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UAW oldtimers stick it to the new hires

by gagrice on Sun Apr 26 06:51:28 PDT 2009

The UAW workers don't make the big bucks anymore. Tell me just how big of a wage cut did the old timers take? The UAW is playing games with the new hires. That should be plain to you. A real Union does not cut the wages of just the lower guys on the seniority list. It is across the board. Same goes for Retirees. When the AK Teamsters eliminated Health Care for the retirees it included those already retired as well as the next generation of retirees. That is fair and equal. Just take a long hard look at the UAW contracts and tell me they treat all the workers in a given job equally. That is what a REAL Union does. What you see now is only the beginning of your serf n' elite society. That is what I see with the UAW. The older workers making the big bucks with golden parachutes and the new hires taking the hit. You should be ashamed of that kind of treatment. And in this case I do not believe Reuther would have gone along with the contract. All for one, and One for all is not part of a two tier wage package. your children might be living high on the hawg now with good jobs Hardly. They get by with a little help from the Dad, me. My daughter is doing better in Indiana than they did here in CA. They should be closing on a home soon. They would NEVER have been able to buy a home in CA. My daughter and husband together do not make the base pay that a Delphi fork lift operator makes. Which is somewhere in the $65k to $80k+ per year without OT. Unless Oscar was lying on his bankruptcy case. I think competition on a level playing field is good for GM and the consumer. A level playing field would mean the UAW workers should be making the average for manufacturing throughout the USA. That is not the case. There are factories everywhere with people making $10 per hour and sometimes less. You should think about the playing field being level in the USA before you try leveling it across the globe. My ex brother in law slung hides in a packing plant until he went on SS. You ever go into a beef packing plant? You think that any job in the auto industry is any messier than scraping cow hides? Well he was always paid just above minimum wage in Modesto California. No incentive to better himself. Sound like folks you know in the UAW. The difference is in the UAW you make as much as many with expensive degrees. How fair and level is that playing field? I don't think you know what fair is. $6K is chump change in Cali. That will get you what a modest house in the projects of Long Beach, Watts, Compton? You really are out of touch with reality. I wish I was getting $6k per month pension. Mine after 37 years in the Teamsters is about 2/3rds that with NO HEALTH CARE. And I live quite comfortably in a very nice area of CA. I know I could live like a king in Michigan on $6K per month. That is $72k per year. Not a lot of people make that much here in CA. Maybe 5% of the workforce. Mostly in government. Which generates NO income other than taxes from the lower paid masses. They are getting close to being complete with Medical Mile which will give us the finest hospitals in the country. So why aren't you taking courses to get one of those great jobs? I think ILUV has tried to head you in that direction. I am sure you could get Federal aid of some sort to retrain yourself.

Re: Delphi BK judge would not tear up UAW contract [tlong]

by rockylee on Sun Apr 26 01:09:26 PDT 2009

That would definitely be a big risk. But really, if you ran the New GM and your job was to make the company profitable, what would you do? I suspect you'd say kill all of the foreign competition through government action. No I wouldn't!!! Again for the millionth time I think competition on a level playing field is good for GM and the consumer. ;) But given that is not very likely, you are running the new GM and you have tough choices. Presumably the New GM already is a lot smaller, has many fewer divisions, and has dumped a large number of uncompetitive vehicles. If you want to compete with other makes you need to be have desirable products but still be profitable. If the full healthcare costs are still on the books for the retirees, I don't know how the bankruptcy court is going to say GM is viable enough to emerge. Well now is this presidents chance to unveil his national healthcare plan. It would help GM cut costs and stay even more competitive. However that alone isn't going to save them. There needs to be tariffs slapped on the hoods of each import to level out the playing field. This would make it costly to use cheap foreign labor or manipulate your currency and those jobs would have to come back here and compete on a level playing field. I also would make sure EFCA passes to unionize the transplants. ;) And I agree that if you are a retired worker it would suck big time. Even if I don't agree with the size of their retirement benefits, it's unfair not to get benefits that they counted on and planned for. Yep!!! The pension appears to be pretty secure but the healthcare is a different story. The best approach for the UAW is to pressure Obama to pass National Healthcare and in return to get GM to increase there pension plan so they can buy supplemental health insurance which would save GM billions and the retirees and active wouldn't lose any benefit coverage. That is how I personally would solve that issue. ;) On a similar note, a family member's wife works as a California unionized school teacher in very large district. She is two years from retirement after over 30years of service. Her RETIREMENT BENEFITS are a pension of $6K/month, with full health care for herself and her husband, for the rest of their lives. Well that is more than double what my dad gets. Dad is getting $2900 a month thus taking a little less per month so my step-mom can collect in case he were to die. However he doesn't live in the costly state of California though either. ;) $6K is chump change in Cali. That will get you what a modest house in the projects of Long Beach, Watts, Compton??? :P No wonder we are taxed to death in this state. Watch California keep raising taxes, and watch the businesses and affluent individuals leave. I am not planning on retiring in this state. It is like GM and the UAW, but on a larger level. And like the UAW, the state unions are choking our finances. Seriously a home in California in the poor areas will run you $350K from what I could see by watching those HGTV shows like flip that house, etc. I'm sure it's a cool million or so where Gary aka gagrice lives in San Diego. I was born in Long Beach but I don't know what is so special about living there??? It is cheaper and warmer in Florida. I guess since I haven't been there since I was a baby I don't know what I'm missing, eh??? :P I'll take Michigan, and our 4 seasons any day. The only good thing about California, is six-foot tall blond bombshells are as common as the California sunshine from what I hear. :P However we have our fair share of tall smokin' hot women here in Western Michigan and one of em' happens to be my best friend. ;) -Rocky

