What's Good For GM... (*)

[Karenina]

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2156191,00.html


Ford and GM say factories in US face axe


Ailing car giants push union to agree pay cuts

James Doran in New York
Sunday August 26, 2007
The Observer

Ford and General Motors have threatened to leave Detroit and take their car manufacturing operations overseas if unions do not agree to a massive pay cut for hourly paid workers.

<snip>

Ford and GM have made it clear that they expect to reduce the hourly cost from $71 to about $50 - a cut of about 30 per cent. The companies are keen not to cut workers' hourly pay, but they insist that other overheads must be reduced.
If a deal cannot be reached, Ford and GM negotiators have said the companies will have no choice but to move their North American operations to countries in Latin America and Asia where manufacturing costs are cheaper.

<snip>

Sources close to senior GM executives confirmed that the prospect of shifting operations away from North America was very real. 'We have seen it in every other industry,' one said. 'There are no sacred cows today. Globalisation means just that, it's a worldwide playing field.'

Dave Cole, chairman of the Centre for Automotive Research, a leading car industry think tank in Detroit, said: 'This threat is very real and the UAW is aware of it. Both GM and Ford have made it clear to the union that you do whatever you have to do to stay in business.'


(*) Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1952, Former General Motors President Charles Erwin Wilson said,
"What is good for the country is good for General Motors, and what's good for General Motors is good for the country."

Wilson later became secretary of the federal Department of Defense.

The destruction of public transport:
http://www.bilderberg.org/socal.htm

[acmavm]

1. They take their manufacturing plants overseas then I say they are no

longer American companies. They should be considered a foreign company and taxed as such when they want to bring their crap into the country.

And the reason they're in such deep shit is because their product is crap. I mean, who needs the old gas guzzlers? Especially when you have to take a second mortgage out in order to fill your tank.

[glowing]

2. And if they do this, I would hope every American chooses to NOT

buy their products. Made in America is getting rather large these days. I don't believe that globalization is wrong... its just wrong under current guidelines. If a country is going to import from another country it has to be under fair trade agreements and set guidelines as to workers rights in the countries that are importing. The current model is disgusting.

[freethought]

3. Oh really?!

And is Rick Wagoner of GM and William Clay Ford going to take a 30% pay cut as well? I seriously doubt it.
I would be very curious as to how much these companies have spent lobbying Washington to keep CAFE standards out of the picture vs. R & D.

My prediction on this. Ford, GM, and Chrysler are all going to head to Mexico anyway. Nothing is going to stop them. Asking for pay cuts is just an easier way to hide future intentions and better PR than just out and out saying "See y'all later folks! With cheaper labor elsewhere we're outta here. And the governments won't bother us about CAFE standards, environmental standards, worker safety and all that other b______t. Chow!!!"

A few more years down the road the Big Three will just claim they can't make it work. Mexico or bust!!!

[Karenina]

4. Has the M$M reported this story on your side of the pond?

:shrug:

[freethought]

5. I haven't read or seen anything

Then again I have long since realized that the press in the U.K. is usually ahead of the curve of even some of the best U.S. institutions like the NY Times. I don't monitor the news outlets 24/7.

Will we hear something eventually? Maybe. These days here in the U.S. MSM can be, shall we say,
"selective" on the events and issues it reports on.
:eyes:

[Karenina]

10. There hasn't really been much...

and YES, the U.K. press reports stories Americans don't get and apparently don't want to get. :shrug:

[Fierce]

6. Sure.

It was all over the wires in the last few days, and on DU from a U.S. source on Tuesday.

And what I said then is what I'll say now: I know Ford and GM had been talking with the UAW about lobbying for universal health care. That conversation better accelerate.

[freethought]

7. I stand corrected. I bow my hat to you good sir! n/t

[Karenina]

8. Thanks for that reassurance!

I didn't see those threads nor did I find any mention in advanced search.

[Fierce]

9. Wish I could remember when it was...

...I don't have the advanced search, and the post I made in thread has expired.

In any case, I know my newspaper ran a story about it on the business page. The news is out there; it's just whether people want to hear it.

[iverglas]

11. here's one

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1680112


I've been trying to find a much earlier discussion about the competitive advantage of the automotive industry in Canada arising from universal healthcare, but so far I can't ...

[Karenina]

12. Hmmm...

That piece is only 4 days old, already archived and did NOT show up in my search despite multiple matches in keywords that should have pulled it up... Whatever.
:shrug:

[iverglas]

13. I didn't mean that!!

I was just trying to be helpful!

The only reason I clicked on the thread was because it had your name on it. ;) I started to say that in my first post, but I thought that just sounded rude to the person I was replying to.

I did try to find that earlier discussion -- how earnings of the big 3 in the US were bad compared to the Canadian operations, and the cost of health care in union contracts was considered to be a major factor.

I also wanted to mention this week's big story with Magna/Frank Stronach. Just for background: he's the billionnaire who built Camp Canada or whatever it is, for a group of Katrina survivors. His daughter, once CEO of the company and occasional date of Bill Clinton, is the bimbo who got elected to Parliament here, ran for leader of the Conservative Party, crossed the floor to the Liberals in return for a Cabinet seat, thus ending her affair with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, spent a while mouthing platitudes that too many people took as evidence of intelligence, had another affair with a married hockey star, and then I think got breast cancer. Not sure where she's at now; don't care.

Magna's board of directors has always been a who's who of the local social-economic-political élite, including every former provincial premier, from all three parties.

Frank Stronach is an Austrian émigré who started with a little machine shop ... you know the story ... and became the biggest manufacturer of auto parts in the world. He decided to spead his tentacles back to the homeland, and somehow managed to circumvent the laws requiring union representation of workers. There has never been a union at Magna in Canada.

And now, control of the Magna board has just been bought by a Russian billionnaire, to get access to the Russian market through his contacts. Me, I'm real thrilled at a Canadian company being controlled by a foreign mobster (I say with no hesitation; do people really become billionnaires in Russia by making good investments?).

But my point -- and I do have one! -- is that it's pretty obvious that Stronach is deserting the sinking ship that is the North American auto industry. I don't know whether this has been suggested in media analysis; I just think it's obvious. I thought you might be interested and maybe want to google it up.

:hi:

[Karenina]

14. YO, Na Du, eh???

;-) YOU are nailing it here and seem to have misunderstood my reply!!! The ONLY post I found on this board was indeed related to the Canadian Connexion! It would seem the collective consciousness hasn't gotten that far yet. I tell you, Iverglas, I'm completely BAFFLED that my fellow Amis seem to be completely ignoring this story and its implications. IT'S HUGH!1!!11

I posted the link to the origins of the "takeover" of public transport in hopes that some would BEGIN to connect the dots...