archives was like a trek through the desert.
In an interview last week, Morton said the finding was “surprising” because, among other things, the economy was doing pretty well during the three decades when Gen Xers became, in my words, Generation Hexed.
“This is a cohort of people who were selected because they were at their prime earnings years,” Morton said. “And yet, over a full 30-year period, they have double-digit declines in income.”
Think about it: $227,680 less in the bank at age 65. And for a generation of workers who, more than those before them, are saving for retirement mostly on their own because pensions are history, 401(k)s are scary, and houses still cost a ton.
Gains in the short run of higher-than-market wages and benefits, and greater job security, eventually undermine the companies employing unionized workers, destroying hundreds of thousands of union jobs in the long run (172,000 UAW jobs lost at GM alone). The more success a union has in the short-run, the greater the failure in the long run. The discipline of the market eventually dominates and prevails.
How many times does this have to happen before ALL JOBS MOVE OFF SHORE.
My wife and I are Gen X and we are doing well along with most of our friends and siblings. I can honestly say, 75% of our friends and siblings are more successful than our parents, primarily through more education. The $100k my wife and I spent on our educations has paid for itself several times over and we still have 20-30 more years to earn.
I wonder if the union's overpricing of labor has something to do with disappearing blue collar jobs that are most likely reflected in that report. Over price any product and see how quickly demand erodes. Labor is no different.
Fathers were making $40,000 as thirtysomethings, compared to $35,000 for their Gen X sons.
That's sexist, what about the women. They are more than catching up to men. Most of the women I know make more than their male counterparts. I personally know a dozen women or so in their 30's that make between $100k-400k/yr and most make more than their spouses. Looking at all our the couples we socialize with including friends, family, and coworkers, I'd guess 70% of the women make more than the men and their fathers. Both my wife and her sister make more than their father ever did as an iron worker in a steel mill and they are non-union no less.
"......I wonder if the union's overpricing of labor has something to do with disappearing blue collar jobs that are most likely reflected in that report. Over price any product and see how quickly demand erodes. Labor is no different. "
It's not so much that "overpricing" erodes demand of the jobs, as those jobs still exist, except they aren't here.
Look at sneakers, for example. Nike's are made in China, yet they STILL cost over $100 in many cases. The only people here benefitting from the Chinese labor are the executives, shareholders, and the athletes endorsing them.
New Balance moved their manufacturing overseas, and the consumer saw no change in price, just a loss of jobs. Not happy with the process, New balance is moving their manufacturing BACK to the USA. I was in an Olympia Sports store back in April looking for a pair of running shoes fpr my son for track. They had the SAME model New Balance shoe, one in red, one in black. One made in China, one made in the USA. Guess what?? SAME PRICE.
The better question is are Gen X women making more or less than their mother's generation did for the same type of work.
They are not doing the same type of work. They are becoming doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, engineers, software developers, business execs etc,. For the past several years more women are graduating from college than men.
My wife is a pharmacist and she is a district manager over about 100 pharmacists. 20+ years ago pharmacists were 75% male, now pharmacy grads coming out of school are nearly 70% female and my wife starts them (male or female) at $57/hr plus benefits, plus time and a half over 40 hours, plus a yearly bonus and tuition reimbursement. The only time a female Rx makes less than a male is if they decide to work part time.
I would agree that there are far more opportunities for women today. The question would be how does that $57/hr plus bennies compare to the same job 50 or 60 years ago. One would think that the woman would be better off today w/ the $57, as 60 years ago a woman may have had to settle for 20%, 30%, less than a man because that was a sign of the times in 1949. But overall, is the $57 more, less or the same as years ago?
Also, considering the meteoric rise in tuition, did you and your wife "pay a penalty" of extra thousands in tuition costs for your education, as opposed to what it would've cost 60 years ago?
But overall, is the $57 more, less or the same as years ago?
To my knowledge it's much higher today. When my wife graduated from RX school in 1997, she started out at about $29/hr, so it's almost doubled over the past 12 years. As for 60 years ago, I have no idea, but the job has changed a ton since then and requires quite a bit more education too.
One made in China, one made in the USA. Guess what?? SAME PRICE.
I'd guess the Chinese made shoe used more human labor vs. the U.S. shoe using more capital equipment and less labor. Cost may be equal but in the end the higher labor costs in the US equals less demand for labor from workers.
I've read a few articles indicating some manufacturing coming back to the america's vs china. Due to shipping costs, political and quality issues etc. Still any job that comes to the states is going to use any means necessary to improve productivity to compensate for higher wages. There is no free lunch. That usually means more machines and less workers.
Look at the steel mills. Labor productivity in the U.S. steel industry tripled between 1980 and 1998, from an industry-average of 10.1 man-hours per ton in 1980 to 3.2 man-hours per ton in 1998. Guess what that did to the jobs? 535k in 1979 down to about 150k as of 06. Steel production OTOH has remained around 85-100 million tons/yr or so, though over the past year it's way down.
Oil is approaching $80 a barrel again, although who knows what the long term trend is. But shipping cost has to be a factor in consumer good prices.
Now then, how about we try to skew this back to the UAW a bit more?
Merry Christmas honey:
"After years of membership and political support from the United Auto Workers, Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken is in the dog house with his union pals after giving a foreign-nameplate car to his wife for Christmas."
"After years of membership and political support from the United Auto Workers, Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken is in the dog house with his union pals after giving a foreign-nameplate car to his wife for Christmas."
