24th Sep 2010, 11:12
"GM's main problem is that they were never able to handle the UAW, and that was their downfall"
Every 3 years the UAW would demand more benefits and threaten to strike. Based on what happened in the 70's and 80's, GM knew that would be a death sentence. But year after year, no amount of explanation about the realities of the financial situation had any impact on the UAW demands. They seemed to think there was an endless supply of money, even to the point they wanted taxpayers to fund the job banks, even as bankruptcy loomed.
Personally I can't see how people can blame GM management, considering how impossible the situation with the UAW was. It was just amazing to me that they survived as long as they did, and they actually had a decent product line when the economy took a nose dive due to the housing market crash.
24th Sep 2010, 12:13
It is a joke! There has to be someone to blame, and so the so-called Japanese car is the scapegoat! Continue supporting "domestic" Canadian and Mexican cars, which do not provide Americans with many needed jobs and continue bashing "imported" cars that are made in the U.S. using an American workforce.
24th Sep 2010, 17:23
Inexpensive? Funny, the new supercharged Vette is over 100 grand. I could never drive a boring bland uninspired import again.
24th Sep 2010, 18:56
I can blame the management. They should have handled it or let them strike and then regroup with non-union workers. Let the overpaid people sit at home and see how that feels. Bet their demands would have not seemed so important then huh?
To have employee control over any organization simply does not work. They will always want more than they deserve, even when it drives their own company down the drain. I'm all for fair wages, but this situation has been absolutely ridiculous for decades.
25th Sep 2010, 10:11
People unfamiliar with economics often fail to understand that outsourcing by a U.S. company can actually save U.S. jobs by cutting costs. Ford saved thousands of U.S. jobs by building the top-rated Fusion in Mexico. People also seem oblivious to the fact that buying from any foreign-based company hurts the U.S. economy. Even though Honda and Toyota employ a handful of U.S. workers, all the profits from their sales goes to enrich Japan's economy, not ours. For this reason my family refuses to purchase any product not made by a U.S. company. We want to see our friends and neighbors put back to work, not finance yachts for wealthy Japanese businessmen. Everything in our home, including electronics, appliances, furniture and the computer I am typing this on was made by a U.S. company. It's going to stay that way too.
25th Sep 2010, 10:27
"They should have handled it or let them strike and then regroup with non-union workers."
I was hoping someone would bring this up.
If you recall history, the strikes in the 70's severely damaged GM public relations, resulted in large of loss of market share that never really recovered. If you talk to people in the right age group even now, you will find their image of a GM assembly line worker is very negative, and they really do not want to buy a car built by that kind of person. They buy Toyota for instance.
You may also recall the media coverage of the strikes was always pro-union. Management was always portrayed as the villain. And remember, unions make HUGE political contributions.
As far as sitting at home, unpaid, the Union had made enough payoffs they were confident of government monetary support for striking workers.
The option of re-grouping with non-union workers is not really an option. Realistically, training a hundred thousand workers. Not one plant a time, because the union would strike all plants simultaneously. Also Michigan state laws restrict a lot of what you would think GM would be allowed to do.
Also, the number of foreign factories GM was allowed to build was something negotiated with the Union.
Right or wrong, it became considered a fact by management that the union could kill GM, and the Union was short sighted enough to do it.
Just like the Union was so short sighted they ended up with GM bankrupt and 30% unemployment in Detroit. They way it happened just took 10 to 20 years longer than if there had been a strike.
City managers are now seriously considering bulldozing entire sections of Detroit and making them no-mans lands, so they don't have to maintain expensive roads, sewers, lights, electricity that no one is using. That is what the unions brought on themselves.
26th Sep 2010, 18:19
My car was built in Bowling Green Ky. It's called a Corvette. Check out the wonderful museum on your visit. For an added fee you can pick it up at the plant. Great built GM.
27th Sep 2010, 07:28
There seems to be an obvious bias against Japanese cars, labeling them as the only imports out there. If you are going to label imported cars, why don't you state it more equally and include British cars, Swedish cars, German cars, Italian cars. How many German cars are out there?
Go ahead and support Italian owned Chrysler, you make a lot of sense.
27th Sep 2010, 08:38
Going on about companies outsourcing jobs in order to save jobs. First, how does that even make sense? Second, wouldn't you rather support companies that can be viable with 100% American workers? You say you only buy American goods. I'd love to see your house full of the 10 things you found that are actually 100% American. Please list what electronics you currently own that are 100% American. Nearly all electronics, even the American brands, are built in China or Japan. And sorry but the computer you are typing on has well over a 50% content of import parts made in... you guessed it China.
People unfamiliar with economics fail to understand that we are now in a global economy and to cut off the rest of the world, to buy "American", is not only impossible, but not economically viable for our survival. If you cut off the rest of the wold as far as automobiles go, you would kill the domestic car companies real quick. They would not only be boycotted by most countries, but they would probably carry a 50% import tax on them just to cover anyone that was even thinking about buying them! Do you even understand how many branches of the domestic companies are overseas? Do you get how many vehicles they produce in other countries? Guess not.
You go on about Ford, GM and Chrysler as buying American. Chrysler was partially owned by Daimler and now Fiat, so we have German and then Italian American cars? Funny thing is the top selling Chrysler cars, the 300, Charger and Challenger ALL ride on Mercedes platforms and would never have existed if it weren't for the German technology. Ford has long mixed their line with the Japanese owned Mazda. Go and buy a Chevy Aveo... or Kia with a Chevy badge. Who gets the profits from that car? You see there is such a blur of actual domestic cars and where they come from, that supporting them isn't any better than buying an import.
Last but hardly least, why would you want to continue to support companies that failed under their own incompetence? Trust me, the domestic car companies cared nothing for the average American when they started to produce the highly inflated SUV's that have driven gas prices up and made roadways unsafe for everyone. They were only concerned with their bottom line, as these oversized junk boxes gained the most profits for them. Had they followed the imports lead 20 years ago instead of only in the past couple of years we might be paying half what we are for gas, and more people would be driving reasonably sized vehicles that are safer.
Before you go on about the "bigger is safer" thing again, I have seen too many Tahoe's, Escalades, Hummers, etc. etc., doing 80 mph weaving in and out of traffic with one person in them on the way to work... yakking on the phone no less! These have become the status symbol of the average American... even still after the $4.50 gas prices! Funny thing is, in the winter when we have big snow storms, the big lumbering SUV's are usually the ones I see 50 feet off the road into the woods. They create such a false sense of security, but people fail to realize those 22" tires merely float on snow covered roads, and make even a 4X4 truck useless! They look cool though!!
24th Sep 2010, 02:34
GM is the prototype of the short sighted and incompetent American corporation. They will develop and manufacture the car you buy from them at the lowest cost, which means abroad. This typically means that most smaller cars sold under a GM brand actually aren't manufactured or even designed in the US. It's got no US inputs whatsoever. And still GM isn't able to make money, even churning out cheaply made/underdesigned cars.
That's why it's a complete joke when people are criticising people driving a 'Japanese' car, a car that's actually designed and manufactured in the US to the benefit of the US auto worker and the local communities they live in.
The reason GM isn't producing more locally here in the US, is because of the UAW and the fat pensions, adding thousands of dollars of costs to a average car. GM's main problem is that they were never able to handle the UAW, and that was their downfall.