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UAW = Anti-USA dollar

Discussion in 'Anything Goes' started by Ghost, May 29, 2009.

  1. Ghost

    Ghost New Member

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    I work in the automotive industry. I am a bit privy to more information than the average American consumer. Fiat is going to be the saving grace of Chrysler. Fiatt is buying the largest stock % of Chrysler, and re-badging its current over seas lines to sell in the USA. Chrysler a US company? Not anymore. GM now announces its beginning of failure as well. The UAW has worked out a deal with GM corp. to not take bonuses and extra pay benefits this year, and promised not to strike until 2015, thus saving GM approx 1.3 billion dollars. YAY! As the reporters claim… might mention the majority of national reporters are part of a union… So instead of the projected 68,000 job lay offs, GM planned, the number looks more like 22,000. So, you see it? Ask yourself the question yet? I did.

    “So what if we reduce the labor and overhead costs by dissolving the UAW from the big three, and re-hiring younger, more efficient, cheaper labor several yrs ago? Would we still be in this situation?”

    Answer is a flat no. The average 30 yr UAW base salary is $70 to $80 per hr. Add in medical and benefit packages, and you get nearly $140,000 per year. Job Title? Fork lift operator. Machine operator. Pipe fitter. Line Mechanic.





    That was 2006. so, now lets add the 1.3 billion per year till now. Whats that? Basic mathematics, 1.3billion times 3 years, for end of books in September = 3.9Billion dollars spent on benefits ALONE. Suppose the cut of pay went to that of our over seas competitors, $48 per hr. That’s a savings of $38 to $41 per hr, per person… one person could save ~ $60,000.00 a year.

    Could you live off a pay of $60K a year? Fairly sure that answer is yes. And how many UAW employees work on avg per yr? ~1.2 million.
    1.2 million workers, saving $60,000.00 per year = $7.2 trillion PER YEAR

    2009, the US government gives nearly $40 billion dollars to two leading auto manufacturers.

    As a fellow Generation X’er, I want to thank the Baby Boomers for handing us the world through the sun roofs of their sports cars, sport utility vehicles, and the rest of their extra vehicles while they speed off to that little vacation spot in Florida or Cruise ship as they retire. It’s as though I just went to Burger King, ask for nothing less than the guy in front of me, and was handed an incomplete and inaccurate order, as the company goes bankrupt. What am I going to do with onion rings and a half a milkshake with no lid? And further that question… What about my kids who are in line behind me?

    The American Greed sees no boundry.

    I love reading the comments from this site:
    http://www.truthout.org/122608LA

    (Edited: Some misspellings)
     
    Last edited: Jun 1, 2009


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  2. KC-10 FE

    KC-10 FE New Member

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    I don't care how, who, why, what, etc... The US auto industry deserves everything it gets. It was just announced on the news that GM goes Chapter 11 Bankrupcy on Monday morning. Is anyone really surprised? With a few notable exceptions, does GM produce anything worth buying anymore? Not really. Chrysler never has. Ford sucks large but at least they are still above water for the time being.

    I am a consumer who has been attempting to purchase a vehicle for the last 18 months. I can't find anything I want & the makers wont make what I will purchase. Read my thread about the Chevy Camaro or my thread about truck shopping. The industry DOES NOT care about the consumer. It cares about it's own bottom line. While looking out for profits is a complete necessity for any company, profits mean nothing if you don't produce a quality product.

    That leads to the subject of the UAW. I don't care if you support unions or not. The UAW has completely ruined the US auto industry. $70 an hour to put lug nuts on truck wheels? Anyone who thinks that is a realistic wage is crazy. I do sincerely hope the UAW goes under & dissapears. The industry might stand a chance with them gone. If they don't go away, the US auto industry is finished & it's only a matter of time until the end.

    KC-10 FE out...
    :plane: :usa2:
     


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  3. FJ12rydertoo

    FJ12rydertoo Member

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    Nope.

