Who Rules Government Motors?
[Guest post by DRJ]
Last month, GM announced it will shut down its Spring Hill, Tennessee plant until November 2009, idling over 2,600 workers. Last week, GM disappointed the Spring Hill workers and others when it confirmed it will build its new small car at a Michigan plant.
Mickey Kaus says this is the UAW’s “punishment to those auto workers who dared move to Spring Hill, Tennessee.” I agree, but deferring to what the UAW leadership wants is business as usual for GM. As this UAW worker said in 2007:
“No one wants to see GM go down the tubes,” said picketing Jim Brown. “But we have to keep our standard of living, and GM is going to have to cooperate.”
Thanks to Barack Obama, Jim Brown was right.
— DRJ
Greetings:
Greetings:
I live out in the San Francisco Bay area. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system is in contract negotiations with its unions. A woman “organizer” for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was on the TV news the other night and her statement (call to arms?) went something like this: “We’re not greedy private sector employees; we serve the public.”
OK, if you say so. But, I’m thinking that she means like the aliens in that “Twilight Zone” story.
11B40 (b26b40) — 6/27/2009 @ 10:18 amThe Spring Hill plant will eventually re-open. TN Governor Bredesen said they couldn’t match the $200 million in incentives others offered. The state had just landed a $1 billion VW assembly plant in Chattanooga, and a deal to build electric cars and battery packs at a huge Nissan assembly complex.
steve (39c0cb) — 6/27/2009 @ 10:31 amObamanomics.
I remember an interview with Joe Pantoliano about the Sopranos. He said the most violent episode of that show in his opinion was not the murders or beatings, but when Tony and the boys dismantled the Ramsey Outdoor store when the owner got behind on gambling debts. The owner of the store was a former friend of Tony. When the owner asked why Tony did that to him, Tony got defensive about the victim/owner being a degenerate gambler (which he was) and then in a moment of clarity Tony admitted–“It is what I do.”
And you thought the Sopranos would only be back in reruns.
Joe (17aeff) — 6/27/2009 @ 10:36 amCan you imagine buying a crappy socialist car from General Motors what a greasy fatass illiterate United Autoworker thug rubbed his greasy fatass United Autoworker thug asscrack all over? Probably not unless you’re some kind of loser I don’t think.
Barack Obama I think would a lot approve of this greasy United Autoworker thug pimping his little boy’s cancer but I think it’s distasteful. Loser loser loser what is soon to be unemployed cause he put all his eggs in his no for real skill-havin dirty socialist basket and it’s his own fault and it’s his socialist thug pals’ fault but it’s not my fault and there are so so many non-greasy dirty socialists that are being hurt in Barack Obama’s America that I really have no sympathy for the greasy dirty socialist thug losers. Glad you’re not my dad you loser is all I can say.
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 10:39 amI guess that should’ve been *non-greasy non-dirty non-socialists* but you know what I mean.
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 10:41 amNice country you have here…
Joe (17aeff) — 6/27/2009 @ 10:42 amBaby ’cause in the dark you can’t see shiny cars and that’s when you need me there and with you I’ll always share cause when the sun shines, we’ll shine together except not you because you are a greasy fatass United Autoworker thug and you need to go find your own umbrella you loser get away from mine one you disgust me.*
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 10:50 amGM originally planned to make the new car in China. It was UAW concessions that brought production home. I agree, the government and UAW running a car company will never work, but this isn’t the clinching argument.
steve (39c0cb) — 6/27/2009 @ 10:51 amThere is no need for a “clinching argument” for a fact, steve. Letting the UAW or the government run GM is a recipe for failure.
JD (b1f7fc) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:04 amsteve – Is the fact that GM is offering buyout deals to all union employees of the Spring Hill plant a good dignal or a bad signal for the future of that plant?
daleyrocks (718861) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:10 amI heard of a survey which found that 42% of current–CURRENT–GM owners would not buy another GM car.
That’s a hell of a drop in market share.
Question is what the feds are going to do to handicap Ford in order to remain competitive with a real car company.
