New UAW ad: You people aren’t going to put us out of work, are you?
posted at 5:28 pm on December 5, 2008 by Allahpundit
A poignant message from the folks who helped steer American automotives into a ditch. Too bad they mentioned cars in the voiceover; otherwise this could be recycled as is, replete with the “not a banker” class resentment element, by any industry demanding a future bailout. I’m going to file it away for redubbing just in case blog advertising dries up. That would never happen, would it?
Geraghty wonders who’ll be buying cars next year or the year after with the economy in the toilet, but I think he’s only saying that because he loves bankers. Meanwhile, NRO claims that Congress has stalled on a comprehensive bailout but that a bridge loan to punt the issue to Obama is possible. A final deal reportedly could involve a “big role” for government in restructuring the companies with even a “car czar” appointed for oversight — which has worked out super for TARP thus far. What could go wrong?
Blowback
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Ooh, the specter of the evil “union boss”!! I’m sure you can find some company goons to teach ‘em some respect, Autolite style.
Grow Fins on December 5, 2008 at 6:45 PM
Both of my older brothers were born in Lynwood, at St. Francis Hospital. I was born and raised in Downey. Downey has changed, but is not that bad of a place considering what has happened to some of the surrounding cities.
Mark1971 on December 5, 2008 at 6:45 PM
I’ve always bought my cars from one of the Big3. I don’t see why I should bother any more. If my tax dollars are already going to support their fat a$$es, I might as well just get a better car to drive while I support America.
pedestrian on December 5, 2008 at 6:46 PM
kybowexar,
I was just correcting you as an indirect way of also poking fun at muyoso for mentioning blacks and latinos. I, too, don’t care about race.
Christien on December 5, 2008 at 6:47 PM
Japan can supply all the cars required by the US population and would be very happy to do so. The US no longer makes electronics. Soon they will no longer make cars.
keep the change on December 5, 2008 at 6:48 PM
Now it’s an American joke.
“YES WE CAN”
Baxter Greene on December 5, 2008 at 6:50 PM
How is that going to happen, with the President and both houses of Congress being wholly owned subsidiaries of the unions?
pedestrian on December 5, 2008 at 6:52 PM
I got a better idea. Why don’t you overpaid underworked monkeys raise your union dues up to 60% of your inflated salary and YOU bail out your employers. You bankrupted them with your bloated wages and benefits. If you get your grubs on any of my tax money I’ll never buy another American made car again, and I encourage everyone to do the same.
raybojabo on December 5, 2008 at 6:53 PM
Because no one will buy them. You can’t prop up something that can’t sell. The more money they throw at the big 3, the less the big 3 will change, and thus, the faster they will die.
keep the change on December 5, 2008 at 6:53 PM
UAW orders Big three to pay their employees $75.00 and hour WITH conditions, resulting in Big Three losing cash FAST. Big Japan pays their workers $45/hr and they’re still in the black. UAW sucks! Fire the UAW!
My motorcycle is Japanese and so will my new/used car I’ll buy later this year. F**K the UAW!
bryan2369 on December 5, 2008 at 6:55 PM
Yo quiero una bio-diesel carro con muchas stow-y-go sillas para mas personas!
/
Christien on December 5, 2008 at 6:56 PM
Right, obviously the solution is to prop up a failed business plan. Then they can compete with companies with successful business plans and put them out of business.
Because nothing is more detrimental to the economy than efficiency, profitability, and competence. We need to use the Government to stop these things from happening by supporting those who oppose these actions.
Thank you Grow Fins for clarifying that only by supporting failing businesses so they can compete with a Government sponsored advantage can we end the triple threat of efficiency, profitability, and competence.
And we’ve got to stop those three things if America is going to stay a major power… we’ve got to follow Europe (France, Germany, etc.) and drop worker productivity to at least half of what it is now. Then we’ll do much better, somehow.
gekkobear on December 5, 2008 at 6:58 PM
Ah. Brings back memories. Sleeveless aluminum engine block, iron pistons. You’d roll into a gas station and if you turned the car off, you’d have to wait 10 minutes for the engine to cool enough to “unsieze” the pistons. Once took the car in for repairs and the mechanic called his buddy over and said “Look, this one’s got a rubber band for a timing chain!” Sometimes the car wouldn’t start at all. Fix: Unscrew the spark plugs and blow out the oil and gunk.
