Comments on: Scroll For Updates: United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger: Screw You If You Think Our Members Are Giving More Concessions…Umm “for approximately a lousy $7 billion”, We Could Buy All Three Companies

By: Pam

Pam — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:31:30 +0000

Christina,

Your comment is all over the place..Let me add my two cents here:

Are you being forced to work in the smelly factory? If not, who the hell cares what you smell like at the end of the day? You chose the work.

Where did you get the idea that GM’s insurance takes the place of Medicare? What GM’s insurance doesn’t cover, Medicare does. GM employees get medicare coverage just as a retiree of KMart.
No GM could not afford your insurance, and it finally caught up to them.

You are over paid for the work you do. There are/were many stamping plants across this country that employed non union labor and that labor was not paid what a GM employee was. Your plants are automated. The machine operator/ line operator does not do the job of a material handler. All materials are brought to you and if you run out of material, you are not allowed to just go get your own.

GM is taking money as political payback. These are not loans. They couldn’t pay their debt before the first check was issued. When I see the UAW investing in GM stock, I will reconsider my feelings, but even the UAW isn’t that stupid. The unions were started to protect the worker because we had no labor laws to protect them. We have labor laws on the books and there is no need for any union. I will not shed a tear when the union collapses and you and your co-workers are out of jobs. The unions are destroying the businesses. It is time for GM and Chrysler to file for bankruptcy protection..All we are doing is putting off the inevitable.

By: Christina

Christina — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:59:47 +0000

I work in a Metal Stamping Facility and I DO NOT sit around waiting for work to do. The majority of the time, I have a job to do. If the line is down, you don’t have to sit down! It’s called having a good work ethic. That is the trouble with people, they just want to do the minimum required. You see it everywhere, not just at GM. You only hear about it relating to GM because someone wants to boast that they don’t have to work hard etc. Do those people try to find a job to do? Ask what else needs to be done? Probably not. Back to the subject of my job- my job is not automated. I pick up heavy, oily, and awkward shaped metal parts and pack them for shipment. These parts are not easy for EVERYONE to handle. When I go home from work , I smell like I have been rolling around in transmission fluid. My clothes and coat stink. The smell lingers in my hair and Yes- I shower every day after work. The smell and the conditions of working in a factory are not pleasant. Most factory jobs are not pleasant. If you work in a factory right now, can you honestly tell me that don’t want better working conditions? Do you want to make a better living? Do you want your children to be able to go to college someday? Would you like to move to a better neighborhood/school district? If your company wanted to increase your salary to $10 more an hour, would you not want that? Of course you would. The Union was established to help the working class, not hurt business. If a business does not have a union, it can do whatever it wishes to do. The Union is just our voice and security.
Gm has made financial mistakes-no doubt about it. My salary only accounts for 10% or less of the cost of a vehicle. Logically, something needs to be done about overhead costs. Benefits have been cut and I think the higher management people should takes cuts that hurt them. They make more in a year than thousands of laborers combined make. How do they sleep at night knowing that their salary is safe, while they are eliminating thousands of jobs? THESE JOB LOSES WILL EFFECT MORE OF YOU THAN YOU REALIZE. If you work in a town with one of these plants that are closing, your job could also be lost or negatively affected due to lose of your customer base. The market value of your home will decrease . Businesses will close. In my town, we are the only major manufacturing employer. If my plant closes, this will be a ghost town. We are the local economy. We shop here, eat here and live here. We support our schools, United Way and other charities. Businesses have already closed in this area. I hope more do not follow.
The amount of people who complain about the salary GM workers make boggles my mind. I believe in being supportive and happy for other people in their good fortune. When a friend of mine moved into a higher paying job, I was happy for her and wished I could do the same thing. I did not complain because she made more money. Eventually I was also able to change jobs and was hired by GM. (Which was a wonderful opportunity for which I am extremely greatful) . I believe that the middle class needs salary increases and benefit improvements. Everyone needs to have financial security. GM is asking for LOANS, they fully intend to pay them back–so why do you think you are paying for GM’s mistakes and that I should lose my job, my benefits and my financial security? Hardships were endured by other Union members to secure these things for me. I have worked hard all my life. I save and do what I am supposed to do as a responsible adult. I do not deserve hatred simply because I work at GM. These attitudes have gotten worse because of the economic funding that GM is asking for, but the attitudes have always been there. No, I do not have a super, easy no stress job. My health benefits will be needed when I retire, beause a large portion of the retirees become sick after retiring due to working in this environment. If my insurance is paid my GM, the medicare system isn’t being used. GM could well afford all of our benefits in years past and everyone still thought we made too much. If the economy was doing good, and GM lowered our hourly wage they would not LOWER the price of a vehicle. Try to change where you are in your attitudes, we are people trying to improve our families way of life, not effect your way of life at all. As I said before, if I made less money, GM would not lower the cost of their vehicles. What I make for a salary now, is close to what my husband and I made together. A lot of employees at GM only have one working family member, therefore, they may not make as much as you do if you have 2 incomes. It just allows them to have a traditional family like the old days-where mom stays home to take care of the kids and house.
God Bless

