working at ford

August Auto Sales Up as Expected

The real trouble may come when lawmakers begin to alk of starting the program up again in a few months after the manufactures get the lots restocked. Remember after 9-11 when the car co started 0% fin. Now its almost common practice to get low fin and big rebates. If the consumer feels that the gov. or car co. are willing to put up some cash to spur sales fig.Then they wait it out until the deal gets right.

Cash-for-Clunkers: Who's It Hurting?

I work at a Ford parts distribution center in Indiana, In the last week or sales volume is off by 20%. This decrease is on top of the 20% we had lost over the last year due to the economy.

Is a Car Produced in Alabama Really an Import?

There are 17 comments plus mine that all agree that this overeducated under worked man is a idiot.

Four Myths from Detroit's Auto Show

Remember.... When your neighbor gets laid off its a recession,
when you get laid off it's a depression!

Let's Hope the Auto Bailout Has Failed for Good

Senate seat for sale
December 14, 2008
A “No” vote on the loan package for Detroit’s Big Three was a chance for the GOP senators from the South who led the charge against the legislation to kill two birds with one stone. Not only could they strike a blow to the United Autoworkers, a traditional adversary, but they could also advance the economic interests of their own states. Unfortunately, these senators voted against the economic interests of their own country.

Foreign automakers have spent billions building plants in the states these senators represent. Should America’s automakers go down for the count, Americans would still need cars and foreign automakers would step in and spend additional billions building more plants in, you guessed it, the states of these very same GOP senators.

Christopher Hayes of The Nation magazine was interviewed on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann show last week and pointed out what he called “the worst-kept secret in Washington.” Hayes was referring to the glaring double standard that these Southern senators, Alabama’s Senator Richard Shelby in particular, have displayed.

“They’ve been throwing taxpayer dollars at Toyota for years in Alabama and no one raises a stink about that” Hayes said. In fact, as Olbermann noted, Alabama alone has given more in tax subsides per job to foreign automakers than Detroit was asking for in the bailout plan to save jobs at American companies.

The Big Three haven’t been competing against Toyota and Honda and Nissan; they’ve been competing against Japan. Unlike America, that nation actually has an industrial policy. While our government talked about the virtues of free trade, the Japanese government worked hand in glove with their automakers to help make them the world leaders.

Japan is aggressively trying to do with autos what they did with consumer electronics – undercut American manufacturers, drive them out of business and capture the American market. Japan heavily subsidizes their automakers, they fund their research, they manipulate their currency, and they erect trade barriers that make it virtually impossible for American automakers to export to their country. Think the fact that Pacific Rim nations buy up 80-percent of our government debt has something to do with keeping our government from enacting policies to level the playing field? The bank that holds your mortgage doesn't dance to your tune, you dance to the tune of the bank that holds your mortgage.

I don’t care what you’re manufacturing or if your CEO is Albert Einstein, if you are competing against a country that actually has universal health care, while you’re forced to add $1,200 to $1,500 to the cost to every unit you manufacture to cover your employees’ health care, you’re not going to be competitive. If your country doesn’t rebate the value added tax when you export your product while your competitor’s country does, not only will you be priced out of their market, your foreign competitor’s government subsidy will put them at a tremendous price advantage on your home turf.

Now, thanks to the likes of Senator Shelby, the Big Three are not only competing against Japan, they’re also forced to compete against their very own government.

The fact that nothing is made in America anymore is a familiar lament of Americans. But here’s what Americans don’t seem to get: what little is still being manufactured in America is increasingly being made in foreign-owned plants of foreign-owned companies.

I realize that there is a long history of sharecropping in the South, but I see no advantage to we Americans becoming sharecroppers in our own country.
Hey, Southerners: Detroit 3 helped you to survive

BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
When Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Alabama on Aug. 29, 2005, the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that the gulf coast should have been better prepared.
They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed plan for future repair of the ruptured levees.
General Motors Corp., on Aug. 30, donated $400,000 to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, pledged to match up to $250,000 more in employee contributions, and sent more than 150 vehicles to the stricken area for use in relief work.
Ford Motor Co. and the UAW quickly made a joint donation of $100,000 to the Red Cross. The Chrysler Group gave $150,000 to the Red Cross and $200,000 to local New Orleans charities. DaimlerChrysler Services chipped in $200,000 for the Red Cross and pledged to match employee donations up to $50,000.
The three Detroit auto companies together gave more than $18 million in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing months. No strings attached.
The U.S. Senate’s most adamant naysayers about whether Detroit deserves rescue loans should have thought about that before now. It might have made Thursday’s futile wrangling over a compromise to get $14 billion in emergency rescue loans for GM and Chrysler a bit less tortuous.
U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., for one, might have dialed down his earlier rhetoric.
Vitter said Wednesday that he plans to vote against the rescue because, in his words, it is "ass-backwards" to give money to the distressed companies before Congress sees more detailed survival plans.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., should think about Hurricane Katrina, too. He has threatened a filibuster against the bill, calling it "a bridge loan to nowhere" and stating that Detroit's automakers should undergo a fundamental restructuring before they ask Congress for money.
None of the logical arguments made by, or on behalf of, Detroit's auto industry seem to resonate with certain congressional critics.
Not the fact that GM, Ford and Chrysler have slashed billions of dollars in costs. Not the fact that they have the nation's top-selling pickups and minivans. Not the fact that they have lots of high-mileage vehicles and more on the way. Not the fact an auto company bankruptcy would have a horrible ripple effect, wiping out scores of suppliers and making hundreds of thousands more U.S. workers jobless.
No, to the most adamant auto-rescue opponents in the Senate, Detroit doesn't make cars people want. It's a dinosaur not worth preserving.
Could the opinions of these senators be colored by the fact that the foreign-owned plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen -- which compete with the Detroit Three -- are located in their states?
Nah, let's not even go there.
Let's just say that since logic hasn't worked, we should fall back on a simple moral argument.
If you see a fellow American is drowning, gasping for air, do you quiz him for a while about whether he's drunk or why he never learned to swim better? Or do you throw him a life buoy and ask questions later?
That, it seems to me, is where we are with America's car companies.
You have done nothing and failed them, senators.
So now it's up to President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to, hopefully, rush in with emergency aid from the $700-billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.
They could still hold the Detroit Three's feet to the fire afterward, empowering a strong auto czar to bring all stakeholders together to forge business models for these companies that can withstand future shocks.





