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Comments
Not me. I bought my son a Fiat Spyder. I cannot tell you how many $1000s I spent keeping that POC Found In A Toilet running. I was not too excited when the Feds gave Fiat Chrysler. So far he has not been the same disaster my experience was. It was a 1970s model And even in the mid 1980s parts were only available at one specialty wrecking yard. I shudder thinking about it.
It ends with Italians All Together.
Not quite everyone. Owned a Fiat 128-SL back in the mid 70's. Sure, I'll testify.
It's that corrupt system that destroys the middle class that's allowed you to get there!
Wall St. is back to its old habits it seems. The lobbyists gutted all the new regulations. Stay tuned.
Was it Fiat or some other company that made the cute little sports car, the X-1/9?
Did it have a tendency to burst into flames, or is my memory failing me....again???
Famous "flamers" that I recall were most Lotuses of the period and the Jaguar XJ-12 sedans.
Well if all former Fiat owners are not, in fact, dead, they are probably too old to care.
I don't expect a stampede for Chrysler stock.
philax5owner, "BMW X5" #1504, 27 Feb 2012 9:16 am
As I said before, analysts value the company at $10-12 billion. FIAT is low balling the union.
IMHO, this will never reach an actual IPO because FIAT needs Chrysler in order to support their European business and the expansion of the FIAT and Alfa brands into North America.
If someone said you owned 40% of a $100 bill, would you accept $32 for it?
It would depend on how much I needed the cash. The UAW needs cash. Their 41.5% is only worth what someone is willing to give them for it. And I understand their wanting to give the IPO route a whirl. What happens as has happened so many times on a new IPO, and it comes right as the market goes into a down slide? There are very knowledgeable people that think the market is due for a large correction when the Fed quits fueling it. I don't see where discounting is all that uncommon. You may have a house worth $500k in a good market. If you are wanting to sell you may take $450k cash. I think the UAW has got themselves in a big pickle with VEBA. Smart Unions like our Teamsters, dumped the lifetime HC benefit over 20 years ago. They could see it was not sustainable and would soon deplete the pension fund. I would split the difference with Fiat and get out of the auto business.
And many IPO's are done on a upturn. It's all a big gamble anyway.
You may have a house worth $500k in a good market. If you are wanting to sell you may take $450k cash.
You may but you don't have to.
I would split the difference with Fiat and get out of the auto business.
That's what they want to do - just not at a 25% discount.
The fund also wants to diversify it's holdings. They also hold a $4.4 billion Chrysler note that isn't due until 2023. They hold too much Chrysler.
As I've said a couple of times, IMHO it'll never reach a public sale. Marchionne is afraid of having to buy Chrysler stock on the open market and afraid of having FIAT collapse (and be out of a job)....
Over the past week a group of workers opposed to union representation collected signatures on anti-UAW petitions from 563 colleagues, according to Mike Burton, a paint inspector at the factory who is working to counter the UAW's organizing efforts."
VW Workers Submit Anti-UAW Petition to Management (WSJ)
IMHO, it's the anti-union side that is going to have a harder time of it.
The UAW in Mississippi is hoping that the workers will see it that way, even though the temps can't vote.
"Many pro-union workers complain that the company does not listen to workers as much as they would like and puts injured workers back on the line too soon. Many are upset that their wages were frozen for five years and that the plant has hired hundreds of temporary workers, many of them starting around $12 an hour. Many experienced workers complain that they are relegated to night shifts because the temporary workers are often given the coveted day shifts."
At a Nissan Plant in Mississippi, a Battle to Shape the U.A.W.’s Future (NY Times)
Bottom line too many workers for too few jobs.
Isn't the ideal of endless population growth combined with offshoring that the old bleeding hearts have forced on us grand?
$12/hr is not a first world wage for work involving any skill. That's a minimum wage or even less in some truly developed places.
Of course, in WA, a drivers license is a joke anyway, judging by what one sees on the roads. So giving it to an illegal might be appropriate in a way.
