Auto pigs suckling at America’s teat
In response to Operation Three Little Piggies, reader/Photoshopper George of Elegant Memories sends along his submission. My favorite so far. Keep ‘em coming.
Oink, oink, oink:
***
I agree with commenter Tre: “That’s not an accurate picture. It should show three large piglets try to suckle from an emaciated sow.”
***
Here’s how Toyota is restructuring and surviving without rushing to suckle the government teat.
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» Quotes of the day
We’re porked!
hhhhmmmmmmm bacon……
sonofdy said:
Free bacon
Bringing home the bacon…
A manifestly crude depiction of our House Speaker as she doles out faux nutrients on credit.
But quite apt, nonetheless.
Poor pigs. I like the little guys and we slander them by associating them with slimey people…
Hmmm…I wonder what the average weight of an UAW worker is anyway….
I’m guessin’ roundabouts 200..
just sayin’…
and that adds up to a lot of health benefits in mid- to later life.
Why We Suck!
That’s not an accurate picture. It should show three large piglets try to suckle from an emaciated sow.
“teat” is such a crass word. Couldn’t we say that they are sucking on America’s boobies?
Hehe, just kidding.
Hmmm.
Sooooooooo….
That is that strange sensation I have been feeling???
Red, white and blue pig should be chewing on some cash to be a finished product – IMHO.
Best kind.
Sounds like we should be picking off the Toyota management.
Seriously though, Japan cheats and lies when it comes to trade. Unless I get to scrutinize the personal finances of the executives mentioned, I will assume they’re being compensated by the government in other ways.
if it weren’t so nauseating, the situation would be hilarious. every business is suffering because our trickle up system is not working very well yet, but january 21 i’m sure it will all get better. where does the line form for bailouts? keep telling the clowns in washington you can’t spend your way out of debt.
This story reminds me of this photo
It appears from the article Toyota is more than willing to do what’s best for the company. Cut back on spending(listening George?) whether it is equipment or salary costs.
Here’s an idea…stockholders of GM, private owners of Chrysler, fire at least the top 2 levels of management, hire Toyota people to deal with the financial crisis..viola’ problem fixed. Oh there probably wouldn’t be a UAW any longer.
And this little piggy went wee,wee,wee, all the way to the Bank.
The only remedy that should be taken is to abolish the unions once and for all. They don’t serve any purpose in the 21st century anymore — at least not in developed countries.
The unions and their extortive measures and demands are the reason why the auto sector is in trouble. The sooner we all realize and acknowledge this fact, the sooner we’ll be able to get the economy back on track.
The automakers are the piglets, the government is the sow, and the rest of us are hanging in the smokehouse!
Aren’t pigs supposed to be intelligent creatures?
Yes, and “personable”.
Yes, in fact, they are intelligent.
And personable.
Signed,
Oink
Yes. So intelligent in fact that except for Crook County, there is no record of a single pig voting for Obama. (There may be a few voting for Franken, however.)
Even if a slowdown in business compels the big three automakers to layoff workers, there is no savings to the companies. They just continue to bleed. The contracts require the big 3 to simply pay the laid off workers pretty much what they were making when they worked full time. And the laid off workers have no requirement to go find other work. In addition, there is nothing in any of the contracts that allow the big 3 to deduct from what they pay laid off workers for what the workers earn from other jobs. So if a laid off auto worker in Detroit gets a job as a trucker or restaurant worker, the employer can not deduct even one penny from what they must pay to the laid off worker. The Big Three labor negotiators are so inept that the UAW negotiators get more then they even asked for. It is an Alice in Wonderland world and when they get their bailouts, they will continue with the same insane behavior that got them into the mess.
Your source?
In Michigan, at least, laid off auto workers draw unemployment, & looking for work is a state requirement. Of course, executive compensation and vehicle designs are not part of the problem. It’s ALL the UAW’s fault.
Executive compensation is a tiny drop in the bucket. If they worked for free, it wouldn’t add a penny a share to the bottom line, nor would they affect the price of a car more than a dollar or two. The UAW contracts, on the other hand, raise the cost of a “big three” vehicle about $2000 more than a comparable vehicle from non-union manufacturers. Vehicle designs are being driven by government CAFE standards and demands for alternative fuels/alternative technology (e.g. hybrids and electrics) for which there is little or no market, among other things. And of course, the vehicles that they were making their profits on (SUVs and light trucks) lost sales dramatically due to the price of gas. I don’t doubt that the management of the companies made their share of mistakes, including being more generous than necessary with the union. However, the UAW does have a history of industry-damaging strikes, which most managers would try very hard to avoid.