    They aren't the ones who get hundreds of thousands and/or millions of dollars designing cars you don't want. If GM couldn't afford to pay the salaries, they should not have signed a contract to that affect. The guys on the lines that put these cars together make diddly compared to what the people in charge of thiniking up, marketing, and engineering the cars that no one wants to buy. They are at the bottom and everyone knows sh*t rolls downhill, so guess who gets the blame. And it's easy to blame someone who seems to make so much money for so little (perceived) effort.

    They do have to share in the blame, but they are not the major cause.

    Yes, I am a union supporter. Could ya tell? :smile:
     


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  4. Sebspeed

    Sebspeed New Member

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    Screw the unions. They had their place when workplaces were unsafe, people were truly being taken advantage of, etc. In this day and age they're just leeches.
     


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  5. squirrelman

    squirrelman Member

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    A large part of the ecomomic load on the auto companys is costs of health care, which should be single-payer, government organized ......just as civilized countries like Canada or UK.

    NO one needs to spend the wasteful 30-40% premium paid to health insurance administrators like Blue Cross, Univera, Independent Health, etc. This is an area where Obama needs to step up but won't.
    The enormous contributions from the health care industry lobbyists to congressmen guarantee that we will probably never fix the health care problem in this country.
     


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  6. FJ12rydertoo

    FJ12rydertoo Member

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    There are people who will argue that none of the above facts about a lot of workplaces have changed that much, only the wages have gone down. :smile:

    Unions are still necessary, the only difference now is people aren't smart enough to realize it.

    That's all I'm going to say on the subject. Arguments about unions and religion usually just lead to hard feeling, flame wars, and such. No one changes anyone else's opinion.

    Catch you again on Labor Day. :thumbsup:
     


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  7. DrBob

    DrBob New Member

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    Dude, perhaps you should move to Canada or the UK. Haven't you noticed the mess that government makes of everything that they put their hands in? Have they done a good job with Medicare and Medicaid? Have they done a good job with the Social Security trust fund? Have they done a good job managing environmental policies that have had a part in destroying the automakers? Government has given us a national debt of more than 11 trillion dollars and have put us on the hook for somewhere around 63 trillion in future obligations. THE MONEY TO DO HEALTHCARE DOES NOT EXIST!!!

    Healthcare is 1/6 of GDP and you are going to trust these idiots with control over it. Let's just give government control over all aspects of our lives. Let's let them tell us who can get an MRI, how long we can stay in a hospital, what surgeries we can have, and what medications we can take. We need less government intervention and markets that are more open and less regulated. We need to encourage competition among insurers by allowing people to cross state lines to purchase their insurance plans. We can pay a 30% premium on healthcare to a private sector business into which we can invest for a dividend, or we can pay a 40% premium on healthcare benefits to some vested bureaucrat with all the enthusiasm for their work as the most most disgruntled DMV agent.

    Maybe you don't pay enough in taxes already, but I do and I am sick of carrying water for a bunch of leeches.
     


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  8. squirrelman

    squirrelman Member

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    GOVERNMENT does need reform and even more oversight. Seems like nobody in government administration can ever be fired for corruption or incompetenance and that needs to change.

    Governments in UK, Canada, even Cuba can provide decent health care for all citizens,and we could too if health services could be separated from politics and the undue influence of the health insurance industry.
     


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  9. DrBob

    DrBob New Member

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    There goes the problem...

    1) It's all about politics (That is why we need term limits).
    2) Who is going to oversee the government (It was supposed to be the media, but they are all in the tank for the Democratic Party).
    3) The realities of the Canadian, UK, and Cuban healthcare systems may be very different from what you perceive them to be.

    I deal with the influences of governmental intervention into healthcare every day. Their policies increase costs and decrease efficiency in healthcare delivery. We need to get the government out of healthcare.

    My practice partner had an idea that the government would never accept because it takes power away from them. As healthcare providers, we would be more than happy to provide MORE free care to disadvantaged people if we were allowed to take a tax deduction based upon the value of the FREE services we provide. The poor people would be cared for and government entitlement funds would benefit also. Why wouldn't the government go for such a plan??? Because they are cut out of the equation, dis-empowered, and unable to exert themselves to exhort taxes from the doctors to pay bureaucrats and to buy votes from those dependent on government.
     


