The Big Three's real union problem - (Let's ruin foreign manufacturers in the South too)

It is not too late to save the Big Three. But the solution is not to tear down the historic and heroic gains won by prior generations of UAW workers. If there is hope long term -- for the unionized Big Three companies and for the UAW -- it rests in dealing with the unfinished business of the 1980s: unionizing the unorganized transplants.

Great, let’s scare off even more jobs to China.

These times have been so weird. Someone here posted an article from Pravda about Obama that was spot on. In a few years, China is going to have more economic freedom than we do with The Messiah.

“No, destroying the non-union plants is not going to help. But, a trade policy that allows our cars to compete on an even playing field in Japan might help.”

they can’t even compete in America. but we should get rid of the two fleet rule of the CAFE standards.

“No, destroying the non-union plants is not going to help. But, a trade policy that allows our cars to compete on an even playing field in Japan might help.”

This is a red herring. Even if there were zero trade restrictions the Japanese wouldn’t buy American cars because of the quality difference.

Why complain about a market you would never be competitive in if it were open. When Detroit starts making cars that might have a chance of selling in Japan, THEN they can start complaining about trade barriers.

Japanese automakers didn’t get a foothold in the US because fo the lack of trade barriers, they got a foothold because they were making a better product than the US.

Detroit took their American customer for granted and thus lost them.

I think in a true free market, you remove the barriers and let the customers decide. If not, you’ll never know what their decision really is. Further, you might be surprised at the comparative quality of American cars right now. I’ll not get into a dispute about anecdotal evidence. If we’ve owned enough cars, we all have a story to tell. I would only suggest that Consumer Reports is not the “be all, end all” adjudicator of automobile quality.

Thanks Ernest!

[Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)] warns of filibuster of auto bailout
Politico | 12/7/08 1:19 PM EST | JOHN BRESNAHAN
Posted on 12/07/2008 7:53:28 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2144729/posts

If there is hope long term -- for the unionized Big Three companies and for the UAW -- it rests in dealing with the unfinished business of the 1980s: unionizing the unorganized transplants.

What an absurd perversion of logic. Take a stupid approach that helped in large part to provoke economic disaster and try it on a bigger scale.

What the total population of working Auto Workers (the ones actually working)?

UAW membership drops below 500,000
Union has lost more than 1 million members since 1979

Article from early 2008

Now what was the selling point for UAW membership?
Royal salaries for themselves at the expense of the other 80% of the working people of the USA; and auto company executives, of course.
The theory (and practice) was get way (financial) ahead of all other workers and stay ahead forever, based on thugism, intimidation and other illegal "muscle". And the stupid American public kept buying cars priced increasingly many times the rate of everything else.

Foreign competition? No problem. Just tax the **** out of imports through import tarrifs.

The UAW has lost 2/3 of its membership in the last 30 years, so the solution is to allow them to rebuild their numbers.

Uh huh...
That will sell in stupid America!

I don't think so.

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