On Dec 12 08:08 AM John D wrote:

> It's really hard to believe that so many that want to see the North
> American economy fail so much that they are blind as to what the
> consequences are going to be - 1st the financial crisis - 2nd the
> credit crisis and strike 3 - failure to give the industry help to
> keep the economy rolling - Is it the company - the union or the government
> ....Hmmmm. Lets back up now if all of the high priced help in the
> government with all of their expertise could not see the financial
> crisis was going to hit the industrials - THEY LET THE USA DOWN -
> not to mention the tsunami that is rippling around the globe. They
> would rather see 3 million American families without a way to support
> their families (which is now 12 million Americans - 4 per family)
> instead of sucking it up - do the math and fix that which should
> never have gotten started in the 1st place - were there no flags
> or warnings that this was coming or did they just ignore it long
> enough to head to higher ground in Washington with their pensions
> and investments intact. Hmmmm??? It was not the fault of the employees
> and their families they were just trying to make a living, I guess
> the term "casualties of WAR" comes into place - TRILLIONs spent to
> protect the country from others and ZERO to protect it from itself.

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Help Help If we all could get a little help try these fact on or size

Senate seat for sale

December 14, 2008

A “No” vote on the loan package for Detroit’s Big Three was a chance for the GOP senators from the South who led the charge against the legislation to kill two birds with one stone. Not only could they strike a blow to the United Autoworkers, a traditional adversary, but they could also advance the economic interests of their own states. Unfortunately, these senators voted against the economic interests of their own country.

Foreign automakers have spent billions building plants in the states these senators represent. Should America’s automakers go down for the count, Americans would still need cars and foreign automakers would step in and spend additional billions building more plants in, you guessed it, the states of these very same GOP senators.

Christopher Hayes of The Nation magazine was interviewed on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann show last week and pointed out what he called “the worst-kept secret in Washington.” Hayes was referring to the glaring double standard that these Southern senators, Alabama’s Senator Richard Shelby in particular, have displayed.

“They’ve been throwing taxpayer dollars at Toyota for years in Alabama and no one raises a stink about that” Hayes said. In fact, as Olbermann noted, Alabama alone has given more in tax subsides per job to foreign automakers than Detroit was asking for in the bailout plan to save jobs at American companies.

The Big Three haven’t been competing against Toyota and Honda and Nissan; they’ve been competing against Japan. Unlike America, that nation actually has an industrial policy. While our government talked about the virtues of free trade, the Japanese government worked hand in glove with their automakers to help make them the world leaders.

Japan is aggressively trying to do with autos what they did with consumer electronics – undercut American manufacturers, drive them out of business and capture the American market. Japan heavily subsidizes their automakers, they fund their research, they manipulate their currency, and they erect trade barriers that make it virtually impossible for American automakers to export to their country. Think the fact that Pacific Rim nations buy up 80-percent of our government debt has something to do with keeping our government from enacting policies to level the playing field? The bank that holds your mortgage doesn't dance to your tune, you dance to the tune of the bank that holds your mortgage.

I don’t care what you’re manufacturing or if your CEO is Albert Einstein, if you are competing against a country that actually has universal health care, while you’re forced to add $1,200 to $1,500 to the cost to every unit you manufacture to cover your employees’ health care, you’re not going to be competitive. If your country doesn’t rebate the value added tax when you export your product while your competitor’s country does, not only will you be priced out of their market, your foreign competitor’s government subsidy will put them at a tremendous price advantage on your home turf.

Now, thanks to the likes of Senator Shelby, the Big Three are not only competing against Japan, they’re also forced to compete against their very own government.

The fact that nothing is made in America anymore is a familiar lament of Americans. But here’s what Americans don’t seem to get: what little is still being manufactured in America is increasingly being made in foreign-owned plants of foreign-owned companies.

I realize that there is a long history of sharecropping in the South, but I see no advantage to we Americans becoming sharecroppers in our own country.