Richard Aubrey (aceaaa) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:28 amGM is doomed unless it starts selling cars people want to buy (and can make profit doing so). Right now it is alive only becuase of government life support, but eventually that feeding tube is coming out.
Joe (17aeff) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:32 am#4- Can you imagine buying a crappy socialist car from General Motors what a greasy fatass illiterate United Autoworker thug rubbed his greasy fatass United Autoworker thug asscrack all over? Probably not unless you’re some kind of loser I don’t think. You mean with a car loan from a nationalized socialist bank run by an oily, fatcat socialist banker? Better to use that socialist loan from a socialist bank to buy a German or Japansese auto, no doubt. American autoworkers only build the products they’re told to by management. The problems with American auto maufacturers arent with workers, but with the products their management instruct them to build.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:40 am#12- Precisely.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:41 amDoes anybody think that a union run company is going to be successful in the world market? We’re going to get cars that are similar to the best from the old USSR. What will be the incentive for management and designers? How are they going to cut costs and be more productive? This decision to build in the failed state of Michigan points the that very problem.
How many Billions will it take each year to keep Chrysler (Crysis?) and GM(GovMotors) solvent? They’re the new Amtrak with the same cost structure.
Yes, Barry and his mentor George Soros are the smartest men in the world, or so Katie Couric tells me.
Jason Stewart (fb0eb3) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:43 am#10- Re-opening Spring Hill is a roll of the dice for retirement-age workers facing November layoff and offered a buy-out. Given its cost-saving infrastructure innovations, the plant will likely re-open, if under some other logo.
GM switched production from Asia to here. MI incentives included tax abatements, a nearby stamping plant, a better supply base and apparently some UAW work rule givebacks.
One theory is that MI used some federal stimulus money to outbid its rivals:
steve (39c0cb) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:46 amI already thought about that in my head and it so happens that I need a car and what I will do is I’m gonna pay cash to an American for his slightly used Japanese car to where homo Arnold and his dirty socialist blowjob buddies don’t get any sales taxes and this is a car what was made here in America by for real American workers in the south not by greasy illiterate thug autoworkers what cry and cry cause the world has passed them by and what have to bend over for Barack Obama every minute every hour cause they are dependent and weak. Just like he wants them.
I make a point of not being part of the problem. I really do. More people should be like me.
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:46 amThe problem with GM isn’t that it isn’t building cars people want to buy.
GM sold more cars than Toyota last year
The problem is GM’s fixed costs are so high that even though it sells a LOT of cars, it can’t sell enough to overcome those fixed costs, and the margin for the cars it does sell isn’t high enough to recover those costs.
Steverino (69d941) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:49 amfeets – Don’t hold back. Tell us what you really think.
daleyrocks (718861) — 6/27/2009 @ 11:56 amSteverino makes a good point – one of the main drivers behind Detroit’s fascination with the SUV market was the loophole that allowed them to escape the truck tax, along with the higher profit per vehicle, at least compared to their passenger cars. But in concentrating all of their power behind the SUV market they left themselves vulnerable to the inevitable economic downtown, and their attempts to avoid a showdown regarding the UAW legacy costs from previous decades blew up in their faces, as expected.
get cars that are similar to the best from the old USSR.
Yeah, but as crappy as the old Trabants were, they actually operated for at least a couple of years before imploding. These cars will barely make if off the lot before spontaneously exploding.
Dmac (f7884d) — 6/27/2009 @ 12:07 pmI just … people should feel more empowered to just say no to all the dirty socialisms what are proliferating in Barack Obama’s dirty socialist simulacrum of America I think, daley.
oh. Dmac. I think it was a bit more the unexplained yet highly convenient for Mr. Soros long march of gas prices than the inevitable economic downtown. But really, does it matter even slightly? They are losers of intense loser purity, this GM. And every concern the UAW touches, really.
I wouldn’t buy a car from these people if Hayden Panettiere was tied up in the trunk and I knew how to pronounce her name.
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 12:20 pmIf you follow Kaus’s link to the NYT article, you will see that another Obama-supporting corporation is helping out in Michigan: General Electric is opening a new plant near Detroit!