LOL, This guy was a UAW official at one time! That's hilarious. But he is supporting Ohio, as the TL is made there. Hey, the wife wanted an Acura. She probably was sick of driving POS Chrysler products for the past 30 years. Who can blame her.
It is all part of the deterioration of the UAW. They will key a foreign car in their parking lots. So their reaction is on spot. If the UAW people were making a competitive car to the Acura TL they may not have lost another loyal buyer. The UAW workers need to look in the mirror to see who is at fault. Not continue to blame it on the competition.
I am a life long Union person. I would never buy another UAW built vehicle because of what they have done to the US auto industry. The sooner they are gone the better off America will be. Toyota is expanding their US operations, along with most of the Japanese, Korean and German automakers. They are creating jobs for people that are wanting to work for a living. Not eat donuts and drink coffee in a rubber room.
If you were to look at the drug store at any given time, you might be hard press to find a graduate from an RX school. The majority of their employees don't get what your wife gets. However, laws make CVS and Walgreens hire ONE here in Texas. However, I've seen a nurse there too. A nurse who is now writing prescriptions, doing flu shots, and whatever else allowed.
I suspect that your wife is the exception and not the rule in todays well paid female world. Even in the female world, she is more than likely in the top 5%, if not better. My oldest son has a friend/classmate who went that route. Its a longer time to graduation and appeals to some. In any case he will be in school years longer. People do compete to get into the top medical schools/programs and hence are compensated as such. Besides the fact that you have to have a math and science foundation, which weeds out all those business majors, to say the least. You just better make sure that she doesn't grow tired of you.
How many customers really ask a retail pharmacist any substantial question that isn't answered on the package insert, labels, or the internet? Darn few.
Retail pharmacists often get paid more than hospital pharmacists who must mix complex IVs and who deal with critically ill patients.
Retail pharmacists have low-paid techs do most of their work. And they do very little, if any, compounding anymore. They simply deal with the paperwork and billing and counting/matching pills. Computers tell them of drug interactions.
In the days of Apothecaries, I can understand the profession, but frankly, when we automate and digitize medical records more, the job will go by the wayside. I see no problem walking up to a Automated Counter, scanning my barcoded prescription ticket, the computer checking everything (much more comprehensively and faster than you ever can), and giving me my pills, instead of waiting around for somebody.
How many times does this have to happen before ALL JOBS MOVE OFF SHORE.
Perhaps you don't see the whole picture. Its not Americas fault that the emerging economies are way below substandard in wages and standard of living. After all they seek to sell product to our middle class. The very same unionized middle class which has made America the envy of the world. All the while these under developed have been on the wrong track. Chindia is nothing but a ghetto and no where nearly as evolved as America. Why would we seek to exploit the population of these substandard developing economies and ship them our jobs? Even the professionals and well educated have taken issue with this. If you think its just the UAW union folks, think again. One could see what IBM employees think about the relocation of their company. Just ask yourself, who is going to buy the products being made in Chindia? The American middle class is the greatest and biggest thing we made here in the USA. There will be no recovery without the American middle class. We would have to wait an eon to get the Chindia up to par as a consumer nations. This is why they don't have an illegal immigration problem. NO ONE WANTS TO LIVE AND OR WORK THERE, I REPEAT NO ONE.
John J 3/13/08 8:48 pm WAKE UP CORPORATE AMERICA!!! It is time to get organized and start a union. Not only an IBM union, but a corporate union. You have seen it many times before, one corporation cuts salaries and benefits, then the other corporations will follow. This is not new news, it has been happening for many years. Get off your butts and join forces. Stop letting upper management say there is no money for raises, and then give them selves at least 10% increases year after year. I propose that if one corporation does something like reduce salaries and cuts benefits, you all band together as a corporate union member and say, we will not take this any longer, due to your cuts we are all taking Fridays off until you fix the cuts. If this doesn’t work take Friday and Monday off. You may say you are too afraid to be so bold. You cannot do this because you will get fired, well face the facts, your jobs are all but gone already. Take it from a one and two performer for 23 years with IBM, that will be the best thing to happen to you in the past 5 years. Try to return the favor to the corporate machine, take the time off so they can feel some of the pain, pain they are dishing out to the hard corporate workers. Again I say, WAKE UP CORPORATE AMERICA!!!
Toyota is expanding their US operations, along with most of the Japanese, Korean and German automakers. They are creating jobs for people that are wanting to work for a living.
asking the Japanese government for a $2 billion loan
Will we see outrage among Japanese voters and some media as a company hoarding $20 billion in cash asks for government money? My guess is no. The Japanese government and Central Bank have a long history of intervening on behalf of their home companies. The Central Bank has kept the yen weak for years to boost exports of cars, electronic goods and other items to the U.S. So loaning a few billion bob to Toyota won’t raise a hackle in Japan.
Here in the states, however, loaning to U.S. automakers sparks some outrage. This is despite the fact that state governments have showered foreign carmakers with hundreds of millions in tax incentives. I understand the argument. Toyota performs year in, year out. The U.S. car companies have been stumbling for decades
Quite sad for our country...I go to Germany and see the roads filled with Audi's BMW's and Mercedes...proud of their automobile industry, yet we spit in the face of ours. Apparently we have to lose all those jobs (and supplier jobs) before we understand the value of it.
