young snowbird

Let GM Fail

There is so much history of the bankruptcies and closures of many other manufacturing operations in the US over the past 30 years. Factory after factory, company after company closed down and/or went overseas. People had to re-train or just plain live on welfare as long as they could. As time went by, millions MILLIONS of people had to adjust to jobs that paid less, asked for more work in less time and every year took away more and more benefits. Its hard now for those who have gone before to really sympathize with the UAW folks, because so many people have been doing 2 & 3 people's jobs for one salary without union representation, without a say, and for management that is heartless and clueless for more than two decades. The gravy train passed us by a long time ago. Our anger that comes out here is partly because we hear the entitlement in the UAW arguement, the same one past factory workers made that no one listened to. We hear a lack of connection with reality of how most of the rest of the work force deal every day. We don't see an understanding, don't see the acknowledgment that the world has changed for a great majority of the US work force but somehow didn't hit the UAW until now.

I'm sorry this is happening. But many, many have gone before you. You will flail and yell for a while but then, if you want to survive, you have to accept and move on the best you can. Swearing at and calling the author of this article names and giving out his number so others can harrass him is not productive.

GM Must Die

The only way to get rid of the union is bankruptcy/liquidation or do like Reagan did with the air traffic controllers and fire everyone and put in new people. Don't know how legal that is.

I have a six year old American made car (Ford.) 87,000 miles on it and its already been in the shop several times. Never had that kind of problem with my Nissan pickup. Will I be able to get replacement parts for my American car if they close? Will the companies that make parts be able to keep supplies up on the old models? Are there enough cars on the road currently to keep the car parts businesses in business making parts for older models? Of course there are! There is still a market for them!

I don't have plans on buying a new car for several years, and when I do it will be the most advanced all-electric that I can afford, so unless the Big 3 can pull that out of their hat, I am not one of those who will decide NOT to buy because they went into bankruptcy. They've already lost a repeat customer.

The bigger fear for GM regarding bankruptcy is that there are no financial backers available to them if they go that route.Without federal help, the only real bankruptcy route open to them is liquidation.GM is the Lehman Brothers of the Big 3.

A Solution for General Motors

This is an emotional time for all the folks connected to the Big 3 Auto companies. Lose/Lose solutions abound. Mr. Woods solution seems doable, but it is not without pain. And it might not work for the long term, depending upon the severity of the economy over the next few years.

Back in the late 70's my father, a union man, worked for an ice factory. The ice factory management said that they couldn't make it if the union pushed for higher pay. They said they'd rather close immediately then see themselves lose everything in six month's time. The union kept pushing. The company closed and my father, having only an 8th grade education and limited networking skills never worked a steady job again. We went from good pay to welfare overnight. And didn't climb back out. Unions are good for protecting worker safety and rights, but they gotta look at the big picture. GM could get big bailouts now from the government and still go bankrupt next year, which means zero dollars per hour instead of $12 to $15 per hour in concessions.

I feel for y'all. Been there. But the economy, the evaporation of credit, the drop in housing prices, the loss of other industry jobs all conspire to leave cars unbought. Something's gotta give. What I wish the union at my pop's factory had done is push for retraining instead of higher wages. He might have gone on to something positive.

If GM goes down, everyone there will be without a job, without health care, without pension, and sliding down to foreclosures, etc. If you had a crystal ball and saw that it will happen anyway, just a year later, what would you wish had been done differently? That's what needs to be done now. Protect yourself for the new future that is coming. Is GM Too Big to fail? No, its too big to stay afloat. Even stars in the heavens go super-nova and burn out.