I had relatives up in your area back in the day (post running boards, pre 8track players) that worked in the auto industry. Fischer Body, if I recall.
Is that still there? Any auto related manufacturing still going on?
Thats been gone for quite sometime,(truck and buss) where they made the Astro and Trailblazer, is closing down for good in december. Some of the Delphi plants are still trying to produce a limited amount of products.
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"The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." http://militarysignatures.com/signatures/member2645.png
sources indicate that Obama may favor creating a White House office, headed by an “auto industry czar,” to oversee reforming the troubled American auto industry. The Detroit News reports that both “Bush and Obama are signaling they may favor appointment of an auto czar to oversee the government’s efforts to funnel emergency assistance to automakers.”
They need to let the auto makers fail, get the unions out and then reopen under new ownership with NON-unionized labor with realistic wages and benefits. The unions are what is killing the American auto industry.
The avergae cost of a UAW worker (adding in benefits, pension, etc, etc) is almost double what non-union American auto workers (Honda, Toyota, etc) cost, but the actual pay (that people take home every week) is only a few dollars different.
There was a place for labor unions way back in the day. Now that we have other things in place (OSHA, minimum wage, etc) the time for unions has passed.
But just wait... The Dems and their "card check" bill will make it even worse. We'll see more unions popping-up in places they don't need to be and destroying other industries very soon.
*EDIT* Before anyone calls me names, I should add that I am intimately familiar with labor unions and how they work. I was actually a member (and officer) of United Steelworkers Local 6804 for almost 6 years, and I worked for a non-union auto maker (Honda) for a few years as well. I like to think that I have a pretty informed opinion.
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.
Kev - Neither party is going to stop the movement of jobs to outside of the US. The repubs won't because they want to restore the golden age of the robber barons, the dems won't because they think we need to give everything we have to the rest of the world. NAFTA was the Bill Clinton's pet project for a long time, and now they deny that they had any involvement in it.
Bush had a meeting with 3M execs a few years ago. It was behind closed doors but one of the people in that meeting is a friend. He told me Bush was talking about how much money 3M can save by moving more jobs to India. He was very excited about outsourcing.
Nobody is going to fix outsourcing because our fearless leaders are getting rich off of it. They invest in companies who have a better bottom line when they outsource. Outsourcing is good for their investments, but it's bad for America and no politician at either side of the isle cares about America.
Kev - Neither party is going to stop the movement of jobs to outside of the US. The repubs won't because they want to restore the golden age of the robber barons, the dems won't because they think we need to give everything we have to the rest of the world. NAFTA was the Bill Clinton's pet project for a long time, and now they deny that they had any involvement in it.
Bush had a meeting with 3M execs a few years ago. It was behind closed doors but one of the people in that meeting is a friend. He told me Bush was talking about how much money 3M can save by moving more jobs to India. He was very excited about outsourcing.
Nobody is going to fix outsourcing because our fearless leaders are getting rich off of it. They invest in companies who have a better bottom line when they outsource. Outsourcing is good for their investments, but it's bad for America and no politician at either side of the isle cares about America.
I agree with most everything you said.
The main reason for outsourcing besides cheaper labor is lower taxes. McCain beat the corporate tax drum through his entire campaign and, to a point, he was right. Why would a company stay here and pay a 39% (and soon to be even more if the Dems get their way) corporate tax when they can go to Mexico and pay 29%, Hong Kong at 16.5% or Ireland and pay 12.5%. There is more at work here than just the cheap labor, and until the government does something about corporate taxes there will be little incentive to keep jobs here.
Throw in what I said about unions in my last post and it starts looking pretty bleak.
Due to recent budget cuts and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, as well as current market conditions, the Light at the End of the Tunnel has been turned off.
Get rid of the UAW albatross around the big 3's neck and you'll see alot of their problems go away entirely. The fact that the Japanese, Korean and European makers can set up shop in the same damn country, use the same workers and not be in the hole, speaks volumes to the drag the UAW is on this industry.
Sadly, this is the last thing the incoming Democratic administration will do because they are beholden to big unions like the UAW, because of their heavy campaign contributions.
If they won't bust the union then yes...allow them to fail. Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai will pick up the slack and workers and sales that are displaced. After my last few American cars...I would not shed a tear to see Ford go belly up!
(yes, Ford owns Volvo but Volvo is still run by the Swedes and they're not made in the USA)
- Brickboy240
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We've gone from Neo-Cons to Neo-Coms. Neither are desirable, if you ask me.
Perhaps I will be out to lunch on this thought but that wouldn't be the first time ....
If a company got some bailout money what if they had to bring back the same amount of money spent on jobs that have been outsourced back in order to get that bailout money?
For example, Company X gets $1 billion in bailout cash. They would be required to bring back $1 billion in workers jobs (salary/bennies). If they didn't have a billion in outsourced workers they just would have to bring every outsourced job back to the US. They would have to maintain this worker stance until the $1 billion was paid back and then they are free to out source in the future but only to a percentage of their companies profits .... say 25%.
Dumb idea, idealistic idea, an idea with some potential? Just curious.
Your idea might work. Therefore, Congress will never consider it.
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