A time to be American - GM Trucks

[MN Hunter]

I love my gmc truck. That being said a poor business plan and the unions are to blame for the sad state they are in today. Let them file chapter 11. Restructure and possibly come out of this stronger than they were before. Bail them out no way - bail out the people tha( bought more house than they could afford - no way. Help a hard working American that has lost their job - you bet.

 

[dogdinger]

"BAIL EM OUT! ????
> >
> > Hell, back in 1990, the Government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel
> > in
> > Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. They
> > failed
> > and it closed. Now we are trusting the economy of our country and our
> > banking system to the same nit-wits who couldn't make money running a
> > whore
> > house and selling whiskey!"
> >

 

[elkguys]

LMAO I forgot about that you are sooooo right!!!! how hard is it to sell sex?

 

[FEENIX]

GREED IS EVIL!

 

[Varmint Hunter]

For many years I ONLY bought American vehicles. I never even considered a Jap auto. I must admit though that most of my new cars had recurring mechanical and service problems. The cars were often returned to the service center to address one problem or another. Brand new vehicles shouldn't need regular service but they always did.

A while ago my (then) new bride who was driving a Camero insisted on a new foreign car. Neither one of us had ever owned one before. We shopped around for quite some time and settled on a Honda Accord. It took some getting use to but the car was well built, comfortable and fuel efficient. My wife drove that car for 10 years and put 140,000 miles on it before we sold it. Guess how many times it was in the shop for repairs? NEVER - Other than routine maintenance the car was never brought back to Honda for a problem, not even once. With 140,000 mi on the car it still sold for $4,000 used.

We now have 2 Hondas and an Accura at the house and one is as good or better than the other. I guess my point to all of this is that the American car companies killed their own industry by providing cars that were noticeably sub-standard when compared to other vehicles that were readily available to the American consumer. The "big 3" had a decade to get smart and produce fuel efficient, reliable cars that re-attracted the American buyer but that obviously didn't happen.

I don't know who, specifically, is to blame but the American auto industry's image was tarnished over a long period of time and it will take many years of quality product improvements before the average car buyer looks to the American auto industry FIRST for a quality built car.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

For many years I ONLY bought American vehicles. I never even considered a Jap auto. I must admit though that most of my new cars had recurring mechanical and service problems. The cars were often returned to the service center to address one problem or another. Brand new vehicles shouldn't need regular service but they always did.

A while ago my (then) new bride who was driving a Camero insisted on a new foreign car. Neither one of us had ever owned one before. We shopped around for quite some time and settled on a Honda Accord. It took some getting use to but the car was well built, comfortable and fuel efficient. My wife drove that car for 10 years and put 140,000 miles on it before we sold it. Guess how many times it was in the shop for repairs? NEVER - Other than routine maintenance the car was never brought back to Honda for a problem, not even once. With 140,000 mi on the car it still sold for $4,000 used.

We now have 2 Hondas and an Accura at the house and one is as good or better than the other. I guess my point to all of this is that the American car companies killed their own industry by providing cars that were noticeably sub-standard when compared to other vehicles that were readily available to the American consumer. The "big 3" had a decade to get smart and produce fuel efficient, reliable cars that re-attracted the American buyer that obviously didn't happen.

I don't know who, specifically, is to blame but the American auto industry's image was tarnished over a long period of time and it will take many years of quality product improvements before the average car buyer looks to the American auto industry FIRST for a quality built car.

Just my 2 cents.

It's not hard to know who to blame. The union. I had this figured out 25 years ago when I was in high school. They choked the ability of the US auto industry to produce quality products. If they built the same quality as the foreign autos they would cost twice as much because of labor cost. Labor cost is not just the hourly wage + benefits. It is also the inability to expect performance from the work force. A work force that does not have performance based pay does not work hard. This compounds the cost of labor. Then come the inefficiencies that are put into place by regulations implemented by the unions. People filing grievances because some one else with less seniority got to go on break before they did. Worker that can't do certain things because it is not in their job description. Mean while waiting for the employee that has that job description, but he won't show up because he is on his break, and the whole place shuts down, until he is off his break.

Give me a break. We have labor laws, the unions are useless. They need to be broken.

Then you look at the so called stimulus package. It sends money (that has no value because it was printed out of thin air) to unions and Government agencies exclusively. The common man will not get any benefit. It's going to put us all in the bread line faster than any of us ever thought possible.

The good thing is we have elections every two years.

Steve

 

[Varmint Hunter]

It seems a bit too convenient and maybe even trendy to blame the union for everything. Big decisions are made at high levels where blue-collar input is rarely welcome.

I work for a unionized workplace myself. Our union protects employees from unfair practices including the indiscriminate use of discipline. Yeah - workers do get disciplined and even fired, but they do get competent representation so that workers can expect a fair shake. The system seems to work for both sides.

