Blasphemy! Yes!

[bomelia]

I'm sitting in traffic the other day (in my American made car, one of the Big 3) listening to talk radio when I experience an epifony! (sp??)

I have worked in "union shops" in my career. All that did was convince me that modern day unions are a festering sore on our economy. I, to this day, have zero respect for unions. And now, the "big 3" are on the verge of bankruptcy and we all know the reason: Unions and management that has accepted unions as a normal way of doing business. Instead of modernizing and bringing inovative designs to market, management has become consumed with placating unions. The bailout plan is nothing short of a "save the unions" plan, and we all know it. So there I am in my American (crappy) car when it hits me. I hate unions. But I am driving a union built car, and have done so ever since I have been buying cars. Enough! No more! How can I hate unions and drive their cars? What a fool I have been! No more. Next car will be from a non-union auto company.

Mike

[Ron61]

Mike,

Enjoy your bicycles. I don't plan to buy any more cars so I won't be helping any Unions out.

Ron

[Tommy]

Mike,
My moment of clarity came years ago when I first realized that "the economy" is nothing more than the billions of decisions made by individuals to buy or not buy this product or that. I realized that every time I paid more for the same item, I was encouraging all the sellers to raise their prices at my expense. I vote with my wallet every time I make a purchase. So can we all.

[turnpike boy]

Merry Christmas.

Epiphanies come in many forms, and I suppose that a radio program - unbiased as it surely was - is a viable venue. But blasphemy? - hard to equate. Hypocracy, maybe, but blasphemy...nah.

You may have legitimate reasons for hating unions. Since their primary purpose is to protect their members from unscrupled management - not that we could find any of THAT - they do so with typical vigor. This leads to lots of seeming disconnects, like productivity-killing rules and agreements, but in the end those agreements do what their primary mission was. They do also sometimes give rise to much worse, as in companies folding and jobs going away completely. It happens, altho to blame it all on the unions is a real stretch.

Buy a Cobra, Mike, and put it together. THEN you will be driving a non-union built car (assuming you're no longer a union member). Because even Toyota, Kia, Mitsubishi, et.al. all buy parts from union-affiliated companies.



-Roger

[bomelia]

I was never a union member. What I said was I worked in a union shop.

One of these days I will build the cobra. Sans any union.

Anybody see that crap about the UAW golf course? I suspect that eventually ALL of the crap will hit the fan.

Example of why unions are crap: Jobs Bank.

Mike

[Fred Douglass]

......that GMC was essentially a HUGE "retirement plan" which produced autos as a loss leader (or sumpin' like that)!

I worked as a pubic hah skew teechur for 31 years and it was a closed shop. So-o-o-o-o for years, I refused to join, negotiated my own contract (backed by the Poples' Republic of Massachusetts Fair Labor Practices legislation, etc.). I actually cleared (netted) more after retirement and medical taxes, etc., but was getting scra-rewed on such benefits as block negotiated incremental raises, etc. I finally was informed that I was also being left out of any union-negotiated retirement arrangements. They (the union) had gotten the "Rule of 90" to the "Rule of 80" dropped----both formats being based on a) chronological age, plus b) years served in the trenches. It was the nation-wide early retirement fad brought into the edjicayshun game.....

Seeing that I was being left out, I said "FDS!" took my armed service credits (3 years active, 5 years reserves) negotiated with the retirement board and hit the silk at age 57!!!!
Gawd bless the Navy! It made me deafer'n a haddock, but gave me 5 years of freedom from serfdom!

Yippa daing.

Lots can be said about the design and intentions of unions----but lots of bad can be said about their operations and results.....

[wtm442]

There is only ONE thing making the traditional USA based car companies non-competitive. Until that problem is fixed, no amount of money will help. Might as well shovel the $$$ down a rat hole.