Free Republic

<p>The threat just keeps growing.</p> <p>Across the South, foreign automakers are expanding or building new plants that have a competitive advantage.</p> <p>Nonunion team members, as they are called at those plants, are expected to work harder for about the same pay and less-generous benefits than unionized employees of the traditional U.S. automakers.</p>

DaimlerChrysler Dampens Profit Outlook Wed Apr 9,11:59 AM ET By Madeline Chambers BERLIN (Reuters) - German automaker DaimlerChrysler AG said on Wednesday that a tougher business climate this year would make it far harder to raise profits as planned, despite encouraging signs in the first quarter. The world's fifth-biggest carmaker, two thirds of the way through a three-year overhaul at its U.S. Chrysler unit, said in February it aimed to lift its adjusted operating profit this year from last year's 5.8 billion euros ($6.14 billion), provided that economic conditions remained stable. "It has become much more difficult to reach the...

German execs fear boycott over Iraq February 24, 2003 MUNICH -- German auto executives are keeping a wary eye on the United States, fearing a boycott over the German government's opposition to war with Iraq. Bernd Gottschalk, head of the VDA, the German car industry association, is apprehensive about discord between Berlin and Washington. "Although our relationships to the customers in America have grown for many years and can stand a lot, we should not put them at risk carelessly," Gottschalk says. Despite German fears, most U.S. consumers have shown no inclination to boycott anything. "We have talked to dealers...

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<p>New Ad Spots Use Einstein, Edison, to Link German, American Skills; Can the War Ever Be a ‘Bygone’?</p> <p>Are German rocket scientists and Albert Einstein appropriate figures to illustrate the benefits of “putting German and American minds together” [to build better autos]? WSJ Thursday, July 11, 2002, page B1.</p>