Comments on: UAW strike at American Axle costs GM big

By: HemiRoadRunner

HemiRoadRunner — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:47:30 +0000

No, I’m a mechanical engineer. I grip about the UAW complaining about petty things. I also grip about CEO’s making HUGE bonuses and extra’s no matter the condition of the company. Sure I don’t like the lazy @$$’s that used to make my job harder, but, I can put that aside when I look at the big picture, which is these guy’s still help out OUR economy and have families to support. The point is America is being overun financially and culturally by a bunch of foreigners that use to be our enemies and some still are, and these people aren’t even grateful that we let them here and give them money while they slowly strip away our economy from under our feet.

By: injunraiv

injunraiv — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:05:34 +0000

Hemi: Am I mistaken, or aren’t you the guy who claimed to have been a line engineer and griping about lazy UAW workers in previous threads?

By: HemiRoadRunner

HemiRoadRunner — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:48:02 +0000

America is going to $H!T because EVERYONE thinks they know how much the other guy should make. We should be kicking everyone’s @$$, not kissing it. Why do people want autoworkers to make less? Shouldn’t you want the people that share this country with you to prosper like you? Or are you all the import humpers that complain about what these guys make but you all buy toyota’s? Why don’t you complain how much some hollywood snob gets for making a movie or fat @$$ oprah gets for talking retarded everyday $H!T on her show. Go complain about how our govt spends OUR money by the BILLIONS on other countries just to keep them happy.

By: sharpie

sharpie — Sun, 25 May 2008 05:35:44 +0000

I agree that the Union is dragging down a company operating in red because of the rediculus demand, but GM is not entirely in the clear. Our lowest price mentality has given power to corporations, especially MNCs to outsource. Unlike your government, corporations do not owe any duty to America. Their only goals are to make profit. If moving operation overseas help achieving that goals, they would do it. Moral obligations is not part of the equation. Fordism is DEAD! It’s about time to hold companies accountable and perhaps union is one way to help achieving that goal (when the demand is not rediculus). It’s one way to allow the working people to have some power over their salary and benefit. The government should levy heavy taxes for cars that are less than 75% produced in this country. But then when that tax drives up the price of new cars, we will all complain and yell “nanny state.” So are you willing to pay a little more in exchange for more “Made in USA” parts in your car, whether it be produced by UAW or non-union US workers? I suspect you’d rather have lower price at the expense of autoworker. Don’t complain when your car is made in Mexico, India or China even if it is an American brand. Don’t go around giving lecture to Japanese car buyers about patriotism because you are only helping the corporate executives like Lutz, but not your every working class.

By: injunraiv

injunraiv — Sat, 24 May 2008 13:00:13 +0000

I’m not so sure you’ll be so smug about this in a few decades. We’re paying slave wages in overseas markets at the expense of our own economic health. The overseas economies will prosper, ours will wither. This is not a union issue so much as a policy crisis. We’re in such a ‘cheaper is better’ mentality and we’re willing to sell our soles to the lowest bidder at our own demise. So laugh all you want about 400horseSS and his bretheren, but someday you will be asked to make the same concessions because someone in China will do your job for less.

By: SR

SR — Sat, 24 May 2008 12:10:51 +0000

Yea, but a robot or monkey could do your job, 400horseSS, so you’re waaay overpaid. Fuck the UAW.

By: DeansterTJ

DeansterTJ — Sat, 24 May 2008 04:51:12 +0000

Keep them coming, Olds. Some things are always funny, like farts and Madcapp’s Mongoose/Smartcar jokes!!!

By: C6Racer

C6Racer — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:28:07 +0000

Fuck Unions. I don’t hate players either. Union workers are not players. Dumbass. Don’t even bother.

By: olds307

olds307 — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:19:17 +0000

In Soviet Russia, Axle strikes YOU!!

By: 400horseSS

400horseSS — Fri, 23 May 2008 21:44:09 +0000

That 70k is working 9.5hrs a day and saturdays too, so yeah I do make 70k.

By: 400horseSS

400horseSS — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:28:01 +0000

No El Aleman, Fuck You, player hating should be a crime in this country.

