GM to import Chinese built SUV to U.S.

MegaBlue05

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Free markets and shiz.

Do you really expect GM to pay American workers $18/hour and deal with those damn unions when they can pay Chinese workers a few bucks an hour? Capitalism baby!!
 

bnewt

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Free markets and shiz.

Do you really expect GM to pay American workers $18/hour and deal with those damn unions when they can pay Chinese workers a few bucks an hour? Capitalism baby!!

Would your response be the same if YOU were the GM worker? I don't think so. Hopefully, the American people will not buy these vehicles.........support the US work force
 

qwesley

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That bailout was such a great investment. $11.2 loss.
 
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MegaBlue05

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Would your response be the same if YOU were the GM worker? I don't think so. Hopefully, the American people will not buy these vehicles.........support the US work force

I would be madder at the company than anyone else. Profits over people is how they roll. I think it's terrible, but cheap labor means more profits and that's what drives these corporate decisions.
 

Get Buckets

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I would be madder at the company than anyone else. Profits over people is how they roll. I think it's terrible, but cheap labor means more profits and that's what drives these corporate decisions.

Err aren't the shareholders people also? Why are employees more important than shareholders?
 

Mattox

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Car buyers in China may have to wait decades before Toyota Motor Corp. begins producing Lexus luxury cars locally, as the world’s largest automaker wagers they’ll favor made-in-Japan vehicles as a guarantee of quality.

While BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi all manufacture in China, Lexus has stuck to shipping finished models from Japan, incurring import taxes that make its offerings more costly. The brand remains a holdout from building locally despite indications of significant improvement in China’s auto manufacturing credentials.

Bloomberg
 

fuzz77

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The unions have been trying to kill the automotive industry for decades. They will eventually bankrupt it, or force it overseas.
Wasn't there a thread that was titled something like..UKRob 73 is an idiot? I think they were on to something.

Yeah, unions want to put all of their members out of work.
Or...do unions want the people who actually build the product to get a fair share of the profits?

I guess you missed where the strongest that the middle class and the economy ever was in this country was that period that unions were the strongest. Since the decline of unions in this country and shifting of income to management the middle class has shrunk and along with it the ability of those people to purchase the very products that they build.
 
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cat_in_the_hat

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Wasn't there a thread that was titled something like..UKRob 73 is an idiot? I think they were on to something.

Yeah, unions want to put all of their members out of work.
Or...do unions want the people who actually build the product to get a fair share of the profits?

I guess you missed where the strongest that the middle class and the economy ever was in this country was that period that unions were the strongest. Since the decline of unions in this country and shifting of income to management the middle class has shrunk and along with it the ability of those people to purchase the very products that they build.
It's not really that simple. When unions were strong, it was much more difficult to manufacture goods over seas and transport them to their final market for sale. So American labor had a lot of market power to extract high wages. Now that products can easily be manufactured in a lot of different places, American labor no longer has the market power to extract high wages. They are now in a highly competitive market to supply labor for manufacturing. Contrary to what someone posted above, the decision to move manufacturing over seas is not totally driven by profit. If your competitors move manufacturing to lower cost areas, then you are almost forced to do the same or you cannot price your product competitively. While ultimately making a profit drives the decision, the decision is not about making more money as much as it is survival. If your cost structure is higher than your competition, your days are numbered as an entity.
 

Free_Salato_Blue

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Dubya Bush free trade agreements with China, death to the middle class worker.

Sad foreign companies , Toyota, Honda, Subaru, BMW, etc can come into America and make it work but "American" companies send it overseas.
 
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Wasn't there a thread that was titled something like..UKRob 73 is an idiot? I think they were on to something.

Yeah, unions want to put all of their members out of work.
Or...do unions want the people who actually build the product to get a fair share of the profits?

I guess you missed where the strongest that the middle class and the economy ever was in this country was that period that unions were the strongest. Since the decline of unions in this country and shifting of income to management the middle class has shrunk and along with it the ability of those people to purchase the very products that they build.
Unions in trade industries like this, all they want to do is get paid more to work less and less.
 