Dukester March 4, 2009 03:38 PM These foreign automakers are parasites feeding off the US. Especially the Japanese companies.For years their governments have manipulated their currancies to their advantage.Enough is enough.
>"Toyota spends huge sums of money promoting the idea that they 'support' 368,000 U.S. jobs," Doyle says, "but those include supplier, dealership and other peripheral jobs. Using the same multiplier, GM supports 1.9 million U.S. jobs and Ford 1.2 million. Toyota also says it builds here most of the vehicles it sells here. That may be its eventual intent, but Automotive News reported that 48 percent of the vehicles Toyota sold here in 2006 were imported.
What they did not see, or chose to ignore, is that "creation" of a few thousand plant jobs here and there would eventually destroy many more and better jobs elsewhere. So while some (mostly southern) states continue to battle each other with big incentives to attract new foreign-maker plants to gain two or three thousand jobs, other (mostly northern) states lose tens of thousands. While import companies will "create" about 3000 U.S. jobs in 2007, raising their total to 106,000, U.S. automakers will lose nearly 43,000 this year, falling to about 378,000, according to Jim Doyle, president of the Washington, DC-based Level Field Institute, which tracks and reports auto-company U.S. employment.
I've read a few articles indicating some manufacturing coming back to the america's vs china.
I think that has more to do with the weak dollar than anything else. If you travel overseas those vacations/business trips are quite a bit more. However, the tourist coming here, will do much better as the foriegn currency will buy more.
Then too, you need to come to grips with the fact that we are still the number one manufacturing nation on the planet. Most folks don't even realize how much bigger we are in comparison to the other nations. The macro-economics are somewhat interesting to interpret, if not more.
The world's top manufacturing country is the United States, as has been the case since before WWII. In 2007, the United States' manufacturing output was $1.831 trillion US Dollars (USD). This is about 12% of the USA's entire GDP (Gross Domestic Product), or $12,206 USD for every person in the 150 million-strong labor force. Still, the USA's output per capita is not the world's greatest among manufacturing countries -- that honor goes to Japan. Important goods manufactured in the United States include, in order of percentage of exports in 2007: production machinery and equipment, 31.4%; industrial supplies, 27.5%; non-auto consumer goods, 12.7%; motor vehicles and parts, 10.5%; aircraft and parts, 7.6%; food, feed and beverages, and 7.3%; and other, 3.0%.
In 2007, the top manufacturing countries besides the United States were China ($1,106 billion USD), Japan ($926 billion USD), Germany ($670 billion USD), the Russian Federation ($362 billion USD), Italy ($345 billion USD), the United Kingdom ($342 billion USD), France ($296 billion USD), South Korea ($241 billion USD), Canada ($218 billion USD), Spain ($208 billion USD), and Brazil ($206 billion USD). There is also a general correlation between how much a country manufactures and its total GDP. Depending on the percentage of their total economy taken up by manufacturing, a country's economic and political leaders may wish to take steps to adjust accordingly. For instance, the USA has been losing substantial ground to China in recent decades, meaning that US political leaders have an interest in increasing the total percentage of the country's GDP dominated by manufacturing.
Of all the leading manufacturing countries, the one that is growing the fastest economically is China. China's GDP grew by 22.59% in 2007, which was among the greatest GDP growth out of any country, made all the more impressive by China's huge size (over 1.1 billion people). The leaders of China wish to reclaim China's position as the world's #1 manufacturer by 2020, and have engaged in an ambitious industrialization program to do so. Because much of China is still un-industrialized, China has considerable room for improvement, while the leader of manufacturing countries, the United States, is already completely industrialized. China was once before the world's leading manufacturer -- way back in 1830, the country was responsible for 30% of the global industrial output.
Whats the thoughts on the Cadillac plan tax on the national health insurance policies? Why were they named/coined Cadillac? Why didn't they coin them Toyota/Lexus plan? If these plans come from years of negotiations and hence are trade offs for compensation, will they be carved down, as to appear more frugal? Will the savings be applied to the UAW negotiated wages?
Comments
2 - The unions kill US competitiveness, as overseas companies don't have the same boat anchors around their necks. In some cases there are unions there, too, but they are not so militant.
From this week's Aviation Week and Space Technology, an article entitled "Unions Need Not Apply" talks about Boeing's new Charleston, SC plant (non-union) under construction, and the subassemblies of the 787 that will be shipped to SC:
"Boeing is scouting beyond the unionized Seattle area for second sources for the 787's vertical stabilizer and other assemblies in an attempt to guarantee a steady supplier base for the final assembly line.....
....the alternate-sourcing move is not aimed at specific assemblies per se. It is designed to preclude strikes, such as Local 751's two-month walkout last year...
...the expense of setting up the Charleston facility is estimated at $750 million to $1.5 billion. Even at the high end, that is less than half of what insiders say the strike [last year] cost Boeing."
We should be thankful that Boeing at least is keeping those jobs in the United States. I'm sure iluv will have some thoughts on this...
Let's go back to 1998:
That's the real travesty of the strike.
Sept, 1998 by Jim Harbour
Compared with Chrysler and Ford, GM has by far the worst overall relations with the UAW and its hourly workforce. This was caused by GM failing to address its non-competitiveness during the 1980s, as Chrysler and Ford did. Consequently, it is paying the price of that inaction. The giant automaker is seen as always cutting its hourly and salary workforce during periods of prosperity.