When the big three fail, here is my dream:
Toyota buys the Mustang line and Nissan buys Corvette.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/17/politics/otherpeoplesmoney/main4672633.shtml
Seriously… what is the deal with the bailouts? It’s a piecemeal strategy and the government couldn’t possibly mobilize enough money to “jump start” the economy.
I would advocate a more broad-based and effective strategy of cutting taxes. Cutting taxes helps everyone; it is not piecemeal. It it is more effective since one dollar earned by a tax-payer equals one dollar to the government, while one dollar in a bailout actually costs the government more than one dollar because of transaction costs and regulatory drag.
It would help consumers because the cost of living would go down. The savings to consumers would be great since at every step of manufacture, transport, and sale, the costs go down. It would help home sales because the cost of buying a home decreases (sales tax and property tax decreases; taxes on mortgage companies decreases; taxes on banks decrease, etc.).
It would be a boon to everyone.
The greediness and selfishness here is unreal. There are people who would kill just to have an hourly wage equal to the fractional minor CUT of auto worker wages asked of them, forget parity with Japanese plants here. I have ZERO sympathy for Detroit auto workers.
James Greenidge
Jamaica, New York
“Day The Earth Stood Still”: An Al Gore snuggle-fest that makes as much sense as the overblown first flick. Even Jen doesn’t save it.
There will be 60 stars on that pig soon.
57+2+1
The domestic auto industry is a big part of our economy. We feed it, it feeds us.
This piggie thing is getting tired.
Make that 62 stars. California is ungovernable. After it collapses into bankruptcy, it will be devided into three parts.
A little hardcore the title of your commentary Ms Michelle. I think the American pig is running dry on nursing milk…
If you don’t care for the topics here, why not “move on”(that was for you), sure you wouldn’t be missed.
Two days in a row, lgm comes to the defense of corporate fat cats. Looks like the pig is out of the poke.
While some of Michelle’s attacks on the Big Three are justified and backed by facts, her premise that foreign companies’ (e.g. Toyota’s) operations are a model to strive toward is, simply, absurd.
Who do you think made that plant in Tupelo — and other plants like it — possible? U.S. taxpayers, that’s who. Each foreign plant is a product of grants, tax breaks, giveaways and concessions from individual states and D.C.
Moreover, Toyota is far from being a corporate “good citizen,” as this article, which I happen to know contains a great deal of truth, shows.
I agree that Detroit has made more than its share of mistakes. But they have had plenty of help, and the underinformed ranting against them seen here and elsewhere (in Washington, for example) will do no good at all.
Maybe it should be more like Three Blind Mice…
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
The only thing I rant against is their reaching into the wallets of Americans to support their mistakes. They are more than welcome to make and learn from mistakes, but like all other business owners, there’s no reason whatsoever they can’t pay for those mistakes themselves.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
mr scribbler, txvet2, dave from flint, i think all of you are correct, despite your differing views. the unions didn’t create all this problem, management deserves it’s fair share of blame, but if alabama and mississippi are giving out taxpayer money to build in the south, why didn’t the big three pack up and go. i suppose michigan gives them perks also, just as missouri gives them perks and offers more every time one of these sacred cows threatens to leave. we built a stadium to coerce the rams to move here, now that’s a tragedy. the fundamental problem is that under the present laws, rules, situation the big three can’t make a profit producing cars. SO SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE. YOU CAN’T FIX IT BY IGNORING THE PROBLEM AND PUTTING MONEY INTO A FAILING SITUATION.
We feed it by buying their products, not be handing over our hard-earned dollars just because they screwed up.
I’ll take my GM product over just about anything on the road, and will buy another one with pride and a smile; but since when is it my responsibility to pay for someone else’s business mistakes?
Answer: It isn’t and has never been.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Uncle Jay joins in! Gotta love Uncle Jay!!!
I do have some sympathy for the autoworkers, their families, suppliers in related industries and I hope THEY figure a way out of this mess. The idea that WE are responsible is limited at best. There are the CAFE Standards and such that need to be scrapped. The market can and will take care of that IF Detroit’s management and designers have the room to move.
