None of this implies that the Management isn’t equally at fault.

It appears that GM have cold feet on this car – because a FWD equivalent would get 1 (count’em!) mpg more!

Not a good enough reason to cancel a new product that every GM enthusiast has been clamouring for for years. To meet the new CAFE regs, they are going to have to do a major remix of their product lines – probably cutting truck and SUV production in favour of cars. 1 mpg ain’t going to cut it! (As you can see by my handle, I admit a certain amount of prejudice on this one.)

Those who derive enjoyment out of someone else’s losses are insecure about themselves and feel that they are above them, and that their line of work is superior to jobs such as manufacturing. Hopefully we reap what we sow and those smug people will someday feel the degrading humility of being outsourced or made to feel worthless. Years ago in college we had to pick assignments that would mirror real world scenarios. I was required to be homeless for three days. Any money would have to found by whatever means possible. I think everybody should have to experience something like this. It is very easy to look the “bum” in the eye and scream “get a job”.

As for Eastern Air. My next door neighbor was an Eastern pilot. Eastern never had a chance. When Continental took control, Continental ‘bought’ Eastern’s reservation system and charged Eastern to use it at escessive rates. Eastern had to buy fuel from Continental at excessive rates. Thus Eastern was bled by Continental.

Everyone knows where this is headed. Jobs will continue to be offshored and goods imported until our currency and income levels preclude importing. Then I guess we can stand around an talk about how it was the fault of the greedy workers who refused to work at Chinese/Mexican wages even though they they had to pay US prices for everything they bought. We are Rome.

Lets do the whole package .First off slash the useless layers of do nothing management.Bring that in line with the transplants.Dump all of the incomptant yes men.Now you got about 50% less snouts at the trough.Next up cut ALL pay by about 25 to 40%.Maybe they could give up the company supplied Escalade with free gas.Let the top dogs drive,say a customers new stripped down Impala home.The next day he could report back on defects.
Better yet let him take it to a dealer.Isn’t that what the transplants do?

Then and only then would us low lifes on the floor believe anything that one of managements mouth pieces have to say.

I appreciate the comments. I too have passed through that sort of life disruption. It isn’t fun, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. And we were able to keep our home. The fact of the matter is none of us can afford not to be thinking in terms of contingencies least of all CAW and the General himself.

Raise your hand anybody that thinks we can sell 200,000 Camaros next year?Right, how about Silverado/Sierra crew cabs?Ya gotta be nudgen 4 bucks a gallon in the states eh? Well we do have the Impala, and oh ya the Lacrose.

Do the math

9000 hourly rated employees,and no F—EN PRODUCT!that gonna sell in big numbers.

Buzz is being Buzz and doing what he is being paid to do.I guess we well see in Sept.

I’m not at all sympathetic to the unions, but Rick Wagoner Jr. banked a LOT of money last year.”
There is lots of blame to go around. No I wouldn’t stand in front of the Ren Cen, since my view is that if these people will not take the steps to save themselves, even in these desperate conditions their fate is their own fault. And if Buzz is so simple he cannot see the writing on the wall he should not be making these decisions that will affect thousands of peoples lives. (And yes I do think Buzz is a simpleton)

The actual hourly labor cost differential for active Canadian autoworkers and their U.S. counterparts is a resolvable $7. Retiree pension and benefits are inflating the reference $77.75 Canadian hourly rate. For decades GM deferred retiree costs to overstate earnings, pleasing Wall Street and boosting executive bonuses. The time bomb exploded.

In the U.S. GM agreed to pay $35-billion into a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust to meet these and other contracted benefit costs. A similar solution will be worked out in Canada.

That much money will pitch the sharks into a feeding frenzy. CAW members will need serious protection from union malfeasance. The incompetent, and perhaps politically tainted, Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) is the watchdog. Good luck with that one!

Good point about personal responsibility for your future.
For six years I worked for a company while the work force shrank to 20% of the size at my hire.
I was looking for a different position for 4.5 years and then during a year of lay-off.

I had a choice to whine and bitch or be proactive, even though I didn’t find a position “in time” (I limited myself too much geographically at first) I didn’t sit around waiting for someone else to “fix the problem”.

It doesn’t matter who is right or wrong if the ship goes down, what matters is if you got your family to another ship, port or at least a life boat (we did have the life boat set up well).

Any employee of the Debt 3 who is not measuring their options already is a fool.
I feel for their trouble but NOBODY is going to ride in on the white horse and save them.

Been there,

Bunter

The thing is, under the UAW agreement, existing employees’ wages aren’t cut. Yes, they’re offered early retirements or cash incentives to quit, but if they stay their wages stay the same. The two-tier wage structure and $14/hour wage are for the new workers they hire to replace them.

You know GM can’t afford to give the CAW a better wage structure than they gave the UAW. They’d have a mass mutiny on their hands if they did. Buzz is going to have to back down, or a lot of Canadian jobs will end up south of the border (and I don’t mean down Mexico way).

Sad as it is, the rest of us are not responsible for their success or happiness today.

I can’t help thinking if your friend left the plant to drive a truck he wouldn’t be any better off. I’ve heard on NPR that truckers are getting very badly squeezed by fuel prices. Whatever happens, good luck to him.

Someone should tell the CAW that there are places GM could move the factories to that won’t cost 77 an hour to build a car at.

Buzz just refuses to accept the reality that with the auto companies on the verge of bankruptcy they cannot continue to provide the union members high wages and a gold plated benefit package.

Are you volunteering to bell the cat by standing out front of the Ren Cen holding a sign saying the same thing?

I’m not at all sympathetic to the unions, but Rick Wagoner Jr. banked a LOT of money last year.

While the airline to auto comparison isn’t perfect, there are striking similarities.

Back in the 80’s, it used to be brutally expensive to fly from smaller cities in the US. And airline employees were very well compensated when benefits were included. (I don’t think airline employees’ free travel benefit (on their own airline) was taxable income – sort of like UAW discounts on cars today).

But the internet’s ability to compare, deregulation of routes, & brutal price competition destroyed the likes of Pan Am and Eastern.

“Negiotiating only works when you have something to bargain with……”