For GM -- the world's highest-cost, least efficient automaker -- the key issue is the dire need to get competitive in cost and productivity with the rest of the industry. That, of course, conflicts directly with the union's sworn mission to maintain, and create, jobs for the next generation of autoworkers.
Well the UAW has certainly failed at that goal.
We also have a shutdown over Christmas that requires you to use 2-4 days of vacation, depending on when the holidays fall. Even with that, I am always running across people who's last day of work for the year is Dec. 12 or earlier because they have 2 or more weeks of vacation to use or lose.
They do make exceptions for business reasons and sometimes will pay you for unused vacation time, but it takes something like a VP's signature to make that happen. I don't believe it's very widespread.
This is for non-represented (professional) workers - not sure what the unionized folks have.
Did boeing move its headquarters to Chicago?
http://www.boeing.com/history/narrative/n095boe.html
I'm talking big shows, like machine tools show/SME. The Machine tool show is a yearly event in Chicago. Is there some place bigger than McCormick Place?
http://www.mccormickplace.com/photo_gallery.html
Unions have no clue about surviving, though they say the do.
Regards,
OW
I don't think so, that place is unbelievably huge, something like 2.2 million square feet. IIRC McCormick is 1, Orlando 2, and Vegas 3.
Union Jurisdiction
Dallas Area Union Guidelines
We are certain you will appreciate knowing in advance that Union Labor may be required for certain aspects of your exhibit handling. To help you understand the jurisdiction the various unions have, we ask that you read the following:
Teamster Labor: Teamsters have jurisdiction for all material handling within the boundaries of the convention facility. They unload all trucks or vehicles, deliver the material to your booth and remove and reload materials at the close of the show.
Exhibitors may unload their own vehicles provided they do not use any material handling equipment such as forklifts, palletjacks, flatbeds, dollies, etc.
Installation and Dismantle Labor: Display personnel will provide labor for display installation and dismantling. Full-time employees of the exhibiting companies, however, may set their own exhibits without assistance from this union. Any labor services that may be required beyond what your regular full-time employees can provide must be rendered by union labor. Labor can be ordered in advance by returning the Labor Order form found on the Show Checklist in this manual or on show-site at the TradeshowLogistics Exhibitor Care Center.
Hanging Signs: Hanging signs and graphics are permitted in all standard Island Booths, to a maximum height of sixteen feet (16') from the floor to the top of the sign. Whether suspended from above or supported from below, they must comply with all ordinary use-of-space requirements (for example, the highest point of any sign must not exceed the maximum allowable height for the booth type). Hanging Signs and Graphics should be set back ten feet (10') from adjacent booths. All Hanging signs must be approved by TradeshowLogistics by Friday May 9, 2008 and include drawings for inspection. All assembly, rigging and sign/truss hanging must be performed by the Official Contractor.
Electrical Labor: Responsible for assembly, installation and dismantle of anything that uses electricity as a source of power. This includes wiring, hookups, inter-connections, electrical signs, videotaping, and camera operations, including audio and lighting, and TV and VCR connections.
Plumbing: Responsible for all plumbing supplies: air, water, waste, gas lines, tanks, and venting.
Booth Cleaning & Porter Service: TradeshowLogistics has been selected by Show Management to serve as your official contractor for this show. In that respect, TradeshowLogistics has jurisdiction over all booth cleaning and porter service. Exhibitors and/or Exhibitor Appointed Contractors (EACs) are NOT PERMITTED to have vacuum cleaners or any floor cleaning equipment on the show floor unless it is the property of the official service contractor and is operated by a person or employee appointed by the official service contractor . For your convenience, a Booth Cleaning form has been included in this service manual.
If you encounter any difficulty with any laborer, or if you are not satisfied with the work performed, please bring this to the attention of TradeshowLogistics. Please refrain from voicing complaints directly to craft personnel.
The person in charge of your exhibit should inspect it carefully and sign all Work Order forms. If there are any questions about any bills, bring the bill to the Exhibitor Care Center and discuss it with a TradeshowLogistics representative.
It's business as usual on Wall Street. The bailed-out banks are raking in cash again, the stock market's starting to froth nicely, and juicy bonuses are in the offing for the privileged few lucky enough to be on the inside. Granted, there's fewer of the few than there was two years ago. But little else appears to have has changed. Regulation? We don't need no stinkin' regulation...
The UAW rank-and-file clearly think it's business as usual in Detroit, too. Okay, both GM and Chrysler are on taxpayer-funded life support, mere shells of their former selves. But bail-out refusnik Ford seems to be doing okay. A no-strike clause in the contract with Ford? We don't need no stinkin' no-strike clause...
The only problem is it's anything but business as usual in Detroit, even at Ford. The Blue Oval might have had some encouraging financial results lately, but the company is mortgaged to the hilt, and hanging on by its fingernails. That it's doing better than GM or Chrysler right now only means it's the healthiest guy in intensive care.
Ford says it needs concessions from the UAW similar to those secured by GM and Chrysler earlier this year to ensure it doesn't have a labor-cost disadvantage against the two bailed-out automakers. With the economy still fragile, and demand for new cars and trucks still running way below the level it was a couple of years back, Ford's request makes sense. Except, it seems, to a significant majority of Ford's UAW members.
Clearly these guys have learned nothing from what's happened to their industry -- to America -- over the past 18 months. There's still the same old sense of entitlement, the same distorted sense of reality that made the UAW complicit with inept management and poor government regulation in driving the once mighty American auto industry into the ground.