But the great burden on the Big Three is indeed the Union Work Rules and Legacy costs. Everybody who has been paying attention has known this for years. What the UAW and Big Three really want is the Federal government to pick up those legacy costs. This is what you will see:
A proposal to Nationalize ALL pensions, 401s and IRAs into Social Security “so we can share the burden”. The proposal will be to issue government bonds to replace those pensions: Social Security.
That and Socialized Medicine to take the pressure off Big Three’s legacy costs there. Share the pain.
Chapter 11 was written exactly for a situation such as this: to give a potentially viable entity a chance to regroup and thrive if they can. God Bless ‘em, but the autoworkers have lived high on the hog for a generation-I envy them. But they have no right asking us to support their lifestyle. The 40 acre and a mule farm is gone as is the smithy, Detroit needs to change or they will go too.
Yes, it is that simple.
You’re absolutely right, but there are reasons the Big Three don’t just pick up and move, and one of the biggest is the UAW, a millstone around their collective necks that they — under pressure from the government, primarily the Democrats in government — put there.
Also, the cost of building new plants has to be weighed against continuing to use existing ones. Unlike those who use the Internet as their “manufacturing” base, the car companies can’t just load their business in a box or two and cart it down the road when they feel like it.
Let Congress show some guts by backing the automakers against the unions (it’ll never happen) in making wages, benefits and pensions more sensible, let Congress roll back some of the huge pile of regulations that require vast sums of money to comply with, and the losses might slow down, or even stop altogether.
And, finally, let Congress not only enact real free trade agreements so our companies are not disadvantaged when competing in overseas markets, but give up any idea that they know “what the public wants” when it comes to cars. Some incredibly bright people in the industry, people who are paid to figure out the public’s needs and desires, can’t do that, and they know a hell of a lot more than anyone among the 535 real pigs in D.C. ever will on the subject.
For Congress to whine about the car companies is the height of hypocrisy. And that’s putting it mildly.
The bigest problem here is the UAW not the big 3.
Now, that begs the question, Soap. How was it for you?
It hasn’t fed me, that I can recall.
This is what Ford has done in Brazil. The only reason they don’t/can’t do the same here is…..?
http://preview.tinyurl.com/64ozaz
And, McScribbler…quoting an article written BY labor in SUPPORT of labor does little to make your point. They may be just a tad biased.
I have spent considerable time in study of the auto industry, and wouldn’t have posted that link if I didn’t know the majority of what’s there was factual.
Being part of “labor” doesn’t mean you are 100% wrong, any more than being “conservative” means you are 100% right.
MrScribbler:
Part of the problem with their review is that they ascribe American ideals of fair labor and wage to foreign societies. Its apples and oranges, except to those who would use such information to support labor’s cause. Many people in Japan hold part-time jobs as acceptable employment. In China, someone making 300-400USD is considered middle-class but many here consider that to be slave labor.
I have no quarrels over whether Toyota is the best company, but, when compared to the Big-3, they are at least profitable. And, despite what some would claim, it is not because they ride on the backs of their workers.
So you’re saying the Japanese government stopped subsidizing Toyota employee’s healthcare and pensions? Oh, wait we’re just suppose to ignore that.
jpm100:
It’s still apples and oranges. Their entire culture is based on family, patriotism, and pulling together (something that we have lost here and which Western influence is destroying there). Yes, the entire country is on a national health-care program and have been for years. It’s based on income. Still, the plants that they operate here aren’t on that plan and they remain profitable. That health-care argument is just another excuse thrown out to bail out the UAW.
The ticklish part comes when foreign companies want to impose their societies’ working conditions on American workers.
I don’t think you really want American workers paid subsistence wages and subjected to capricious, 80-plus hour work schedules. Nor do I think you would take a job under such conditions without protesting.
It is so easy for those who don’t perform labor to produce actual tangible goods to be critical of “overpaid” workers. Certainly the “pigs” proliferate on Wall Street and in Washington as well. No auto worker (and, in many businesses, no executive) has the kind of benefits we bestow on our Congress members….
I will take one fully loaded Mustang for my contribution to the bail out.
You cannot continue to prop up something that will eventually fail. It makes no sense to bankrupt the American people to save a bankrupt industry. The capital of a country’s economy is its people not overbloated industries or unions.
This just plain sucks (sorry couldn’t resist).