On Dec 14 11:05 AM paulk8756 wrote:

> So, let me to ask you Detroiters, how would you fix this now? With
> or without UAW wage concessions, what would YOU do?
>
> Let me tell you what's NOT going to happen. The transplants are
> NOT going to suddenly start building worse cars. Your investors
> and bankers are NOT going to loan you more money, you've already
> wiped them out.
>
> That leaves the government and the rest of us taxpayers to keep you
> afloat for awhile. Okay, how long do you expect us to do that?
> For a few months, a year, or perhaps longer?
>
> What you don't understand is the Senator from TN was only trying
> to HELP YOU! He was trying to get ALL the stakeholders to bite the
> bullet. He wasn't SINGLING OUT the UAW or looking to break your union,
> no matter what nonsense its leaders are telling you.
>
> And how did your leaders repay him? They spit in his face. Well,
> that's fine, but if you think the Congress is going to whip up some
> miracle and give you a FREE RIDE forever, I've got news coming for
> you.
>
> Americans aren't stupid. Many of them have already stopped buying
> your products. Now more of them will. If you're not REASONABLE
> and RESPONSIBLE yourselves when people are trying to help you, it's
> only a matter of time until you and your employers both go away.

>
>
>
>
>
>

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Here are some more facts about the south
Senate seat for sale

December 14, 2008

A “No” vote on the loan package for Detroit’s Big Three was a chance for the GOP senators from the South who led the charge against the legislation to kill two birds with one stone. Not only could they strike a blow to the United Autoworkers, a traditional adversary, but they could also advance the economic interests of their own states. Unfortunately, these senators voted against the economic interests of their own country.

Foreign automakers have spent billions building plants in the states these senators represent. Should America’s automakers go down for the count, Americans would still need cars and foreign automakers would step in and spend additional billions building more plants in, you guessed it, the states of these very same GOP senators.

Christopher Hayes of The Nation magazine was interviewed on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann show last week and pointed out what he called “the worst-kept secret in Washington.” Hayes was referring to the glaring double standard that these Southern senators, Alabama’s Senator Richard Shelby in particular, have displayed.

“They’ve been throwing taxpayer dollars at Toyota for years in Alabama and no one raises a stink about that” Hayes said. In fact, as Olbermann noted, Alabama alone has given more in tax subsides per job to foreign automakers than Detroit was asking for in the bailout plan to save jobs at American companies.

The Big Three haven’t been competing against Toyota and Honda and Nissan; they’ve been competing against Japan. Unlike America, that nation actually has an industrial policy. While our government talked about the virtues of free trade, the Japanese government worked hand in glove with their automakers to help make them the world leaders.

Japan is aggressively trying to do with autos what they did with consumer electronics – undercut American manufacturers, drive them out of business and capture the American market. Japan heavily subsidizes their automakers, they fund their research, they manipulate their currency, and they erect trade barriers that make it virtually impossible for American automakers to export to their country. Think the fact that Pacific Rim nations buy up 80-percent of our government debt has something to do with keeping our government from enacting policies to level the playing field? The bank that holds your mortgage doesn't dance to your tune, you dance to the tune of the bank that holds your mortgage.

I don’t care what you’re manufacturing or if your CEO is Albert Einstein, if you are competing against a country that actually has universal health care, while you’re forced to add $1,200 to $1,500 to the cost to every unit you manufacture to cover your employees’ health care, you’re not going to be competitive. If your country doesn’t rebate the value added tax when you export your product while your competitor’s country does, not only will you be priced out of their market, your foreign competitor’s government subsidy will put them at a tremendous price advantage on your home turf.

Now, thanks to the likes of Senator Shelby, the Big Three are not only competing against Japan, they’re also forced to compete against their very own government.

The fact that nothing is made in America anymore is a familiar lament of Americans. But here’s what Americans don’t seem to get: what little is still being manufactured in America is increasingly being made in foreign-owned plants of foreign-owned companies.

I realize that there is a long history of sharecropping in the South, but I see no advantage to we Americans becoming sharecroppers in our own country.



On Dec 14 11:36 AM here you go genius wrote:

