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UAW against USD 13.4b loan
The United Auto Workers union says it will act against "unfair conditions" imposed by George Bush's USD 13.4b dollar rescue loan. If the companies go out of business just think how unfair life is going to be. You might want to discuss the matter with any Studebaker-Packard workers you can find. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Friday that he will work closely with Barack Obama's administration following its takeover in January to guarantee fair conditions for all auto workers. He's apparently too dim to conceive of the entire U.S. auto industry crumbling away. I guess the residents of Herculaneum felt about the same way. "While we appreciate that President Bush has taken the emergency action needed to help America's auto companies weather the current financial crisis, we are disappointed that he has added unfair conditions singling out workers," Gettelfinger said in a statement. "We will work with the Obama administration and the new Congress to ensure that these unfair conditions are removed as we join in the coming months with all stakeholders to create a viable future for the US auto industry." "We will work with the Obama administration and a Democratic Congress to gut the measure that's been enacted at the expense of the taxpayer because we don't think it benefits us enough." The main US carmakers, GM and Chrysler, on the brink of bankruptcy, have been offered a USD 13.4b in government loans by the Bush Administration. GM and Chrysler will receive the government helping hand in exchange for tough reforms including more flexible work rules and cuts in wages to make the companies competitive with foreign manufacturers established on US soil.
My suggestion would be to break them up into autonomous companies and let them sink or swim. There's no reason for Dodge to drag Plymouth under, or vice versa. GM's already laid the Oldmobile to rest -- too much like your father's Olds, I understand. "These conditions were not included in the bipartisan legislation endorsed by the White House, which passed the House of Representatives and which won support from a majority of senators," Gettelfinger said. Rather than routinely paying out a significant percentage of cash flow to routine executive bonuses, they might try pouring that money in the direction of designers and engineers. The golden age of the U.S. auto industry was when they were turning out '56 and '57 Chevies, Fords, and Plymouths. The silver age came only a few years later with the GTO and its competitors, but they were already concentrating on "longer, lower, leaner, wider." Since then, with only a few notable exceptions, they've been noted for such inovations as the opera window and the vinyl top. And paint falling off. We can't forget that, though it's not the designers' fault that in the '80s you could buy an American car and expect the paint to flake off most of the front of the vehicle in a couple years. At the same time you could buy a Nissan or a Toyota and given geologic ages the paint would eventually erode, but only after heavy glaciation. The exceptions, by the way, have been what kept the industry afloat: the minivan, the Jeep Cherokee that evolved into all sorts of SUVs, the PT Cruiser, and... ummm... it'll come to me... The union has already made "substantial sacrifices" to help make the Big Three automakers more competitive, Gettelfinger said. He added: "All stakeholders -- management, directors, bondholders, suppliers, dealers, workers -- will have to participate in shared sacrifices to help the industry move forward." Posted by: Fred 2008-12-20 |
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