As soon as I get paid upwards to $76 per hour for not doing a damn thing maybe I’d be sympathetic.

Anyway, please read the link that the fellow above posted. He blisters me something fierce.

Before offering my reply, here is his bio:

“Question: Do you have a “Day Job”?

Answer: A day job? What’s that? Seriously, I have not had a “day job” since 2005. I last worked as a merchandiser vendor for a major home improvement
chain. I handled Lighting, I had to quit. The job was making me physically sick. Due to the medication that I take. The company shortly after that went out of business. So, I don’t think I made out that badly. I have not had a good paying steady job since 2000. Yes folks, I haven’t worked steady since Bush took office, 8 years ago. Lovely eh? You see now, why I am not fond of him?

Question: Is it true that you have A.D.D. or A.D.H.D.

Answer: Yes. I was diagnosed at age 5. I take an anti-depressant called Desipramine 50 mg’s, twice daily. It works for my condition as well. I used to take Ritalin. I switched when I was 18. Best thing that ever happened to me! :D”

Below is my reply.

“Mr. Byline sir, I believe you overreacted.

I was indicting the people who drove the city of Detroit into the ground, not the innocent victims of that mismanagement.

You should be angry at them, not me.

If you would like I can reply in an angry manner. We can have a fake feud, which may or may not generate better traffic for you. This is the Rosie O’Donnell method of blogging.

We have never met, so therefore your hatred of me seems a tad over the top.

May God Bless you, and may you one day lose the rage that can be triggered by mere words on a keyboard by a complete stranger.

eric aka the Tygrrrr Express”

Rah, Rah, Hurray! Go Broke! Go Broke! Go Choke On Your Exhaust Smoke! Go Broke!…you too Ford!

“United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger would not flat-out reject further concessions by members on top of the two-tiered wage system and other concessions the union gave the automakers last year, but he bristled at calls for further sacrifices by his members.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/15/pelosi-outlines-deal-bail-out-automakers/
“Let’s go to AIG, Bear Stearns, active and retired workers: Did anybody go in and ask them to give back wages and benefit levels?” Gettelfinger said on WDIV-TV in Detroit. “What about the bond traders? Did anybody ask them? What about the cleaners in the building? Why would the UAW be any different?”

I’ll tell you why Mr. Gettelfinger .
Because we’ve been down this road with you before and you guys have made little change in your policies since the last time we bailed your butts out, as a matter of fact they are only more bloated, not to mention the 25 billion already set aside that you will no doubt grab along with the additional 25 billion should congress allow it makes it 50 billion you are asking for.

One thing American automakers did wrong (in typical American style) was to be too top heavy. They had mgmt for everything under the sun. These guys had job descriptions that made about as much sense as a Three Stooges routine, and none of them were union. American companies always do that. Too much mgmt. That’s another reason I always worked for foriegn companies. They were never top heavy. They have just enough mgmt to get done what mgmt does. American companies breed mgmt like locusts. They start out with a few, and in no time they’re a swarm of useless idiots prowling around for something to sink their useless little teeth into accomplishing nothing more than just ruining everything they touch. That’s why I always laugh when morons say “the priavte sector always does it better because the public sector is all full of useless bureaucrats!” I always say to thiose geniuses, “Yeah righ, and the private sector is any better about that? Get real.” American mgmt breeds bureaucracy at every level, every sector, every instutition, public or private. It’s a disease. Bureaucracy is the burrowing sucking beetle on the American tree of progress.

All that said, the auto unions haven’t exactly been realistic. The liners still make a little too much for what they do, and the work rules are such that they don’t do all that much even if they are quite capable of doing a lot more. In a way, the job specificity makes some sense, though. I mean, one stupid little mistake on the line and the whole d@mn thing comes to a halt. Literally - one little stripped screw, one little faulty switch and the whole line goes down. But to put the whole blame, or even most, on the unions is seriously misplaced. While I agree that the union contracts have been a little too much, that doesn’t excuse all the other factors. For example, take out healthcare (like every other developed nation on Earth) and bango, the union problems don’t seem like much anymore. Only Americans are stupid enough to allow the cannibalization of our industry with a purely private profiteering useless health insurance system. Throw in our stupid lust for oil, and our governments enablance of that sick stupid addiction, and then throw in a financial crash and bango - the Big Three do a Deep Six. It doesn’t take a genius to see the consequences of that stupidity.

JMJ

Micheline Maynard
BIO

Micheline Maynard is a reporter with the New York Times, based in Detroit, where she writes about the automobile industry and the airline industry. A seasoned journalist, her work has appeared in Fortune magazine, and she has been a staff writer with a number of publications including USA TODAY, Newsday, U.S. News & World Report, and the Reuters News Service. She began her career as a legislative correspondent for United Press International in Lansing, Mich., and she served as an intern in the White House Press Office during the Carter Administration.

Micki has been awarded three of journalism’s most prestigious fellowships. In 2002, she was named a media fellow by the Japan Society of New York, which allowed her to spend three months in Japan conducting research for THE END OF DETROIT. In 1999-2000, she was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan, where she began the work on the book. And in 1989-1990, she was chosen as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics Journalism at Columbia University.

MICHELINE MAYNARD:
“Well, the UAW earns about $28 an hour just — $29 an hour in straight pay, but the cost of their benefits adds $40 to $50 more onto that. What we’re talking about here, though, is the base pay.”

See, told ya I dont make up nothin.
Suck it up.

Not at all, you ought to know I never make anything up.
UAW workers still get free health care. They also have pensions; half of manufacturing workers and most employees don’t. Perhaps most astounding, the $752 annual premium that their retirees will pay for family medical coverage is just one-fourth the contribution that the average working family pays in the U.S.
In a nut shell, the whole package comes to about 76.00 and hour.
Its all over every news outlet, probably relates to those with seniority, I doubt “every” source would make that up.
20 years ago as an Iron worker my base as a journeyman was 33.00 an hour, the whole package came to about 65.00 an hour.

What the hell are you talking about ?
We are blaming the big guys.
Its the dems who cater to these unions.
Who the hell blamed the little guy ?
Didnt I say the contracts need to be trimmed ? Who does that ? Line workers ?
Its not convenient, even the left is telling the unions to trim the contract before they get any bail out money.
Wake up !!!

Not at all buddy, this is not the first time the big three have been in this position, there was no collapse or oil problems the last time.

Spare me, please, its not just the two contributors you mention.
The fact is, if they want help right now, theres nothing they can do about the credit market, oil is cheaper right now.
They simply need to cut their costs.
Period, just like every other failing business, thats the first damn thing you do.

“Environmentalism is much the reason for Europoes high oil prices”

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/index_en.htm

http://www.energy.eu/

It’s a lot more than just “environmentalism” (as if that alone would be a bad thing!).

“We did not write these union contracts that pay these lazy schlubs 76.00 an hr….”

Now, see, I actually worked in the auto industry. You, obviously, are just making things up as you go along. If you want to know what auto workers make, go to salary.com. You’ll note that the base salary of an “Assembler” ranges from the low-twenties to low-forties per year. That’s not 75 ph, Micky. Please stop making stuff up.

Unions are convenient for you cons to blame because you always blame from the bottom up. Always blame the little guy, never the big guy. It’s easy to blame the little guy. It takes guts to blame the big guys. Also, it fits your world view - that the wealthy all are better people and the working men are all “shlubs” who deserve their lot in life. You cons are sycophants of the wealthy. Kinda pathetic, if you ask me.

This calamity was the convergence of two issues - the collapse of the credit markets and the worldwide oil crunch. Period. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either lying or just doesn’t know any better.

JMJ