Originally Posted by Number 3
Start a little conversation about Chinese made auto parts and throw in a whole lot of other goodies. Good thread with the potential to be shut down at any moment.
But if I may comment as well.
First, as I've publicly stated on this site, anyone that works for GM and doesn't feel accountable for the bankruptcy is kidding themselves. We all had a nickle in it.
Financially, GM could no longer sustain the costs of paying pensions and healthcare to 400,000 retirees and their dependants while only having (at that time) 125,000 workers. That would be the equivalent of starting up a lawn mowing company with 6 people mowing at full salary and another 18 sitting at home collecting reduced pay and health insurance for themselves and family. It is a business model that just can't work. Is that the fault of the union? No, not entirely, but it took a complete collapse of the company before there were significant discussions on parity with the foreign competition. And frankly I'm not sure the union could have handled it anyother way, at least based on their history here in the U.S.. If you want to win the transplants in Tenn. and Alabama by telling them you exist to defend and protect the worker, you aren't setting a good case if you give in too early.
Management, sure lots to go around there as well. But "shipping jobs overseas" started with shipping jobs South of the border. And that was all done for lower labor rates. Material costs are the same anywhere you go, but the labor to make that raw material is something you can control. And if the labor costs had remained competitive, GM, Ford and Chrysler would have kept that work here in the U.S. as would the suppliers that make the parts. Now could we have a discussion on moving work simply to keep it out of the influence of the UAW? Sure there might even have been some of that as well.
You have to remember, too, salaried employees have taken HUGE cuts over the years. So all of the UAW should not focus on the top few managers, but realize that your salary brothers and sisters took giant pension cuts, they basically pay their first $5,000 in health care costs when they retire and lost health care all together after 65 and that is for those that hired in a longggg time ago. Me? I can work till I'm 65 and maybe get the same pension a UAW retire gets TODAY. But I won't get any health care and life insurance is ZERO. And you know what? There are a lot of people that would line up to get the deal I have. So we have to always keep that in perspective.
Product decisions? Could GM have done better there? Sure, no doubt. But prior to bankruptcy GM was selling a huge amount of vehicles. But by then, not enough to pay the bills and service the debt, which was crushing. GM simply imploded and there was simply nothing more that could be done.
Our government? Now IN MY OPINION that is where most of the problem lies. Of course you have to give credit to the UAW (and others) for the advancement of the standard of living in our country. Good pay, benefits, vacation etc. But our government had no real long term vision on how to protect that and sustain it.
But at the end of the day, it is simply us. In Japan and Germany, both countries with Unions (VERY Storng in Germany) and companies that are also trying to make huge profits to satisfy banks and stock holders. But they have a huge home market advantage. People don't and won't buy foreign goods, and if they do, there better be an assembly plant making it in their country. A friend who worked in Germany told me once, half joking (I hope), that in Germany, your plastic picnic forks better say "made in Germany" on them.
As a side note, when I traveled to Germany 2 years ago for GM, I looked over and saw an empty Walmart store. I was told it was closing as Germans wouldn't shop there. Apparently the "we offer the lowest prices" model didn't matter to Germans.
So if the American people won't pay a premium for "made in the USA", then businesses have to be cost competitive to survive. And for a business, surviving means making profits. Just like every other company in the world. It's not a dirty word, it's just a fact.
So everbody is playing a part. I like to say the American people chased our textile companies out of business so we coud save .50 on a pair of socks. And fundamentally that is how the American people opperate. We want a deal, the lowest cost and the way for more people to have more stuff is to get the cost down. And back to where we started, the way to get the cost down is to source labor to the lowest cost supplier and that, my friends, at least for the forseeable future is China.
So I guess it's human nature for labor to blame management and management to blame labor. But in my humble opinion, both get full credit as part of the same enterprise, sharing equal amounts of blame. And without a homefield advantage to sustain higher wages and profits, jobs get moved. Sad but also true.
By the way, why can James, Wade and Bosh go looking for contracts that pay them $30 million a year and that's ok. But a when a man or woman responsible for the livelihood for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of workers and retirees gets a huge salary it is reprehensible? Just asking.
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