> They did not send a thing to help out New York after 9-11or the south
> after all the storms check the facts I have the facts that were in
> the free press
> When Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Alabama on Aug.
> 29, 2005, the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that
> the gulf coast should have been better prepared.
>
> They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed
> plan for future repair of the ruptured levees.
>
> General Motors Corp., on Aug. 30, donated $400,000 to the American
> Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, pledged to match up to $250,000
> more in employee contributions, and sent more than 150 vehicles to
> the stricken area for use in relief work.
>
> Ford Motor Co. and the UAW quickly made a joint donation of $100,000
> to the Red Cross. The Chrysler Group gave $150,000 to the Red Cross
> and $200,000 to local New Orleans charities. DaimlerChrysler Services
> chipped in $200,000 for the Red Cross and pledged to match employee
> donations up to $50,000.
>
> The three Detroit auto companies together gave more than $18 million
> in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing
> months. No strings attached.
>
> The U.S. Senate’s most adamant naysayers about whether Detroit deserves
> rescue loans should have thought about that before now. It might
> have made Thursday’s futile wrangling over a compromise to get $14
> billion in emergency rescue loans for GM and Chrysler a bit less
> tortuous.
>
> U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., for one, might have dialed down his
> earlier rhetoric.
>
> Vitter said Wednesday that he plans to vote against the rescue because,
> in his words, it is "ass-backwards&amp... to give money to the
> distressed companies before Congress sees more detailed survival
> plans.
>
> Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., should think about Hurricane Katrina,
> too. He has threatened a filibuster against the bill, calling it
> "a bridge loan to nowhere" and stating that Detroit's automakers
> should undergo a fundamental restructuring before they ask Congress
> for money.
>
> None of the logical arguments made by, or on behalf of, Detroit's
> auto industry seem to resonate with certain congressional critics.
>
>
> Not the fact that GM, Ford and Chrysler have slashed billions of
> dollars in costs. Not the fact that they have the nation's top-selling
> pickups and minivans. Not the fact that they have lots of high-mileage
> vehicles and more on the way. Not the fact an auto company bankruptcy
> would have a horrible ripple effect, wiping out scores of suppliers
> and making hundreds of thousands more U.S. workers jobless.
>
> No, to the most adamant auto-rescue opponents in the Senate, Detroit
> doesn't make cars people want. It's a dinosaur not worth preserving.
>
>
> Could the opinions of these senators be colored by the fact that
> the foreign-owned plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Nissan
> and Volkswagen -- which compete with the Detroit Three -- are located
> in their states?
>
> Nah, let's not even go there.
>
> Let's just say that since logic hasn't worked, we should fall back
> on a simple moral argument.
>
> If you see a fellow American is drowning, gasping for air, do you
> quiz him for a while about whether he's drunk or why he never learned
> to swim better? Or do you throw him a life buoy and ask questions
> later?
>
> That, it seems to me, is where we are with America's car companies.
>
>
> You have done nothing and failed them, senators.
>
> So now it's up to President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary
> Hank Paulson to, hopefully, rush in with emergency aid from the $700-billion
> Troubled Assets Relief Program.
>
> They could still hold the Detroit Three's feet to the fire afterward,
> empowering a strong auto czar to bring all stakeholders together
> to forge business models for these companies that can withstand future
> shocks.
>
> On Dec 14 11:18 AM jod wrote:

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Senate seat for sale

December 14, 2008

A “No” vote on the loan package for Detroit’s Big Three was a chance for the GOP senators from the South who led the charge against the legislation to kill two birds with one stone. Not only could they strike a blow to the United Autoworkers, a traditional adversary, but they could also advance the economic interests of their own states. Unfortunately, these senators voted against the economic interests of their own country.

Foreign automakers have spent billions building plants in the states these senators represent. Should America’s automakers go down for the count, Americans would still need cars and foreign automakers would step in and spend additional billions building more plants in, you guessed it, the states of these very same GOP senators.

Christopher Hayes of The Nation magazine was interviewed on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann show last week and pointed out what he called “the worst-kept secret in Washington.” Hayes was referring to the glaring double standard that these Southern senators, Alabama’s Senator Richard Shelby in particular, have displayed.

“They’ve been throwing taxpayer dollars at Toyota for years in Alabama and no one raises a stink about that” Hayes said. In fact, as Olbermann noted, Alabama alone has given more in tax subsides per job to foreign automakers than Detroit was asking for in the bailout plan to save jobs at American companies.

The Big Three haven’t been competing against Toyota and Honda and Nissan; they’ve been competing against Japan. Unlike America, that nation actually has an industrial policy. While our government talked about the virtues of free trade, the Japanese government worked hand in glove with their automakers to help make them the world leaders.

Japan is aggressively trying to do with autos what they did with consumer electronics – undercut American manufacturers, drive them out of business and capture the American market. Japan heavily subsidizes their automakers, they fund their research, they manipulate their currency, and they erect trade barriers that make it virtually impossible for American automakers to export to their country. Think the fact that Pacific Rim nations buy up 80-percent of our government debt has something to do with keeping our government from enacting policies to level the playing field? The bank that holds your mortgage doesn't dance to your tune, you dance to the tune of the bank that holds your mortgage.

I don’t care what you’re manufacturing or if your CEO is Albert Einstein, if you are competing against a country that actually has universal health care, while you’re forced to add $1,200 to $1,500 to the cost to every unit you manufacture to cover your employees’ health care, you’re not going to be competitive. If your country doesn’t rebate the value added tax when you export your product while your competitor’s country does, not only will you be priced out of their market, your foreign competitor’s government subsidy will put them at a tremendous price advantage on your home turf.

Now, thanks to the likes of Senator Shelby, the Big Three are not only competing against Japan, they’re also forced to compete against their very own government.

The fact that nothing is made in America anymore is a familiar lament of Americans. But here’s what Americans don’t seem to get: what little is still being manufactured in America is increasingly being made in foreign-owned plants of foreign-owned companies.

I realize that there is a long history of sharecropping in the South, but I see no advantage to we Americans becoming sharecroppers in our own country.