Wow, I wonder what made Immelt think of Detroit! (Soon we will hear of a billion-dollar reward govt contract to GE, right?)
Doesn’t the left call this corporate fascism or something?
Patricia (2183bb) — 6/27/2009 @ 12:24 pmDCSCA, I hardly call the folks to make auto loans “Bankers,” let alone “greedy.”
But as stated, GM is the world’s largest seller (or slightly second) and makes money everywhere but the USA. Why does no one ask………
“Why is GM profitable internationally but losing money nationally.”
Or, OT,
“Why does Charlie Rangel have three empty rent stabilized apartments in New York?”
OR
“Why did Canada go from #2 in the world in Doctors per Capita to now #18 since government care was implemented?”
OR
“Why is Barack firing career scientists who have concerns with data integrity that global warming religionists are presenting?”
BHO and his ilk are serial liars and willing to ignore facts if it fits.
HeavenSent (1e97ff) — 6/27/2009 @ 12:37 pmoh. I wrote downtown instead of downturn. How retarded. These are sort of my spare glasses cause the old ones got smooshed and torn up on a US Airways flight a few days ago and now I have to figure out how my stupid vision plan works. I’m supposed to have a card somewhere. What I really need is to get that surgery and at some point I think for sure I will. Probably back in Texas since Californians and lasers and mis ojos are not something we are anxious to commingle.
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 12:37 pmBut really, does it matter even slightly? They are losers of intense loser purity, this GM. And every concern the UAW touches, really
I agree, happy feet – but I was attempting to give them a plausible out for the current fiasco -but not really.
I wouldn’t buy a car from these people if Hayden Panettiere was tied up in the trunk and I knew how to pronounce her name
You and Treacher are the funniest commenters I’ve encountered on the intratubes over the past few years.
Dmac (f7884d) — 6/27/2009 @ 1:12 pmMore of the same.
Keep subsidizing the losers and penalizing the winners and you will just about guarantee that the recession becomes depression.
Recovery will begin on the day GM closes.
Kevin Murphy (0b2493) — 6/27/2009 @ 1:35 pmum, feet, you will pay some sales tax on the used car when you transfer ownership. The transfer form has a place for the sales price. If you lowball that too much, they’ll assess a value and charge tax on that.
Kevin Murphy (0b2493) — 6/27/2009 @ 1:40 pmThat’s what I thought too Kevin but my friend R says if I buy it in Texas I get to deduct the sales tax I pay there from what the dirty socialists can make me pay here.
Sometimes not being part of the problem is kind of a lot of trouble.
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:19 pmthank you dmac. I heard we might get to have dinner maybe.
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:23 pmIt’s pretty simple: if UAW part-ownership can force
GovernmentGeneral Motors to use more expensive rather than less expensive labor in building itsTrabantscars, then GM will continue to lose market share.One wonders: just what would happen if GM, which is 60.8% owned by the government, turns out to be in real danger of going out of business? Will GM CEO Barack Obama turn to his friend, the President, and try to use government power to restrict the right to buy Fords or imports?
The Dana who understands economics (474dfc) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:27 pmI am still plenty pissed that Bracky and GM managed to destroy Saab, insofar as the group made it unpalatable for me to buy a new one from those wankers. It is hard to find a used Saab SUV on a Ford lot.
JD (7cdb18) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:35 pmwhat makes it even simpler is that dirty socialist America-hating Barack Obama voters were always exponentially less likely to buy American cars and it’s the traditional customer base of GM what is most alienated by Barack Obama stealing the company and debasing it and begifting it to his greasy UAW thug pets.
Barack Obama is a balls out idiot unless he just for real thinks that scads and scads of unemployed people dependent on his dirty socialist sleazy Chicago street trash government somehow works for him and his America-hating pals. I kind of suspect the latter.
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:40 pm“We’re not greedy private sector employees; we serve the public.” Comment by 11B40 — 6/27/2009 @ 10:18 am
Ah, the very essence of the hypocrisy, phoniness and self-delusions of the limousine liberal–and such a person doesn’t have to be wealthy to be emblematic and guilty of that description.
