American Axle to Close Plant in Blow to UAW (Unions strike again!)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 08/18/11 | Jeff Bennett

[TonyInOhio]

DETROIT–American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. dealt the United Auto Workers a second blow Thursday by announcing the closure of its New York gear-making plant after union rank-and-file members failed to ratify a new contract late last month.

The Cheektowaga plant, employing about 100 hourly and salaried workers, will be shut sometime after Feb. 25, American Axle spokesman Christopher Son said. The announcement comes a month after the company said it will close its Detroit plant after workers there failed to agree to wage cuts. That closure will throw about 300 people out of work.

[Trailerpark Badass]

More lazy-ass envy.

Nothing new.

[Java4Jay]

greed is good .. Another lost sole. You can't take it with you, for your rewards are in heaven.

[MamaB]

Let them start their own business. My late husband did not like his old company so he started his own business. We went months and months without a paycheck so the employees got paid. He worked his butt off sometimes getting home about 3 am and getting back to work at 7. Thankfully, he did not need as much sleep as I do. We took out a loan to make the payroll. I am still paying that off. It is not easy but the rewards are great. So, don’t give me this junk about how great unions are. They have ruined many businesses here in this country. I miss him every day since he died in 06 from liver cancer. I have read stories of how workers in the north just sit around and yet they still get paid. If they worked for my late husband he/she would be kicked out the door. If you do not do the job you were hired to do, then you find another job where you have to do whatever the job requires. No one and I do not care what kind of person you are, should get paid for doing nothing.

[fhayek]

I won’t insult you or deride you for your opinions. You are entitled to believe whatever you want, though I don’t really see how you fit in around here. I have first hand knowledge about unions. I have witnessed, or know someone who has witnessed union vandalism, union sabotage of worksites, union harassment of non-union workers and contractors. I could tell you stories of union violence. All against honest, American workers who wanted nothing but to do their jobs. One of my employees was SPAT upon, by a member of a union. To his credit, and to his great restraint, he just walked on through. If you price yourself out of the market, and must resort to thuggery, don’t cloak yourself in high minded rhetoric about ‘what’s good for mankind’. To me, its just another form of extortion.

[Java4Jay]

Value ??? He sucked the life out of it. The manufacturing plants will now be moving overseas or to Mexico. Is that American value?

[Java4Jay]

Unions are their own worst enemy

[MamaB]

Oh, my word, did he really say that? Is he stuck on stupid? We have a family business and there is no way, repeat, NO WAY we would open the books for just anyone. In the first place that is not the employees’ business. They should be thankful someone has taken the huge chance to start a business so someone can have a job. I can not believe that.

[Java4Jay]

So, don’t give me this junk about how great unions are. ... I never said that, here or outside.

[graywaiter]

Point taken...but so do many business owners, and I would say more so by far than union members.

[graywaiter]

No sir, my “soul” is just fine, thank you very much. My tithes are paid, and I've rendered to “Caesar”.

On a another note, I love how very judgmental you've suddenly become. Does this mean that your belief in the 10 Commandments is strong as well?

[graywaiter]

DU troll, I’m sure.

[MortMan]

Still, you (apparently intentionally) miss the point.

You are arguing that the line worker is as valuable as the CEO. That’s a socialist fantasy.

If you want to debate value of a CEO, that may be a useful debate. Instead, you bemoan the proletariat’s fate and use the bourgeoisie’s remuneration as a basis for comparison.

That’s socilaist rhetoric, FRiend.

I wondered what it would take to get you to reply to me.

Have you looked up “enlightened self-interest” yet? Or dacha?

[Trailerpark Badass]

Value ??? He sucked the life out of it. The manufacturing plants will now be moving overseas or to Mexico. Is that American value?

Oh, BS.

The unions, and the big government they support and fund, sucked all of the profit out of it.

[Trailerpark Badass]

It’s Marxist rhetoric.

[graywaiter]

Uh..hello...it was HIS to suck the life out of! What part of that do you not understand? He was free to do as he pleased with an asset he OWNED.

He didn’t give birth to those employees. His responsiblity to those people ended when his company (for WHATEVER reason) lost its ability to compete. That is how it works. Survival of the fittest. Cheaper labor, cheaper product, more sales. Any of those employees could have started their own business to compete with him!

A scanning of an Economics 101 textbook would serve you well. Quit whining about being a victim! Develop a marketable skill and do it yourself! There is money to be made if you have the guts and determination to make it.

[Mr. Lucky]

Value??? He sucked the life out of it.

American Axle has gone from an annual loss of $1.1 Billion in 2008 to a profit of $120 Million in 2010. That's hardly "sucking the life out of" the company.

[MortMan]

I know. I’m trying the reasoned approach, I don’t expect it to work, but...

[Oceander]

Will you all not be happy til all ‘workers’ earn a buck an hour?

This is a race to the bottom, third world status.

You people are clueless.

The clueless one here is you; only a pie-eyed idiot such as yourself would consider that private businesses should operate as non-profit charities for "The Workers."

The underlying problem with unions is not that workers want to hang together to increase their bargaining power, but rather than federal and state law puts the thumb of state coercion too much on the side of the unions, distorting the entire market for labor and, essentially, turning private businesses into captive cash-cows for those unions. That, of course, means that they are really just cash-cows for the union bosses - which is, in turn, why the mob always gets into the unions.

The solution is as simple and obvious as it is ignored by those who claim to want to help "The Workers" - convert the unions into partnerships, where each of the members has a fiduciary duty to the partnership and cannot compete against it without the partnership's consent, and where it is the partnership that negotiates with the employer to work out a contract under which the partnership will provide its labor resources to the employer.

Why is this the solution? Because it gives workers the same leverage that comes from size but keeps them on an equal footing with the companies that need those labor resources so that neither has an unfair negotiating position over the other. It should be patently obvious to everyone but a liberal by now that the end-result of being pro-union is not better wages or working hours for workers, but unemployment and poverty for workers - oh, and jobs for foreigners too.

That is precisely the same sort of structure that works for lawyers, has worked for centuries, and works for very large organizations composed of thousands of attorneys.

In fact, the principal purpose of the union laws in this country is not so much to protect the workers as it is to herd them into latter-day plantations and to convert them into passive, docile tools for ulterior political agendas, primarily through the use of, or threat to use, force against an uncooperative worker, and in closed-shop states through the threat of economic punishment by taking away the ability of uncooperative workers to earn a living.

No, the enemy of workers everywhere are those who claim to favor "The Workers," not those who would free them from the bonds of union slavery.

[Java4Jay]

Stepped out to eat, researching it now.

Psychology.. I have to stop, think and reason long here

[Java4Jay]

DU troll, I’m sure. .. NOT, A Herman Cain sticker is proudly on my car and $$$ sent to many conservative right wing candidates, including $ to this site.