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

Pay. That's what it is. Here in Canada. there's almost a strike every two
years and that's what the teachers ask for. They don't consider the fact
that their basic salary is way over the others. They have over 3 months of
summer vacation not to mention the march break etc..

Teaching is your job and what's really horrible for the students is they
decided on strike for their benefits.
I don't disagree with people on strike. I mean they have the right to do
so. However, I disagree with the fact that they are lining up and blocking
others to go to work and interfere other's. If you don't want to work,
fine and stay at home. But you don't have the right to stop others to
work. You work and you got pay simple as that. If you don't like the job,
switch to other job then. Consider everyone is working hard here and still
have to worry about their kids when teachers on strike.

 

That's because rubbing salt into wounds, dislocating joints, and
causing large abrasions require training not generally given to
maintenance workers. Touching up pain should be left to
professionals.

 

Oh. I totally agree. Those unskilled workforce making skilled level money
compared to others because of the union. And the Union is simply a
protection for them from getting laid off.

Here's a true story from a guy told me. There was a person sleeping during
the work hour and got caught by the management. A picture was even taken
when he's sleeping. The management decided to let him go the next day. The
Union brought him back because they argue that he was praying instead.

 

As you may know, most all of the Japanese car companies such as Honda
assemble their cars in America. They pay taxes. I don't believe that the
employees that work in those American assembly plants are members of
unions. However, they are well paid. The main reason that they do it this
way is to avoid paying the import fees and transportation costs. I should
note that they do import some of their vehicles from Japan. I live in
California and my Honda Accord was made in Japan. Someone told me that the
reason was because of the expense in shipping cars from Ohio to
California. It may also be related to the pollution equipment on
California cars--it's different from the pollution equipment on cars built
in Ohio.
Jason

 

mike,
It's possible that GM is sells more cars than any other company. Even if
this is true, it's only because they make so many types of cars and
trucks.
A better carparison would be to compare each GM
model to similar models made by Honda and Toyota

For example--compare the 4 door Civic to a 4 door GM car that is almost
identical to the 4 door Civic. Be honest--do you think the GM car is
superior to the Civic? Also, if you compare the sales figures--do you
think the GM car or the Civic would win that contest?

Jason

 

Caterpillar and UAW came together with some consessions to help keep plants
open:
http://www.businessfinancemag.com/channels/costManagement/article.html?articleID=14424

Jeff

 

We're talking about touching up paint on polls, not about repainting an
entire station.

That is one reason why workers at new auto plants owned by Japanese auto
companies get paid more: Because they are cross-trained, then can do more.
So the company can afford to pay them more. So when something needs doing,
it get done soon, not until some union guy on break can get to it.

Jeff

 

No, unions are the least powerful they have been since the early 1900s or
so. There is a smaller percentage of workers represented by unions than in a
long time. Most union workers work for government, many of whom are
represented by the UAW.

Jeff

 

Poles are people just like us, and should only be touched up by
qualified professionals.

 

I believe their is a different reason your Accord was shipped from Japan.
Ohioans consider California a foreign country with strange rules and
stranger customs, so they prefer let the Japanese deal with you.

Steve

 

Back in the 1960s when engineers designed products, GM was
profitable. Starting in the 1970s, business school graduates began
running GM. The last of the GM engineers were Coles, Estes, and
DeLorean. GM then played money games to mask their losses. Some
will remember Detroit Diesel Allison, Hughes Spacecraft, and EDS. All
were use in money games to mask poor profits by vehicle divisions. As
you must know, GM was literally four hours away from bankruptcy in 1991
(or was it 1990?). GM products have been that bad for that long. GM
costs have long remains so high that GM cannot make a profit on any
vehicle that sells less than 50,000 per year. Even Mazda made a profit
the first year selling only 13,000 Miyatas. And GM pays their labor
about same as the Japanese competition (when the yen was higher).