On Dec 14 12:48 PM paulk8756 wrote:

> Guess what, guys? Your deal's not over yet, it's still on the table!
> All you need do is have the UAW call Sens. Corker and Reid and tell
> them they'll go along with the other stakeholders and take a reasonable
> haircut. The Senate would reconvene on Monday.
>
> But the UAW's not about to do that, of course. They're too busy
> playing this inane game of chicken. So when there are no presents
> under your tree come Christmas morning, don't blame the Senators.
> You can call your union bosses and ask them how their Christmas is
> going instead.
>

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Try explaining this guy to your great grand children

Senate seat for sale

December 14, 2008

A “No” vote on the loan package for Detroit’s Big Three was a chance for the GOP senators from the South who led the charge against the legislation to kill two birds with one stone. Not only could they strike a blow to the United Autoworkers, a traditional adversary, but they could also advance the economic interests of their own states. Unfortunately, these senators voted against the economic interests of their own country.

Foreign automakers have spent billions building plants in the states these senators represent. Should America’s automakers go down for the count, Americans would still need cars and foreign automakers would step in and spend additional billions building more plants in, you guessed it, the states of these very same GOP senators.

Christopher Hayes of The Nation magazine was interviewed on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann show last week and pointed out what he called “the worst-kept secret in Washington.” Hayes was referring to the glaring double standard that these Southern senators, Alabama’s Senator Richard Shelby in particular, have displayed.

“They’ve been throwing taxpayer dollars at Toyota for years in Alabama and no one raises a stink about that” Hayes said. In fact, as Olbermann noted, Alabama alone has given more in tax subsides per job to foreign automakers than Detroit was asking for in the bailout plan to save jobs at American companies.

The Big Three haven’t been competing against Toyota and Honda and Nissan; they’ve been competing against Japan. Unlike America, that nation actually has an industrial policy. While our government talked about the virtues of free trade, the Japanese government worked hand in glove with their automakers to help make them the world leaders.

Japan is aggressively trying to do with autos what they did with consumer electronics – undercut American manufacturers, drive them out of business and capture the American market. Japan heavily subsidizes their automakers, they fund their research, they manipulate their currency, and they erect trade barriers that make it virtually impossible for American automakers to export to their country. Think the fact that Pacific Rim nations buy up 80-percent of our government debt has something to do with keeping our government from enacting policies to level the playing field? The bank that holds your mortgage doesn't dance to your tune, you dance to the tune of the bank that holds your mortgage.

I don’t care what you’re manufacturing or if your CEO is Albert Einstein, if you are competing against a country that actually has universal health care, while you’re forced to add $1,200 to $1,500 to the cost to every unit you manufacture to cover your employees’ health care, you’re not going to be competitive. If your country doesn’t rebate the value added tax when you export your product while your competitor’s country does, not only will you be priced out of their market, your foreign competitor’s government subsidy will put them at a tremendous price advantage on your home turf.

Now, thanks to the likes of Senator Shelby, the Big Three are not only competing against Japan, they’re also forced to compete against their very own government.

The fact that nothing is made in America anymore is a familiar lament of Americans. But here’s what Americans don’t seem to get: what little is still being manufactured in America is increasingly being made in foreign-owned plants of foreign-owned companies.

I realize that there is a long history of sharecropping in the South, but I see no advantage to we Americans becoming sharecroppers in our own country.

On Dec 14 09:54 AM macanic wrote:

> You go to hell, you are the one without a clue. As far as being
> industry friendly, you can't beat the Southern states.
>
> The people here know more about hard work than any place in this
> nation.
>
> At least we still know what the word PRIDE means, which is why we
> are getting all the industry now. Unions suck, always have. The end
> result is Detroits present state.
>
> The South is rising again, and the North is just pissed because they
> have pissed all their opportunities way by their greedy nature.

>
>
>
> On Dec 14 08:48 AM drummerboy wrote:

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Cat is still a UAW company they almost went broke fighting the unions and both sides came to an agreement after years of negotiation. The have not recovered to the company that the once where.


On Dec 14 11:36 AM Ames Tiedeman wrote:

> The UAW must be broken. CAT broke the union in the early 1990's and
> they then went on to beat back the Japanese. It is a disgrace that
> a UAW worker earns not 55, but 71 an hour. Wake up. This is auto
> assembly, not brain surgery.

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Hey They want to give the unions a raise. If the bring the wages and insurance that what they have a the toyo plant in Indiana it will be an improvement to what I have now at the ford plant. No co-pays, in plant pharmacy, in plant health clinic.No layoff just show up and paint lines on the floor when times are bad. Need I say more toyo does not have a job bank they keep everyone during shut downs and production cut at full pay and keep them busy painting and cleaning or training.


On Dec 14 09:13 AM oilcan821 wrote:

> i think these so-called auto experts are the root of the problem!
> look at cunsumer reports-they only give imports an a+ rating. we
> can produce the best cars in the world, but these "experts" convince
> the public our cars are junk! gm and toyota are in nummi in california,
> make a comparable car with only a grille and other cosmetics, and
> the toyota gets the good buy rating! this gentleman who wrote this
> should spend a day in a nice hot gm foundry, or a component plant!
> all these guys tell about is the 1% of deadbeat employees, not the
> other 99% who are job-conscious! gm needs to get by for a year, then
> when they've purged the older workforce, their hourly employees will
> only make $14-16.00 with no pension, or insurance when they retire!
> as a proud uaw-gm retiree, i earned my pension and benefits, through
> all the miserable hot work i tolerated to get these gains! i wasn't
> sitting in a nice air-conditioned office, as these "experts were,
> i was in a bad environment making "world class" castings for gm,
> chrysler,detroit diesel and more! remember that the great reagan
> declared this country "a service economy", and this is what we have
> left of the greatest manufacturing country in the world!