Davefromflint: I enjoyed reading your post.
Txvet2: Where on earth did your $2000 per vehicle figure crawl out from? Actual total figure for all compensation is less than $1200 which, includes, stock dividends as well.
I am NOT a union worker but, I abhor people accepting figures they want to hear, rather than the truth. The largest, by far, scandal is the pensions promised by ALL levels of Gov’t in this country with NO funding set aside to reasonably pay for them.
Just, saying…
When G.M.’s board ok’d the Pontiac Aztec in 2001, which was NOT designed by the UAW; we should have demanded drug testing for them then…
MrScribbler:
I don’t think anyone could rationally argue that the employees at a Toyota plant in the USA is “paid subsistence wages and subjected to capricious, 80-plus hour work schedules.”
In fact, there is more and more pressure to eliminate that in Japan. But it is not pressure put on the employers. Quite, the contrary, the pressure is being applied to the “salaryman” to leave work early and go home to their families. Again, it is a very different culture there. However, the Japanese are extremely adaptable people and seem to have been able to come to this country and operate under our labor and environmental rules and still produce a profit.
Also, be careful how you address someone who may or may not produce “tangible” goods.
I grew up in the rust belt area that is Flint Michigan, home of Chevy V-8 Engine, Chevy pickups, and Buick. Unfortunately this is also the home of the UAW, (U AIN’T WORKING), where the rank and file feel more honor to the Union local than to the company that is feeding their family.
I doubt that people outside the UAW are really aware that part of the purchase price of their new GM, Ford, Chrysler, is PPH. That is Personal Paid Holiday, a once a month paid day off. What mentality says someone should be paid not to work? Also, in the world of U AIN’T WORKING; unlike here in the Sunny South, the worker wouldn’t consider sweeping up around his workspace- that is the job of the janitor types, who make more pushing a broom, (or not), than some managers outside the union. Couple the above with a mentality that does all they can to sabotage their company and you have the UAW, who now should be able to see that they are in the U AIN’T WORKING union. A few years back, while up in Flint Michigan getting a load of freight, I was in a bar and sandwich joint and overheard 2 guys who were having a couple of beers before work betting which one of them could put less paint on a new Buick body. The Union seems to forbid a guy to actually try to do a good job. And the product they turn out can’t hold a candle to Jap and German named cars built here in the Sunny South, where people are thankful that the company lets them walk onto the property and pick up a paycheck for a reasonable amount of money for doing a reasonable amount of work.
I have relatives, old school friends and such who have screwed themselves out of work, and wonder what they will do. Myself, after highschool, I saw that I did not want to get into that ratrace, and chose to head south to the military, and further south after the military.
I can’t even find the bow for the teeny tiny fiddle, to play them a sad song. Sorry folks, but the UAW in the long run did nothing for the rank and file, but did build themselves a cool golf course, in the cold-assed northernmost point of the lower peninsula of Michigan.
As for managements culpability- For years they’ve known that a decent amount of their sales were because people “Buy American”. Riding that mentality, they saw no reason to build as good as the competition. At best “American” is but a better grade of plastic.
No sympathy at all, and would exhort others to buy quality, no matter where it is built.
nuf sed
I agree that a union can be a problem…I worked for Meijer’s…A michigan company that runs stores, like a walmart supercenter however, we pioneered the concept in the 1980′s. We had personal holidays, decent benefits, etc…Yet, we still had the same prices as walmart. I guess unions cause overpricing? WTF ? Perhaps, it’s greedy investors demanding exorbitant profits this quarter? Naw, couldn’t be short-sighted management fools from Haah-Vaad…
Sarc off now.
Soap, your right, Uncle Jay knows his stuff.
Do you feel free to misinform the readers on this site?
Though I am sure facts mean little to you, the UAW has not had PPH days since the national contract of 1982. Gone for 26 years. Why do you write as if PPH days are still in the UAW contract today?
In Flint, Buicks were assembled at Buick City which produced its last unit in the summer of 1999 which coincidentally was the same year it was rated as the best initial quality car manufacturer in the world by J.D.Powers. But then again maybe J.D. Powers was stupid by not factoring in the opinions of eavesdropping truck drivers.
Wow, never realized that the workers in your Sunny South did not get vacations, sick days, or national holidays paid for by their employers. Bummer. Learn something everyday.
