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The United Auto Workers (UAW) will expand its strike Friday afternoon, with employees walking off the job at General Motors and Stellantis parts distribution facilities, union President Shawn Fain announced. Fain, in livestreamed remarks, said workers have made progress in negotiations with Ford since a targeted strike began at the Big Three auto companies last week. “At GM and Stellantis, it’s a different story,” Fain said. The union is expanding the strike Friday to include Stellantis and GM facilities at 38 locations across 28 states, he said. “We will shut down parts distribution until those two companies come to their...

Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings are still burning through cash as some ships emerge from lay up back into operations. Cash burn numbers may be up in the third quarter with added costs to reactivate ships, needed maintenance, potential drydocks, procurement, getting crew back and more. Only one out of the three big cruise companies provided estimates on third quarter cash burn, indicating it would be up close to 45 percent. Carnival Corporation For Carnival Corporation, the company's cash burn for the first half of 2021 was $500 million per month, which was better than...

Union auto workers voted, by a large majority, to authorize strikes while the United Auto Workers (UAW) union negotiates contracts with General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and Fiat Chrysler. UAW members voted about 96 percent to allow union workers to strike while UAW leaders negotiate contracts with GM, Ford, and Chrysler — a vote that merely authorizes strikes and does not indicate that strikes will be held. UAW President Gary Jones said in a statement:

After the auto unions supported bammy, would you ever consider buying a car from the Big Three again?

Conservation: The Chevy Volt is said to be able to get 230 miles per gallon. That's if it's continually plugged into a fragile and overburdened power grid. Where will you be when the lights go out? Since most U.S. electricity generation is not carbon-free, the Congressional Research Service agrees. The "widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles through 2030 may have only a small effect on, and might actually increase, carbon emissions," it observes. "If you are using coal-fired power plants and half the country's electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?"...

Competition on Auto Pilot by: Mytheos Holt, June 23, 2009 At the Hudson Institute recently, two economists and a business reporter discussed ways in which General Motors could avoid turning the lights off on the U.S. Auto Industry. The discussion was moderated by Christopher Sands, a fellow at Hudson Sands introduced the key question of the morning when he asked his audience (and the panelists), “Are these company troubles more lasting?” The answer was unanimously in the affirmative. Thomas Klier, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, warned his audience that “we’ve got to keep our eyes on...

The odds that the federal government will ever get its hooks out of Chrysler or General Motors are slim to none, regardless what President Obama says. Why? In one word, Amtrak. There are reasons why Chrysler and General Motors are failing, and they have nothing to do with hard luck. Both companies are top-heavy, paying more for union labor (and retirees) than their competitors and, since the 1970s, have turned out cars that consumers want in dwindling numbers. The Big Three (that includes Ford) have higher costs and have gotten an image as lower quality than some foreign competitors. Toyota...

Using a separate E85 direct injection boosting system combined with gasoline port fuel injection (PFI) makes the engine more efficient in its use of gasoline, and can be viewed as a more cost-effective alternative to a modern diesel, according to a Ford study presented by Robert Stein, currently of AVL, formerly of Ford, at the SAE 2009 World Congress.

"The government is weighing the possibility of delaying support measures for the auto industry in order to win meaningful concessions from union workers, official sources said Sunday." Too good to be true? Has the government finally realized the unions are a major part of the problem with the auto industry? The answer is yes, but it’s not the US government. The story is datelined Seoul, and the unions are South Korean.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration plans to provide $5 billion to troubled auto suppliers who are linked to Detroit's automakers, The Associated Press said. Three officials with knowledge of the plan spoke anonymously to the AP on Thursday because the official announcement has not been made. The $5 billion comes from the government's Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP. The administration would create a financing facility to provide funds for auto parts that large suppliers shipped to the Big Three automakers but haven't been paid for, said a congressional aide who was briefed on the plan.

