Locate an Auto Repair Shop in South Bethlehem, New York

South Bethlehem, NY Car Consumer Discussions

South Central PA & Lehigh Valley

by dtownfb on Wed Jul 18 06:19:53 PDT 2007

Gas prices in York, PA are holding at $2.87-$2.92. Here's an interesting article from the Morning Call in Allentown, PA. Seems there is a gas war going on in the Allentown-Bethlehem area. Schoenersville Road is just east of the airport in case anyone needs to fill up in that area. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_5gas.5950281jul18,0,7966530.story?coll=all_tab01_layout

Re: Bottom line [john500]

by kdhspyder on Mon May 22 11:07:25 PDT 2006

"...steel, metals..." Actually it was Americans that put other Americans out of work in the steel industry. Entreprenurial American's created the whole concept of direct casting and the mini-mill which the rest of the world rushed to copy. The ultra efficient non-union mini-mills created by Ken Iverson and others killed LTV, Bethlehem and other aging integrated dinosaurs all over the world with newer more flexible/efficient factories. Here the new plants in the South put less efficient plants in the Midwest out of business. Wait isn't that what's happening in the auto business now?

I don't think it will be

by marsha7 on Sat Apr 08 17:44:53 PDT 2006

for all manufacturing...if we can design production lines that foster productivity, and destroy the "union welfare mentality" where they think they deserve to be paid because they breathe, so that workers understand they must be productive, we can manufacture over here to offset the cost of transport...with the cost of fuel rising, it may make it too expensive to ship certain products from China to here... We can assemble cars in Mexico because they are, literally, just over the border...it is cheaper to tranport a car from Mexico to anywhere in the South and Southwest than it is from, say, Detroit... It is my understanding that numerous US steel mills that went bankrupt when they were unionized (US Steel, Bethlehem Steel) were bought out by entrepreneurs, updated with new, computerized equipment, and could make steel better and cheaper than Japan...maybe the mechanization did not require the employ of 1000s of steelworkers, but they did employ a bunch, and showed it can be done here, better and cheaper than it could be done over there... I also believe that the UAW works under a quota system...they only make so much stuff today, and then the line "slows down" so they only make so much in a day...this is the diametric polar opposite of "productivity"...but, from a UAW standpoint, it DOES keep their jobs...of course, that is why the automakers are sending it out of the country, because the union will not bend, so it becomes "all or nothing"... And, even if the union changed tomorrow, the rank and file, who have been spoiled all these years, and are not exactly high on the IQ scale, would not change their behavioiur or their mindset, like a spoiled child who pouts when he doesn't get his way...do not put it past the lineworkers to start sabotaging cars in their last year of work before a plant shutdown, because there can be no repercussions as they are losing their jobs anyway... When all those buyout workers will be working their final six months, woe is the person who buys that product...I would not be surprised to see the highest level of complaints and warranty problems ever seen in the history of the world...

Re: Work Rules Nonsense [martian]

by kdhspyder on Wed Feb 22 15:46:14 PST 2006

UAW and USW.. When the steel mini-mills were beginning to sound the death knell for the major integrated steel mills back in the 80's one of the key differences was work rules. Others were Working conditions Pay ( see below ) Team Concept Productivity When Nucor Steel began to go after US Steel and Bethlehem it only put its plants in low cost rural areas in the South near transportation. Nice model, sound familiar? There were no work rules. Each 'team' consisted of say 10 members. The team survived and succeeded together. All 10 had to do all the jobs of everyone else, from sweeping to moving steel to testing. Pay.. was a huge point of contention with the USW vs the non union workers. If memory serves me the USW got ~ $30/hr in 1986; the Nucor workers got ~$18/hr. But if the plant hit its output quota in a week all the workers on a team got a $14/hr productivity bonus!!! But... if a team member missed one day of work he didn't get any of the bonus; miss 2 days and his entire team missed the bonus!!! This way one person or one team couldnt slack off and wait on others to do their job. These guys worked their a..... off in dangerous conditions with molten steel all around them all of the time. But in the end they worked the USW workers out of business and they made more money in the long run than the union people. Everything the UAW is going through now has already been seen in the recent past. Don't think for a moment the top managers of GM/F/DC/T/H/H/BMW dont know this. Heck they were buyers from USS and Bethlehem and LTV at that time. Now they buy from the mini-mills. They've seen what works.