Interestingly, it never smoked.
I now own a Mazda 3 hatch. Best car I’ve ever owned.
unclesmrgol on December 5, 2008 at 7:02 PM
Not the auto industry,but a good example of that superior liberal intellect in running one of the biggest money making states right dead into the ground.Just like they did the auto industry with Union greed.
(and don’t even try that,”but Arnold’s a Republican”.He inherited the state in a huge deficient and was bit$h slapped into line by the liberals after his referendums bit the dust.
There is little Republican about him besides the initial(R) beside his name).
California is a democratic voting state and run by democratic local and state government.
California may be out of cash in February
By Jim Christie Jim Christie
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081205/us_nm/us_economy_california_shortfall/print
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) –
“YES WE CAN”
Baxter Greene on December 5, 2008 at 7:04 PM
Where upon you give up all pretense of being anything but a hack.
Count to 10 on December 5, 2008 at 7:04 PM
If they were workers instead of paycheck collectors, we wouldn’t be able to blame them, would we?
Well, actually yes…we would. A skillset which consists of nothing more complicated than lefty-loosey, righty-tighty doesn’t justify even Toyota’s $35 an hour. It isn’t exactly rocket science.
James on December 5, 2008 at 7:07 PM
What do you mean, exactly?
Count to 10 on December 5, 2008 at 7:09 PM
You people of the UAW don,t want the rest of the working people of this country to pay for your health and retirement benefits do you?????
thmcbb on December 5, 2008 at 7:10 PM
So the open borders crowd has no problem with illegal aliens coming un-impeded into America not paying taxes, killing the hourly wage,committing crimes,and then running back home to spend their money but you don’t won’t us working over in their country legally.
Maybe you should have brought this up when your democratic hero Clinton signed NAFTA.
Baxter Greene on December 5, 2008 at 7:11 PM
FIFY
Mallard T. Drake on December 5, 2008 at 7:11 PM
Millions of families working two jobs each and lucky to make $10 an hour should kick in for guys making $37 an hour and unbelievable benefits? That’s stupid and unfair enough to appeal to congress and Team Obama.
snaggletoothie on December 5, 2008 at 7:24 PM
Well Hey,,, we can show the same freakin commercial with the faces of millions of tax payers across this nation directing the same message right back at them!! We can show the same freakin commercial with the faces of millions of Americans in business that are going to get screwed because of all the bailouts in congress! Save the guilt trips! It isn’t working!
Why are their jobs and their families and their futures more important than ours????!!!
Oh,, that’s right,,, too big to fail!!! Yeah,, we’re all too big to fail!! Welcome to the real world!!!!
JellyToast on December 5, 2008 at 7:26 PM
I own a Ford – and, while I still love the ol’ gas guzzler, I don’t think I’ll buy another American car for a while. The differential has been in the process of going out on my Expedition for most of the five years I’ve owned it; evidently, this is a fairly common problem with this year and model, and Ford knows all about it but never recalled it. I just think the big 3 have gotten fat and complacent, and their quality has suffered as a result. Best to let ‘em go bankrupt, make them revamp their business plan and cut out some fat, and then try again.
uncivilized on December 5, 2008 at 7:31 PM
After spending 40 years fixing these mechanical wonders, I have to say that perhaps bankruptcy and restructure is likely the best way to go. Quality has consistently been lacking since the late 60′s. In the last few years, cars have been packed with technology, for it’s own sake, with little consideration given to ease and economy of repair.
I’ve often said, the simpler you can keep it and have it perform it’s intended function, the better. That will still allow for the bells and whistles, but with much less tendency to malfunction.
irongrampa on December 5, 2008 at 7:33 PM
Cry Me A Riviera.
Christien on December 5, 2008 at 7:34 PM
Congress will bail them out because they want to own the industry. If this goes through, mark my words, the big 3 will be run with Congress’ thumbs up their backsides for the next 20 years.
What’s the point of even reviewing Detroit’s plans? Those plans assume the current levels of autonomy. When they take the money, with the attached strings, they’ll be looking at governmental “input” on plant siting/closure decisions (all up and down the supply chain), product development and mix, you name it. Congress will call the shots, and Congress (as you may have noticed) isn’t a profit-maximizing entity.
Schumermobiles for the rest of our lives! I’ll never buy another big 3 auto again.
