“the terms of the loans approved by President George W. Bush single out members of our union by demanding steeper and faster concessions from the UAW than from any other part of the industry.”

I wonder why. Could it be that it is YOUR industry that is asking the taxpayers for help? Naw, can’t be… Must be some other worldwide conspiracy against poor little Gettelfinger and the UAW.

Are you ****ing kidding me Gettelfinger?
NO $h!t they demand that from you, thats the entire reason you’re in this situation you moron.
God your an idiot

“The union says it will work with the upcoming Obama administration to remove the terms of the loan that force union wage cuts.”

Umm… are they seriously that greedy? God forbid that you have to pay out of pocket for any medical expenses. All those 09 and 10 cars at manufacture cost are really burning a hole in your pocket hunh? Gimme a break. I hope the Obama administration slaps them in the face really hard.

bigs4610-

I doubt Gettelfinger does not understand. However, Gettelfinger earns his own salary of, I believe, $250,000 a year by squeezing as much as he can out of the D3. In this way, Gettelfinger continues to have a steady stream of dues. As long as there are captains of industry who make large sums of money, the Union will be able to point and say “we deserve it too!” Now, the D3 leaders have recently taken huge pay cuts, but that is not going to mollify the Union because they will say that averaging the salaries of D3’s leaders during good and bad times still comes out to hefty paychecks unmatched by the Union. Therein lies the problem that we all see, but U.A.W. members do not seem to see.

The leaders of the D3 have a lot of degrees and years of experience leading companies behind them, which militates in favor of their earning large paychecks (with adjustments for actual performance). Many, or even most, auto employees are high school graduates and no more. To the majority of those who post on this forum, it makes no sense that high school employees make as much, or more, than those holding graduate degrees. The average U.A.W. worker’s argument, that I have read, indicates their belief that you cannot include their healthcare and retirement programs in their salaries because they do not have that money in their pockets. One man who posted on CNN spoke of how when you took the benefits out of his uncle’s salary, his uncle was only making $29/hr. Yet, we all know that you cannot seriously detract the benefits from someone’s salary.

U.A.W. workers must accept that they are turning the system on its head when they say that $70/hr. for someone holding no college degree is acceptable. If that situation remains then there is no incentive for anyone to go to college or graduate school. We would all be far better off demanding U.A.W. jobs. And since there would not be enough jobs, it would be unfair to expect some of us to go borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars (in the case of private schools) to simply earn wages commensurate with those who did not borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars. Moreover, the U.A.W. workers must accept that their own salaries are endangering their jobs and driving jobs offshore (along with our manufacturing base, which has defense implications).

I grew up in one of those small towns in a rural county that has a very active local radio channel. According to one person who called in to the show, his neighbors, a husband and wife who are both retired U.A.W. workers, pull in $125,000/yr. in retirement. And they were, if we are to believe the story, a low-level manager and some other position, which escapes my mind, but, which, does not require a college degree. Now, the interesting thing about this call is that the caller said they lived over in the beach area of our county where retirees from many states come to live out their days in homes with values that are a half million or more and are miles from the beaches. Again, I cannot vouch for the truth of the caller’s story; but, being the trusting people we are in this area, we have accepted it as an anecdotal story of just what is wrong with Detroit.

Now bigs4610, we come full circle. I believe Gettelfinger understands all I have said and more, but it is his job to perpetuate the current system. The question for the rest of us is, if true, do we accept the status quo? Americans should dig further into this story (it is, afterall, our tax money that is at stake), decide whether U.A.W. workers are truly overcompensated and, if so, then we should rally behind the management of the D3 (no matter how much that makes anyone who is not earning millions per year-in the good years-rankle).

I thought Obama favoured a controlled bankruptcy? If so wouldn’t the main reason for that would be to force a total renegotiation of the union contracts? I can’t really see the next administration pandering to the AWU as much as Bush has.

So does this mean that the Big 3 tell Gettlefinger to take a hike? Really enough is enough. The UAW has gotten too big for their britches. Want a successful car company? Fire the UAW.

Seriously… it’s time to say goodbye to the unions. They were necessary and did good things in the past… but they are dinosaurs today and are dragging GM down. The day the UAW ceases to exist will be a bright one for domestic auto manufacturers.

It’s one thing to read about unions, and another to have personally dealt with them. All of my experiences with unions have been negative. They are pigs and thugs.

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger…. is a Domestic Terrorist…

howsmydriving – don’t forget lazy….

I have had some temps come in and outwork most of the senior staff. Then, layoffs come and the least senior folks get laid off. The lazy seniors have nothing to work for. They will be here till the last day, and the union contracts make it almost imposible to actually get rid of one of these lazy slobs….

Okay, One more time – I’ve been saying this since October:-/ The Democratic Leadership is going to have to settle this once and for all – there is no other option. Either they get tough with the UAW, a major supporter/contributor, or they roll over. If they roll then they should force the same UAW contracts on all foreign manufacturers producing in the US or a tax equivalency. This is what should have been done thirty years ago! No other country, or trading block for that matter (EU), would allow the J2 to do what they have done over this period – NONE!!! Look at Japan – the EU – well??? The US accounts for what percentage of the J2’s operations? Take Lexus for example, total production approx 500k worldwide – over 75% thanks to the US – and on and on…

You do not cripple your domestic industry with onerous Union/legacy costs while allowing outside producers entry into the home market with no such restraints. The J2 got their foothold thanks to the OPEC oil shocks of the 70’s. Maybe with the credit crisis, made worse by a speculative oil price shock, we have come full circle and can finally right this imbalance that should never have occurred in the first place.

There is plenty of blame to go around for the current predicament: Management, the UAW and Washington. However, the underlying cost structure is the knife at the throat. As I and others have said it’s not just the D3; they are but a microcosm of US society at large – scary thought huh – it should be8-|

DB9

The GM retired executives are still getting retirement benefits over and above how retirements are calculated for the rest of the organization. It was call SERP now called ERP. Is it excessive…. well if GM went bankrupt the extra money they receive is not considered a qualified retirement plan by the government and consequently is not insured. Are concessions needed from the union? Of course, but is it any wonder that the union balks at bellying up to the table when even in the midst of their worst financial crisis ever, GM continues to take care of the execs disproportionately? Cut off the salaried health care at 65, chop the heck out of the union, but don’t touch the executive perks. Are the jets sold yet? All of you wanna be GM executives can come running to the defense of the current regime but they have failed. The world economy troubles have exacerbated the problem but steps that needed to be taken years ago were not. Production is down, plants are closing, people are being laid off, wages are being cut, but can you name me an exec that has been let go? You can probably name quite a few that retired in the comfy arms of the ERP program, and they were smiling BIG. Every time I think about how negotiations are going I get this picture of Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cops) saying TRUST ME. Yeah right.

What a sticky spot for the Dems. Man, this is the time to really show the world what they’re made of. You got it DB9, their biggest contributor will have to get a severe beatdown in order for US car companies to compete, and even to just stay alive. What a quandry. How would the republicans handle this situation?