Meanwhile labor is a very little part of a vehicles cost. What
determines profits is design and manufacturing systems. When GM was
building every part in every car - even putting threads on every screw
- in 120 man-hours per car; Toyota and Honda were doing same work in
only 70 man hours. When GM bragged about getting their labor down to
60 man hours, Toyota and Honda were estimated to do same in maybe 30
man-hours. There is very little labor in a car. But there are massive
pension and health care funds that GM failed to fund in decades
previous. This because GM products were so bad that GM was only hours
from bankruptcy back in 1990. Because GM cars require so many more
parts - even use pushrod technology - that they must sell products on
fire sales.

Well now GM has no more operations to bleed for money games. They
were bleeding the profitable GMAC to mask losses. That asset is now
gone. GM is now sticking warranty costs on a dealer - which means good
luck getting the dealer to honor a GM warranty. One GM dealer tells
how two tires were 2 pounds low on pressure - which was enough to deny
warranty work repayment on those two new cars. Just another cost
control in a company that must give away cars at no profit to keep
factories working.

GM will not go bankrupt. No large company does. Like AT&T, it will
bleed to death and then be picked up for pocket change by other
companies. Like Chrysler - Mercedes Benz designed cars sold with
Chrysler bodies - GM will somehow be scrapped for its parts if
Americans continue to buy American - protect GM's only problem for the
past 30+ years. GM will never be fixed if bean counters continue to
design GM products - union or no union. GM's only problems are
directly traceable to current top management that only worked in
finance jobs. As long as they remain, then union workers must be fired
and lose pension benefits. A fact that was becoming obvious more than
20 years ago ... if you think product oriented.

GM's largest problem is bad products ... that even require too much
labor. GM's finance problems were created by bean counter management
who played money games to make GM appear profitable on spread sheets.
The only automotive division that is probably making a profit is
Cadillac. Why? Cadillac has the same 70 Hp/l engines that have long
been standard in Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, etc products. You pay how
much more to only get the same technology? Without minimally
acceptable engines and other technology, the unions will only be
victims. Without minimally acceptable technology, nothing but
anti-free trade policies from the government can help. GM products are
that obsolete - and remain so because of GM's largest problem - finance
and law department trained executives. Unions are only a symptom of
GM's #1 problem - bean counter management. Labor is not the largest
cost in a car - if managment was not playing money games to mask their
bad products. All GM problems start with their bad management.

 

How about a GMC Jimmy? Lexi are built by Toyota, but you don't see the name
Toyota on Lexi, do you? How about seeing Honda on the Infitis?

Toyota is both the name of the company and the brand. Just like Ford.

Your arguement, again, falls short.

Jeff

 

Interesting proposition. Could you provide us with a reference for
the cost of product liability lawsuits to GM last year. Because
otherwise this is just hot air.

 

The reason GM and Ford are going under is because they were forced by
law to hire niggers into management and design positions under
affirmative action racial quota laws. For the international audience,
Jews in the US have deceived the White population into passing laws
that require Whites to hire niggers with IQs below 85 in to senior
management positions at large corporations.

The fact is, niggers with sub-90 IQs do not have the mental capacity to
run a large international corporation. Niggers can barely run a hotdog
stand, let alone a multinational manufacturer of complex automotive
equipment that was invented, as usual, by White males.

That is why you almost never see niggers running their own businesses.
They know that no one is going to pay money to stand around and wait
while stupid slow attitudinal niggers give them shit. Niggers almost
never run their own businesses, because then they wouldn't be able to
blame others for their lazy stupid failure the way they always do. They
can only work in White businesses because they can act lazy and stupid,
then sue the company if they get fired for "racism".

The fact is, most of the work that niggers do at any job is always
slower and lower quality than whites or asians. That is why they are
really only fit to be slaves or servants, because their work is really
not worth much money in terms of quality or quanitity.