DrSteve on December 5, 2008 at 7:35 PM
Mark1971 @ 6:45PM, We used to go to the Farrell’s in Downey and cruise by the Carpenters’ house. It was a really nice area and we did most of our shopping in that mall.
Rose on December 5, 2008 at 7:36 PM
No, you people put your ownselves out of a job. Enjoy!
SouthernGent on December 5, 2008 at 7:41 PM
Letting them go under would be a terrific learning experience for these folks. Let a few of them try being self-employed, where you have to price your product competitively, maintain quality, and actually give a damn about sales.
Instead of bitching and moaning about how management treats them, let them BE management for a while. It’s amazing how someone’s atitude changes when they actually have to try to run a business!
dinobalz on December 5, 2008 at 7:42 PM
Quoting Tropic Thunder, “What do you mean, you people?“
bryan2369 on December 5, 2008 at 7:45 PM
fish… cut the crap and the living wage canard..
The very community in Kettering Ohio I was raised in would require someone make around $25.00 an hour to easily pay for that home. The neighborhoods to this day are very nice and very much middle class America with good schools…
Point is a union workers and their bosses are highly overpaid and overexpect of their wages while underperforming at every point… They are a joke
By the way I’m a former member Carpenters Union/ AFL-CIO and I despise what unions have become……..
theblacksheepwasright on December 5, 2008 at 7:46 PM
oops should have mentioned the reason I used Kettering is it is a suburb of Dayton.. little Detroit and very much represents communities which union workers currently reside in and around…
theblacksheepwasright on December 5, 2008 at 7:48 PM
……meanwhile in India they’re turning out cars for $2500. Henry Ford is alive and well and not living in the USA. You Capitalists, this is not good news. When the USA is bare-naked of factories who in hell is going to manufacture the wherewithall for the next war?
dhimwit on December 5, 2008 at 7:53 PM
What next war? We have the obama now. He promised change.
keep the change on December 5, 2008 at 8:00 PM
The workers don’t actually get paid $35/hr–that’s their cost to the company with benefits included. $20/hr is a more reasonable ballpark for their actual wages.
And it is too justified, or Toyota wouldn’t pay it. The workers aren’t paid to torque bolts–they’re paid to apply the right torque to the right bolt every single time. It’s a lot cheaper to pay extra for competent help than it is to deal with problems after the fact.
There are two problems in the case of unionized factories, but they’re not the ones one would expect (I used to work in a UAW plant as an engineer, so I saw this first-hand). The first is that the competent, hard-working union employees (there were more than you’d think) get paid the same as the screw-offs and the screw-ups, and there was no way to weed out the dead weight from the labor force.
The second is that, following Marx’s hare-brained assertion that all labor is of equal use-value, all blue-collar jobs pay exactly the same in a union plant. The guys using the million-dollar machines to assemble crucial components of the end product make the exact same amount as the guys using the ten-dollar mops to clean the bathrooms. Only the personnel tied directly to production merit a higher rate of pay for unskilled labor, and, once again, Toyota’s practices reflect this distinction.
hicsuget on December 5, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Oh boo hoo UAW. You and your lazy ilk have turned American car manufacturing into a bad joke.
Dark-Star on December 5, 2008 at 8:01 PM
Unions have outlived their usefulness and now are just a pain in the a$$ for the rest of the country.
The last Big 3 car I bought was a Cadillac diesel in 1981 for $18,000. the engine had to be replaced (gas engine) at 50K miles. I have never bought (nor my kids) an American car since. Toyota, Lexus, Mercedes, BMW or Volkswagen. All much better quallity and fewer repairs.
I had some patients who were GM employees (GMAC). They had no copays for office visits and no copays for prescriptions.
Why should people with no health insurance bail out workers who have benefits no one else could ever afford????
txdoc on December 5, 2008 at 8:05 PM
Protectionism in and of itself isn’t bad – it’s when you start sheltering industries that are chronically corrupt and/or make lousy products that everything goes sour.
Dark-Star on December 5, 2008 at 8:06 PM
I should make a commercial with my kids saying “Why should I mortgage my future to pay for your inefficiency?”
Jim62sch on December 5, 2008 at 8:08 PM
DO NOT REWARD BAD BEHAVIOR
LET THEM GO CHAPTER 11
I DO NOT WANT MY TAX DOLLARS GOING TO A PRODUCT I WOULD NEVER PURCHASE
TOO MANY BAD DECISIONS HAVE BEEN MADE WITH MY TAX DOLLARS
NO MORE BAIL OUTS
Kini on December 5, 2008 at 8:14 PM
Many a low cost car has been produced that never succeeded in the market.. because of quality..
