Union votes to strike at General Motors' US plants

I don't know the inventory in the lots and outside the plants. If it's high the strike may be just what GM wants until they sell down what they got.

 

I don't think this less than 5% of the work force has that power. Business can't do it because someone else would pay more for fewer hours to attract the best people. The two times I was forced to join a union it held down my wage increases.

 

The corrupt dem donor UAW has been great for automakers and residents of the southeast

 

Or build a superior product that is so good, people are willing to pay whatever the cost is.

 

Very true. We used to be that way but NAFTA I think took our spending habits in the wrong direction, i.e. quantity over quality.

 

At one point, American-made products were superior to anything made out of country for the most part. As an example, if you bought a new American-made refrigerator back in the 1950's the chances were it would last for 30+ years; today, your lucky if it last's 10 years before needing replacement.

The will to make money has always been there, but now it's the will to make even more money, quality be damned. A piece of electronic equipment stops working, you cannot fix it in most cases, so throw it out and buy a new one. It's a new mentality and yes I agree that NAFTA played a major roll in it.

As I recall, many labor unions at that time opposed NAFTA (I know mine did even though it didn't affect us directly) but alas it went through anyway.

 

Hostess Brands bad management and union intransigence led to the end of the Twinkies.

It's alway a two-way street.

 

This is your opinion, prove it

 

Compared to the far right, my postings are sane and on the spot. I told you where I heard it. It is remarkably obvious that you call a lie when you can't prove your point. This from you, with your lack of veracity.

Your opinion of my veracity is meaningless, as always.

 

Unions had done things in excess but to blame the unions for GM's financial problems is folly.

GM like other American auto makers did not have the right products at the right quality at the right time.

Unions know that obviously unless a company is profitable they will be out of jobs.

When GM had financial problems the union back down it's demands and helped keep labor costs down a bit.
Unions want more profit sharing which will not be any good unless the company is profitable so of course unions want a finacially strong company to work for.

What do you want unions to do ? Freeze wages forever? Do not take any benefits such as health care? Do not get any paid holidays? Do not get any paid vacation? Do not get any paid sick time? Actually most companies have rolled sick time personal timr vacation time all into one.

 

Unions won’t be out of jobs....their members will be...the union bosses will still be rich.

GMs money problems was largely due to the massive obligations unions forced them into.

 

Unions used to be about fair labor practices and worker safety. This looks like extortion.

 

Well the UAW president just got raided by the fbi...this could be a shake down for legal funds

 

Yeah, the righties hate worker power.

 

I am not a rightie and this looks like extortion.

 

Companies negotiated and agreed to benefits as a. It's of doing business. So did the companies negotiate poorly?

There are auto union bosses who are under investigation for getting payoffs from companies to keep demands down. Indictments may be handed down soon if notvalready.

 

There reason they can't make you is because you don't have to. That has to do with liberty you had long before unions.

 

Unions are why public school is such a **** show. Why charter schools are using lotteries for students.

It won't change because of deep ties to political powers.

 

Unions have driven industry out of the country. They are reasonable for our poor performing schools. Hate is not strong enough... Despise maybe.

 

No contract yet at Ford and Chrysler - contracts were extended when GM was picked at the target company.

 

It's not only monotonous. It's physically taxing, doing the same task, 30 to 45 times an hour in an assembly plant, having to jump back from the line as the next work piece (car/truck) moves to your station on the line, and doing this eight hours a day, five days a week. I live in a Detroit suburb, in a 125 home subdivision, and have nine neighbors who are hourly Big Three employees. Three have retired or are retiring, way early, due to job related wear-and-year on their bodies. Where it's become worse is that when the contract were reopened in 2009, because of the bankruptcy, the UAW had to agree to outsource every single job that physically less taxing. These were jobs that, as an hourly employee's seniority went up, they could "bid on" by seniority. Janitorial, material handling, clerical (production and plant level purchasing), non-production and production store/crib, outdoor maintenance (buildings and grounds), etc - all gone. I said this back when those contracts were negotiated - this was going to come back and bite the automakers in the backside. In many cases, very few can physically handle working thirty plus years in a job that physically demanding, without it causing a backlash against the company. It simply isn't possible.

 

Labor is barely 15% of the cost of a car or truck.

 

You don't cite specifics therefore we'll both have to agree to disagree on your thread.

 

Schools you know those places where children go to learn the basics. Do you have a choice in which school your kid goes through or is it based on where you live? That's all designed by the Union. And the politicians they are in bed with.

But if you want to play dumb then agree to disagree I really don't care.

 

The workers have won this thread hands down.