Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning July 2006 » Gettelfinger/UAW say Keep jobs bank « Previous Next »
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Titancub
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Username: Titancub

Post Number: 21
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 12:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Terrific. If fighting for the right to get paid for doing nothing isn't the perfect example of the problem with Union entitlement mindset then I'm not sure what is. It could also just be posturing in advance of negotiations and to keep membership confidence in him as the leader. Either way its not good news for the Big 3 that its still in play.

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll /article?AID=/20061122/BUSINES S01/611220458

UAW is firm on jobs bank
Gettelfinger takes questions online
November 22, 2006

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said Tuesday the union would try to preserve the jobs bank that guarantees pay for laid-off workers.

He also reassured General Motors Corp. and Delphi Corp. retirees and workers about the safety of their pensions.

During a live lunch-hour Internet chat with union members and reporters on the UAW Web site, Gettelfinger was asked if the union is committed to preserving the jobs bank.

"Why would you think anything else?" he replied.
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Fortress_warren
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Username: Fortress_warren

Post Number: 235
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 1:18 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bargaining chip? That's my guess. Otherwise, mom and dad might be eating cat food. Or move in with me.
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Stecks77
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Username: Stecks77

Post Number: 202
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 1:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

absurd
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Cambrian
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Username: Cambrian

Post Number: 345
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 2:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The way I explained it when I got into it with my barber who was hopping mad about the UAW jobs banks was. How stupid is some boss for closing a plant, laying everyone off and moving the work to Mexico knowing full well that he's going to be paying them anyway? Apparently the Automotives have no shortage of dumb decision makers as the levels of people collecting pay for no work in Michigan is about 3,000 last I heard. And no it's not full pay like the media tells us either, when you factor in the unemployment it is like 90%, but unemployment only lasts 26 weeks.
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Burnsie
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Username: Burnsie

Post Number: 756
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 3:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Cambrian-- I lean to the left usually, but that's a too-simplistic argument. In the case of GM, many jobs have disappeared because of declining market share and the need to reduce production capacity. That's a much bigger reason for the jobs bank than the Mexican production.
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Udmphikapbob
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Username: Udmphikapbob

Post Number: 213
Registered: 07-2004
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 3:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

if it was a UAW "lunch-hour internet chat", was it three hours long, and was there beer?
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Jerome81
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Username: Jerome81

Post Number: 1202
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 3:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Gettelfinger has to say that. He knows the reality. He isn't dumb. But he does face the reality that he is an elected official and that the people that put him in the position that he is in want him to fight tooth and nail for everything they currently have. Hell, if I could get paid 90% of my pay for sitting on my ass, I'd do it too! What incentive is there for Gettelfinger to say "oh, and we're just gonna let the jobs bank go without a fight"? Answer: NONE. That's a chip that can be played.

I don't think the automakers are so upset by having to pay wages and benefits so much as they are angered because the current contract structure essentially does not allow them to grow and shrink capacity to meet demand. Turns everything into a fixed cost. That can't last.

I do find it funny that adding workers is as easy as a snap of the fingers. Laying off workers is the hardest thing on earth, and then you still have to pay them...

Bottom line: Jobs bank will be gone. I am 100% confident of this. But they're gonna use it to get a little something else someplace else.
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Cambrian
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Username: Cambrian

Post Number: 346
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 3:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Initially the closing of parts plants in the Flint area in 01 and 02 had nothing to do with cutting production to meet demand, GM was doing fantastic back then but still could not resist cutting US jobs in favor of Asian and Mexican plants to make Radios and other electronics components. Surely this was after the formation of Delphi and Visteon. All the automotives around here suffer from the Caren Carpenter syndrome, "just one more round of job cuts will surely do the trick and return us to profitability." Much like Caren Carpenter became obsessed with being thin and kept losing weight thinking, "just another five lbs to come off will make me beautiful."
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Lilpup
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Username: Lilpup

Post Number: 1492
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 3:49 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Can anyone provide total production figures for the domestics? I was told that the actual total production isn't down, just domestically it hasn't grown as the domestic market grew i.e. the jobs being lost are due to increased production efficiencies and moving plants elsewhere.
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_sj_
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Username: _sj_

Post Number: 1601
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 5:09 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Approx 12 Million. 70% from American Name plates, 30% from foreign nameplates.

Approx 16 Million Sold. Roughly 14% foreign.

Which is par for the course for domestic production.

Production has stayed the same, profit and market share have dropped while wages and benefits have increased.
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Burnsie
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Username: Burnsie

Post Number: 758
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 6:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Cambrian-- As far as I know, the only parts plants that closed in the Flint area in '01 and '02 were operated by Delphi, which GM spun completely off by the end of 1999.

Specifically, I can think of Plant 10 at Delphi Flint West, which made steel gas tanks. It closed sometime between Aug. 2000 and the end of 2002. Plant 10 became obsolete as production industry-wide shifted to plastic tanks. I don't know if any plants at Flint East closed in '01 or '02, but they certainly were losing jobs all the time.

The Peregrine (formerly Delphi, Inland Fisher Guide, Fisher Guide, Fisher Body, Ternstedt) plant on Coldwater Rd. closed in Dec. 1998.
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Livernoisyard
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Username: Livernoisyard

Post Number: 1786
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 - 11:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Considering all the business downturns and bankruptcies involving UAW plants the past two to three years, it would be interesting to see if the car makers and their Tiers will ever agree again to a traditional 4-year contract. Over 1/2 of GM's employees were already within two years of retirement before their buyouts this year. Since then, the security analysts say that GM has already sliced some $2000 of production costs per vehicle.

However, Ford's employees are now much younger than GM's because it fired its older employees during the 1990s in order to save some on health-care costs. But, they're too young to eagerly accept buyouts because most of them will never be able to be overpaid as much as they have been for a decade or so. Ford's employees who will be fired will probably be rehired as temps for less than 1/2 their current wages, and there won't be any benefits. This plan has already been disclosed by Ford.

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