The same unfortunately applies to our auto industry of today..
Crap quality by workers expecting wages more akin to a quality product
theblacksheepwasright on December 5, 2008 at 8:19 PM
I haven’t bought a car from the big three in over thirty years. I won’t on principle as long as they are manufactured by UAW employees.
They can have whatever crazy union they want, but I don’t have to give them a dime of my money. Reagan had it right with the air controllers.
cool breeze on December 5, 2008 at 8:22 PM
F*** the UAW. They’re the ones that screwed America.
Big John on December 5, 2008 at 8:25 PM
Damn.
And all this time, I thought it was the numbnuts in the House and Senate.
BallisticBob on December 5, 2008 at 8:29 PM
How many times, during union negotiations did the members or leaders of the UAW stop and think “Is this best for Americans? Is this driving the cost of American made cars too hight? Could this threaten the financial stability of the company that I work for that is so important to the U.S. economy?” Or did they just think “gimmie, gimmie, gimmie, more, more, more, stick it to the man…”
Yet now, when their jobs are at stake, America is supposed to think about them, and how very important the companies that the work for are.
Gimmie a break. The unions pushed the market beyond what it could bear and now they want us to pay the price for their perks.
29Victor on December 5, 2008 at 8:31 PM
WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
WWWWWWWAAAAAAA……… WWWWAAAAAAAAA……..
WWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seven Percent Solution on December 5, 2008 at 8:37 PM
I have been curious about the UAW medical benefits, how much does the average worker pay on the monthly premium? What kind of co-pay and deductible do they have?
Basically how do the medical benefits compare to the rest of the US work force and especially benefits at the foreign owned american auto factories?
The answers must be Top Secret because I can’t find the information.
Pelayo on December 5, 2008 at 8:44 PM
“…don’t let us down..we won’t let America down”
Geeeeez…since you’ve been letting America down since 1974, that one is hard to take. I admit it…I was a GM man back in 1980…bought a brand new (UAW made and approved, with love) X car (Pontiac Pheonix…right out of High School, with the money I saved from my job, going to College) and that care tried really hard to kill me. Never bought anything from those douchebags since…and never will. Since the VAST MAJORITY of Americans have had similar experiences with your ‘UAW American Products’, I’m guessing we owe you a few hundred-thousand (if we don’t count each ‘incident’ individually) ‘let downs’ UAW, to pay you back for the millions of ‘let downs’, some fatal and some not, that we, your customers, have had to eat.
AUINSC on December 5, 2008 at 8:52 PM
hicsuget, the same mind set works in the teacher unions, an art teacher gets paid the same as a physics teacher. I have known two science teachers who left the profession and went into engineering as designers because of the low teacher pay and because it was the same as the basket weaving teacher.
Pelayo on December 5, 2008 at 8:53 PM
Did I buy 1 of your cars? And you want my money for nothing?
h0mi on December 5, 2008 at 8:54 PM
I think I’ll go scrape the UAW decal off the back window of my 2004 Taurus.
Pelayo on December 5, 2008 at 9:04 PM
Sympathy meter still pegged at zero.
Mike Honcho on December 5, 2008 at 9:06 PM
Nobody is blaming the workers, and this isn’t class warfare. I have no problem with what people earn in the free market. But the free market apparently won’t support union wages.
I’m not insisting your wealth should be redistributed – I am saying if your business can’t afford your wages, that’s not my freaking problem.
Funny how the workers are adamant I should give up something to support them, while they somehow insist they deserve each and every dime they get.
angelat0763 on December 5, 2008 at 9:07 PM
Low pay? The teachers in my area all drive Lexus and Mercedes. They start out at 45,000 – and that’s for 9 months of work with killer holidays too. (Note the lack of American cars on that list….)
angelat0763 on December 5, 2008 at 9:09 PM
Eff em
roux on December 5, 2008 at 9:20 PM
Yep. The PE teachers get paid the same that I do–given the same degrees (which not many PE teachers have) and years–and they whine about having to fulfill state requirements like I have had to do all along in science.
Bob's Kid on December 5, 2008 at 9:34 PM
Chortle. Yeah, it’s that easy. Riiiiight.