Maybe it's too much to expect any different. After all, the financial sector is already starting to behave as if last year's catastrophic economic meltdown was nothing more than an unfortunate Act of God. So why shouldn't a bunch of Ford line workers feel the same way? Crisis? What crisis? Not our fault, buddy.
Having the gall to throw stones at Americans buying foreign cars that are better? The UAW should look deeply into the mirror and change course....or most of their jobs will go away....forever.
Regards,
OW
OW
Now you see what we deal with
Wow, that really hit home as we just went through year end appraisal time. That's the GE style of people management where they're always churning the bottom 10% of the employee work force. Even if any of the bottom 10% are decent employees, they still turn them over. It's brutal. My manager was told by some bean counter in HR that there weren't enough "basic contributors" (the bottom 10%), and he had to pick someone.
According to this style of people mgmt, there is the top 10%, the next 40%, the next 40%, and then the bottom 10%. In the event of layoffs, it's the bottom 10% that go. I hate it because it's a huge disincentive to get promoted because if you're in the upper 40% bracket before the promotion, you will then be in the lower 40% bracket after the promotion and if you get on the wrong side of your manager, you could easily end up in the bottom 10%.
Luckily I've always been in the top 10% or the upper 40% bracket.
....the alternate-sourcing move is not aimed at specific assemblies per se. It is designed to preclude strikes, such as Local 751's two-month walkout last year...
...the expense of setting up the Charleston facility is estimated at $750 million to $1.5 billion. Even at the high end, that is less than half of what insiders say the strike [last year] cost Boeing."
We should be thankful that Boeing at least is keeping those jobs in the United States. I'm sure iluv will have some thoughts on this...
Well, I am actually proud of the Starbuck's swilling, raspberry jelly donut munching set of Boeing managers who decided to put the 787 Dreamliner's 2nd production line in South Carolina. Now, it is unclear to me about something in your article. I think that the production crew for the 2nd production line are non-union. Just the people building the new Boeing line buildings. But the Boeing personnel that will assemble the Dreamliner by all IAM/SPEEA Union rights will be Union-represented. I would be shocked if they had the kahuna's to fully pull the rug out underneath the IAM and SPEEA and went non-union for the 787 assembly/production/engineering personnel.
Having commented on that I am thinking that Boeing is pulling a smart move to pull some production out of the spoiled Seattle/Puget Sound area Boeing megamopoly. It's the strikes, similar to the GM 1998 strike, that can kill Boeing. They are already some 27 months late on delivering the first Dreamliner and a strike anytime in the next 12 months would really hurt Boeing at this point.
Makes some good aerospace sense to me although it's gonna really piss off the Puget Soundians big-time. Not that that's a bad thing, as I sip my SE Arizona margarita from here in the desert. Have at it boys!
Hopefully Christine Gregoire and some of the other Washington politicians can start working on restoring NBA basketball to Seattle. That was a full farce if I've even seen a sports farce. Don't even mention the thug ref's in Super Bowl 40 Seattle vs. the Pittsburgh Stealers. :sick:
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Boeing 2008 net profit $2.67 billion with 157,555 employees
AirBus 2008 net profit $2.29 billion with only 57,000 employees
Looks to me like Boeing needs to cut about 85,000 employees to be competitive in the business of building airplanes. How many are union members wanting to strike on a moments notice?
I think Ford had a similar evaluation plan in place maybe 20-25 years ago, though can't say for sure.
My company tried something like that a number of years ago, but it didn't last long. Every group with a supervisor (first line manager) managing it, come evaluation time, had to show an approximate bell curve distribution of performance. It never made sense since the company typically never hired anyone with a less then 3.5 GPA. One of the things it did do was provide an incentive to keep a real turkey around so he/she could be the bottom-10%-worker.
Dave Bing is no Milton Friedman when it comes to economic solutions. He's praying for lots of federal aid to help the city pull out of its ditch, he wants to borrow against future tax revenues, and he hasn't ruled out tax increases "if they have a sunset" to pay the city's bills. He believes it's a core responsibility of government to help people.
Yet Mr. Bing is a realist, something Detroit hasn't had at the helm for a long time. "We've been paralyzed by a culture in the city of Detroit, and maybe the state of Michigan, of entitlement," by which he means ever-rising union wages. "Our people, I don't believe, truly understand how dire the situation is. There are ugly decisions that need to be made and I'm surely not going to be popular for making them. But I didn't take this job based on popularity."
One group that surely isn't a fan is the public employee unions. He grumbles that there are 17 unions with over 50 separate bargaining units. "I can give you a data sheet that will show you we've got several of those bargaining units with less than 100 people, and each one of them has a president that's paid by the city to negotiate against the city," he says. "Coming from the private sector, I find that insane."
union employee benefits cost 68% of what their base wage is
I wonder if that could work for Ford or GM? Steadily reduce the amount of assembly work hours through buying more complete subassemblies? I'm sure the UAW would scream, but if Ford did that then they could become more profitable and help ensure their survival. Ford could deliver an engine design with specifications to a subcontractor and say "sell us 50K engines per year, fully assembled". Same for seats, transmissions, suspensions, etc.
He reminds a little bit of Michelle Rhee, the superintendent of the Washington DC schools. She too, is finding that one of the biggest impediments to improving the schools is the teachers union.
But, besides Archer, the only hope Detroit has had for as long as I can remember.
come to think of it, if you have to re-structure the whole workflow because of unions - how can you be competitive?