I see mass immigration as more of the globalized race to the bottom. Dilute the labor pool, kind of like the H1B system, backed by the same old bleeding hearts. That $100/day is probably $40 in the second world south, so they might indeed be ahead.
Looks like only AZ and Nebraska believe in the Rule of law. Very sad to me. That is the reason I discouraged my son and daughter in law from moving here. You cannot compete in the building trades against the illegals. They are good workers and very cheap. Most of the jobs they now take were paying $30+ per hour 20 years ago. Trade Unions are all but gone. Only the stinking public employees are making the big bucks.
Perhaps if there are so many workers willing to do the job for $12/hr, then the other workers are overpaid.
That is what supply and demand is all about. Problem when you have Union people with a contract that guarantees them $30 per hour and the competition is only paying $12 per hour, the over paid workers will soon bury their company in red ink. We ran into that situation in the 1980s and took a cut along with the other Unions to avoid non union companies from coming in and taking our work. No one liked it and a few in the other Unions thought we should strike. No one did and we soon regained our wages during the next Alaska boom.
I don't see that happening for those at the bottom of the food chain. As long as the waves of illegals are not stopped there will be more than enough workers that are willing to live at a lower standard to get a job of any kind. Now several states are allowing illegals into college on scholarships. So they will be taking the higher paid jobs for less.
But I guess if smarmy boomers who got theirs during a time of less expense and less competition say that if someone else is willing to do it for less that the existing worker is overpaid, that's the way it is, right? It must really just be that simple.
Racing to the bottom, thanks a lot.
That "qualified" stuff sounds like the lies told by local H1B supporters. Seems part of the qualifications are either the ability to work for second world wages, or to already have sometimes debatable skills that employers taught employees in the past, when those who got theirs and now tell others to go pound sand were able to ascend.
Yep, it sure is. Anyone can write a job description in such a way maybe only a handful of people in the country would meet all of the requirements, especially at the low-ball wages they are advertising. Then when there are no takers, the employer comes back and says "see, can't get any qualified applicants with security enhanced LINUX experience and a background in vending machines, so we need to an H1B Visa to be able to hire a non-US citizen."
You're right, it doesn't.
But then again, neither does the term "Doctor".
Must be capitalism or something.
Some VW leaders in Germany want the local plant to be a part of their works council system. It’s currently the only plant out of about 100 around the world that operates outside that system.
And the UAW has used that as a chance to represent local workers.
But, because the National Labor Relations Act forbids companies to have an internal union, organizing the local plant can’t be done exactly like the German model."
Petition Drive Against UAW Yields Support From Nearly 600 Workers (Nooga.com)
The huge differences in manager vs worker relations (and compensation) would make it impossible though, even without the laws.
And you can insert either the union or the company in that cliché.
Our Unions are mostly founded on adversarial principles. It is the company against the Union. The NLRB is designed to propagate that sort of system. A spirit of working together to make the company the best is not in the UAW mindset. The only reason the UAW has met with VW is to try and get their sleazy foot in the door. If the VW workers want a union which looks doubtful, they would be better off starting their own. Don't take on the bad reputation, debt and baggage attached to the UAW. I would imagine the Feds would fight any sort of Union that was in competition with the UAW. I cannot see why the company would not be able to meet with representatives from the workforce to discuss issues.
It sounds like the biggest obstacle will be the Feds and all their rules. I think a large percentage will refuse to join and cut into the money the UAW has their eyes on.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/examiner-editorial-gm-got-bailout-now-ships-jobs-t- o-china/article/2537323
The question is whether it'll be the same type of playing field--back in the 1980s, American cars were so bad that competing against them in the USA home market wasn't as difficult.
Not so now.
I felt with all the VW's Audi's and Subaru's coming in to Quonset point, RI would have been a perfect place to build them for export back to Europe (take advantage of the dollar vs. euro). But, they don't. Nobody does.
I believe there are quite a few cars made here for export. Don't recall the details; I'm sure others know.