Hannibal: Nice to hear a fellow voice of reason rather than, Knee jerks…
Sarc on…
Union workers: overpriced,lazy…
College grads; aka Management: overpriced,lazy,and STUPID! Union workers did not cause idiots to overprice mortgage securities, It’s all about the benjamins if you have a ged from harvard.
No one demanding college boys refund their outrageous bonuses on unprofitable trades…can’t hurt a college gras, right?
grad
Book learning vs. experience? BS means just what it looks like!
Hannibal/Jeff:
While I understand “some” of your points, your anger is misdirected at the wrong people. Both management and the UAW played a role in the implosion that occured in Detroit over the years. Both parties went along never thinking that either had to adapt to changing times. Management didn’t have to create more innovative, fuel efficient cars that American consumers actually liked or didn’t equate with lemons. The UAW never thought that perhaps their big wig leaders/reps and worker salaries were a tad bloated.
Jeff, why are you attacking college grads? College grads work their butts off to get where they are too. They went to school and learned a skill and then went into the real world to prove themselves. Yes, some people played the financial system (such as upper management and brokers) while others did their job and expected nothing more than their paycheck.
Do you not have a problem with the Job Banks program? Where workers were paid not to work? Seems kind of cushy while the rest of us (and the rest of the world) apply for unemployment, then look for work, interview for jobs, wash, repeat. Gee, if only I could be part of a cushy union.
Unions are a fraud. I’m a social studies teacher by trade and one of the big turnoffs for me is the teacher’s unions in this country who mandate who gets paid what and when. I found out that many school districts are reluctant to hire teachers with master’s degrees because they automatically get paid more than those with bachelor’s degrees based on payscale schedules mandated by teacher’s unions. Unions have now priced out a whole sector of people (those with master’s degrees but seeking first teaching job) because school districts can’t afford them. This sounds familiar.
I grew up in a union household. My father was a unionized steamfitter/plumber for 30+ years and when he got injured on the job he applied for disability. When he applied to the union for representation and help, he got a big FU. What good are unions when they only serve their leadership and their political masters in Washington?
Many of us are speaking from life experience not an urge to stick it to American workers. I saw what my father went through and it WASN’T an isolated incident. Who takes care of your kids when teachers are out sick, have training etc.? Substitute teachers. They’ve been trying to unionize for years because of the crappy work environment, pay, and benefits. These are people who are just as highly educated as regular teachers but are only paid as little as $60 per day unlike your precious union buddies. The biggest resistance to unionized subs are, wait for it, TEACHER’S UNIONS.
Isn’t it interesting that on one hand, the big unions want to keep their cushy benefits/jobs at the expense of both the Big 3 and American people, yet they’re threatened by competition and innovation that keeps industry going?
Jeff/Hannibal, you can’t have it both ways. I have no beef with unions if they actually stay out of politics, stop promotiing illegal employment, represent workers, and don’t restrict industry development and competition. Yet, do you not see how inflated the auto union benefits are in comparison to other fields? Most people’s salaries haven’t kept pace with inflation yet they’re expected to make due. Why can’t the auto workers? What makes them so special and protected? How fair is that to the rest of us?
When you can’t make it in politics, and have an overwhelming desire to feed your egomaniac personality, be a union boss. Heavily support your local liberal politician, and make sure that the CEOs are the ones to blame, not you, as you soak the industry dry. Also, make sure the Press understands that you’re out there fighting for the “American worker” while you pad your bank account, and quest for more control over the economy and people.
and guess who is the biggest single buyer of that little pill to help you keep it up longer??? yep you guessed it…GM..$17m a year…
google it….
It seems they’ll get the money from G.W. directly, as just announced on CNN. 13,4 billion $$$ from the bailout pool… Fiscal conservatism R.I.P.
Success breeds complacency, which in turn breeds failure.
Lesson: Failure is necessary in order to survive.
It’s been true for eons, and will never stop being so, no matter how much plundering Liberalism we keep throwing down the rat-hole.
(Actually, the reflexive doses of corpulent Liberalism just protract the failure.)
emjem24: Did you read my post of having worked for a unionized company that competes; successfully, might I add, with WALMART? I’m not asking for much, just PLEASE people…Stop spouting trivia from managements perspective. Research them, at least as much as you besmirch people making a living. I’m not anti-education but, at least teachers have a monopoly with, guaranteed job security…Tenure, anyone?