Regards,
OW
So my theory is that Ford is trying to jettison UAW jobs as fast as possible. Then if their sales pick up they can add back capacity in non-union locations (Mexico?). If they ever end up needing to go BK they can ditch the UAW and build plants in the Carolinas without unions!
The old business model will take a loooonnnngggg time to unravel in order to reinvent a modern top-line firm. It will be interesting to see how many smartly take the payout...and then move to a RTW state and apply!
Regards,
OW
ROTFLMAO!
Vexed Generation X, Going for Broke
You are somewhere between 35 and 45 years old, give or take, and you can’t shake the feeling that things just aren’t adding up for you, your family, your generation.
The bosses and politicians in charge — many of whom are older than you — don’t talk about you much, even as your job bites the dust or you gripe about money in the cubicle next door.
You’re still so young, they say. (No hair dye yet.) You can reinvent yourself. (Presto, change-o!) You don’t even like job security. (You Pearl Jam-loving free spirit!) The real sad sacks, they say time and again, are the Baby Boomers. Don’t you read the papers? (You little brat.)
Well, to all 45 million of you sandwiched between the 80 million Boomers and their 88 million kids, I say this:
You are not hallucinating. You are in trouble. And I have the facts right here.
You don’t read the papers, true. But they don’t talk much about you, and neither does TV news. Maybe an uncle, parent or co-worker would be a darling and share? A Facebook post also would do.
Because listen to this, Generation Xer:
If you are a man born between 1964 and 1974, you were earning 12 percent less in 2004 than your father was when he was your age three decades earlier, according to a study by the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Let’s attach a dollar figure to that — so that we truly register the generational grand larceny here.
Fathers were making $40,000 as thirtysomethings, compared to $35,000 for their Gen X sons. With help from an Inquirer colleague, I tabulated that Gen Xers lucky enough to continue making that meager $35,000 for the next 30 years without a single pay raise (but at a 2.2 percent annual inflation rate) will have pocketed $227,680 less than the dad who told them to believe in the American Dream.
And that was before the stock market crash of 2008.
In the immortal words of Sex Pistols front man Johnny Rotten (a Boomer, no less): “Don’t be told about what you need / No future, no future, no future for you.”
If you think I’m an alarmist, take comfort in the fact that Pew considered this finding “very disturbing,” too.
“This suggests the up-escalator that has historically ensured that each generation would do better than the last may not be working very well,” wrote authors Isabel V. Sawhill of the Brookings Institution and John E. Morton of Pew.
And yet, the May 2007 report got little coverage, despite its horror-show revelations. Scanning the print-news archives was like a trek through the desert.
In an interview last week, Morton said the finding was “surprising” because, among other things, the economy was doing pretty well during the three decades when Gen Xers became, in my words, Generation Hexed.
“This is a cohort of people who were selected because they were at their prime earnings years,” Morton said. “And yet, over a full 30-year period, they have double-digit declines in income.”
Think about it: $227,680 less in the bank at age 65. And for a generation of workers who, more than those before them, are saving for retirement mostly on their own because pensions are history, 401(k)s are scary, and houses still cost a ton.
Uncool.
Gains in the short run of higher-than-market wages and benefits, and greater job security, eventually undermine the companies employing unionized workers, destroying hundreds of thousands of union jobs in the long run (172,000 UAW jobs lost at GM alone). The more success a union has in the short-run, the greater the failure in the long run. The discipline of the market eventually dominates and prevails.
How many times does this have to happen before ALL JOBS MOVE OFF SHORE.
WAKE UP!
Regards,
OW
Regards,
OW
I wonder if the union's overpricing of labor has something to do with disappearing blue collar jobs that are most likely reflected in that report. Over price any product and see how quickly demand erodes. Labor is no different.
That's sexist, what about the women. They are more than catching up to men. Most of the women I know make more than their male counterparts. I personally know a dozen women or so in their 30's that make between $100k-400k/yr and most make more than their spouses. Looking at all our the couples we socialize with including friends, family, and coworkers, I'd guess 70% of the women make more than the men and their fathers. Both my wife and her sister make more than their father ever did as an iron worker in a steel mill and they are non-union no less.
It's not so much that "overpricing" erodes demand of the jobs, as those jobs still exist, except they aren't here.
Look at sneakers, for example. Nike's are made in China, yet they STILL cost over $100 in many cases. The only people here benefitting from the Chinese labor are the executives, shareholders, and the athletes endorsing them.
New Balance moved their manufacturing overseas, and the consumer saw no change in price, just a loss of jobs. Not happy with the process, New balance is moving their manufacturing BACK to the USA. I was in an Olympia Sports store back in April looking for a pair of running shoes fpr my son for track. They had the SAME model New Balance shoe, one in red, one in black. One made in China, one made in the USA. Guess what?? SAME PRICE.
Not necessarily so. The better question is are Gen X women making more or less than their mother's generation did for the same type of work.
They are not doing the same type of work. They are becoming doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, engineers, software developers, business execs etc,. For the past several years more women are graduating from college than men.
My wife is a pharmacist and she is a district manager over about 100 pharmacists. 20+ years ago pharmacists were 75% male, now pharmacy grads coming out of school are nearly 70% female and my wife starts them (male or female) at $57/hr plus benefits, plus time and a half over 40 hours, plus a yearly bonus and tuition reimbursement. The only time a female Rx makes less than a male is if they decide to work part time.
