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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SilentZ who wrote (437075)	11/28/2008 10:14:49 AM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573927

We'd have millions of additional people living around the poverty line and working in signficantly worse conditions, but that's really nothing of Dave's concern. The American workers in non-union auto plants are not living below the poverty line. They are well compensated for the skill sets they have to offer. So, unless you can explain that fact away, your argument is nullified.

To: SilentZ who wrote (437075)	11/28/2008 11:27:46 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1573927

>Unions are THE problem. Without that problem GM's cash position would be just fine. >Prove it......show us the numbers that support your theory. I agree with Dave here. Without unions, Detroit might very well be profitable. We'd have millions of additional people living around the poverty line and working in signficantly worse conditions, but that's really nothing of Dave's concern. The free market would dictate that the workers of America would live in poverty while the executives and shareholders rake in billions, so that's the way it should be. You and Dave may both be right but I haven't seen an in depth analysis that confirms that view. What I do see is that margins between GM and F which deal with the same union are considerably different. That tells me that something company specific to the downside is happening at GM. Secondly, neither company pays taxes.......suggesting that neither company has been viable for a long time. The culprit could be the unions or it could be management or it could be both. From what I read, the problem with unions isn't so much the hourly wages of existing employees but the pensions/health plans of retired employees plus the job banks. Bottom line: I do not trust the conclusions promulgated by conservative Republicans.......grinding their axe on unions has been a long time tradition. And I certainly won't take inode's opinion at face value. Furthermore, I think GM's problems are as much about mismgmt as union problems. I look forward to reading a well done, non biased analysis of the problem.