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

They did not send a thing to help out New York after 9-11or the south after all the storms check the facts I have the facts that were in the free press
When Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Alabama on Aug. 29, 2005, the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that the gulf coast should have been better prepared.

They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed plan for future repair of the ruptured levees.

General Motors Corp., on Aug. 30, donated $400,000 to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, pledged to match up to $250,000 more in employee contributions, and sent more than 150 vehicles to the stricken area for use in relief work.

Ford Motor Co. and the UAW quickly made a joint donation of $100,000 to the Red Cross. The Chrysler Group gave $150,000 to the Red Cross and $200,000 to local New Orleans charities. DaimlerChrysler Services chipped in $200,000 for the Red Cross and pledged to match employee donations up to $50,000.

The three Detroit auto companies together gave more than $18 million in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing months. No strings attached.

The U.S. Senate’s most adamant naysayers about whether Detroit deserves rescue loans should have thought about that before now. It might have made Thursday’s futile wrangling over a compromise to get $14 billion in emergency rescue loans for GM and Chrysler a bit less tortuous.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., for one, might have dialed down his earlier rhetoric.

Vitter said Wednesday that he plans to vote against the rescue because, in his words, it is "ass-backwards" to give money to the distressed companies before Congress sees more detailed survival plans.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., should think about Hurricane Katrina, too. He has threatened a filibuster against the bill, calling it "a bridge loan to nowhere" and stating that Detroit's automakers should undergo a fundamental restructuring before they ask Congress for money.

None of the logical arguments made by, or on behalf of, Detroit's auto industry seem to resonate with certain congressional critics.

Not the fact that GM, Ford and Chrysler have slashed billions of dollars in costs. Not the fact that they have the nation's top-selling pickups and minivans. Not the fact that they have lots of high-mileage vehicles and more on the way. Not the fact an auto company bankruptcy would have a horrible ripple effect, wiping out scores of suppliers and making hundreds of thousands more U.S. workers jobless.

No, to the most adamant auto-rescue opponents in the Senate, Detroit doesn't make cars people want. It's a dinosaur not worth preserving.

Could the opinions of these senators be colored by the fact that the foreign-owned plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen -- which compete with the Detroit Three -- are located in their states?

Nah, let's not even go there.

Let's just say that since logic hasn't worked, we should fall back on a simple moral argument.

If you see a fellow American is drowning, gasping for air, do you quiz him for a while about whether he's drunk or why he never learned to swim better? Or do you throw him a life buoy and ask questions later?

That, it seems to me, is where we are with America's car companies.

You have done nothing and failed them, senators.

So now it's up to President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to, hopefully, rush in with emergency aid from the $700-billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.

They could still hold the Detroit Three's feet to the fire afterward, empowering a strong auto czar to bring all stakeholders together to forge business models for these companies that can withstand future shocks.

On Dec 14 11:18 AM jod wrote:

> If Americans supported their own companies that cost disadvantage
> would be eaten up by a larger market share from our companies. Does
> Japan offer the Big 3 the ability to produce cars in Japan for less
> than it cost them to make them their. Their legacy cost in Japan
> are very high. Japans citizens support their own companies and don't
> buy foreign cars. Their whole society subverts foreign competition
> in many ways. It doesn't have websites promoting foreign cars and
> subverting their own listed under the Toyota and Honda yahoo japan
> web pages now do they. I can't even go to Yahoo Japan for some reason.
> I figured I'd use google translate and see the difference. Can't
> even go there.

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Drummer they did not check the weather in the south
Remeber all the flooding and winds form the hurricanes

It was the north that rose again to come to the aid of these victims
here are the facts and published in the detroit frees press
When Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Alabama on Aug. 29, 2005, the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that the gulf coast should have been better prepared.

They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed plan for future repair of the ruptured levees.

General Motors Corp., on Aug. 30, donated $400,000 to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, pledged to match up to $250,000 more in employee contributions, and sent more than 150 vehicles to the stricken area for use in relief work.

Ford Motor Co. and the UAW quickly made a joint donation of $100,000 to the Red Cross. The Chrysler Group gave $150,000 to the Red Cross and $200,000 to local New Orleans charities. DaimlerChrysler Services chipped in $200,000 for the Red Cross and pledged to match employee donations up to $50,000.

The three Detroit auto companies together gave more than $18 million in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing months. No strings attached.

The U.S. Senate’s most adamant naysayers about whether Detroit deserves rescue loans should have thought about that before now. It might have made Thursday’s futile wrangling over a compromise to get $14 billion in emergency rescue loans for GM and Chrysler a bit less tortuous.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., for one, might have dialed down his earlier rhetoric.