I would agree that there are far more opportunities for women today. The question would be how does that $57/hr plus bennies compare to the same job 50 or 60 years ago. One would think that the woman would be better off today w/ the $57, as 60 years ago a woman may have had to settle for 20%, 30%, less than a man because that was a sign of the times in 1949. But overall, is the $57 more, less or the same as years ago?
Also, considering the meteoric rise in tuition, did you and your wife "pay a penalty" of extra thousands in tuition costs for your education, as opposed to what it would've cost 60 years ago?
To my knowledge it's much higher today. When my wife graduated from RX school in 1997, she started out at about $29/hr, so it's almost doubled over the past 12 years. As for 60 years ago, I have no idea, but the job has changed a ton since then and requires quite a bit more education too.
I'd guess the Chinese made shoe used more human labor vs. the U.S. shoe using more capital equipment and less labor. Cost may be equal but in the end the higher labor costs in the US equals less demand for labor from workers.
I've read a few articles indicating some manufacturing coming back to the america's vs china. Due to shipping costs, political and quality issues etc. Still any job that comes to the states is going to use any means necessary to improve productivity to compensate for higher wages. There is no free lunch. That usually means more machines and less workers.
Look at the steel mills. Labor productivity in the U.S. steel industry tripled between 1980 and 1998, from an industry-average of 10.1 man-hours per ton in 1980 to 3.2 man-hours per ton in 1998. Guess what that did to the jobs? 535k in 1979 down to about 150k as of 06. Steel production OTOH has remained around 85-100 million tons/yr or so, though over the past year it's way down.
Now then, how about we try to skew this back to the UAW a bit more?
Merry Christmas honey:
"After years of membership and political support from the United Auto Workers, Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken is in the dog house with his union pals after giving a foreign-nameplate car to his wife for Christmas."
Gerken draws fire for lease of foreign-nameplate car (Toledo Blade)
LOL, This guy was a UAW official at one time! That's hilarious. But he is supporting Ohio, as the TL is made there. Hey, the wife wanted an Acura. She probably was sick of driving POS Chrysler products for the past 30 years. Who can blame her.
(Probably more accurate to say union assembled on the Ford line; the drivetrain is Nissan but lots of the other bits are all Ford).
You'd think he'd at least have registered it in her name....
I am a life long Union person. I would never buy another UAW built vehicle because of what they have done to the US auto industry. The sooner they are gone the better off America will be. Toyota is expanding their US operations, along with most of the Japanese, Korean and German automakers. They are creating jobs for people that are wanting to work for a living. Not eat donuts and drink coffee in a rubber room.
You say that like it's a bad thing! It's what a good union worker aspires to!
If you were to look at the drug store at any given time, you might be hard press to find a graduate from an RX school. The majority of their employees don't get what your wife gets. However, laws make CVS and Walgreens hire ONE here in Texas. However, I've seen a nurse there too. A nurse who is now writing prescriptions, doing flu shots, and whatever else allowed.
I suspect that your wife is the exception and not the rule in todays well paid female world. Even in the female world, she is more than likely in the top 5%, if not better. My oldest son has a friend/classmate who went that route. Its a longer time to graduation and appeals to some. In any case he will be in school years longer. People do compete to get into the top medical schools/programs and hence are compensated as such. Besides the fact that you have to have a math and science foundation, which weeds out all those business majors, to say the least. You just better make sure that she doesn't grow tired of you.
http://www.engineersalary.com/overpaid.asp
How many customers really ask a retail pharmacist any substantial question that isn't answered on the package insert, labels, or the internet?
Darn few.
Retail pharmacists often get paid more than hospital pharmacists who must mix complex IVs and who deal with critically ill patients.
Retail pharmacists have low-paid techs do most of their work. And they do very little, if any, compounding anymore. They simply deal with the paperwork and billing and counting/matching pills. Computers tell them of drug interactions.
In the days of Apothecaries, I can understand the profession, but frankly, when we automate and digitize medical records more, the job will go by the wayside. I see no problem walking up to a Automated Counter, scanning my barcoded prescription ticket, the computer checking everything (much more comprehensively and faster than you ever can), and giving me my pills, instead of waiting around for somebody.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/05/expharmacist_eric_cropp_found.html
http://www.jimplagakis.com/?p=2172
http://digg.com/health/13_Things_Your_Pharmacist_Won_t_Tell_You
Perhaps you don't see the whole picture. Its not Americas fault that the emerging economies are way below substandard in wages and standard of living. After all they seek to sell product to our middle class. The very same unionized middle class which has made America the envy of the world. All the while these under developed have been on the wrong track. Chindia is nothing but a ghetto and no where nearly as evolved as America. Why would we seek to exploit the population of these substandard developing economies and ship them our jobs? Even the professionals and well educated have taken issue with this. If you think its just the UAW union folks, think again. One could see what IBM employees think about the relocation of their company. Just ask yourself, who is going to buy the products being made in Chindia? The American middle class is the greatest and biggest thing we made here in the USA. There will be no recovery without the American middle class. We would have to wait an eon to get the Chindia up to par as a consumer nations. This is why they don't have an illegal immigration problem. NO ONE WANTS TO LIVE AND OR WORK THERE, I REPEAT NO ONE.
