GM closing nine plants

[Scoobie9669]

Just image on how much of an impact this will couse to the communities that these plants are in?

[Scoobie9669]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TomDiehl

Was I the only one that noticed that there's no mention of cutting any of the multimillion dollar salaried big wheels that made these bad decisions in the first place? I guess they'll just reward themselves with big bonuses for firing all these people and saving the company so much money.

The sad part about this is if they (big guns) would take a pay cut or get layoff they could save the plants and some (or maybe all) of the employees.

[TomDiehl]

Right in that report I can see another bad management idea being put forth again: early retirements. Although this may soten the blow to the people taking the early out, it also means the company will be paying them a retirement salary for a longer period of time, a period where they will contribute nothing to the company's output of products or services. This idiocy has a lot to do with their current financial situation, they started this in the '70's as a way to downsize. Now it's coming back to bite them in the financial butt. The article refers to them as "legacy costs." On top of that, they're proposing doing MORE of the same this time around, but I guess they don't care that the same thing will happen in about another 10 or 15 years. After all, the current BOD and big wheels will be retired with their "golden parachutes."

Was I the only one that noticed that there's no mention of cutting any of the multimillion dollar salaried big wheels that made these bad decisions in the first place? I guess they'll just reward themselves with big bonuses for firing all these people and saving the company so much money.

[Anonymous]

Paul,

Businesses have to think of wages as a cost, like steel. A company is not going to over pay for supplies; neither are they going to pay for high wages. Now because of it (and other factors) none of these people have jobs, a lot of good those unions did, and are earning nothing instead. The money to pay people more has to come from somewhere, in this case the price of the car. If you are in such favor of Unions I suggest you always pay the highest price for everything, since odds are that has the most Union people to pay. Raising wages, be it minimum wage, or by unions, is like inflation, it really doesn't get anyone any more money, since the people earn more, but also pay more for goods. Unions had their place historically, but have outlived most of their usefulness, becoming collections places for a certain political party, in fact did you know that the ACLU was founded by communist?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

In the 1970's, the Japanese manufacturers had a deserved reputation for better quality than American manufacturers, especially in fit and finish. The quality gap has since been closed but the original reputation persists.

Lotus has obviously never appreciated the difference between union and non-union wages, unless he intends to support a family on a Wal-Mart wage scale.

[nanaimo73]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Jim_White

QUOTE: Originally posted by Lotus098

I told you that if Unions keep trying to get higher wages and benifits people would lose their jobs. Sad [sigh]

It's not entirely about the unions. It's about American auto industries not being able to compete with the Japanese, Germans, and whoever else exports their garbage to us. We wanted cheap this and cheap that, well now we got it!

The perception out here is that Hondas and Toyotas are designed better.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Lotus098

I told you that if Unions keep trying to get higher wages and benifits people would lose their jobs. Sad [sigh]

It's not entirely about the unions. It's about American auto industries not being able to compete with the Japanese, Germans, and whoever else exports their garbage to us. We wanted cheap this and cheap that, well now we got it!

[Anonymous]

I told you that if Unions keep trying to get higher wages and benifits people would lose their jobs. Sad [sigh]

[SALfan]

Did anyone else notice that the map had South Carolina highlighted, presumably to correspond with the Doraville plant? Doraville is in Georgia (just outside Atlanta), not SC. Looks like "McPaper" needs to crack open a geography book once in a while.

[TomDiehl]

There was a map of the current railroad traffic from auto plants and their suppliers in Trains about a year or so ago.

Guess that will have to be updated.

[richardy]

They have been telling us for years that OKC would close and the last word was 2007. I don't know for sure but it seems the plant will go idle first, that is probably the early 2006 date. Either way it will have some impact on BNSF and the local employees.

[oltmannd]

Moraine and Doraville are NS served. I guess the impact depends a bit on where the production gets shifted to.

[railroad65]

How much will this impact the RR's (NS for sure)?

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-11-21-gm-closures_x.htm



HOW MUCH WILL THIS IMPACT ALL OF US?