  Merchantgander Member Username: Merchantgander Post Number: 1954 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.91.250.131 |
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs .dll/article?AID=/20060623/BUS INESS01/606230425/1002/BUSINES S | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 80 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 69.136.155.244 |
UAW leadership = "tone deaf" Then again, maybe that's what it takes to keep their delegates in line and prevent the "New Directions" faction from taking control. | ||
Mthouston Member Username: Mthouston Post Number: 151 Registered: 01-2006 Posted From: 63.77.247.130 |
This is a great example of how out of touch any entrenched executives can be. Whether it be Union, Corporate or Goverment. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 3468 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 65.222.10.3 |
well hey, we all need more $28/hr janitors. | ||
Pffft Member Username: Pffft Post Number: 1020 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 12.34.51.20 |
Oh Merchantgander, you "liberal" you, attacking unions again...what a surprise. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 3973 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.171.136.201 |
Pay me know or pay me later. Patrick, your $28/hr. janitor gets paid by the boss. Your $7.52/hr. Wal-Mart worker gets paid by the boss, then gets public health care, food stamps, housing vouchers, transportation vouchers, and free lunch for the school kids from the Govt. Which is better? You decide. jjaba. | ||
Bongman Member Username: Bongman Post Number: 1134 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 198.111.56.128 |
This thread reminds me of the UAW picnics my Dad used to take us to in the 60's. Free ice cream trucks ! | ||
Merchantgander Member Username: Merchantgander Post Number: 1955 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.91.250.131 |
Pffft you are one of the dumbest people on this forum. How am I attacking the unions? I didn't write the article. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 3976 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.171.136.201 |
Merchantgander, moving toward 2,000 posts. Mazel tov to you. Keep bringing us the news. Nobody should blame the reporter for the news. jjaba gives out prizes for century marks on The Forum. When you get to 2,000 give us a shoutout. We know that Unions are weak when the prevailing wage is now at Wal-Mart. $10.21/hr. shop floor wages which has become industrial wages too. The bosses say $10.21 or the jobs go to India and China. How many rupees do you work for? Solidarity Forever from jjaba. | ||
Pffft Member Username: Pffft Post Number: 1024 Registered: 12-2003 Posted From: 69.221.69.175 |
Just be honest and stop calling yourself a liberal, Merchant. And thanks jjaba but I'll blame whomever I please. When the "reporter" links to nothing but negative stories about unions, I'll tell it like it is. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 3978 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.171.136.201 |
Pffft, you recently got to the centurian status with 1,024 posts. Give jjaba your email on this thread and he'll arrange your prize. Thanks for your contributions to The Forum. Just because Lowell shows all those Detroit Ruins pictures, it doesn't mean he loves the nasty of Detroit. In fact, to the contrary. jjaba can separate the message from the messenger. jjaba. | ||
Angry_dad Member Username: Angry_dad Post Number: 62 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 64.12.116.204 |
Is it any surprise that the decline of civil rights is following the decline of unions in this nation? Those that are trumpeting the fall of GM and Ford along with all union jobs will someday wonder where all the good things in life went as they ride a bus to their minumum wage job at McDonalds. A McDonalds owned and expolited by somebody that lives thousands of miles away in another country that practices open and exposed protectionism. We will be known around the world as the land of the free and stupid, so free we gave everything away, so stupid we couldn't stand up for the people we live with. (Message edited by angry dad on June 23, 2006) | ||
Mcp001 Member Username: Mcp001 Post Number: 2223 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 69.14.135.95 |
I curious that no one has mentioned yet about why unions (i.e. UAW & Teamsters), need to hold their conventions in high visibility "touristy" areas (i.e. Orlando, Florida & Las Vegas, Nevada), especially is very uncertain economic times? You would think that an organization that cares about the well-being of its members would pick a more subdued location to meet & discuss business. Why is there never a call for members to meet in, say, Adrian, MI? Wentzville, MO? Warren, OH? | ||
River_rat Member Username: River_rat Post Number: 162 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 71.126.169.220 |
Because the union has a massive amount of money in their coffers and they are no different than the corporate execs who use corporate $$$ for their perks. They have little connection to the rank and file and bear little resemblance to the Reuther brothers who were honorable leaders who made a great contribution to the working men and women of this country. There was a recent thread elsewhere on the forum addressing this issue. As for why Las Vegas? Get real, we all know that answer! the river rat, former union member | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 983 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 68.60.177.56 |
How many hotel rooms in Adrian Michigan? How much would a flight be from Syracuse New York to Adrian? How much to get to Vegas? Hate unions but don't be stupid, you know the answers to those questions. | ||
Mcp001 Member Username: Mcp001 Post Number: 2228 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 69.14.135.95 |
So, you mean to tell me that there are absolutely no small towns (and their surrounding communitities) that could hold a convention the size of the one that the UAW held recently? That everyone traveling there has to go by air? Try getting out of Michigan once in a while. There are a lot of small (and some, not so small), off the beaten path towns that just might surprise you at how many people their local arenas can hold. I also never knew that there were so many people who didn't have access to a bus, or couldn't pool their travel expenses. I sorry to hear that you even find such locales such as Detroit (Cobo/Joe Louis) or Cleveland (I-X Center) totally incapable of holding a meeting described above. Next... | ||
Warriorfan Member Username: Warriorfan Post Number: 420 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 68.43.81.191 |
Very good point, but why is the UAW having these conferences in Las Vegas and Orlando when they could be having them in Detroit or Pittsburg or Cleveland or Milwaukee or any number of other big Midwestern cities with strong union representation? Don't tell me that Detroit doesn't have enough hotel space. It would save them a buttload of money too, and they would be in a blue-collar working class city like the people they are supposed to be representing. | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 986 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 68.60.177.56 |