By: Fred Dawes

Fred Dawes — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 23:05:37 +0000

I am mad us hell people just don’t get what is about to happen the workers like you will get the shit.

By: Fred Dawes

Fred Dawes — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 23:03:26 +0000

Yes Gaspare Tommason understands the real world thank you. but our boys also own almost 509 percent of japans industry and 49 percent of japans auto factories that is what most people just don’t get.

By: Gaspare Tommaso

Gaspare Tommaso — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:16:00 +0000

International trade is a form of war. In Napoleonic times, England subsidized exports to the continent and forbade all imports so as to weaken manufacturing in the continent and strengthen manufacturing in England. Today, Japan has gone a step further by assisting its auto industry to build factories here. A new factory has new workers with no pension or legacy costs, and, in their case, no unions. It starts with a much lower cost basis, and quickly sends the native industry into bankruptcy. It also sends the profits from the sweat of labor to the foreign country. It lowers the standard of living in the host country by sucking its wealth. It eventually reduces the host country to a colony through its parasitic relationship.

By: Fred Dawes

Fred Dawes — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:57:54 +0000

Its not the workers its the CEO’S Who make the money why do you hate Americans? the workers work to make billions and billions and the money is at the top.
the political pigs want you to hate other Americans the foreign pigs who own a hell of alot of the big three want you to think that the little guy is living well and its all the political doings of that little guy who is using you and hell people $31.oo per hr is nothing any-more it isn’t the 1980’s see it for what it is total BS from the top political and race oligarch’s And understand the workers you help to-do-in will be you next one year from now.

its not the workers its the top bitchs in both government and so called political manufacturing.

By: Fred Dawes

Fred Dawes — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:50:05 +0000

All of this will mean nothing soon the system guys want the USA Dead, are any of you listening to what is being talked about? or are you guys so stupid that you just don’t get the fact we are now in a collapse of are system? the UAW Will disappear with most of us following, we are Rome guys!

By: Pam

Pam — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 02:48:21 +0000

No it is not a level playing field. The market should be opened for more competition. Those Americans sweating to assure the profit are earning paychecks that are staying in their communities. The foreign car companies set up shops throughout the country and are employing American workers…They just don’t employ UAW workers..F the UAW!

By: Gaspare Tommaso

Gaspare Tommaso — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:05:10 +0000

“My friends” as I recollect, the loan was defeated in Congress by the republicans; it was not defeated in a “poll”. A poll is worth the paper it’s written on. As for the wonderful foreign auto makers making such wonderful cars here, it is worth noting that the wonderful profits made through the sweat of American labor makes a wonderful journey right out of this country to the pockets of foreigners. There is nothing wrong with that if we were playing in a level playing field. Is it level?

By: Jim Breason

Jim Breason — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:10:48 +0000

Toyota,Honda,Nissan,Hyndai,suzuki,mitsubishi,vw and others ARE
foreign companies.They are owned entirely by Japanese,German companies or govenments.Those are the facts,no matter how you want to look at it.They have NO allegiance to the US.World War 1 and world war 2 showed we must have US companies capable of building military trucks,tanks and other vehicles.WE cannot let the US auto industry go out of business-There is NO choice we must maintain a US automotive industry.