Posted on 11/14/2008 4:33:57 PM PST by NRG1973
Lenny Brecher was in a foul mood yesterday as he wheeled his bicycle out of the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg. Germany, the powerhouse of Europe, is in recession and the bad news had just caught up with the 24-year-old welder.
“Recession, what does that mean?” he asked, trying to push his way through a knot of colleagues leaving the early shift. “It's just another excuse to get rid of us.”
He was grumpy because VW's first reflex in the swirling economic crisis has been to shed 750 workers before Christmas. Thousands more temporary workers like Lenny are expected to be laid off early in the new year. This at a time when VW results are looking rather good: deliveries and production will be better than the boom year of 2007 and the company is on course to generate pretax profits of €6.15 billion (£5 billion).
German workers had just been getting used to the good times, were starting to spend more and borrow more, when the recession hit. It was made official yesterday: the country's economy contracted 0.5 per cent in the third quarter, after a shrinkage of 0.4 per cent in the second.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Maybe our Congress will include the German automakers in the bailout. lol “
Yeah, you think you made a joke.
Welcome to the automotive industry, Lenny.
Yeah, it was intended to be a joke...but the way Washington is acting these days, anything is possible.
Who said that a recession is when you neighbor loses his job and a depression is when you lose your job? Reagan?
It’s about saving the United Auto Workers; to do it they have to keep the US car makers out of bankruptcy.
Gotta save those homosexual partner benefits!
But, who is going to buy the cars?
Not me...
VW has plans to open US manufacturing plant, near Chattanooga, Tenn.
A few weeks ago, VW Group was the most valuable company in the world measured by market capitalization. (share price times number of shares)
In 2007 they made net profit of over 4 billion euros.
Their sales volume is 3rd in the world, probably after Toyota and GM (overtook Ford). Goal to overtake Toyota.
VW is owned 43% by Porsche. VW sells cars from the cheapest to the most expensive in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Group
Moral of the story: There are unions, in the countries where VW operates. Same is true where Toyota, BMW, Nissan, Honda operate.
It simply takes better management in this industry, than has been in place in US companies.
* disclosure. I drive an Audi.
I’m kinda looking forward to Japanese rental cars. Sad. The big three are like South Korea trying to raise beef or grow wheat. We can only innovate. Our workforce is weak, especially the ones ruined by cross generational union representation.
This just in, the US steel industry isn’t dead. It’s only the old steel towns that are DEAD. Steel companies like Nucor compete because they moved operations to the farmbelt where the farmer work ethic crossed over to steel roll production. It’s completely and totally about the workforce. This would be a bailout of Detroit and it’s decrepid satellite rust belt supply towns.
How about this? How about they do what the airlines did during the 80’s and bust the @# #%@!$#$ unions and go back to be a builder of things instead of a manager of lives? How bout that!
I remember Continental Airlines went from having 1000’s routes and 20 hubs to scaling back to 3 hubs and 100 routes in the 80’s. Then as they restored the business, the route numbers increased and employment grew. How come they can do it but the fat cats in Detroit cannot?
The fat cats are the UAW. Ford, GM and Chrysler need to bankrupt to get rid of them.
I wonder if Lenny attended the BO rally in Germany..
after the word @#$$#%#$^@# in my post was the word unions. It’s easy to miss.
Actually I responded before perusing all the posts. My apologies to you KH. :^)
Still, German car makers (or Japanese car makers) are feeling the cold pretty much right now. They may be better positioned, but if due to the economic cooldown no one buys cars anymore, that won't help them either.
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