There aren't enough hotel rooms in the city of Detroit to have the UAW convention. There just aren't, and wishing doesn't make it so. When the Ponch is done and the casino hotels are done, and they have their convention elsewhere, then you are justified to complain. (you will be, anyway) Right now, everyone in the US can get a cheap flight to Vegas and stay in a union hotel. It' the most accessible (after Orlando) place in the country. How much time can you get off work to go to a convention? Can you factor in two days travel time, or is it more efficient to get on a plane and be there and then be home? How much of your union dues are you willing to "waste"? The people complaining about the UAW convention are the people who always complain about unions. Be original for once. I have plenty of complaints about this convention, as a 1)union member and 2) the spouse of a retired Ford employee but where the convention is held is the least of my worries. Especially since I didn't have to go. BTW, are you saying that the people of Las Vegas (a town I have never and don't ever care to visit) who exist on a service economy, are not working class? Shame on you. | ||
Warriorfan Member Username: Warriorfan Post Number: 421 Registered: 08-2005 Posted From: 68.43.81.191 |
The conference would be in Detroit, OBVIOUSLY not all of those attending will stay in hotels in the city. There is more than enough hotel space in Wayne and Oakland counties to cover such an event. We did it for the Super Bowl after all. Like I said, there is no reason for the UAW not to have their big shindigs in a city like Detroit or another Rust Belt city as opposed to sunny Miami or some other vacation locale. | ||
Mcp001 Member Username: Mcp001 Post Number: 2230 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 69.14.135.95 |
There was obviously enough space in the area for those in town for this years Super Bowl. How can you seriously suggest that there wouldn't be enough space for those attending a UAW or Teamster convention? | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 3981 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.171.136.201 |
Try Milford, Michigan. There's a lot of union legacies under that red barn. The boys and gals can stay at Camp Dearborn, loaded with the legacies of Henry Ford and Harry Bennett. Does it get any better than that? jjaba. | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 987 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 68.60.177.56 |
Or Black Lake, where they can even play golf (though it escapes me why anyone would). It just makes fiscal sense to have the convention in one place. The Super Bowl committee would have pulled the game if they knew (like old Detroiters did) that the hotels would not be finished in time. It worked anyway, but that doesn't mean it should be done again. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 3985 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.171.136.201 |
People from Pittsburgh just drove to Toledo and pulled up there. Even in winter, it was just an hr. commute to the Super Bowl. jjaba. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 82 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 69.136.155.244 |
Come on, why don't you just tell it like it really is - the UAW requires that their Constitutional Convention meetings and all of their 1,400 delegates be housed within a single 4-star facility, which pretty much precludes holding it anywhere but Las Vegas or Orlando. If they relaxed any one or more of those requirements, then the UAW Constitutional Convention could be held in any of a number of places and at equal or less cost. For example, when times were flush, GM would hold their bi-annual Executive Management meetings at WDW in Orlando and fly in all 5,000 or so of their top mamagement. When GM's earnings tanked, they moved subsequent meetings to the Westin/Marriot and Cobo Center in Downtown Detroit. Those out-of-town executives who needed hotel rooms had no trouble finding a clean hotel room from among the 30,000 rooms in the Detroit Metro area (the Westin/Marriot only has about 1,200 rooms and back then not all were available to rent). If they weren't staying at a downtown hotel, they used rental cars to get to the Cobo Hall roof deck parking lot, which was reserved for GM's use. The rest of the exec's who lived in the Detroit Metro area were expected to drive their company car to Cobo each day and return home each night. The top management of GM took a lot of heat for continuing those executive management meetings during tough times, but they justified it to their shareholders that that it was especially important in tough times to communicate with their management team to get them all on the same page and help turn around the company. Like I wrote earlier, the UAW leadership is tone deaf. They passed up a golden opportunity to publicly show that their union was facing up to the challenges resulting from declining membership by cutting back on all areas of spending. Sure, the "business as usual" convention spending is small potatoes compared to some things they've alteady have done, like cutting international staff and clerical employees by 20%, and closing 14 subregional offices. However, eliminating the Las Vegas boondoggle would have been a highly visible action and could have helped drive home the point to their membership (and the public) that the UAW leadership "gets it". | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 988 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 68.60.177.56 |
When the UAW does have their convention in Detroit, I know that I will read long-winded stories of drunken union escapades on these pages. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 3988 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 67.171.136.201 |
5,000 GM cars on the Cobo Hall roof or in any one place would look pretty right now. Do UAW conventioneers ride only domestic cars? (jjaba always demands domestic rentals which makes the staff hustle for jjaba. Always, he gets car class upgrades since Detroit iron don't come in mini-minis.) jjaba. | ||
River_rat Member Username: River_rat Post Number: 163 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 71.126.169.220 |
Oldredfordette.. It's not for the drunken escapades that the UAW has their convention in Las Vegas! The river rat knows why | ||
River_rat Member Username: River_rat Post Number: 164 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 71.126.169.220 |
But, Oldredfordette, river rat would not speak of such things to a lady. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 83 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 69.136.155.244 |
"What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas™", along with the dollars spent by those UAW leaders and delegates. They can have (almost all of) the same escapades in Detroit and help pump up our local economy at the same time. Lord knows that Las Vegas's economy doesn't need any more pumping up! Gettlefinger should do the right thing, right now and direct that the planning for the next (2010) UAW Constitutional Convention should begin with the understanding that a single hotel and a "4 star" rating are no longer requirements. Put it up for bid with Detroit, Las Vegas, Orlando and several other convention cities and see which one can give them the best overall package with the least total cost. Regardless of whether Detroit wins, the UAW leadership can then say it has done the right thing for both their delegates and dues-paying membership. |