Mark (411533) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:41 pmI knew a man who retired from GM after 35 years, with a sizable pension, plus free health insurance, including medicines. Also, he received Social Security.
As a Govt retiree, I get a piddly retirement, have to pay for health insurance and co-pay for meds. Also, because I am under the old retirement system, I don’t qualify for SS, even though I have it paid in. Only Congress beasts can have it both ways. It sucks.
Happyfeet, you say it so much better.
PatAZ (9d1bb3) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:43 pmDon’t forget that Obama, who does not “want” to run an auto company, is making GM build less of the cars that have profitable margins and more of the cars that lose money for GM for each car sold.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:48 pm#26- Keep subsidizing the losers and penalizing the winners and you will just about guarantee that the recession becomes depression. Sounds like an echo from the canyons of bailed out Wall Street.
DCSCA (9d1bb3) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:53 pmhere is one for you JD in Indiana from good American people that are specialists in pre-owned and/or refurbished dirty socialist vehicles to where the dirty socialist smell is almost completely eradicated
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:55 pmI love happyfeet, in a very not-ghey way, NTTAWWT.
The International Man of Parody is off its meds again today.
JD (7cdb18) — 6/27/2009 @ 2:57 pmHappy Feet are you a troll or just having a bad day? You can think that Obama Motors and its minions are bad folks without wandering off into America hating socialists and greasy UAW thugs.
Yup–I had a Saab–and sorry to see it go–and I have a Tahoe and since there was recently a major malfunction which coulda killed me (steering column bolt fell out leaving total loss of steering–fatal f occuring at 70 mph on I-5 and just scary at a local street stop sign, which is where it happened), I’m sorry that Obama Motors is pressing bankruptcy court for relief from all product liability claims.
Mike Myers (674050) — 6/27/2009 @ 3:54 pmno, you can think that Obama Motors and its minions are bad folks without wandering off into America hating socialists and greasy UAW thugs. Me I can’t I tried already.
happyfeet (e8d590) — 6/27/2009 @ 4:17 pmKevin Murphy is all over it, the economy will recover once we return to a capitalist system. Bad decisions beget lost of share beget failure. If you’re big enough, there are other smaller, more nimble companies waiting for the bones of your market share. Yes, the worker will be hurt AND THAT is where the ‘bail-out’ money should go.
pitchforksntorches (4dd8c4) — 6/27/2009 @ 5:23 pmI still can’t understand why the bank bail-out cash couldn’t be filtered through the small guys mortgage ?(In a form of a bail-out to offset the loss of equity)
“We’re not greedy private sector employees; we serve the public.” Comment by 11B40 — 6/27/2009 @ 10:18 am
I love that line. Anyone who lives in this state (CA) knows that the truth is exactly 180-out. We go to work every day to support the state employees here and in effect pretty much work for them.
In theory they serve the public but once they’ve negotiated 90% pensions on retirement at 50-55 y/o, with full medical, it’s readily apparent who is the host and who is the parasite.
No offense to any state workers on an individual basis but your unions have destroyed the place.
Chris (a24890) — 6/27/2009 @ 9:26 pmNo offense to any state workers on an individual basis but your unions have destroyed the place.
Comment by Chris — 6/27/2009 @ 9:26 pm
Your elected politicians who made these deals have destroyed the place. And we have the exact same problem here where I am and we don’t know what to do about it either.
nk (d78a32) — 6/27/2009 @ 9:34 pmIt’s not the elected politicians that were the problem; it’s the politicians that the public employee unions bought that are the problem. In particular, the prison guards union became one of the biggest players in Sacramento–but they had plenty of company.