The Japanese have laws that prevent feral nigger trash from settling in
their country. That is very smart of the japanese - that's why they
have almost no crime there. They also don't have idiotic insane laws
that force them to hire feral apes in man-pants into senior management
positions where they don't belong. As a result, japanese designs are
fantastic, and as result of the lack of nigger influence in senior
management, they succeed as a company.

That is the real problem. EVeryone's afraid to say the obvious truth
though, for fear of being called "racist".

 

I was listening to a radio piece on the difference
between American production vs ofshore production in
China.

In the factory in China, about one in six workers at
an auto parts plant were actually operating their
equipment. The others were talking to each other.
I wasn't really laziness, but that the employees were
only trained to operate a specific piece of machinery.
The vast majority of the workers wanted to earn their
money and go back to their small towns. Some wanted
to start their own businesses. The most telling thing
was that most of the employees didn't even know what
it was they were making. If the need to use a single
type of equipment was over, the employees trained to
use that equipment were doing nothing but getting
paid. The real cost savings were that the employees
were making a tiny fraction of what an American
worker was getting.

At the American equivalent plant, the employees were
all trained to operate multiple pieces of equipment.
The foreman could operate anything in the building
and employees could be shifted.

It may be different with other industries like shoe
or clothing manufacturing. Those industries often
pay by the piece.

 

I think it's more than simply market share, which the
import makes are steadily increasing. The Big 3 have
been attempting to keep up market share by offering
huge rebates or artificially lowering prices. I know
people who had refused for years to buy a Japanese car
out of principle even when they admitted there was a
particular make they otherwise liked.

Honda has been able to produce their economy cars for
less than the Big 3 could make an equivalent and sell
them for more. The Big 3 have often sold their lower
end models at or close to a loss to keep within CAFE
standards. The Big 3 may be keeping up market share
but they sure aren't making money.

 

When some usenet loser starts his post with ;"Here's the cause of GM
bankruptcy", I already know the rest is going to be Hot Air.

Dave

 

No doubt about it. Modern high-tech engines cost more than
refurbished dinosaurs.

Saying an engine has "peak torque at a low rpm" is just another way of
saying it runs out of breath at higher rpms. If you compare engines
of comparable configuration and displacement, you will find that the
modern OHC engines will usually have as much or more torque than a GM
push rod engine does at its peak. The difference is that the push rod
motor torque drops off from that point while the high tech
powerplant's torque keeps rising and hence the higher peak horsepower.

Consider the Buick LaCrosse and the Honda Accord.

curb
weight engine peak torque peak hp
LaCrosse 3565 3.8 V6 230 @4000 200 @5200
Accord 3390 3.0 V6 211 @5000 244 @6244


So you would contend that the Accord with the much smaller engine and
the lower torque at a higher rpm would somehow be at a disadvantage
with respect to performance and fuel economy?

Here are results of Consumer Reports testing. Note 1: CR testing is
harder than most - acceleration measured from engine idle, very
intense city economy cycle with lots of idling and stop and go. Note
2: if you don't like CR testing, post another source. Few publishers
even bother to test Buicks these days.

0-60 45-65 1/4 Mi. fuel economy
LaCrosse 9.0 6.3 17.0 12/30
Accord V6 7.4 4.2 15.9 15/34

Now, if your argument is that the Accord V6 would be less drivable due
to its higher torque peak, consider that Accord is the first or second
best selling car in the US and most buyers buy it with the 4 cylinder
engines and are very happy with the performance (and economy).

Most buyers of a car like the Accord are not that interested in the
horsepower rating. They like the way the car performs even with a 4.
GM would not be going down the drain if the only thing Honda and
Toyota had to sell were numbers.

 

Steve,
I realize that you were making a joke--however, the truth is that those
sorts of decisions are made by people in Japan. I doubt if they even
know or care about the differences between Ohioans and Californians.
They care about making great vehicles so that they can continue to
make lots of money. They know that the best way of keeping the money
coming in is to make the best cars they can make. The people at GM
never learned that lesson.
Jason

 

You can't get more American than that.