Vitter said Wednesday that he plans to vote against the rescue because, in his words, it is "ass-backwards" to give money to the distressed companies before Congress sees more detailed survival plans.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., should think about Hurricane Katrina, too. He has threatened a filibuster against the bill, calling it "a bridge loan to nowhere" and stating that Detroit's automakers should undergo a fundamental restructuring before they ask Congress for money.

None of the logical arguments made by, or on behalf of, Detroit's auto industry seem to resonate with certain congressional critics.

Not the fact that GM, Ford and Chrysler have slashed billions of dollars in costs. Not the fact that they have the nation's top-selling pickups and minivans. Not the fact that they have lots of high-mileage vehicles and more on the way. Not the fact an auto company bankruptcy would have a horrible ripple effect, wiping out scores of suppliers and making hundreds of thousands more U.S. workers jobless.

No, to the most adamant auto-rescue opponents in the Senate, Detroit doesn't make cars people want. It's a dinosaur not worth preserving.

Could the opinions of these senators be colored by the fact that the foreign-owned plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen -- which compete with the Detroit Three -- are located in their states?

Nah, let's not even go there.

Let's just say that since logic hasn't worked, we should fall back on a simple moral argument.

If you see a fellow American is drowning, gasping for air, do you quiz him for a while about whether he's drunk or why he never learned to swim better? Or do you throw him a life buoy and ask questions later?

That, it seems to me, is where we are with America's car companies.

You have done nothing and failed them, senators.

So now it's up to President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to, hopefully, rush in with emergency aid from the $700-billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.

They could still hold the Detroit Three's feet to the fire afterward, empowering a strong auto czar to bring all stakeholders together to forge business models for these companies that can withstand future shocks.

Don't forget all the aid we sent to New York after 9-11

On Dec 14 08:48 AM drummerboy wrote:

> what your analysis fails to mention the reason why these foreign
> companies always seek to be in the southern states of this country
> is because labor, and the cost of living is so much cheaper.look
> at the history in this country, and the old adage, the south is gonna
> do it again. you may still be in the dark ages with the mentality
> that labor is cheap, or should be cheap,hence the reason why the
> civil war was fought. show me one of these foreign car companies
> that establish themselves in a geographical area that is anywhere
> north kentucky. you won't! these car companies that come to this
> country know more about history and demographics in order to get
> the most bang for their buck. remember,it's the south who have NEVER
> had respect for the labor force, chaingangs,civil war,slave labor.
> come one folks, he who blames labor for any type of ruination in
> this country is a fool.blame a working man for working.thats insane.whats
> even more insane is the notion that its a union's fault. wake up
> america. he who has never belonged, or has never gotten their finger
> nails dirty will never understand.time to keep the eye on the real
> ball is now. southern politicians who want to protect the notion
> that labor is only worth 20k a yr., lawyers and insurance companies
> as well. get a clue


Dont forget a

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

You will need to get a hair cut before your next job interview. There will be an overabundance of phd's without real experience.

A far as loyalty you must come and visit the Princeton Indiana toyo plant and count the thousands of ford and gm in there employee parking lot. I have given a number of x-plans so that these loyal toyo employees could get a shinny new ford mustang. I personally have always driven fords and have a perfect attendance record in the15 plus years i have worked for them. The same is true for my brother who has 14 years and my father who put in over 30 years. We have all been involved in the quality programs and have contributed to every joint program that the company and unions has put together. I guess must be a very smug but remember the next time bad weather hits it was the true Americans that came to the rescue

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Alabama on Aug. 29, 2005, the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that the gulf coast should have been better prepared.

They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed plan for future repair of the ruptured levees.

General Motors Corp., on Aug. 30, donated $400,000 to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, pledged to match up to $250,000 more in employee contributions, and sent more than 150 vehicles to the stricken area for use in relief work.

Ford Motor Co. and the UAW quickly made a joint donation of $100,000 to the Red Cross. The Chrysler Group gave $150,000 to the Red Cross and $200,000 to local New Orleans charities. DaimlerChrysler Services chipped in $200,000 for the Red Cross and pledged to match employee donations up to $50,000.

The three Detroit auto companies together gave more than $18 million in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing months. No strings attached.

The U.S. Senate’s most adamant naysayers about whether Detroit deserves rescue loans should have thought about that before now. It might have made Thursday’s futile wrangling over a compromise to get $14 billion in emergency rescue loans for GM and Chrysler a bit less tortuous.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., for one, might have dialed down his earlier rhetoric.

Vitter said Wednesday that he plans to vote against the rescue because, in his words, it is "ass-backwards" to give money to the distressed companies before Congress sees more detailed survival plans.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., should think about Hurricane Katrina, too. He has threatened a filibuster against the bill, calling it "a bridge loan to nowhere" and stating that Detroit's automakers should undergo a fundamental restructuring before they ask Congress for money.

None of the logical arguments made by, or on behalf of, Detroit's auto industry seem to resonate with certain congressional critics.

Not the fact that GM, Ford and Chrysler have slashed billions of dollars in costs. Not the fact that they have the nation's top-selling pickups and minivans. Not the fact that they have lots of high-mileage vehicles and more on the way. Not the fact an auto company bankruptcy would have a horrible ripple effect, wiping out scores of suppliers and making hundreds of thousands more U.S. workers jobless.

