Posted on 12/15/2008 12:54:51 PM PST by The Pack Knight
This is going to turn in the unemployment benefits anyway, but just for UAW members.
In a former life, I was involved in the iron and steel trade via steamship fuelings on the Great Lakes. I saw the industry get big, get small, get bought, etc.
Today’s talking points on MSNBC was that southern republicans refuse to save American jobs to promote foreign businesses in south. Also that the Southern States are offering incentives to foreign companies to set up shop, but deny American companies up North federal money to stay alive. This is ‘unamerican’ and union busting. Also republicans are for financial bailouts but not for ‘working’ men and women. As usual it was only one side presented , Scarbourgh Morning Joe
They say the phrase “union busting” like it’s a bad thing.
It’s like trying to put a negative spin on
“pedophile ring busting”.
The same thing is going to happen to the auto industry, no matter what the government does. There’s going to be pain, but looking at other industries that have enjoyed less protection does give some cause for optimism.
You can still make money in heavy industry in the United States, so long as you leave the old Industrial Age business models behind and modernize. Caterpillar, for example, broke this same union 15 years ago, and they’re the top earth-mover manufacturer in the world now.
Americans are still the most productive workers in the world, but you have to innovate to compete. That doesn’t just mean new products; it means new ways of running your business as well. As long as the auto industry can’t reform, it’s moribund no matter how many cars they sell and no matter how much life-support cash the government pumps into them.
LOL
Ditto, except I have two.
Here’s a quiz to help clarify things for the union brothers:
1. Are you overweight?
2. Do you own an automobile?
3. Do you own a home?
4. Do you hold any degrees or have you graduated from specialized traing in preparation for the job you perform?
In nine out of ten responses, the answers would be Yes, Yes, Yes and No. Meaning that the unionist is unqualified in anyway for any other kind of job and yet has all the benefits and advantages in abundance that 90% or the world only dreams about.
With a fist and lead pipe!
Priceless
It’s ridiculous is what it is. As a former Ohioan living in North Carolina, I for one am happy to live in a state with a pro-business outlook. If it’s foreign companies, rather than American, that wish to take advantage, I ‘m glad to have them.
If states like Michigan want to drive jobs out, that’s their problem. They can run their state how they like, so long as they stay out of how we run ours.
The steel industry went through this.””
Please clarify for me who many steel mills are still in the USA...
Or put it into percentages basis.. ie: 50% 80% 2%???/
That is excellent!
Yes, I think we should take it as seriously as the UAW does.
If they're not willing to accept market rates of compensation, why should I be worried?
Expecting the Weakest Year in Three Decades, Truck, Rail and Ocean Shipping Firms Are Cutting Back. In a normal year, Gordon Trucking Inc. might replace 20% of its fleet of 1,500 big rigs with new trucks. But given the bleak outlook for the freight business, the Pacific, Wash., hauler doesn’t intend to buy a single new truck next year.”””
Not only not buying a single new big rig-—IF Gordon’t Trucking is hauling anything into Kalifornia, the truck MUST have over $12,000 of “scrubber” technology installed on the truck under the new “green” rules just voted on in Kalifornia.
I don’t think they understand how much of what they consume on a daily basis is brought in by truck.
Years ago, I lived in Grass Valley, Kalif.
They got on their high horses about letting big rigs park on the city streets at night, waiting for stores to open in the AM, so they could deliver. All got started by a fancy-headed Century 21 Real Estate office, which thought it was “detrimental” for their “curb/street (which was PUBLIC) to have large trucks parked there.
In the county Supervisors meeting, I slowly asked the 5 Supes where the friehgt part of the local airport was.... there was none.
I asked where the railroad station/fright station was...there was none.
I asked where the river barges docked to deliver their loads...there was none.
Then I asked them why they were pissing off the truckers who had a limit on the number of hours they could drive, and how efficient they were trying to be in their jobs, when there was no other way any fright came into town, including groceries. I reminded them they had less than 10 days of goods, and even less in the groceries if they got the truckers mad enough to refuse to deliver to Grass Valley/Nevada City.
They did put the street by the Century 21 realtor off limits with signage, but they let them park on a number of other streets.
Sometimes I wondered just how much of a bubble people were living in when I was there in the chambers-—over and over again. They cried for business and more jobs, but they argued with Hollywood Video over their logo for months, until the company managers went down the road to another town in another county. Same with a large company that packaged and marketed dried foods, and when they moved to Auburn, in Placer county—when I left there they had gone from 12 trucks to 77 trucks delivering their goods. All that license revenue was NOT coming to Nevada County. The jobs moved 26 miles, also, and that meant that all those workers who followed their jobs to Auburn made a 52 miles+ round trip a day to Auburn, and clogged Hwy 49 even more than prior......
I cannot even recall all the times I sat in on the Supes meetings, and argued with them over their dictates.
...and, BTW, if we bail your a$$ out, and you continue happily building shiXXy cars, who the hell is going to buy them? Get it?
AGAIN; everything’s changed ! DUH !
The unions have been involved in politics for years.
Political payback is a b!tch.
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