Big 3 Bailout

[Durand Dan]

Let me try to put the issue of hourly pay to bed with this question.

How do you think a reduced wage for a Big 3 autoworker would affect the price of a new vehicle?

[motocross269]

Motorcross, if the past 5 years are ancient history, then yes it is ancient history.  I could name many more examples like the guy I know whose job was driving cars off the line.  He was drunk at work regularly, and crashed enough cars that he was removed from a job, but not fired.  And he was proud of that!  Or how about the guy I used to fish with who worked at the GM foundry in Defiance who bragged about how he would spend his day, most of it consisting of parking his forklift, reading the newspaper, drinking coffee, and hiding.  Of course he's also the guy who complained about how bad he had it and tried to justify the killing of the supervisor at the Jeep plant, saying "you don't know what its like to have some hot shot young supervisor telling you what to do all the time".  I realize not all union members are bad, but this mentality is.

I don't think we should be sending billions of dollars overseas either, but unfortunately that's never going to end.  And we have Bill Clinton to thank for NAFTA which opened the floodgate for overseas outsourcing.  

Actually NAFTA was brokered by Bush Sr and the heads of both Canada and Mexico cotingent on the Passing of the legislatures..Yes Clinton signed it into Law, but if you check your history you will see that the wheels were in motion well before he took office...It was basically a bipartisan screwing..
With that being said NAFTA is not the big thorn in our side..NAFTA has nothing to do with the Asian Imports where most of our imports are streaming in at this time...Hopefully the new administration will stop the steamrolling of CAFTA and the North Korean free trade agreement that is being pushed through as we speak..

As far as unions go you can believe in your mind they are the root of all evil if it makes you feel better...As I stated earlier I have worked in many different capacities to include the Military and I have seen great employees and crappy employees in every job I have been in. I could sit here and tell you horror stories of Misdeeds by soldiers or any other employment I have had, but that wouldn't accomplish anything but open a can of worms..From my experience first hand the Union is not the problem...Remember the bottom line it is still and always will be the Management's company to run..
The Key to a good organization is sound leadership..I don't care if it is the Military or a business...Leadership at all levels is what defines the success of a company...

[motocross269]

To go along with the question that Durand Dan asked......
Why is everyone so concentrated on the 10 percent of the cost of the car that is Labor when you would think the largest opportunities for cost savings would be in the other 90 percent... 

[motocross269]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/executive_bailouts

Interesting post on the bank bailouts....The sad part is the financials have no responsibility or accountability to pay their money back...Unlike the auto loans...Why didn't congress ask these bozos to work for 1 dollar.?..No wonder we are not seeing any positive movements in the financial markets and in credit, all the money is going into someone's swiss bank account.
Why is a group of working Americans that are willing to go to work every day and pay their taxes the Congress' target when excesses and waste like this are played out all through the financial markets??? I won't even get into.. congressional wastes in other areas..
It took congress and the admin less than a week to give the financial markets their 800 billion plus bailout, yet the Autos have had to grovel for months for a loan with huge stipulations...

[Buckeye]

Well, to add to the misery from the financial bailout.  I hada friend at work tell me that he knew that of a person who lost there job at Lehman's Brothers and received a severance package.  Then, he was hired by Goldman Sachs, and got a hiring bonus.  That money came from the bailout money....

Sad!

Eric

[Bloomer]

What took longer? Congress to approve a bailout (Loan!) for the automakers(which they never did pass-Bush had to unwillingly push it through himslelf!) or for congress to vote themselves a raise this year in the worst economy in 70 years!? The question is not who is running the unions, but who is really running this country? And how are those that are running this country paid? By us!  I can tell you for sure that I am not getting a raise this year!

[djkimmel]

I don't know 100%, but the financials bailout seems to be a quick and dirty disaster. I tend to think if it smells like dead fish. And looks like dead fish... it's probably dead fish. The whole financial bailout thing has smelled and looked like a dead fish from the beginning of ramming it through.

But that has no bearing on what I decide about another industry. I think it is unfortunate in the timing. We have always been strange as a country at picking priorities and fixes usually until it is almost too late. I will probably never get it. Regardless of the turds out there, floating mostly in the sea of good people, I want to understand and do something (support something) if I only know what it is.

I can't help but think we are talking about my family, friends and neighbors, and I want to help. Somehow. I grew up in Flint and watched when things seemed to tank in a very bad way after they closed Buick City. Now I live in Lansing and hear all the time about the impact from what happens in the auto industry.

[motocross269]

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081222/as_japan_toyota.html

With Toyota projecting their first loss since 1941 maybe congress will wake up and realize it is the Economy causing the huge downturns and not the Evil Union workers as some would have you believe..Also notice that Japan guarantees their Japanese employees Jobs for Life....Imagine that....
I guarantee the Japanese people would never turn their back on Toyota..It has been proven their government won't through Yen manipulation, unfair trade practices and government subsidies..

[motocross269]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOODBYE_GM?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

A little insight into the death of a manufacturing plant...It is more than just numbers. It is peoples dreams and security being crushed by events they have had little or no control over...News like this makes me ill, probably in part because I know I am just a pen stroke away from sharing the same fate.....