In these parts you couldn’t afford a lexus on a beginning teacher’s salary unless your mate made a living wage. I can’t, and I make quite a bit more than that.
Bob's Kid on December 5, 2008 at 9:37 PM
I think you misunderstand our “progressive” tax system. Those $20/2hour folk will pay little or no taxes. It’s the guys making $37/hour with no benefits who will have to pay. As well as their children and their children’s children.
unclesmrgol on December 5, 2008 at 9:39 PM
Gee, I don’t make as much as the average UAW worker, but I kinda feel like the only “right” thing to do is to pay more in taxes so that you can keep making $73 and hour to put lugs on wheel. Somehow, it doesn’t feel right, but I sure hate to be selfish and deprive you of funds to donate to another leftist candidate in 2010.
Star20 on December 5, 2008 at 9:42 PM
Looking through these threads one point is crystal clear: These companies are failing because Americans are not buying their cars and given that, it’s unreasonable to expect Americans to bail out companies that sell products consumers are unwilling to buy.
PackerBronco on December 5, 2008 at 9:45 PM
No, dumbass, you did that all by yourself.
And BTW, when are you going to make my stock portfolio whole again?
drjohn on December 5, 2008 at 10:03 PM
Protectionism always means paying more for something than you have to. It’s like paying your uncle $50 a week to maintain a cow when you can go to someone else and buy your milk for half that (which will make the household as a whole is better off).
With the exception of defense, I can’t think of any industry for which a reasonable argument can be made for protecting it from market forces; that is, for making the nation as a whole pay more for its product.
(Though certainly embargoes on countries on human-rights grounds can be more than justified.)
Tzetzes on December 5, 2008 at 10:09 PM
That’s bovine excrement.
If I said that Americans don’t buy Apple computers, you’d say I was nuts even though Apple has less than a 3% market share. Plenty of Americans buy American cars. The US companies have 55% of the market. GM outsells Toyota and Ford and Chrysler both outsell Honda and Nissan.
rokemronnie on December 5, 2008 at 10:09 PM
I can’t WAIT to put these people Out of WORK?!!!
grtflmark on December 5, 2008 at 10:18 PM
Pithy & to the point.
29Victor on December 5, 2008 at 10:19 PM
They’re failing because their costs are so high relative to their competitors.
That’s BECAUSE of the UAW.
Unions. God help us.
I was at a trade show in NYC at the Javits Center last week. On the first morning of the first day the men’s toilets were disgusting, and they got no better.
That’s what unions do for you.
drjohn on December 5, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Another one:
In a town near me, the Superintendent of Schools is retiring after 8 years. His pay was $220,000 a year, and his retirement pension will be $190,000.
Where’s he going?
To be Superintendent of Schools at another region.
Unions. In this case, the freakin’ Teachers’ union.
They all think that money comes from the sky, and that they ALL have an astonishingly grandiose sense of self-entitlement.
drjohn on December 5, 2008 at 10:24 PM
By that definition it’s protectionist to buy from my local farmer’s markets whenever possible instead of always going to some big-box store or commercial deli.
Western culture in general and Americans in particular have become as addicted to being chronic cheapskates to their own detriment. Paying more than you absolutely have to not intrinsically wasteful or wrong. Within reason I will gladly sacrifice a little buying power if it means my money goes to support a family business instead of some soulless corporation. The lowest bidder is not always the best choice!
Dark-Star on December 5, 2008 at 10:33 PM
Meanwhile:
crosspatch on December 5, 2008 at 10:37 PM
Re-train….. /North Carolina mill worker
ex-Democrat on December 5, 2008 at 10:39 PM
Michigan: a socialist cr@p hole….keep it you mooching freaks.
Great Governor and Detroit mayor too….be proud.
No. We. Won’t.
ex-Democrat on December 5, 2008 at 10:40 PM
That’s not protectionism. In a free market the consumer is free to purchase a good or service for whatever reasons he or she sees fit to cite. If you want to pay more for local produce, that’s your right. If you think that a good use of your money is to support a family-owned store, that’s your choice. You are freely using your money to uphold a product and set of values dear to you.
Protectionism involves the goverment using economic and legal leverage to support particular industries and in the process remove choice from the consumer. For example by raising tariffs on foreign products, the government can make home-grown products more economically competitive. The tariff acts as a tax on the consumer since he or she cannot freely purchase the less-expensive product. In a very real sense the government subsidizes expense and waste and the price is borne by the taxpayer (whether he or she likes that or not.)
The other result of protectionism is that the protected industry has less incentive to modernize, improve productivity and efficiency, and generally become more competitive with its competition. Thus the consumer is doubly taxed both in having to pay more money for a good or service and in the process subsidize the continued creation of an inferior product.
PackerBronco on December 5, 2008 at 10:47 PM
I say bail them out. Why? I live in a town with 2 Ford plants. My father retired from Ford. My mother needs that pension check. And if they’re bailed out and I lose my job I won’t feel nearly as bad about wallowing in despair while I live off the public dole, stop shaving, wear the same clothes every day, and spend a lot of time fishing and playing X-Box 360/PS2-3. And don’t blame me, I haven’t voted since 1996.
manfriend on December 5, 2008 at 10:48 PM
OK, I’ll amend that to ‘lefty-loosey, righty-tighty and counting to 100.’ Happy?
James on December 5, 2008 at 10:51 PM
And the union goon thugs in the Steelworkers Union are just as bad. Dumb as rocks these union freaks. It is pure extortion what they do.
Geochelone on December 5, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Which means that 45% of the market has decided NOT to buy American. So tell me, how are you going to convince that 45% to send money to the Big 3 when they have already decided not to send money when they would’ve gotten a car in return?
PackerBronco on December 5, 2008 at 10:52 PM
He didn’t say “protectionism means always…”; he said “protectionism always means…”. The meaning of the verb “means” here is not “is defined as,” but rather “necessarily entails.”
On that point he is quite correct: protectionism forces everyone to pay more than they have to. True, some people would voluntarily choose to pay more, given the choice. Protectionism, though, takes away the freedom to make that choice for oneself.
hicsuget on December 5, 2008 at 10:52 PM
Thank heavens they could afford to pay actors to perform in a commercial. I wonder how much this effort will cost the American taxpayer.
Rogue Traveler on December 5, 2008 at 10:54 PM
No, still not happy. Correctly performing the work on one station of an assembly line once is easy; doing it 60 times a day, 5 days a week, for 30 years is far harder than it sounds. It’s not an exercise in thought–we engineers are paid precisely to take away the need for workers to do much thinking–it’s an exercise in concentration and attentiveness. Not just anyone can apply that kind of focus all day every day (I know I sure as hell couldn’t), and that’s why UAW cars have quality issues. All it takes is one guy for one minute talking about the ball game instead of focusing on the righty-tighty, and you have a breakdown in 20,000 miles.
hicsuget on December 5, 2008 at 10:58 PM
What if the Big 3 offered every car in stock at 50% off sticker? Clear out all their inventory – get money moving through the dealers and into the economy. It would have to bring in a billion or 2. Won’t solve the problem, but the longer those cars sit, the less they are worth.
I might buy one at half off.
huckleberryfriend on December 5, 2008 at 10:58 PM
“Which means that 45% of the market has decided NOT to buy American.”
I will buy a Toyota … made right here in the USA by American workers.
crosspatch on December 5, 2008 at 11:01 PM
I’ve speculated that perhaps instead of giving money to the automakers, the government should give the money to the consumer in the form of rebate checks, thus reducing the sticker cost of a car built by the Big Three. Of course that begs the question: “how much of a discount would you need to entice you to switch from the car you want (say a Toyota Camry) to one that is less preferable? Would you do it for $3000? $5000?
PackerBronco on December 5, 2008 at 11:02 PM
Ah; I misread the sentence structure. If protectionism takes away the ability to choose (and is not the choice itself) then my example is indeed invalid.
Dark-Star on December 5, 2008 at 11:02 PM
So long as you demand disproportionate salaries for unskilled and semi-skilled labor- damned straight I want to put you out of work. $75/hour in salaries and benefits is absurd and you UAW bastards know it as much as the rest of us. I DO want to put you out of work.
highhopes on December 5, 2008 at 11:03 PM
I don’t want to put the UAW out of work. I don’t give a fig about the existence of the UAW. All I care about is the car. Make me a good car at a price I like and I’ll buy it; otherwise I’ll buy from your competitor. But don’t expect me to send you money in any other way than that.