Re: Facts: Foreign vs American [rockylee]

by kdhspyder on Tue Dec 27 18:04:19 PST 2005

..their is no more steel mills in the U.S. Real brief synopsis. The US steel industry was even more poorly managed than the Big 3 here. Every word you hear on this forum was uttered 30 years ago about the US integrated industry. It was based in the narrow corridor from Bethlehem to Gary, In + Birmingham, Al. For 20+ years USS, Bethlehem, LTV, Armco fought imports which were better, more reliable and less expensive. But the barriers to entry are even more substantial in the steel industry than in automaking. No transplants exist. Tariffs and quota's were established to give the US mills protection and it worked while they modernized. When I started in 1977 some plants still used 1890's technology (?). Ironically the driving force for modernization was...The BIG 3 automakers. 'Modernize or we will buy every pound of steel from Germany, France and Japan!!!' :surprise: I was sole supplier to Ford and Chrysler on multiple parts then. The bulk of steel used in the US is common grade just like CamCord are common vehicles. What the big integrateds didnt foresee, nor any other steel maker anywhere else in the world, was the risk and the potential of the US minimills like Nucor Steel to become meaningful competitors. In 10 years Nucor went from making rebar to killing off Bethlehem Steel,and with the other mini's here, essentially killed the US integrated steel industry. Dynamic innovation. During Nucor's growth Ken Iverson the CEO had his HQ in a strip mall near Charlotte; held strategy meetings at the local IHOP; and operated with a HQ staff of 20-30 people. OH.. every single plant was non-union and worked on a 100% productivity bonus. If you were a steelmaker you could also be put into service in other areas if demand warranted it. They located mainly in the South in rural areas where there was easy access to shipping and mechanically inclined workers. ( sound familiar? ). There was no way minimills could get their quality up to automotive standards .. until the Big 3 automakers suddenly said 'Oh BTW, Nucor is replacing you Mr. Integrated because they are 20% less expensive. See ya.' It can and should happen in the auto industry as well. change is good.

Re: It's all bad... [lemko]

by grbeck on Tue Nov 08 10:07:51 PST 2005

lemko: Oh, they WILL care when the streets are filled with marauding armies of the unemployed smashing up their imports in futile acts of anarchy and breaking into those fancy suburban homes they thought were so secure in a gated community guarded by a $6.50 an hour 80 year-old retired village cop. National unemployment figures remain low...Delphi is not the auto industry, and, in turn, the auto industry does not represent the entire economy. GM and Ford are largely concentrated in the industrial Midwest. There are no plants here in Pennsylvania. So, there won't be any hordes of unemployed auto workers coming to my neighborhood any time soon. And, if perchance they did, they will quickly discover that I'm not going be bullied by unemployed auto workers or anyone else when it comes to choosing a new vehicle. And it is not only the well-to-do buying Hondas, Toyotas and Nissans. There are plenty of those vehicles in middle class and even lower-middle class neighborhoods around here. Despite the wailing that what is happening to Delphi workers serves as the canary-in-the-mineshaft for the blue-collar middle class, the simple fact is that most blue-collar workers around here don't enjoy wages or benefits anywhere near those enjoyed by UAW members. The only blue-collar workers who did were those who worked for Bethlehem Steel and USAir...both of which filed for bankruptcy. Think there might be a connection? Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes, BWM and Hyundai - not to mention their American-based suppliers - are employing thousands of Americans at good wages. The Japanese and the Koreans are also expanding their engineering and design facitlies in this country. That means more white collar jobs for Americans. Sorry, but it isn't 1965 anymore. The American auto industry is no longer limited to GM, Ford and Chrysler. The auto industry is constantly changing. Since when is it written in stone that three major companies must control 85 percent of the market? Since when is it written that the UAW must represent 100 percent of the people who assemble new vehicles? Yes, a portion of the profits from those American plants returns to Japan and Korea. But GM and Ford have wholly owned subsidiaries in Europe, Mexico, South America and Australia. Over the years, a fair amount of the profits generated by those subsidiaries has replenished the coffers in Detroit and Dearborn - or even kept the parent company afloat (as Ford of Europe did for Ford in the early 1980s, when the North American operations were gushing red ink). I don't recall the residents of those countries complaining about "their" auto industry being invaded by American interlopers. Americans sound like crybabies on this issue. I'm tired of whining by Americans. The transplants are here to stay, they are showing us a better way to design, engineer and build new vehicles, and if GM, Ford and the UAW are too stubborn or clueless to learn, I have no sympathy for them. The simple fact is that our labor contracts are uncompetitive and the leadership of GM and Ford is too dominated by finance-oriented individuals who have no feel for a changing market. Of course, it doesn't help that loyal domestic customers make every excuse under the sun for the home team: *currency manipulation, even though Honda and Toyota sales keep increasing, whatever the yen is doing today; *the commie-pinko-Toyota-loving-liberals at Consumer Reports; *free-trade policies pursued by America while Japan's market remains closed (as if the Japanese would really buy a Saturn Ion or Chevy Malibu, considering that neither has sent Americans rushing to the dealerships). Sometimes I think that GM product planners read these boards, print the postings of GM apologists and take them to their superiors and say: "There really isn't any problem. Using that 3.8 V-6 in the Lucerne will not affect our ability to entice people out of a Lexus. It doesn't matter that the 'first ever' Pontiac G6 will have a mediocre 3.5 ohv V-6 and no uplevel versions when it debuts against the VWs and cheaper Acuras. And it makes perfect sense to price the top-level LaCrosse at $30,000+, even though comparable Accords and Camrys are considerably cheaper. And the public doesn't notice when we piously swear off rebates one month and quickly reinstate them when sales plunge." This is not George Bush's fault; it is not the transplants' fault; and it is not the fault of people who buy vehicles from the transplants.