As far as salary and benefits, contracts change all the time, we do not always gain but have seen some losses when times got tough. No one here is making the $70/hr that I see typed on the web re: UAW. Actually, an entry level position is around $30K (sometimes lower) and new employees contribute towards their health care.

I for one, fully support our union which has not been an undue burden on the employer but has ensured that everyone has a reasonably good place to work. Employees can come to work each day without the fear of being unfairly treated by a supervisor who is just having a bad day.

 

[elkguys]

what most people dont take into account is if you pay a man 30 per hour it costs anther 15 on top of that just for workmans comp and taxes then if you add on vac and health add anther 15 for that now your at 60 per hour just to have one man work.in our company we charge 95 per hour after we pay out all we are lucky to make 5 bucks per hour and we only have 30 empoyees take the auto company that have thousands now you see why we pay 60k for a pickup.this year we took a hit for the cost of mat of 10% and with the economy the way it is thats hard to pass on but we do this with out goverment bailout money the big 3 need to do this too!

 

[lazylabs]

Re: A time to be FOOLS - GM SUCKS

TO HELL with the big 3. They don't really make trucks in the US. The last chevy I bought was a new 05 crew cab silverado. It had canadian maple leaf stickers all over it. The transmission went out 3 times in the first 1500 miles. I found out it was sold to me as new with 40 miles on and had also had the transmission replaced at 15 miles. The dealer wouldn't make it right. GM corporate would do me a favor and let me trade it back on a new truck for a slight payment of $12000. So I don't fault a company that makes one bad truck... I do fault them when they won't stand behind thier product. They are poorly engineered, poorly assembled(thanks UAW) and while they drop resale faster than all "jap crap" they also offer HORRIBLE customer service. I now happily drive a nissan titan that was made in TN instead of my broke *** chevy that was made in Canada.

 

[Boss Hoss]

Not me---let them go Chapter 11 and then come back!! THERE IS NO REASON TO THROW GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD RIGHT NOW!!!!!! Mark my words!!! As long as they have to support the bloated unions they will never be able to be competitive period end of story. They have been bleeding money for 20 years and now the biscuit wheels on the gravy train are gone and they are just sitting there while the buzzards circle.

Is anyone really surprised---BE HONEST??

 

[winmagman]

While I can't sit here and say that the unions are blamelees in this mess, I find it very difficult to listen to a company **** and moan about labor costs when they have CEOs, COOs, CFOs, board members, ect, ect all collecting million dollar a year salaries plus outragous bonuses year after year. The big shots made their bed , let them sleep in it.

Chris

 

[AJ Peacock]

When they shut down the plants in the midwest and moved them out of the US to Canada and Mexico, they said "it's a global market, we don't just sell in the US anymore; it's called progress and globalization."

Now after years of failing to fix the union issue, it's a US issue again. What happened to the "it's globalization chant?". Move the 10's of thousands of jobs back to the US, re-open the Flint Michigan plants, re-negotiate all the union bloat. Then I'll get behind some $'s to help them out.

AJ

 

[RockyMtnMT]

As a union man, what would it take for you to get fired? You talk about the protection you get from the nasty supervisor that might be having a bad day. What protection does the company that you work for have? Lets say you have a bad day, once a week. How many weeks of one bad day a week does the company have to pay you for before they can get rid of you? Or lets say that you have an out put that is 40% greater than the guy that works next to you. Lets say he has been on the job for 6 month longer than you. Will you ever make more than he does? If not why bother doing more work than he does? Now run that attitude through however many people work for any given union organized company and tell me how that can possibly be good for the company.

The union does nothing but protect mediocrity. There is no way you or any one else can sugar coat it any other way. I assume that you are the guy that performs better than the guy next to you and not visa verse. How can you put up with it? You are being held back by the union that you think is protecting you. The only ones in your situation that benefit are the workers that are happy to be less than they can be, and the mafia union bosses that extort money out of you and the company you work for. Call it protection money.

Have you lived through a strike? Did you add up the money you lost during the strike? Did you make it back after the strike with the improved working conditions you got as a result of the strike? More than likely not. Everyone involved lost except the union leaders. Didn't cost them a nickle. In fact they get fatter every time they send the poor workers out to strike. Off the back of the worker that thinks he is being protected by the union. Kind of funny how that works, they take your money and you thank them for doing it. Then they donate it to politicians that disagree with you on probably most every moral, economic, and patriotic value that you have. Yet you still thank them for what they do for you.


Steve

 

[elkguys]

Steve what you said about a strike is so very true!!! they will even go as far as to tell you to vote no 3-5 times which is more money you lost and will never get back.but all the staff working at the hall still get there pay.do most people even know how much real estate that your pension funds own?I dont think so or how much money they give to special interest groupes.you always hear after election day denial of these groupes and the money.