Auto anxiety

Newport, Del. - For 25 years John Lewis has welded, painted and assembled cars at the vast General Motors plant in this town outside Wilmington.

[Jack]

His union is also a big part of the reason GM is where it is today. Yet Obama wants to push more unions on businesses as a payback to the millions of campaign cash they gave him. Obama wants to take away the workers vote by secret ballot election supervised by the NLRB and replace it with a card check scheme.
This will be bad for business in addition to all the taxes he wants to raise on business and all the new unfunded mandates he wants to put on business.

[terp fan j]

The big 3 got themselves into this mess and need to get themselves out of it. Not one cent of tax payer money should go to them. Let them file for bankruptcy and reorganize. It may cost jobs, but it needs to be done that way.

My job could be gone as well since I work for company that has contracts with GM, but so be it.

STOP THE BAILOUTS!

[Gman]

Slash salaries by 25% across the board. Cut pensions in half. Get rid of as many workers as possible. Close some plants. Chop medical benefits to retirees in half.

You reap what you sow: in this case The UAW sowed hyper inflated labor costs. GM sowed gas guzzlers that pale in quality compared to Toyota.

It would be ugly for the auto workers, but 3/4 salary is better than no salary, and that is where they are headed. Even then these workers would be over compensated, esp given the terrible products they produce.

[Gman]

And what is with this "job bank" crap? If people aren't working, they shouldn't get paid! WTF?

[MDvet]

The article tells you the some of the reasons why the U.S. auto industry is in such a bad shape. The UAW ensure the retirees and current members have good benefits and drove the companies to go out of business. We talk about CEOs getting paid a lot of money, but how about not working and getting paid or getting paid 85% after getting laid off. I read somewhere these laid off workers don't look for jobs since most cases they won't find a job that will paid them similiar to their previous job or as much as their unemployment benefits. I will probably do the same thing, but someone has to pay when people that doesn't work get paid.

"For a year after the Broening Highway plant shut its doors, Hopkins was in the "job bank." That meant she got paid even though she had no job to do. In her case, she used the time to volunteer in Pasadena."

"Now, despite being laid off all of November, she and her co-workers in Delaware still get 85 percent of their usual wages thanks to GM payments that supplement unemployment benefits."

[Tommy]

The unions created this mess and there is no reason for the taxpayers to bail the companies out. Just what is wrong with a $1,ooo/month pension?

[MDvet]

Tommy wrote:

The unions created this mess and there is no reason for the taxpayers to bail the companies out. Just what is wrong with a $1,ooo/month pension?

I don't know the pension structural for auto industry well enough to know if $1000 a month pension is justified. It will all depend on how much an employee contributed to receive $1000 a month pension.

[African American Woman]

$1000.00 is not enough to live on today. If you think this will only hurt the auto worker's your wrong, we will all feel the effect of this.

[Kevin]

Most people seem to want to blame management for producing gas guzzling SUV's. While management does deserve some of the blame, most of it should go to the UAW. GM and Ford can't change to more fuel efficient cars because that would mean that that they would have to lay off workers that made the SUV's, or at least change their job function. Both are against union contracts. The UAW should be bailing out GM with the union dues that they have collected over the years.

[Mike]

and welcome to the anxiety and fears many of my generation (early 30s) face with few if any companies even offering pensions. I feel bad for these people, but they have some unrealistic expectations. If my company has "no work" I wont be getting 85% of my regular pay. I will get laid off and nothing.

I would kill for a pension, my company has even suspended its match of my 401k. So I have no retirement assistance at this point. again, feel bad for these people but they have it better than they know.

[lll]

terp fan j wrote:

The big 3 got themselves into this mess and need to get themselves out of it. Not one cent of tax payer money should go to them. Let them file for bankruptcy and reorganize. It may cost jobs, but it needs to be done that way.
My job could be gone as well since I work for company that has contracts with GM, but so be it.
STOP THE BAILOUTS!