Cheers,
UAW
http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/01/news/economy/outsourcing_solutions/index.htm
http://www.sdtimes.com/link/30781
http://www.xconomy.com/2008/02/07/ibm-counters-suggestion-in-economic-report-tha- - t-its-sending-massachusetts-jobs-offshore/
John J 3/13/08 8:48 pm
WAKE UP CORPORATE AMERICA!!! It is time to get organized and start a union. Not only an IBM union, but a corporate union. You have seen it many times before, one corporation cuts salaries and benefits, then the other corporations will follow. This is not new news, it has been happening for many years. Get off your butts and join forces. Stop letting upper management say there is no money for raises, and then give them selves at least 10% increases year after year. I propose that if one corporation does something like reduce salaries and cuts benefits, you all band together as a corporate union member and say, we will not take this any longer, due to your cuts we are all taking Fridays off until you fix the cuts. If this doesn’t work take Friday and Monday off. You may say you are too afraid to be so bold. You cannot do this because you will get fired, well face the facts, your jobs are all but gone already. Take it from a one and two performer for 23 years with IBM, that will be the best thing to happen to you in the past 5 years. Try to return the favor to the corporate machine, take the time off so they can feel some of the pain, pain they are dishing out to the hard corporate workers. Again I say, WAKE UP CORPORATE AMERICA!!!
asking the Japanese government for a $2 billion loan
Will we see outrage among Japanese voters and some media as a company hoarding $20 billion in cash asks for government money? My guess is no. The Japanese government and Central Bank have a long history of intervening on behalf of their home companies. The Central Bank has kept the yen weak for years to boost exports of cars, electronic goods and other items to the U.S. So loaning a few billion bob to Toyota won’t raise a hackle in Japan.
Here in the states, however, loaning to U.S. automakers sparks some outrage. This is despite the fact that state governments have showered foreign carmakers with hundreds of millions in tax incentives. I understand the argument. Toyota performs year in, year out. The U.S. car companies have been stumbling for decades
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/autobeat/archives/2009/03/toyota_wants_a.html
Quite sad for our country...I go to Germany and see the roads filled with Audi's BMW's and Mercedes...proud of their automobile industry, yet we spit in the face of ours. Apparently we have to lose all those jobs (and supplier jobs) before we understand the value of it.
Dukester
March 4, 2009 03:38 PM
These foreign automakers are parasites feeding off the US. Especially the Japanese companies.For years their governments have manipulated their currancies to their advantage.Enough is enough.
What they did not see, or chose to ignore, is that "creation" of a few thousand plant jobs here and there would eventually destroy many more and better jobs elsewhere. So while some (mostly southern) states continue to battle each other with big incentives to attract new foreign-maker plants to gain two or three thousand jobs, other (mostly northern) states lose tens of thousands. While import companies will "create" about 3000 U.S. jobs in 2007, raising their total to 106,000, U.S. automakers will lose nearly 43,000 this year, falling to about 378,000, according to Jim Doyle, president of the Washington, DC-based Level Field Institute, which tracks and reports auto-company U.S. employment.
http://www.overthehillcarpeople.com/why_we_should_buy_vehicles_from.htm
I think that has more to do with the weak dollar than anything else. If you travel overseas those vacations/business trips are quite a bit more. However, the tourist coming here, will do much better as the foriegn currency will buy more.
Then too, you need to come to grips with the fact that we are still the number one manufacturing nation on the planet. Most folks don't even realize how much bigger we are in comparison to the other nations. The macro-economics are somewhat interesting to interpret, if not more.
The world's top manufacturing country is the United States, as has been the case since before WWII. In 2007, the United States' manufacturing output was $1.831 trillion US Dollars (USD). This is about 12% of the USA's entire GDP (Gross Domestic Product), or $12,206 USD for every person in the 150 million-strong labor force. Still, the USA's output per capita is not the world's greatest among manufacturing countries -- that honor goes to Japan. Important goods manufactured in the United States include, in order of percentage of exports in 2007: production machinery and equipment, 31.4%; industrial supplies, 27.5%; non-auto consumer goods, 12.7%; motor vehicles and parts, 10.5%; aircraft and parts, 7.6%; food, feed and beverages, and 7.3%; and other, 3.0%.
In 2007, the top manufacturing countries besides the United States were China ($1,106 billion USD), Japan ($926 billion USD), Germany ($670 billion USD), the Russian Federation ($362 billion USD), Italy ($345 billion USD), the United Kingdom ($342 billion USD), France ($296 billion USD), South Korea ($241 billion USD), Canada ($218 billion USD), Spain ($208 billion USD), and Brazil ($206 billion USD). There is also a general correlation between how much a country manufactures and its total GDP. Depending on the percentage of their total economy taken up by manufacturing, a country's economic and political leaders may wish to take steps to adjust accordingly. For instance, the USA has been losing substantial ground to China in recent decades, meaning that US political leaders have an interest in increasing the total percentage of the country's GDP dominated by manufacturing.
Of all the leading manufacturing countries, the one that is growing the fastest economically is China. China's GDP grew by 22.59% in 2007, which was among the greatest GDP growth out of any country, made all the more impressive by China's huge size (over 1.1 billion people). The leaders of China wish to reclaim China's position as the world's #1 manufacturer by 2020, and have engaged in an ambitious industrialization program to do so. Because much of China is still un-industrialized, China has considerable room for improvement, while the leader of manufacturing countries, the United States, is already completely industrialized. China was once before the world's leading manufacturer -- way back in 1830, the country was responsible for 30% of the global industrial output.