Mike Myers (674050) — 6/28/2009 @ 6:15 amIn Cook County it started with old Mayor Daley, more than fifty years ago, having two classes of workers — patronage and civil service. Patronage serve at will and are basically serfs of the Democratic Party getting what they can get. Civil service e.g. police and fire are much tougher nuts and in order to operate the Machine smoothly the ethos developed that they got whatever they wanted. It spread to every community so that in my little village, for one example, the annual police pension fund budget is bigger than the police payroll. It’s vested, there’s nothing we can do about it short of bankruptcy and maybe not even then.
nk (bef3ab) — 6/28/2009 @ 6:25 amnk is spot – on as usual about the intractable probems we face here in Obama – Land. It doesn’t seem to matter which slate of candidates we have to choose from, they’re all crooked and/or corrupt – and even if they’re not at the beginning, the Borg sucks them in and they become forever beholden to it at the expense of their constituents. I worked for a few reform candidates here for the Presidency of the County Board, and one has already announced his retirement after 10 years in the system, while the other one took Rahm’s old seat in Congress.
I heard we might get to have dinner maybe.
Sounds good to me, feets. The last confab we had here when the snow was blowing was terrific – hope it happens soon.
Dmac (f7884d) — 6/28/2009 @ 8:44 amthe annual police pension fund budget is bigger than the police payroll.
That’s doing to the coffers of municipal and state governments what its counterpart has been doing to GM through the years. In effect, an entity — be it in the public or private sector — is paying big money not just to existing employees, but to former employees, the ones who are now retired.
So if money already is going down the drain to support featherbedding and pencil pushers — which is a phenomenon far likelier to occur with unionism gone beserk (Hi, government employee unions! Hi, UAW!!) — even more of it is going to go down the drain to support ex-featherbedders and ex-pencil pushers.
Mark (411533) — 6/28/2009 @ 9:26 amDmac – 12-13 JUL … Keep those evenings open.
JD (d45d96) — 6/28/2009 @ 9:36 amThe city of Vallejo filed for BK last year as a result of police and fire pension costs.
Vallejo’s plight stems from rising pay for police and firefighters under current labor contracts, including minimum staffing requirements, which have caused overtime compensation to increase. The problems were compounded by plunging home values, declining retail sales, and a slowdown in new housing development that cut $5 million from the city’s revenue projections between June and February. The closure of the local Wal-Mart store also pinched the city’s sales tax receipts.
Police and firefighting salaries, pension and overtime consume almost 80 percent of Vallejo’s $89 million general fund budget. Cities in California on average spend about 60 percent of their budgets on firefighter and police salaries, according to the League of California Cities.
The police chief’s salary was over $300,000.
Concerning the Spring Hill plant story, maybe the governor figured the other auto companies were a better bet to still be around in five years. Obama will do to GM what the Democrats have done to California
Mike K (2cf494) — 6/28/2009 @ 9:47 am“Sounds good to me, feets. The last confab we had here when the snow was blowing was terrific – hope it happens soon.”
JD can wear his summer kilt.
daleyrocks (718861) — 6/28/2009 @ 10:31 amYou have to go commando in the summer kilt, otherwise it is a biþ humid in them there regions …
JD (b6cfbe) — 6/28/2009 @ 11:27 amPlus, goats ears are especially sensitive in the summer …
JD (b6cfbe) — 6/28/2009 @ 11:31 am“You have to go commando in the summer kilt, otherwise it is a biþ humid in them there regions …
Plus, goats ears are especially sensitive in the summer …”
JD – Dude, you are the expert. Do you still need the boots for the goat in the summer?
daleyrocks (718861) — 6/28/2009 @ 11:46 amhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8123012.stm
The joys of government power.
Capitalism creates wealth which creates demand for luxuries like air conditioning but the Gov.t can’t figure out even with their monopoly.
HeavenSent (1e97ff) — 6/28/2009 @ 3:11 pm#11 Ford isn’t the only alternative. The Toyota Camry is built in the US, for one.
LarryD (243b3d) — 6/29/2009 @ 11:30 amIf GM can push this government bankruptcy past July 10th, the Treasury promised to pull out. Let hope GM can make it thru next week, then GM will be able to reorganize outside of the US GOVERNMENT. Hold on and do not settle so GM can have a real chance to survive. Once again, if GM can hold this illegal bankruptcy of the TREASURY off past July 10th, GM will have a chance, plus no government involvement.
ace (b33da7) — 7/5/2009 @ 1:35 pm(((((((()))))))) Our government should not care has fast, but it is done legally. All this do it now or else deceivtive.