Re: Last night [nippononly]

by duke23 on Tue Jan 06 20:41:38 PST 2009

nippon only wrote : "What I meant was that all cars spend a little time sitting there, so ones like the Prius, which is still selling well, would still spend a few days there. Of course I didn't mean to imply that the thrust of the article was wrong - some cars are spending months sitting there. But even now Toyota dealers don't have big stocks of Corollas, Yarises, and Priuses. They just finally have a few to sell, after a summer of having none of any of those models. " Ok , don't let facts get in the way. Honda's sales abysmal for 4th quarter 2008. Toyota's sales down 37%, Ford down 32% . For the Corolla and Yaris, sales are up but no comment on the Prius . Overall for Toyota, sales doth suck. Rather like a flipper you bought in Compton, you don't want to go there . T-2 months till California goes bankrupt.

Re: I watched in wonderment [nippononly]

by andre1969 on Tue Jun 03 07:33:05 PDT 2008

During the pizza delivery days, were you in the habit of leaving the car idling while you went to the door at each destination? I remember working delivery for about a year for this video place, driving my old Corolla, and I always used to leave it idling in the drive while I went to the door, unless I was in a dubious area. Just thinking about wasting that much gas now makes me slightly ill... Yeah, back in those days I'd usually just leave the car running. I delivered in a fairly safe community that was mainly single family homes with driveways, where I could pull practically right up to the front door. Now for places like townhouses, condos, apartments, or businesses, where the car would be in a parking lot, or where it was more likely someone could just walk by and hop in the car, I would shut it off. The main reason I'd leave the car running though, was to save wear and tear on the starter. Also, I don't think a car really uses THAT much fuel while idling. Plus, until I got the Intrepid, the cars I drove all had carburetors, where you don't really save much fuel, if any, in turning the car off for a minute or two and then having to restart, versus just letting it idle during that time. I delivered pizzas from 1996 to 2001. If I had to go back to doing it, I'd definitely turn the car off every time. Unfortunately, this area has gone a bit south with regards to crime and violence these days. It's not like Compton in a gangsta rap video or anything, but I just wouldn't want to tempt fate. Plus, I guess I'm just older now, more conservative, less willing to take a chance. I haven't had a pizza delivered in ages. For all I know, some places might already be slapping on a delivery surcharge. Actually, when I worked for Little Caesar's, they tried that once. They were arguing that because of having drivers, their insurance costs went way up, so they started slapping on a $1.00 delivery charge. Of which the driver didn't see a penny. And naturally, that would make some customers give a cheaper tip, since they're getting whacked with a surcharge. Surprisingly though, most customers understood.

Re: Clear as Mud [richard64]

by chikoo on Wed May 21 14:33:13 PDT 2008

Thanks Richard. I always wondered why Bush made so many blunders in his mother tongue. Compton may have had a role to play I guess ;)

Re: Clear as Mud [obyone]

by chikoo on Mon May 19 10:36:21 PDT 2008

I would be teaching HS English except they sent me into Compton, CA on a practice assignment and that changed my mind! And what's wrong with Compton? Did you know that George HW and George W Bush lived there? No wonder...Bush Blunders