Comments on: E-mail from an auto industry worker

By: When Unions Attack | BipolarNation.com

When Unions Attack | BipolarNation.com — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:16:45 +0000

[...] But many unions don’t always enjoy stopping at a reasonable point. They continue to push for artificially higher wages and benefits that drive companies under. Michelle Malkin’s readers have sent her reports of laid-off workers who said they made more without a job than they did producing actual labor, and that current UAW labor is paid whether they work or not. (Link link) [...]

By: Michelle Malkin’s Inbox: Email from Auto Industry Worker « Jane Q. Republican

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:45:19 +0000

[...] Michelle Malkin’s Inbox: Email from Auto Industry Worker Jump to Comments Dear Michelle, [...]

By: Garden State Patriot | Let The Auto Industry Crash

Garden State Patriot | Let The Auto Industry Crash — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:31:08 +0000

[...] Michelle Malkin: E-mail from an auto industry worker, More reader mail on [...]

By: twookie

twookie — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:11:49 +0000

Back when the head of GM said something like “What is good for GM is good for America”, Democrats criticized it. Ironic that now they are the ones making that same statement.

By: NJ-Aviator

NJ-Aviator — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:48:06 +0000

Danceswithdachshunds said:

Deja Vu all over again for me; I’m from Pittsburgh. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, the Steel Worker Unions did to Pittsburgh what the UAW is doing to Detroit today.

I recall that as far back as the early 70’s, a slag worker was earning over $40K/yr! Yeah, it was hot; yeah, it was dirty; yeah, it was a little dangerous but, YEAH… ANYBODY WITH A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA COULD DO THAT JOB WITH ONE HOUR OF TRAINING! (what’s the CPI from 1970?)

I remember in the early 80’s a joke about getting a job pushing a broom at a GM parts plant near Trenton. The pay rate was supposedly something like $20 to $25 per hour….. yes… for pushing a broom.

The writing has been on the wall for some time now.

By: NJ-Aviator

NJ-Aviator — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:45:23 +0000

Part of the problem is the incestuous relationship between complicit politicians and Detroit and the UAW.

These unions have the one thing politicians cover most. Votes.

So politicians would sentence their mothers to a life of hard labor in order to get the support of these unions. They think.. “It may be wrong, but it’s for the greater good.. that being.. I get elected”

There was a time when unions served a valuable purpose. That time has passed.

They need to rework their labor costs. Employees will get hit, but so are many other sectors. Who’s crying for the 10,000 IT people in NYC already out of a job, or about to lose it? It sucks, but we can’t go one like this.

The solution can not be to dump good money.. OUR MONEY.. into a machine that will just burn it and end up in the same place in no time at all.

That’s unacceptable. You all had better tell your Reps so… and fast.

By: Danceswithdachshunds

Danceswithdachshunds — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:47:59 +0000

tnmartin said: Please tell my why we NEED heated seats and DVD players in our cars. Just adding cost and complexity, meaning more things to go wrong.

A seat heater or DVD player that stops working doesn’t stop the car from it’s primary function. Neither of those are ‘automotive technology’ anyway.

Can anybody explain to me HOW the government forcing the industry to convert from US to metric helped the US auto makers to be competitive? (And I STILL dare anyone to show me how ISO is better than ANSI or that the metric screw series make any sense..)

Aside, guess what drive sizes are available for socket wrenches in Europe? (hint, the same as here!) Guess what the international standard unit is for altitude in aviation, (hint, not the one used by the side that lost WW2…)

By: Danceswithdachshunds

Danceswithdachshunds — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:18:19 +0000

Deja Vu all over again for me; I’m from Pittsburgh. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, the Steel Worker Unions did to Pittsburgh what the UAW is doing to Detroit today.

I recall that as far back as the early 70’s, a slag worker was earning over $40K/yr! Yeah, it was hot; yeah, it was dirty; yeah, it was a little dangerous but, YEAH… ANYBODY WITH A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA COULD DO THAT JOB WITH ONE HOUR OF TRAINING! (what’s the CPI from 1970?)

