Comments on: Axle strike nearing end as new deal gets ironed out

By: olds307

olds307 — Sun, 04 May 2008 12:58:33 +0000

HemiRoadRunner “The unions aren’t needed anymore in this country, not the union workers just the unions, we have laws to protect workers now.”

Bullshit. I’ve had union jobs (grocery stores) and I’ve had non union jobs (moving company), and let me tell you, the laws mean NOTHING.

While a disadvantage of the union at the grocery store, for me, was that I had to fight for full time status, just so that I could work more than 28 or so hours a week (if you worked more than those hours for a certain number of weeks they were obligated to make you full time).

Other than that, the union ensured that we were all treated fairly, including basic rights such as a lunch break if you worked more than a certain number of hours.

Meanwhile at the moving company, where there was no union, many times we’d work 12 hour days with no break whatsoever, there was no clock so if we were lucky enough to get any extra money for the hours put in (they called this overtime—an extra $5 or $10 for several hours put in past the standard 8 hour workday), was given out completely arbitrarily.

And when I was on the road, it was often necessary to do work–get smaller jobs out of the way on a Sunday, and there was no time and a half on Sunday—- there was no time—PERIOD for sunday, it was VOLUNTEER WORK!!! And when we complained about it their answer was that the extra $300 they paid us for driving 1000+ miles cross country included the sunday pay!

By: DeansterTJ

DeansterTJ — Sat, 03 May 2008 21:56:37 +0000

Probably 80 million. 800 million sounds steep, although maybe…

By: jayjc08

jayjc08 — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:56:12 +0000

LLN- Cost $800 in the first quarter of 2008? I’m a little confused as to if you forgot a zero, or two, or three… or four.

By: HemiRoadRunner

HemiRoadRunner — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:44:26 +0000

Your thinking about what I said too literally, these guy’s work, no matter how hard it was, made the company profitable enough to expand a great amount. You know what that comment means. That guy got his $258M over 10 years, which is fine, if HE earned it. That’s the point, these guys, both the CEO’s and the workers, don’t want to stop taking. If one side has to give up something, so should the other. If the head dude didn’t get his 10-20 MILLION in EXTRAS for ONE year, that would offset the workers losing their wages, so that’s where to start. I think you know my stand on the unions by now so you know what I’m saying. You as well as I know unions are BS for the most part, but that still doesn’t mean that fairness has to be non-existent.

By: mayer_ray_nagin

mayer_ray_nagin — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:19:44 +0000

Hemi, if those employees “founded and built” that company then either they sold it for a profit to a someone who paid this guy $258M, or they still own it and voted him those extras. Either way most people don’t strike a company they own.

By: HemiRoadRunner

HemiRoadRunner — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:13:02 +0000

Im kinda tired of hearing about these strikes. The unions aren’t needed anymore in this country, not the union workers just the unions, we have laws to protect workers now. But, I can see both sides of why they’re striking. I researched this and this company was founded and built from the gound up by these workers, making them enough money to set up several plants across the world. The head honcho Dausch or whatever his name was recieved $258 MILLION in EXTRAS, not salary, since 1997-2007. So, I can see why these guys don’t want to take a paycutt from $58K a year to $35K a year. That’s a pretty substantial drop. If employee benefits are too high, then go blame the crooked @$$ doctors and lawyers that have inflated those rates to what they are nowadays.

By: mayer_ray_nagin

mayer_ray_nagin — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:49:16 +0000

So if the strike cost GM 800 bucks and they raised the price of a new Malibu 300 bucks, they only need to sell 2.67 Malibus to cover the cost of the strike.

SUCH A DEAL!

By: RaineMan

RaineMan — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:31:24 +0000

The strike cost them $800?

You mean $800 thousand or $800 million?