Yeah, but do you realize if they fail our economy will drop into a much deeper recession and our taxes will be paying for the half-million that will be unemployed. I'd rather pay and them still function then pay and they sit at home collecting unemployment.

[George from Pasadena]

As a retired Union Worker and former Union Officer for over 30 years I can understand their situation. My union was wise enough to have a multi-employer pension program and to have trustees from both sides handle the money. Not just the company. The leadership of their union should have taken notice when Beth Steel was alowed to screw their retirees. My heart goes out to my fellow Union Brothers and Sisters and I hope the best for them and fear the worst. I'm sure a lot of people will take the opportunity to bash Unions in this blog, but those that do remember this. It is better to have worked UNION and lost then to work RAT and never won.

[cpigrun]

I agree the big three make an inferior product. I myself was a big Chevy guy growing up and just assumed that all vehicles developed issues within the 60,000 mile range. I then bought a Toyota, and whatdoyaknow, 150,000 never a visit to a shop. Plus, many foreign autos are now assembled here, where the big three have moved to Mexico, South America, Canada, Eastern Europe.

We have too many Auto Companies now for the amount of buyers there are. Once competition was introduced, the big three continued to play by it's own standards.

Add 40 % of the sale price going to Medical care and you have the diaster that is emerging.

[what-the]

UAW look in the mirror and you will see the culprit for the big 3's demise. Your greed over the years has bankrupted the auto industry and will now allow foreign manufacturers to take over. I do not pretend to speak for everyone but you will not get a bit of sympathy from me.

[jeffro]

Unions broke the back of industry. The auto makers are trying to provide things they possibly can't do. They are basically a health care provider and retirement institution that builds cars on the side. They need to let them fall, let the workers lose everything and start all over again. It will happen anyway because there are no other options left. Just like this coming global depression. Everyone is trying to delay the inevitable by printing money. Just get ready to take the pain.

[John]

WAH! WAH! are we supposed to feel sorry for overpaid union workers?

[Dave]

Well, these gentlemen and women were not complaining when their Unions were demanding high salary, free health insurance, great pension plan, and of course security that management could not discipline and fire them for being lazy or trouble makers. Now, I can hear Union people saying ..... he doesn't know what he is talking about. Unfortunately, I do because while attending college I worked at one of the auto plants and saw it first hand. I recall workers complaining that they had to do a miminal physical active job because someone called in sick. You would have thought the Company was asking them to do some actual work. As for the gentleman who is worried about his $3,000.00 per month pension .... well folks how many of you are going to get $3,000.00 per month and insurance benefits. Greed will catch up with you. Bet none of these people have $10,000.00 in a savings account. Another group of "entitled" people. Have to go, want to buy an American car today, need to get a $30,000.00 loan to buy it.

[George from Pasadena]

I often wonder why it is that when hard working average folks like you and me fall on hard times there is always a hard core mob that smells blood and is ready to pounce on us, yet the likes of all the CEOs and Politicians for the most part get a free ride from the vengence of this mob. Is it because those that are leading the mob aspire to be like the CEOs and Politicians or is it that they don't take the time or the trouble to hear the rest of the story. I guess we will never know and the mob will always be there ready to strike down the little guy, because to Cowards they are an easy target.

[shoreraven]

Another example of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. The auto industry unions are the last major industry unions to go because our society bought cars regularly. Their "gimme" attitude ($36,000+ yearly pension, fully paid health care,$58,000+ salary, retirement in your fifties, for putting on a bolt or attaching a hose or looking for paint blemishes) has been a disaster waiting to happen for many years. Hey union brothers if you don't like it why don't you strike!!! The car companies will survive (well maybe only two of them) only if the unions make BIG concessions. I do like the suggestion that the unions bail out the companies. NO MORE BAILOUTS!

[George from Pasadena]

As for you jeffro in fayettville nc. You are living proof that nothing good ever came out of the south but an Empty Greyhound Bus.