UKRob 73

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Wasn't there a thread that was titled something like..UKRob 73 is an idiot? I think they were on to something.

Yeah, unions want to put all of their members out of work.
Or...do unions want the people who actually build the product to get a fair share of the profits?

I guess you missed where the strongest that the middle class and the economy ever was in this country was that period that unions were the strongest. Since the decline of unions in this country and shifting of income to management the middle class has shrunk and along with it the ability of those people to purchase the very products that they build.

Just ask the residents of the Union capital of America, Detroit, how that worked out for them. It's a ghost town, thanks to unions. You can only artificially inflate wages so long.
 
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-LEK-

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Wasn't there a thread that was titled something like..UKRob 73 is an idiot? I think they were on to something.

Yeah, unions want to put all of their members out of work.
Or...do unions want the people who actually build the product to get a fair share of the profits?

I guess you missed where the strongest that the middle class and the economy ever was in this country was that period that unions were the strongest. Since the decline of unions in this country and shifting of income to management the middle class has shrunk and along with it the ability of those people to purchase the very products that they build.
Ice cream sales and rape occurrences go up and down at the same rate.

Correlation is not causation.
 
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fuzz77

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Just ask the residents of the Union capital of America, Detroit, how that worked out for them. It's a ghost town, thanks to unions. You can only artificially inflate wages so long.
Detroit's problems were born out of making a crappy products and when sales declined they sought out cheaper labor instead of making a better product. Funny that at the same time Germany was/is able to pay their auto workers a higher wage working fewer hours and were still profitable even though US workers were and are more productive.
Got to protect those golden parachutes for the executives that ran GM/Ford and Chrysler into the ground. Never was that more evident than when Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler.

For example, we know that Chrysler Chairman Robert J. Eaton was paid $4,908,803 in salary, bonus and other compensation for 1997. In addition, he exercised options on which he realized a gain of $5,259,600. Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz was paid $2,661,103 in salary, bonus and other compensation. He made an additional $13,083,352 on the exercise of stock options. So together Chrysler's top two executives pulled down $25,912,858.

Could not obtain comparable data for Daimler-Benz executives. But on p.80 of the company's 1997 annual report it states that "total remuneration . . . to the members of the Board of Management of Daimler-Benz AG amounted to DM20 million." There are 10 people on the management board. Using the then exchange rate of DM 1.77 to the dollar, that means Daimler's top 10 people collectively made $11.3 million that year(1997), or nearly $2 million less than Mr. Lutz alone realized on his stock options.

So the company that was going bankrupt and squeezing its labor force to cut costs still saw no problem paying their top two execs $14.6 million more than the successful company was paying their to 10 executives. And you're blaming Detroit's problem on the unions?
Ok, dude...whatever floats your boat.

The problem has never been could American labor compete against the world market, it just couldn't do so if management was going to skim such a high percentage off the top. Other US businesses like Costco can pay its labor an average of nearly $21/hr, give great benefits and still compete with WalMart...and do better financially! The only difference is where the company places it priorities. GM/Ford/Chrysler/Walmart...their priorities are obviously in building golden parachutes for their executives.
 
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fuzz77

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I bet (no pun intended) that Fuzz thinks the Union should pay for it's members gambling losses when they lose to good folks like Brady.
Ahh yes. It's so predictable that when you can't win the debate you try to change the topic.
 

fuzz77

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Unions brought this on themselves. I hope more Americans buy Chinese cars so one day, every union is worthless and broken up.
If you want to live like the Chinese then why don't you move to China?
Ever been to China?

I'd prefer to live in a place where most people are able to have a pretty decent standard of living.
 
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If you want to live like the Chinese then why don't you move to China?
Ever been to China?

I'd prefer to live in a place where most people are able to have a pretty decent standard of living.
And I like living in a place where you don't have to pay 3-4x as much, compared to the open market, to buy something just because an American made it.
 
