Posted on 09/24/2007 8:33:39 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Edited on 09/24/2007 8:57:31 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
DETROIT -- United Auto Workers union members walked out of General Motors Corp. factories in the U.S. Monday morning after bargaining over a new national labor agreement failed to produce a deal by an 11 a.m. deadline. It's the first time in more than 20 years that the UAW has staged a mass walkout in connection with company wide contract talks. But in a sign of the complex forces at work in the Detroit auto industry, GM shares were trading higher Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, as investors cheered signs that GM management might be willing to resist ...
“They were originally meant for worker safety and corporate fairness but have turned into greedy monsters delivering low quality.”
Worker safety is largely addressed by various regulatory agencies these days. Corporate fairness, OTOH? Well, most manufacturers today have an alternative to expensive domestic labor - China and other developing economies. You can see how “fairly” they treat their employees there. Of the $100+ that Nike makes on a pair of shoes, how much finds its way to the peasants who assemble them? Unions can’t prevent off-shoring, of course, but they can certainly encourage it with excessive demands. GM’s already got plans to source more of their parts, and eventually whole vehicles, from China don’t they?
Just last year I was reading an article about the thousands of auto-workers that were replaced by automation, etc. However, they can’t be laid off. So - these guys go to a room at the plant and hang out all day and collect their paychecks. I wonder if they went on strike too?!
or to foreign countries....
They probably break out the folding chairs when the cameras are gone.
"Many people cried, including myself," Tremblay said. "I'm a mother of two children and I'm separated from my husband. It's very difficult."
Tremblay said she abstained from the unionization vote. She said she was upset her noncommittal stance won't save her job.
Voting no to unionization might have saved her job. Failure to take a stand got her jack sh!t.
“Buying GM products for patriotic reasons is pointless.”
Yep. Since foreign cars are now made in he U.S. they cannot use that B.S. Right now I drive a 96 T-Bird, but if and when I decide to spend possibly 20k or more on a car it will not be some Big 3 union poorly made piece of S**T.
“Ummm...the factories aren’t just in Michigan: they’re in Ohio, Indiana, New York, Missouri, Delaware, etc.”
I think that the use of the name “Detroit” when talking about any U.S. auto topic is more of using it as a identifying symbol than anything else. When you say Detroit, people automatically think cars. The right words for this escape me, so anyone help me if you can.
Let's hope the strike lasts at least until Nov 2008. Every dollar spent supporting striking workers is one less dollar that will end up in DNC coffers.
my husband is in a tile union. He would have to work two non-union jobs to make what he makes with the union. His union pushes democrats come election time, but we both vote republican.
That’s nice. Why are you still giving money to Democrats and living in a high cost Democrat part of the country, then?
Replace them all.
“we” don’t give money to democrats, the union does albeit with union dues perhaps, but not our choice. We live in a Republican county. We were born and raised in NJ, my parents are/were Republicans.
And before you flame away about working for a union is then giving to democrats, heard about the high cost of living in NJ? highest property taxes?
Then why live there????
Thanks for posting. Very, very interesting.
If this strike goes too long the President may call them back to work.
The word is "analogous".
Just enough to cover dues, political donations, round trip bus ride, a baseball bat and a daily pint of antifreeze....
What you want is “is not to allow a bunch of Union thugs to blackmail the businesses, the economy, the consumers and even many members of their unions”. But your solution goes far beyond that.
Mighty white of them to wait until GM announced the first profit in years.
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