Thanks to unions, (plus some absurd EPA mandates too), we saw the END of Pittsburgh as the ’steel city’ and the beginning of a major shift to imported steel from Canada and Japan and China and … etc. A STRATEGIC LOSS TO OUR COUNTRY. (Coal will be the next…)

So, I remember what unions brought to Pittsburgh. In the 80’s and early 90’s – STREET AFTER STREET of houses in ghost mill towns all with FOR SALE SIGNS in front – many begging for ANY offer.

By: It’s Time To Bail On The BailOuts | 101 Dead Armadillos

It’s Time To Bail On The BailOuts | 101 Dead Armadillos — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:58:25 +0000

[...] the original bailout plan was not working, he proved that we did not need the first bailout, and we certainly don’t need another one. It is pointless to keep pouring money into these companies, money we don’t have, when [...]

By: There's My Two Cents

There's My Two Cents — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:33:17 +0000

Bailout Bait And Switch…

Here are several stories that provide some updates for recent economic/bailout news.

First, Hot Air has a great example of what we can expect in terms of fiscal responsibility from the Obama administration and the current crop of Dems (as if we ha…..

By: sam.i.am

sam.i.am — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:00:15 +0000

Unions lead to poor management. They create it. They foster it. They fight you every step of the way. On everything. If you try to fight them for management rights, they target you. I have worked in manufacturing management for 16 years, and I’ve seen it firsthand. You need to “play along” as they run your business into the ground. If you have “employee relations” problems, it is looked down upon by upper management, who don’t want any problems. Heaven forbid you have a strike at your facility. It could be career-ending.
Management chooses not to fight. Average performance is good enough at a Union facility. Push for more, and you will regret it. It takes a toll. This is why it is necessary for the big three to go under. Their management is ruined, contaminated, and retarded.
When the CEO of GM was on 60 minutes recently; he poked fun at the start-up electric car manufacturers. He was so arrogant and smug. Hard to believe he could sit there and lecture on how the car business is “harder than it looks”, while his company lost $50 billion last year. Now, that level of incompetence is really special! Let’s through some more money at arrogant morons and see what happens.

By: tnmartin

tnmartin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:40:10 +0000

Much as I love to whomp on the UAW, as only someone who has had first hand experience with them, the unions are only a part of the problem.
A good bit of the blame rests squarely on top management, at GM at least, which is where I have personal experience. Believe me, the pig-headed stubborn ignorance, the ‘not invented here’, the ‘my way or the highway’, every single defect of any bureaucratized and over-large organization is to be found in the ranks of middle and upper management at GM, and there’s considerable reason to believe that the same is true at Ford, et al.
No, it is these over-paid ‘leaders’ who have led their companies to disaster. A pox on them all!
And, by the way, the non-Big 3 auto OEM’s are frankly as capable of doing just as badly. I’m currently doing some work with a components supplier to two of the Big 3 and a few of the foreign-owned OEM’s. Several of the foreign ones, while having the advantage of no unions, are at *least* as arrogant, ignorant, slow to pay, and utterly unable to accept responsibility for their own massive errors.
There may BE no good answer to some of these issues, in part because the automobile is the most complex bit of mass-produced machinery in the world. Too complex. Please tell my why we NEED heated seats and DVD players in our cars. Just adding cost and complexity, meaning more things to go wrong.

By: zorro

zorro — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:23:30 +0000

for all those union supporters, come and visit western Pennsylvania. Miles and miles and miles of closed plants. Too much violence, too many strikes. All of our hundreds of manufactures packed up and left decades ago. And now they have the garrote around the neck of the Big 3. I hope they get what they deserve. Bankruptcy.

By: WaterBoyz

WaterBoyz — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:10:53 +0000

You do realize that when stats are mentioned about unions, those stats EXCLUDE unions connected to the government. Those stats are for the private sector. Government connected union membership outnumber all of the private sector membership combined.

And you wonder why the government ~~runs~~ operates like it does.

By: Send_Me

Send_Me — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:01:03 +0000

I don’t understand the need for unions. Why would I want someone else to negotiate the terms between myself and my employer? I’m certain of two things: (1) I’m quite capable of doing it myself and (2) I have more a vested interest in myself, my family, and my relationship with my employer than any union ever could. Unions once had a purpose, but they can go away now. (If only our politicians applied such principles to government bureaus.)