Sen. John McCain said the Obama administration should've let General Motors fold, rather than keeping it on life support. General Motors should hand over the factory keys to a bankruptcy court, two top Republicans said Sunday. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the best thing for the ailing automaker to do would be to go into Chapter 11 to reorganize some of its business agreements and come out stronger than before. "I think the best thing that could probably happen to General Motors, in my view, is they go into Chapter 11, they reorganize, they renegotiate ... the union-management contracts and...

February was another dismal moth for carmakers as every major producer saw sales drop from 35% to 53%. The sales rate of 8.9 million cars sold was the worst February performance in 40 years as a dismal economy warded nervous consumers away from showrooms. Car sales fell 41% for the month; General Motors (GM) was the biggest loser, with sales falling 53%. Ford Motor (F) also took a big fall, as sales dropped 48%. Toyota 's (TM) U.S. sales fell 40% and the company has asked the Japanese government for $2 billion to help its finance arm write car loans....

Senator Sherrod Brown took a private, taxpayer-funded plane from Cleveland to Washington and back so he could vote on the stimulus bill and get back to his mother's funeral the next day. Will he have to appear before Congress and be excoriated for flying on a private jet?

Ford Motor Company, the only Detroit automaker not currently digging in taxpayer pockets, posted a $14.6 Billion loss for 2008, its largest loss ever, and is buckling down for a tough 2009. Unlike its competitors GM and Chrysler, both of which are right now suckling at the teat of nanny government, Ford has chosen to try and remain independent while competing against their own tax dollars in the form of government bailout money given to their competitors.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Battered by tight credit and the worst recession in decades, industrywide U.S. auto sales plunged 36% from year-ago levels in December, a decline that hit all of the major automakers, both foreign and domestic, and capped the industry's worst year since 1992. But despite the big drop off from year-ago sales, the December results were up about 20% from November, although the gain was more narrow on a seasonally adjusted basis. A strong final week of the month gave some experts a glimmer of hope that the weak sales that have plagued the industry have finally...

After going into a coma when Obama won the Presidency, Ed Anger, the original conservative commentator, has been revived by his hatred for the Big Three CEOs and their execution of the auto industry.

Despite just receiving $13.4 billion in government loans, General Motors (GM) hopes to make another federal cash withdrawal, probably in early 2009. GM spokesman Greg Martin noted the automaker had originally requested $18 billion in "bridge loans" and revolving credit from the government in late November to help survive the recession. Instead, talks stalled in Congress and the Bush administration acted on its own to approve $17.4 billion in loans, with $4 billion going to Chrysler.

NEW YORK – The financing arm of General Motors Corp. remained silent Monday on whether it had raised enough capital to become a bank-holding company and eligible for access to billions in federal bailout money. Analysts have speculated that if GMAC Financial Services LLC doesn't obtain financial help it would have to file for bankruptcy protection or shut down, which would be a serious blow to parent GM's own chances for survival. GMAC had received the Federal Reserve's approval to become a bank holding company last week, but the approval was contingent on the auto and home loan provider raising...

The collapse of the U.S. auto industry would be easier to take if the cars were junk. That’s how it was the last time one of the Big Three (Chrysler) went belly up back in 1979. If you’re old enough to remember the Cordoba, you know what I’m talking about. It was easy to comprehend the failure of late ’70s-era Chrysler because Chrysler’s cars of that period were junk. People tend not to buy junk — end of story. Simple relationship. Cause and effect. But today? Never have the products of the Big Three — especially GM and Ford —...

This is the stupidity that government intervention in markets engenders: Cerberus Capital Management LP, which owns Chrysler, is refusing to put more money into its failing company because competitors Ford and GM are not taking similar measures to save their rotting empires. This is an absurdity, and our tax dollars should have no part of it. Here's a snippet from CBS News: Congress urged Cerberus to infuse Chrysler with capital earlier this month, but the company rejected the plea, noting that Ford and GM were not being asked to inject more capital into their flailing operations, the Journal reported. Here's...