GM Workers on Strike

[Salvatore]

Yes it does my good man! and to TastyKake!

[Xplantdad]

C'mon Sam...no more beating around the bush...make the plans and go to Vettefest....

[Schonyenko2]

I think there's one very important thing to remember when you talk about manufacturing in this country. We won WWII by out producing the axis powers. The A bomb brought Japan to it's knees, but Germany was defeated by our ability to overwhelm them with mass produced tanks,planes, ships, etc.
When you move steelmaking, and manufacturing jobs to China, or somewhere else you have no control over, I believe you leave the country at peril.
Should you become involved in a protracted conflict with say Iran, you do not have the ability to produce in this country adequite replacement equipment to fight a non nuclear conflict. You barely have enough now to try to sustain what's going on in Iraq. That's why you have a lot of old UAW retirees workin at the Rock Island arsenal building armored humvee doors.
Just in passing, most union people are some of the most patriotic folks you'll ever meet.The president of Iran would not be welcomed at any UAW plant that I know of.
Anyway the main point of this rant is that you need equity, and fairness during bargaining time. All sides need to respect the needs, and issues shared by their common goals.The union needs to be realistic in their demands, and the company needs to respect the workers, and not say things like we can get trained monkeys to do your job, or we'll get a bunch of Mexicans to replace your sorry asses.(been there, heard that) Comprehensive striker replacement bargaing legislation, joined with mandatory federal mediation intervention so as to not damage the economy, or threaton national security would be a plus. At any rate when this country can not internally build, in mass numbers, enough weapons to fight a prolonged conflict, because of manufacturing outsourcing, and gutting a skilled union workforce, we're simply screwed.

[Salvatore]

Schonye nails it agin. We were the strongest industrialized nation on earth a few years ago. Produced the most for less. If I remember correctly 35-39% of the work force was union from the 40's till the mid 70's . I don't think we will ever see that again. Its really all our faults in some respect. The world is a global economy with America loosing ground in the manufacturing and the GNP sector. Where is Jimmy Hoffa when you need him?

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

Good points, but there is a reason for outsourcing certain jobs - the domestic rate is simply prohibitive compared to the global rate! If the unions keep negotiating themselves out of jobs, they are the ones pushing the workforce overseas!

A local UAW worker was on the news last night stating that 'they want us to pay a portion of our healthcare insurance....' - wake up pal, the rest of the workforce has been doing it for 25 years Another worker stated the biggest issue is job security, they want a guarentee that more jobs won't be moved offshore... Keep it up buddy, the wrecking ball is not too far away! It's that very mindset that gets them in trouble - our very own union now looks back and wishes they had made logical concessions too.

Management should not demean their workers, and vice-versa. Schoneye is right, there needs to be mutual respect from both sides.

[Mr70]

I know a few that "were" in a Union once,and admit today,they really priced themselves right out of the market back then.

[PeteLeathersac]

Oshawa Plant #1 shut this morning...#2 Plant most likely going down later today..
Here's a link from the Canadian side of things..

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStor...W_strike_070925

~ Pete

[Chevy454]

As stated before, this gets down to the healthcare/retiree payments that GM is obiligated to pay for seemingly forever...I heard last week that the amount of $$$ that GM has to add into each and every car to offset the benefits is already *more* than the msrp of several of the Asian automobiles...that's *before* the price of material, labor, profit, etc. I forget the exact number, but I wanna say it was like $13k-$15k or something silly like that? Regardless, that's a heck of a head start for the competition, considering *all* of the Big 3 are forced to now compete in a global market...

[Donutblue]

Strikes, plant shut downs, --- delay on the new Camaro or maybe none at all ??? Employee costs are becoming a staggering event with increasing cost of health care, costs of workers compensation, contracts with no-show jobs and let's not forget the large CEO paychecks and bonus packages. Contracts in corporate America - Union and Non-Union boils down profit and what the employer can justly payout. Maybe if both sides contracted & submitted to binding arbitration these events could be avoided saving all a ton of money.

[427king]

Sounds to me like the workers are raising with a 10 high. Hopfully GM wont call.