No, to the most adamant auto-rescue opponents in the Senate, Detroit doesn't make cars people want. It's a dinosaur not worth preserving.

Could the opinions of these senators be colored by the fact that the foreign-owned plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen -- which compete with the Detroit Three -- are located in their states?

Nah, let's not even go there.

Let's just say that since logic hasn't worked, we should fall back on a simple moral argument.

If you see a fellow American is drowning, gasping for air, do you quiz him for a while about whether he's drunk or why he never learned to swim better? Or do you throw him a life buoy and ask questions later?

That, it seems to me, is where we are with America's car companies.

You have done nothing and failed them, senators.

So now it's up to President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to, hopefully, rush in with emergency aid from the $700-billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.

They could still hold the Detroit Three's feet to the fire afterward, empowering a strong auto czar to bring all stakeholders together to forge business models for these companies that can withstand future shocks.


On Dec 14 08:09 AM ABetterPlace wrote:

> Yes Mark, you are on the money with the analysis. There is another
> factor involved however, that most will not talk about and that is
> company loyalty.
>
> As we have seen on TV a few times in the last 20 years or so, programs
> that have shown the pride and company loyalty that Asian workers
> embrace. A dedication by workers to do a good job and create a successful
> company. This idea has been integrated, to a point, into the American
> plants of these companies. These companies try to create a team approach
> in their business, and do.
>
> To the dismay of American producers that have also tried this approach
> over the past years, it does not work. The labor unions will not
> allow it to work.
> Many labor unions look at the company as "the enemy we must fight
> daily to obtain what we want from them". Company loyalty, forget
> it.
>
> I am convinced that unless the "Big Three" are able to get more control
> over their workforce, they are doomed to failure.

$10 an Hour Pay Gap = Billions of Extra Dollars a Year

Please remember that a bail out is what you do when your boat or house is filling with flood water. There will be hell to pay before the real Americans auto workers send another lead nickle to the south.


When Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Alabama on Aug. 29, 2005, the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that the gulf coast should have been better prepared.

They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed plan for future repair of the ruptured levees.

General Motors Corp., on Aug. 30, donated $400,000 to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, pledged to match up to $250,000 more in employee contributions, and sent more than 150 vehicles to the stricken area for use in relief work.

Ford Motor Co. and the UAW quickly made a joint donation of $100,000 to the Red Cross. The Chrysler Group gave $150,000 to the Red Cross and $200,000 to local New Orleans charities. DaimlerChrysler Services chipped in $200,000 for the Red Cross and pledged to match employee donations up to $50,000.

The three Detroit auto companies together gave more than $18 million in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing months. No strings attached.

The U.S. Senate’s most adamant naysayers about whether Detroit deserves rescue loans should have thought about that before now. It might have made Thursday’s futile wrangling over a compromise to get $14 billion in emergency rescue loans for GM and Chrysler a bit less tortuous.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., for one, might have dialed down his earlier rhetoric.

Vitter said Wednesday that he plans to vote against the rescue because, in his words, it is "ass-backwards" to give money to the distressed companies before Congress sees more detailed survival plans.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., should think about Hurricane Katrina, too. He has threatened a filibuster against the bill, calling it "a bridge loan to nowhere" and stating that Detroit's automakers should undergo a fundamental restructuring before they ask Congress for money.

None of the logical arguments made by, or on behalf of, Detroit's auto industry seem to resonate with certain congressional critics.

Not the fact that GM, Ford and Chrysler have slashed billions of dollars in costs. Not the fact that they have the nation's top-selling pickups and minivans. Not the fact that they have lots of high-mileage vehicles and more on the way. Not the fact an auto company bankruptcy would have a horrible ripple effect, wiping out scores of suppliers and making hundreds of thousands more U.S. workers jobless.

No, to the most adamant auto-rescue opponents in the Senate, Detroit doesn't make cars people want. It's a dinosaur not worth preserving.

Could the opinions of these senators be colored by the fact that the foreign-owned plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen -- which compete with the Detroit Three -- are located in their states?

Nah, let's not even go there.

Let's just say that since logic hasn't worked, we should fall back on a simple moral argument.

If you see a fellow American is drowning, gasping for air, do you quiz him for a while about whether he's drunk or why he never learned to swim better? Or do you throw him a life buoy and ask questions later?

That, it seems to me, is where we are with America's car companies.

You have done nothing and failed them, senators.

So now it's up to President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to, hopefully, rush in with emergency aid from the $700-billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.

They could still hold the Detroit Three's feet to the fire afterward, empowering a strong auto czar to bring all stakeholders together to forge business models for these companies that can withstand future shocks.


On Dec 14 09:54 AM macanic wrote:

> You go to hell, you are the one without a clue. As far as being
> industry friendly, you can't beat the Southern states.
>
> The people here know more about hard work than any place in this
> nation.
>
> At least we still know what the word PRIDE means, which is why we
> are getting all the industry now. Unions suck, always have. The end
> result is Detroits present state.
>
> The South is rising again, and the North is just pissed because they
> have pissed all their opportunities way by their greedy nature.

>
>
>
> On Dec 14 08:48 AM drummerboy wrote: