R.I.P. General Motors (1931-2006)

Here's the cause of GM bankruptcy:

Geedy Massachesetts lawyers in bed with unions and liberal democrat
politicians who pander to the stupid uninformed voters among us who can't
connect the dots by telling them "you have right to stand up to corporations
and get the compensation you deserve" for every stupid little accident or
hang nail which in turn causes expensive litigation and expensive workers
compensation insurance and chokes companies and kills jobs.

If you still don't get this, blame yourself for not bothering to be
informed.

 

Ask some of the old time union people about Warehouse 3 in Searcy, Arkansas.

I lived on what I made at Wally-world until 1992.

Well there are two things wrong:

One, You live in the wrong color state, and two you believe all the union
propaganda. It just ain't so here in the hinterlands.

 

They should. With what they've been doing to public schools since 1992,
it's a crying shame.

Then you need to call your bank. Your reality check just bounced.
Charles of Schaumburg

 

For years GM has been paying a big dividend despite losses, and those
dividends should have instead been reinvested.

GE has much better management than GM, and the only thing they fail at
consistently is cutting edge innovation on a small scale - witness
their failure to ever be a leader in the semiconductor business, unless
you count MOV surge supressors.

 

Replace "unions" with "business schools," and your statement will be
much more accurate. There is not a single case where a corporation
needs an MBA rather than a person educated in the nature of its
business. Lee Raymond and Jack Welch aren't MBAs, and biomedical and
semiconductor firms are also headed primarily by scientists and
engineers.

 

The Unions in france are rioting because they do not like what the
premier and president are doing and saying

The Unions in America are not strong enough

They only kill individual companies by not controling the whole country

 

Nuke Iran!

 

To really mess up Iran send them GM management
It will also help GM

 

Allowing Toyota and other Japanese corporations to take all the profits,
they earn in the US, out of the county free federal corporate taxes is
indeed stupid.



mike

 

It's not a 'decent' living their unions fought for--it's an undeservedly
extravagant one.

People bolting together car parts don't deserve better compensation than
any other group of manual laborers that lack special skills/training.

Manufacturing workers can no longer expect to earn greater wages that
those of certified/ licensed professionals like teachers and nurses.
It's illogical by the rules of basic economics that they ever were.

 

Are you that slow? ALL Toyotas Matrix, Celica, Prius, Corolla, etc have the
Toyota name on car. "GM" does not appear on their cars, they have the
division name on the car. Ever hear of a GM Malibu or a GM LeSabre?

mike hunt

 

However the smarter ones are buying the Vibe because they know the Matrix
costs an average of $1,500 to $2,000 more to drive home when equipped the
same and the value of a used Matrix in five years will not be $1,500 to
$2,000 greater.

mike hunt

 

Well, at least we agree on this part. Look. I am not saying that
the unions are the only problem. I'm saying that they are NOW the
biggest problem. We obviously disagree. Problem is. It's very
probably too late.

 

How did I sidestep it? I said that the unions are to blame for
demanding the costly contracts and the companies are to blame for
giving in when they knew they couldn't afford the contracts.
However, I now mostly blame the unions for not being reasonable when
the conditions warrant. They -- and we -- will pay the price for this.

You don't honestly know?

Let's try it this way.... Anyone who looks at the current situation
and doesn't realize that not adjusting the the extremely high
contract costs (i.e., wages, pensions and healthcare) downward will
mean the end of the company, and therefore the jobs associated with
them, is being unreasonable. The union can continue to claim that
these costs are reasonable -- right up until the time when all of
its members are out of work. (It's not that far away.)

The unions and companies have a choice. Either agree to a reduction
of pay and overall compensation, or there won't be a company to get
any pay from. My guess is that it'll be the second option.

 

I agree with you! The unions were are very positive influence in
history (The key word is WERE.) They are no longer providing that
positive influence. As a matter of fact, they stopped providing a
positive influence, a long time ago.

What we have now as a result of this change over from a positive
influence to a negative one is relatively unskilled workforce making
skilled and professional level money. That's simply contrary to a
free market economy and it is unsupportable over the long run in a
competitive world market.

 

Absolutely correct. Unless minor styling differences made the vibe
'ugly' for a buyer, one who was educated would buy the Pontiac over the
Toyota.

however, Mike, do you also see how this is the problem (or at least 1
part of the problem) GM has? 2 cars, built on the same line with the
same quality. GM charges (say) $2k less than Toyota.
now, Toyota's responsibility is to maximize shareholder value. So is
GM's.
the problem is that GM's reputation from the past 20-30 years has eroded
it's name-brand. Therefore, they CAN NOT charge the same as toyota,
because of people's opinions of them (poor quality, whatever).
So, GM might make a couple-hundred off each vibe, but for the same per-
unit cost Toyota is making an extra $1.5k! Money Toyota can pump back
into engines, structures, and research.
It's a shame, but it's a fact of GM's life. Higher union costs, higher
legacy costs, and a lower opinion in the marketplace leads to slimmer
profit-margins.
or, 10+ billion in losses.

JP

 

Well, I totally agree with that. The union is becoming ridiculous now.
Eventually it's gonna drag the whole country down. Look at what had
happened long ago in UK. Somebody said the union guys came from there to
North America. They are free to strike but they don't have right to stop
others go to work such as securing the plant etc.

 

(...)

I think unions still provide a positive influence. They help enable grocery
store workers in unionized stores to maintain higher wages and benifits.
They prevent governments from taking advantage of workers. And if Walmart
had unions, the workers would be paid fairer wages and get decent benefits.

However, some of the working rules are rediculus. I think it is stupid not
to let maintaince workers not touch up pain in subway stations in NYC.
Certainly, there is no reasaon why workers should not be cross-trained. That
is the way they are doing it in the foriegn owned automotive plants.

So, defintiely, unions have their positive and negative sides.

A lot of the work is really dirty, nasty work. In many cases, they earn
every penny.

Jeff

 

Of course, each job that is unskilled or less skilled but somehow
undesirable in some other way must be evaluated individually for
'proper' compensation. The true test is whether the wages for a
particular job can be justified and sustained in a competitive world
market. It's my contention that the jobs we're largely discussing
here (UAW workers) do not meet that competitive market test.

Let me bring up an anecdotal example I'm aware of....
A "local" company (non-Union) found that their 'unskilled' workforce
was grossly overpaid (25% or more) when compared to similar jobs in
the area. Management, faced with fierce international competition
(even within the same company) had to make adjustments in several
areas -- not just wages -- to either become competitive or close
down. They went to the employees and told them that wages would be
frozen until further notice in order to save the plant and their
jobs. Since this is a non-union plant, they were able to do it,
keeping the plant going, so that everyone was able to keep their
jobs. It's been 4 years and the plant is still there. Not many
have left and they're almost to the point of being competitive.

A union shop, faced with the same choice, would have most likely
chosen differently -- and all would have been out of work making
nothing by now.

 

Nothing at all. It's what manufacturers do.

And, as an added bonus, if every chinese family buys a car,
we'll soon be able to grow pineapples in antarctica. My home
nation has substantial territorial claims there. About time
we got something out of it.

Yes it's good for US businesses. However, it might pay even
better for US businesses to take into consideration that the
slaves said businesses use has a different understanding of
what's "good"?

....