Posted on 10/10/2007 8:40:04 AM PDT by EagleUSA
DETROIT (AP) -- Thousands of Chrysler LLC autoworkers walked off the job Wednesday after the automaker and the United Auto Workers union failed to reach a tentative contract agreement before a union-imposed deadline.
It is the first UAW strike against Chrysler since 1997, when one plant was shut down for a month, and the first strike against Chrysler during contract talks since 1985.
The UAW apparently is staying on the job at the five plants that Chrysler already had shut down this week because of sagging sales of some models, according to a person familiar with the walkout who asked not to be identified because the situation is in flux.
Brett Ward, a forklift driver at the Sterling Heights assembly plant in suburban Detroit, said he thinks a strike is justified, but he hopes the union can get a better deal than the one it reached with General Motors Corp.
"Hopefully with a strike we'll get some better gains and get a better contract in front of us," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...
They just walked out a couple miles down the road from me here in Twinsburg. I’ll be driving by their union hall on the way home for lunch.
“Hopefully with a strike we’ll get some better gains and get a better contract in front of us,” he said.
Couldn’t better show that a union doesn’t care one whit for free market concepts like running a business.
What you will get laid in front of you is the closing notice when they shut your plant down and move.
Yep. THAT will fix you, Chrysler! Unions suck. Period.
Chrysler is privately owned, now. You may be getting a pink slip and a see ya'...........Help Wanted signs and ads are really cheap..........
The Leadership Goons at the UAW want the BILLIONS in retirement funds to “Manage”, and could care less about the workers....
When I came home from the United States Navy in the late 60s I was very qualified for jobs in the telecommunication or maritime industries. In both cases I was not allowed to join the unions. Jobs were for exclusively for next of kin. I felt betrayed as a vet and have never forgiven the unions. I was treated better by the anti-war dope smoking maggot invested hippies than the unions.
Yup..picketers for about a mile down Chamberlin Road. And, pulling out of the union hall parking lot as I drove by....a Ron Paul van.
“Chrysler is privately owned, now. You may be getting a pink slip and a see ya’”
I hear Toyota is hiring. Of course that means the average UAW member will have to be paid what they’re actually worth.
At least that was my experience as a member in the 70's.
Free markets are good.
Have seen the same thing all through the rust belt. If you talk to most union workers long enough you always find out that there kids have all migrated away from where they grew up so they could have a career. It nevers seems to cross these idiots minds that if they weren’t so greedy (read union contracts and higher taxes to feed the unions) their children probably could find quality jobs in their hometown.
I really hate painting people with the same brush. One can hardly fault people for getting as much or more as they are worth.
Except that union wages and their ramifications are not subject to free market pressures to get wages for what a product is worth.
If a football player wants to make a certain amount of money, they can ask for it at free agency, and if they are worth it, some team will sign them, knowing that their fans may well pay extra ticket prices to see the athelete, or whatever.
Unions are impervious to these pressures. The first indication that free markets will not support their extortionist practices is when the company goes under.
The union organizers just pick up and leave town. Funny how their jobs always seem to find a way to survive.
Quality of Chrysler Products climbs dramatically.
They figure it will last two days like the GM strike.
Chrysler doesn’t have to pay the “surplus” workers during a strike, but can still import Chery’s from China to come in badged as Chryslers eventually.
Which is to say, Chrysler’s owner Cerebus *wants* this strike to last, and last, and last...
Thus, if the strike ends it will only be because the UAW was smart enough to cave, and cave big time.
They are completely blinded to the fact that unions are not patriotic.
They are communism on a small scale.
Reminds of the old short story “The Waistband that was Taut Until the Moment it Snapped”
In some alternate universe, it must make perfect sense to stage a walkout when your employer is going down the tubes.
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