My next car....may not be UAW made!

"union contracts gone wild?"

Doesn't that sound familiar to you? Sounds like something Trenary would say about you and your union. Thank God the UAW is there to defend the workers that scumbags like Corker want to screw.

Proudly driving a union-made automobile, and will continue to do so!

Is this the same Todd I knew at 9E or one that an alien has come down and done brain surgery on? You have got to be kidding with me.

You actually dispute the FACT that these punitive UAW contracts have driven up the cost of American cars to an unsustainable level? Do you know what the cost of paying a union worker benefits package does to a price tag Todd?

Better yet, do you know what the "jobs bank" is?

I resent you calling Corker a scumbag. He tried to make these companies solvent by ensuring that everyone "took a haircut" to include bondholders and management. "Gettlefoot" would have none of it and why Todd? Because he knew Bush would come correct with the bailout money.

Well I got news for you my misguided (and young) friend. This bailout package will be like giving the Titanic a basement sump pump. More money will be asked for in March and it will total in the BILLIONS AND BILLIONS. I predict a backlash from American taxpayers that will leave the not-so Big 3 unable to sell very many cars inside the US of A. They better BEEF UP their overseas salesforce! hahaha :-)~

While I agree that the UAW has squandered cash away, especially for things like greasing politicians and buying a lush golf course, which I'm sure UAW workers weren't even aware of, I also think they should be bailed out. The execs also really screwed up the product by making cars with things it doesn't need, such as an IMAX theater. Custom I believe in Escalades. The worker had nothing to do with that. They should be out on their can if they get a bailout, or perhaps sell off a lot of their shares. No one could also foresee the economic collapse that both parties are responsible for. Republicans out-demmed the democrats to make sure they got re-elected rather than keeping a cap on spending. The dollar weakened nearly to the level of the peso, so cars became more difficult to buy. I was totally against the lending bailout because the ones who were getting hurt did so by their own doing. Now it's come out many of those banks and firms that got the first part of the bailout were the ones that drove the oil prices up by manipulating the future's market. They don't deserve any help. The autoworker played no part in their business suffering. I'm afraid, especially with our economy being so weak now, that if any of the Big 3 go down, we will look back and say "we should have bailed them out". Our economy can't take the fallout.

That same argument can be applied to EVERY sector of our economy. Using that logic, we will become a "bailout nation" with so much printed money swimming around that inflation tops that of the Weimar Republic.

There are winners and losers in capitalism and without that very fact, you don't have a free market. You have an economy managed by the iron fist of socialism.

I'll deal with more of your arguments tomorrow after I've had some sleep.

After all....I AM THE INFORMER!!!! This is my job in an era when much teaching is desperately needed to save the United States from an almost inescapable doom....sad to say.

Back to Jesse's claims that it is the mgmt. of these companies that screwed things up by making cars that nobody will buy. Jesse, have you ever heard of C.A.F.E. STANDARDS???? These corporate average fuel economy standards FORCE small cars to be made in American factories. When the legislation was written, it was meant as a gift to the UAW so that a large portion of its cars would have to be made in US factories where the costs are much higher. This gave the UAW an unfair advantage in future contract battles.

Also, who caused the huge increase in fuel prices that we witnessed from Jan 07 to Jul 08? I'll give you a hint, starts with a D, ends with an S and has "RAT" in the middle. Democrats on Capitol Hill, in concert with their leftist buddies at "enviro-socialist groups" such as the Sierra Club, have restricted supply of crude to the point where any increase in wordwide demand makes this commodity critically precious. The result? Traders were able to bid the price to the stratosphere, people stopped buying the bread and butter machine for the BIG THREE which is SUV's and their revenues plummeted.

Are you getting the message yet Jesse? Both in the case of these stupid C.A.F.E. standards and sudden skyrocketing fuel prices, THE GOVERNMENT WAS THE CULPRIT!!!!

So I ask you, why do we give control of bailing out the US auto companies to the same culprit who caused the problem in the first place?

Think about it......

You're buying into management's same tired old bull#hit, Informer. UAW agreements are not "punitive." There's nothing unreasonable about a decent middle-class salary for an auto worker. You focus on a guy making $50k a year instead of the corporate fat-cat making multi-millions while jetting around in his private jets. Ridiculous.

The jobs bank? The job bank is nothing more than a job protection mechanism. Management refused to stop outsourcing American jobs, so the UAW negotiated a jobs bank to protect them when management unreasonably outsourced their jobs. Management would rather pay a bunch of guys to sit around and do nothing instead of bringing those jobs back from Mexico. Pathetic.

And yeah, Corker is a scumbag, along with all of the other Republicans that saw this as nothing more than opportunity to tear down the labor movement. They make me sick.

The statistics say otherwise. When you factor in all of the costs of an AVERAGE UAW employee, their wages/benefits package come out to approximately $75,000 per worker. Far more than other workers in career paths of similar qualifications and difficulty.

The associated costs of a UAW worker when you factor in re-training benefits, the jobs bank and retirement jack up the cost of an American made car by $2,200.00. Don't like reality, tuff!

I know these stats will fall on deaf ears or blind eyeballs as the case may be. Why let the facts get in the way of a good talking point, right Todd? Just like a good liberal, you've been co-opted quite nicely. Sheesh!

The $75,000 number is only true when you factor in costs of already-retired workers and apply it to the number of active employees. The actual active employees don't have an average salary and benefits package of anywhere near $75,000. You have to take retirement costs of retired workers and attribute it to active employees to come up with that convoluted number. Your conservative buddies like Corker are lying to you to get you to back up their anti-labor stance.

Thank goodness for small miracles. At least you admit the average salaries of UAW workers are far above their counterparts who make equal or in some cases better products in non-union shops.

The real metric you did NOT address and the one that is sinking the Big 3 is the $2,200 figure. A business model with costs that high cannot sustain itself, plain and simple. Not when the competition is building them with a labor/car cost of $400.

This is a global economy Todd. I know that doesn't sink into a pilot's head where the threat of a foreign airline eating your lunch is quite remote. In the automobile department, the threat is VERY REAL and will get worse unless it doesn't sink into Gettlefinger's thick skull.

Before you demagogue my remarks (like a good little Democrat spin-meister), know that this isn't about drinking management kool-aid or hating unions. This is about ECONOMICS!!!

You will see a difference if the Republicans get what they want and auto makers go bankrupt. You will be surprised by the bankruptcy judges under Obama verse Bush.

Do you think you will see auto employees lose 40% of their income or all of their retirement in bankruptcy court like airline pilots did. They have already give billions to them. How much did the airlines get after the flaws of National security lead to 911 and then airline bankruptcy.

Bush promised the airlines 10 billion which doesn’t seem like much. But McCain in charge of the commerce committee only gave out 1.6 billion to all the U.S. airlines. Kind of small in the grand sceam of things don’t ya think. It leads to the bankruptcies of the airlines and a return of our brethren to income 20 years ago with no more pensions on top of that.

That trickled down to the regionals and is the reason why regional Captains are not breaking 6 figures. And you know what… they should have been making that by now with quote "regional" jets that carry 70+ people and fly *2500+ nautical miles.

What about the anarchistic bubbles in our economy and how all the start ups in the airline industry went under due to oil prices. Now that we realize from all the studies (ref. S.O.S. website) that it was due to speculation and underground oil trading it is too late for those employees on the street. Once congress simply talked about regulating the trading of oil it dropped $100 dollars.

And you know the futures market was never meant for insider type backroom trading. It was created so that companies that actually buy oil to actually use that oil could gauge their future costs. It was originally meant for those that actually receive the oil in those contracts.