By: jayjc08

jayjc08 — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:22:27 +0000

xyunya- 70k a year doing what? Gluing mirrors onto cars? Assembling tires? Snapping body panels together?

Most kids starting out at these factories earn 70k in their first year, doing these simple tasks. Good for them that they’re earning that much, they should be proud. But when they suck and bite the hand that feeds for more, when they’re already being overpaid, not factoring in huge medical benefits, safety nets and unemployment/ retirement plans and taking advantage of the companies financial condition and future foresight, it’s not only a bigger number than 70k a year, but it’s gross.

There was a strike because of executives increasing their salary. I don’t remember if it was Ford or GM, but it was earlier this year, and haven’t heard anything about it since.

Inline6, 1c3d0g, 61vette- Maybe you should realize that GM hires these guys, receives huge loads of parts from them, has multi-million, sometimes billion dollar contracts with them and the fact that their workforce receives multiple benefits from GM, and it’s pretty obvious why someone “could” interpret this as GM mis-management. Not saying it is, but look at the big picture, without Gm there would be no American Axle, without American Axle there wouldn’t likely be a GM…

For a while.

By: El Aleman

El Aleman — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:05:54 +0000

Fuck Unions.

By: xyunya

xyunya — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:52:35 +0000

inline6, you are absolutely correct: GM management should not rely on 1 supplier. Nobody else does. It did not cost Chrysler billions or Ford.

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:35:04 +0000

61Vette/inline6: well f*cking said. And people will still continue to blame GM for sh!t that happened that are completely beyond their control. The only one to blame here is the UAW, plain and simple.

By: 400horseSS

400horseSS — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:24:44 +0000

^ Some people are fucking retarded, maybe they will.

By: inline6

inline6 — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:05:46 +0000

Can you people not read?

The strike was at American Axle. NOT at GM. All GM could do was influence the decision, not make it.

How was the American Axle strike a case study in GM mismanagement? We going to blame the Maytag plant in Iowa closing on GM, too?

By: xyunya

xyunya — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:04:20 +0000

70-77K/year is not going to make them millionaires anytime soon, but it is a decent living. I think there was a strike because Mr. Wagoner and Mr. Lutz doubled their salaries to over 3 millions a piece (or in that neighborhood) before options and bonuses for loosing less then 15 billions per year and being sloppy second. When original settlement was negotiated salaries of executives were used as example of corporate frugality and unions lowered their demands. After negotiations, frugality went out of the window. If GM had a legal leg to stand on they would sue the union for cash and either forced them to go to work or bankrupt them or be allowed by court to hire non-union replacements. It takes 2 to tango, it takes 2 to have a dispute; both parties responsible for their mismanagement: GM to shareholders and Union to members.

By: jayjc08

jayjc08 — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:47:28 +0000

I wish they could have just fired them all, most of the vehicles they were striking for already had slumping sales in the first place. Honestly, I’m getting pretty sick hearing about the UAW’s strikes for pay that’s nearly 10 times the minimum wage in America, versus 35$ an hour, easily more than most of us make at basic wages.

By: terk184

terk184 — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:41:23 +0000

Caving in to extortion by overpaid, undereducated goons is NOT an example of how to run a company either.

By: xyunya

xyunya — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:14:18 +0000

Inability to solve labor dispute that leads to a strike and costs company 2 billion is NOT example of how to manage a company.

By: EngrCarFan

EngrCarFan — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:14:14 +0000

A loss of this size will not be quickly forgotten. The victory will be short lived as an alternative will be found so that this vulnerability does not exist in the future. While I’m not a fan of suits, the union may be shooting itself in the foot by actually striking this often. When the dollar appreciates, corporate interest will look abroad again. Now is the time to build, threatening occasionally, not kill off domestic production because you can.

By: 61Vette

61Vette — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:55:21 +0000

Please explain how a union strike at a non-GM facility is GM mismanagement? If GM keeps losing that many units and keeps posting quarters in the red then the auto workers won’t have a job to strike against.

By: xyunya

xyunya — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:32:06 +0000

“he UAW strike against American Axle cost the Detroit-based automaker $2.82 billion.” – cost of mis- management and NOT the final cost. What is real cost of GM mis-management?