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  10. squirrelman

    squirrelman Member

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    Maybe we could elicit some comments from European, Canadian, or other countries on this site about how they precieve thier socialized health care systems ?? I don't think the Canadians or Brits have many complaints.

    There's lot of propaganda about how bad government-run health care can be, but it comes from representatives of the health care insurance industry, so don't believe it !!
     


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  11. DrBob

    DrBob New Member

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    The governmentally controlled model is bad now and will get worse later. It is not sustainable. I use less than 500 dollars of medical benefits a year. Others use tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars of benefits a year (many of whom are just abusers of our emergency rooms, drug-seekers, etc.) I cannot afford the taxes that it will require to take care of these other people who are not similarly invested in the system.

    Furthermore, if you don't mind having the government to control every little aspect of your life, that is fine. When the government slaps a 4-5 dollar surcharge on top of your BigMac to fund this healthcare project... let me know how happy you are with that system. Conceivably, they could add a new tax to everyone who drives because people get hurt in crashes and have to go to the hospital. How about an extra 500 dollar a year tax to own and operate a motorcycle because people who ride bikes are less protected than people in cars?
     


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  12. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    It is what it is, nobody seemed to whine about any of this shit until the economy crashed and people didn't have disposable income to waste on cars, trucks and suv's. Everyone associated with the industry cut a fat hog in the ass for many years, now shit goes south and it's everybody elses fault. Welcome to the real world.
     


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  13. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Is that you Rush?
     


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  14. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Would it really concern you if it didn't effect you on a presonal level? I didn't think so. Why are you worried? You should be set for life anyway with your name on that transmission patent and all.
     


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  15. DrBob

    DrBob New Member

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    Mega-dittos.
     


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  16. NorcalBoy

    NorcalBoy Member

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    Just another person who sees their little place in life infringed upon by reallity, and thus feels it's necessary to justify why it's so wrong because it's happening to them. :thumbsup:
     


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  17. Ghost_Rider

    Ghost_Rider Active Member

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    :rofl:

    I wonder how often he looks at the mirror each day telling himself how great he is. Where is deepdish when you need him?

    If it is possible for ghost's ego to get any BIGGER he is gonna have to start sleeping in the garage to get his head out the door! :rolleyes:
     


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  18. DrBob

    DrBob New Member

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    I've always been against oppressive government. It is a principle of mine.

    Why don't you tell me why I should be happy to have the government expanding itself in to all aspects of our lives... taking from those who work to earn to give to those who won't?

    Why should I be happy that the government creates and traps people into dependency classes? We've watched a 40 year long "War on Poverty" that has lead to transfer of 10 trillion dollars, and guess what!!! WE STILL HAVE THE SAME NUMBER OF POOR PEOPLE. We have more incarcerated people than ever. We have more single parent families than ever. We have just as many or more high school dropouts than ever. We spend billions and billions and billions of dollars on healthcare and you people act like a poor man cannot get a shot of penicillin. The geniuses in our government just set aside millions of dollars to fund laser tattoo removal. Why didn't they spend that money on insulin for poor diabetics? Do you not realize what an abject failure the welfare state has been?

    Do you have your hand out or are you getting your pocket picked?
     


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  19. squirrelman

    squirrelman Member

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    THE out-of-control military budget, the misconcieved "war on terror," the bank and industry bailouts are stripping our country of the resources to educate our children, provide health care to the truly indigent, repair infrastructure, and provide the basic social services any civilized society should prioritize.

    This country is incapable of reform because congressional "campaign contributions" amount to legalized bribery, and Washington is ruled by well-financed corporate lobbiests .
     


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  20. oss

    oss New Member

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    no he's just living in a carbon copy af austria, i guess most people aren't tired of carrying the load of all the social leaches.
     


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