It’s not personal Sonny, it’s strictly business …
PackerBronco on December 5, 2008 at 11:07 PM
Exactly. How hard up can they possibly be? I wish I had that much loose change to throw around. I darn sure would’nt be asking for handouts. But maybe that’s just me…
Hog Wild on December 5, 2008 at 11:08 PM
I’m going to contact my Congressman and Senators tomorrow and tell them that if they don’t get major (painful) concessions from the UAW, I will never by another Big 3. My last 3 cars have been Ford and Chevies.
I bet a lot of people will not buy another Big 3 car if Congress simply bails them out without major concessions including major layoffs and reduction in health care.
It seems to me Congress and the UAW are the ones being un-American. No More Bailouts!
huckleberryfriend on December 5, 2008 at 11:11 PM
I’m not buying their cars if this is their message. We own 2 GM cars we bought new. Screw them!
I do not owe any business anything! It is not my responsibility as a customer to ensure they and their employees and employee’s families remain comfortable! It is not my duty to pay higher taxes and higher costs and watch my nation crumble just so some business can continue to run because,, well, they have such nice hard working people employed there!!!
It is their responsibility,, theirs and theirs alone to earn my business, to convince me they have something of value I want! They are the producers who are suppose to actually PRODUCE something of value to market! If they want to be a charity that seeks donations they need to change their standing with the IRS!
JellyToast on December 5, 2008 at 11:12 PM
The UAW should load up on GM stock….ROFL…or lend them the money. What a joke.
ex-Democrat on December 5, 2008 at 11:12 PM
GM stock capitalization is under $2 billion, I believe. The US government could buy all the GM stock and GIVE it to Ford which would probably serve to bail out both companies for a lot less than the auto makers are asking for bailout loans.
crosspatch on December 5, 2008 at 11:17 PM
when my computer seizes up, I hit the reset button. It works better than hitting the motherboard with a cattle prod.
Most of the people on this thread are both anti-union and anti-worker and anti-bailout, it seems. I don’t much disagree. Unions are the devil. If we want to do something like what we are doing now, why don’t we just raise our tariffs, so that foreigners can’t compete in the US? We should heavily subsidize all our industries (oh, wait, that’s what the bailout is doing). Then we’d have lots of jobs making plastics and weaving baskets and looming ponchos! I’ve always dreamed of working in a shoe factory.
anti-boomer on December 6, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Guys, I’m as much a voice against the unions as you guys are. But let me bring to your attention that while these guys are doing despicable things like begging for a taxpayer bailout, they did send me a care package while I was stationed in Korea.
I’m not a touchy-feely liberal whack that likes unions, but I feel that it may be fair to mention a positive act that the UAW did amongst a despicable act.
leetpriest on December 6, 2008 at 12:15 AM
If your worried about what we would do for military machinery if the Big 3 go under, don’t. All we would have to do in nationalize the Japanese plants already here and they woud make better ones for less.
illinidriller on December 6, 2008 at 12:22 AM
I can hardly wait…a car designed in Washington, D.C. Sounds like the American equivalent of the Yugo. The Chosen One going to ‘require’ every family to buy one?
GarandFan on December 6, 2008 at 12:34 AM
No you fool. Every family will have to pay for one, they’re not going to get one.
PackerBronco on December 6, 2008 at 12:39 AM
My favorite light bulb joke:
How many union workers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
TEN! YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WID DAT??
fred5678 on December 6, 2008 at 12:53 AM
I am a business owner.
I have to work everyday of the week if that is what it takes to get the job done.
I have to provide fast,prompt,and dependable service.
I have to do quality work.
I have to do quality work at a competitive price.
I have to market my business and sell my work in a way that
separates me from the competition and attracts my customers.
I have to be honest about my service and provide what I promised the customer if I want return business.
If I don’t accomplish this criteria,customers will go to my
competition and I will go out of business.
I don’t hear this from the Auto Industry.
It’s “bail us out or you will regret it” or “how could you take our jobs away”,extortion/guilt trip.
America is a great country with a free market system,giving anyone an opportunity to be successful if you work hard and
provide a quality service/product that the consumer wants.
If you don’t, you fail and someone else moves in to fill that void.
We didn’t become the leaders of the free world by rewarding
failure.
GM,Ford,Chrysler have failed,sucked dry by union corruption.
Chapter 11,start over, do it right,and earn our business.
That is the American way.
Baxter Greene on December 6, 2008 at 12:57 AM
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