[Lijahsbubbe]

Ford can't compete with auto companies who don't pay union wages, so they give the employees more and more to do in less time.

In defense of the autoworkers, American autoworkers are the ones who have made the big profits for Ford during the big profit years. Overseas did not do well.

Ford had Jaques forgot-his-last-name as CEO and he dinked around with their money, didn't focus the money on design and auto building, they got rid of him. They definitely have a management problem.

Alot of people think autoworkers are paid too much, but it is some of the hardest work you can do. They definitely need their health benefits, most have chronic health problems (carpal tunnel, rotater cuff, back) and a big majority will not escape the line without some type of surgery.

I see no easy answers, as there is no way to compete with the foreign companies, or cheap labor. But I do know the auto industry is a huge part of our economy and those are not jobs we want to lose.





Even so,

[Pan_Yans Wife]

I don't hate the automakers. My father, and his father before him, as well as my brother, have worked in the automobile painting systems/robotics industry, and my maternal grandfather worked at the Ford Rouge Plant.

I still have trouble understanding how the unions cannot take the hit of the loss of jobs. If the cars are not selling, then there is no need for the workers. This is the reason why my brother is out of work at the moment.

Doesn't this also go back to the huge incentives given starting in late 2001, to get people to buy new cars? If the families that could afford to do so, already have done this, wouldn't that mean that the sales are seeing a natural decline in demand?

[RightWingNut]

Nasser

[Bernard Marx]

Ford had Jaques forgot-his-last-name as CEO and he dinked around with their money, didn't focus the money on design and auto building, they got rid of him. They definitely have a management problem.

That's a major understatement. Ask anyone who owned a Taurus under his (Jacques Nasser's) "management." The guy was a Green

http://www.corpwatch.org/news/PND.jsp?articleid=1453

who decided Taurus engines shouldn't have asbestos head gaskets. He replaced them with some horrible stuff that failed at about 60,000 miles and caused complete rod/valve-bending engine failure. It happened to my Taurus and my daughter's. Ford paid me nearly $4,000 after first saying they had no responsibility. They changed their tune when I got a lawyer. Multiply that by tens of thousands of other claims and you begin to see why they have problems. I might consider buying another Ford at some point but the company stonewalled and tried to screw people. They can't go bankrupt fast enough to suit me.

[ffusco]

Carpel tunnell? Give me a f'ing break! Unions have destroyed manufacturing with their B.S!


If you can't pull a crank for 8 hours a day-get a different job.There are lots of 20 y.o.s who would assemble autos at 10 dollars per hour. It's not rocket science.

[ffusco]

What part of the economy do you mean:

A strategic industry that produces a durable good..

or lots of overpaid piece-workers that demand top dollar to assemble auto components?