Re: Joe Republican

Oliver Ortega Chua — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:01:41 -0000

Ah, management is always quick to scapegoat the unions whenever something goes wrong.

While I don't always agree with everything the unions do, I rather like my decent living wage on a 40-hour work week with weekends off! The small business I work for may not have a union but the examples set by the unions have helped us all. While my employer isn't required to provide us healthcare they realize that a healthy employee is a productive employee.

If we had universal healthcare, a large part of the auto industry's costs would disappear.

It's quite sad that unions have been continually demonized over the last few decades. Membership has been declining and so have wages for the average (non-union) worker. We now make, on average, $2000/year less than when Bush took office (while some CEOs make 500 times their lowest paid worker).

I would posit to you that the domestic auto industry's problems stem more from bad management decisions than from giving their workers an honest living.

For decades the Big Three have been giving us cars that we didn't want while putting all their weight into trucks.

Ford bet everything on the Explorer, Expedition and Excursion, and let their top-selling Taurus go (by not keeping it fresh). It took them years to update the Focus in the US, too. (Europe had a new generation Focus years before America.) Now they're putting all their hopes on the Mustang, but how many Mustangs do we need?

Dodge axed the "cute" Neon and gave us the "WTF?" Caliber. I hardly see Calibers around but everyone knew the Neon. They wanted to compete with Hummer but look at Hummer now! (Have they been sold yet?)

Pontiac is starting to get that people want good-looking cars but they need to let go of their horrendous front ends!

GM made the worst decision of all, IMHO. If they had continued with the EV1, their upcoming Volt would be generations ahead right now. Instead, it took the foresight of Toyota (with the Prius) and Honda (with the Insight) to move the industry ahead.

It's funny because the Japanese did this before when their subcompacts went against the gas-guzzling "land yachts" from the Big Three.

The management needs to get in touch with what the consumers need and not get stuck in fads, like self-aggrandizing SUVs and Tonka trucks or (as much as I like 'em) get caught up in horsepower wars. (Do we really need a Cobalt SS?)

The cost of domestic cars and trucks tend to be less than their overseas counterparts so I don't think price is a real issue. Management just needs to give us cars and trucks that the public wants!

BTW, there's no need to hide behind a fake email address. I'm always happy to have an honest discussion.

Re: Joe Republican

Liberal — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:36:06 -0000

You're right, unions are great. Look at what they have done for the US auto manufacturers.

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Re: Joe Republican

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