and another thing,, its not the unions, that mark up car (camero) by $5000.00 ........ like that is going to bail GM out. could probally sell more vehicles if they weren't so greedy.....

 

Another interesting point. Southwest Airlines is the most heavily unionized airline in the industry, yet is the only one making any money. Of course, they got hit earlier in the fiscal year when their fuel hedges went bust with the drop in oil prices, but they're still going to be profitable for the year anyway.

It all comes down to building a product that people want to buy. I've learned my lesson arguing for American cars to all of my import-loving friends, but in the end when people get stuck on a Camry, that's all they want to buy. It's interesting that Honda and Toyota have kept nameplates around like Accord, Civic, Camry, and Corolla for years, but when GM and Ford dropped Lumina, Cavalier, Grand Am, Grand Prix, Cutlass, Taurus, and Continental, all of their sales went to crap within a model year or two. I knew Pontiac renaming their models with the "G" series would kill the line, but I didn't think it'd kill the whole brand.

Also, some dealers are marking up the Camaro, not all. GM does not make ANY extra money when a dealership does that. GM has more orders for that car than they can keep up with, mostly due to supplier capacity.

 

When do the CEOs take their cuts to save companies?...NEVER, unless someone like Obama tells them that they have to, you would never see CEOs do it out of trying to save a company., They are all psychotic out of control greedy lunatics that couldn't care less about the little guy...union or not. Wake Up!!

 

Globalization that has been developed by all the countries and agreed upon by our governments have buried our industries. the agreements between third world countries have cxaused ours to turn into a toilet. Every year a bigger flush is heard. Blame the politicians responsible, PERIOD.

 

Southwest operated smart..they only fly one type aircraft..had their routes picked out and didn't get greedy. Their supply inventories were simple because of one type aircraft, which also means training and tooling and maintenance was streamlined.They didn't have to have several maintenance facilities to support different aircraft either.They took a hit on fuel but so did everybody else.Management is what made them..and management is what failed the auto makers because they didn't reel in the excessive costs associated with the unions and yes, the CEO's also. Soley blame unions? Maybe not, but a good portion of it.Unions told management what to do and how THEy were going to do it.Southwest didn't allow that.The auto makers got pushed into the corner and didn't now how to get out of it without taking a very large hit, or endless strikes...the financial crash was a blessing in disguise as they now had an out, otherwise it would have caught up anyways and without an excuse besides internal failure. The crash just speeded up the process.

 

I know what you mean about NO RAISE I haven't seen one in over 6 Yrs.. We also are working with a 2 different wage scales in our company to keep up with foreign pay & none union shops, and the CEO's sure as hell still get their BIG payouts each yr. it shows that in our year end reports.

 

well said Cokeybill

 

All the time. Many CEO's who take over leadership of unprofitable companies or entities in receivership will often times waive their salary. Lee Iacocca is a famous example of such a leader. The CEO's job is to make the company profitable and maximize shareholder value. The Chairman's job is to make sure the CEO is doing his job. When you have both a Chairman and CEO one in the same, you will probably have some issues with profitability in the long run.

Obama has never told a CEO to take a pay cut. All he did was fire two of the best leaders the auto industry ever had, Rick Wagoner and Bob Lutz. The Republicans crucified them for asking for help, and the Democrats have sealed the tomb. Neither Chrysler or Ford would have come to DC hat-in-hand if Wagoner hadn't shown up too, business jet or not. I include Ford in that because they are getting a "silent" bailout from the DOE for "green vehicles". Much like GE getting billions in "seed money" to create a universal electronic medical records database. It is what it is.

 

the town i live in is prounion.I do not like union because there was a company that was going to build an airline manintance hanger at the local airport and the company call ramcor nonunion could not get a loan because all the banks and credit unions are prounion .Then Saturn was going to come in and they are a nonunion comany at the time and they were also blacked balled .they were going to higher in about 20,000 people to work for them and I went to tech school to go to work for them ..i had to stay and take care of my mom .so i could not move with saturn.

 

Saturn was never non-union. I don't think they had the capacity to support 20,000 workers, either The UAW didn't exactly care much for the Local in Spring Hill, though.