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catlanta33

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If you want to live like the Chinese then why don't you move to China?
Ever been to China?

I'd prefer to live in a place where most people are able to have a pretty decent standard of living.

Why should I move when it's union greed that helped push jobs overseas?

Btw...I make a good living and do so without being crippled by union thugs. Maybe you should find something to do where you're not entirely dependent on a group of lazy slugs to make money.
 
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fuzz77

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Why should I move when it's union greed that helped push jobs overseas?

Btw...I make a good living and do so without being crippled by union thugs. Maybe you should find something to do where you're not entirely dependent on a group of lazy slugs to make money.
Union greed? Was it union members at Chrysler who were paying their top 2 people $25+ million?
So if a union want an extra $ for it's members who have been more productive then that is greed but if the leader of a company that is losing money wants $10+ million...that's not greed. Yeah, that makes sense.


BTW: I've not been in a union since 1981 when I worked in a plant for a Summer job while in college. Not many unions in the healthcare industry. I also make a very good living.
 

mdlUK.1

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I would be madder at the company than anyone else. Profits over people is how they roll. I think it's terrible, but cheap labor means more profits and that's what drives these corporate decisions.
The workers at FORD are getting a $10,000 bonus. The poor bastards. Damn capitalism. DWS
 
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cat_in_the_hat

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Detroit's problems were born out of making a crappy products and when sales declined they sought out cheaper labor instead of making a better product. Funny that at the same time Germany was/is able to pay their auto workers a higher wage working fewer hours and were still profitable even though US workers were and are more productive.
Got to protect those golden parachutes for the executives that ran GM/Ford and Chrysler into the ground. Never was that more evident than when Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler.

For example, we know that Chrysler Chairman Robert J. Eaton was paid $4,908,803 in salary, bonus and other compensation for 1997. In addition, he exercised options on which he realized a gain of $5,259,600. Vice Chairman Robert A. Lutz was paid $2,661,103 in salary, bonus and other compensation. He made an additional $13,083,352 on the exercise of stock options. So together Chrysler's top two executives pulled down $25,912,858.

Could not obtain comparable data for Daimler-Benz executives. But on p.80 of the company's 1997 annual report it states that "total remuneration . . . to the members of the Board of Management of Daimler-Benz AG amounted to DM20 million." There are 10 people on the management board. Using the then exchange rate of DM 1.77 to the dollar, that means Daimler's top 10 people collectively made $11.3 million that year(1997), or nearly $2 million less than Mr. Lutz alone realized on his stock options.

So the company that was going bankrupt and squeezing its labor force to cut costs still saw no problem paying their top two execs $14.6 million more than the successful company was paying their to 10 executives. And you're blaming Detroit's problem on the unions?
Ok, dude...whatever floats your boat.

The problem has never been could American labor compete against the world market, it just couldn't do so if management was going to skim such a high percentage off the top. Other US businesses like Costco can pay its labor an average of nearly $21/hr, give great benefits and still compete with WalMart...and do better financially! The only difference is where the company places it priorities. GM/Ford/Chrysler/Walmart...their priorities are obviously in building golden parachutes for their executives.
Once again it's not quite that simple. Mercedes Benz and BMW are premium brands, so they can inflate the price of their vehicles to capture the high labor costs. Ford, GM, and Chrysler are more like commodities. Their price is largely set by the market and their customers would buy other products if their pricing was way out of line with their competition. Most things in life are far more complicated than these simple little analogies make them out to be.
 

Bill Derington

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Union greed didn't push the plant to china, every worker in any auto plant in America union or nonunion makes a significantly higher amount than a chinese worker.

They are sacrificing quality for cost, thats the bottom line.
 
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fuzz77

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Once again it's not quite that simple. Mercedes Benz and BMW are premium brands, so they can inflate the price of their vehicles to capture the high labor costs. Ford, GM, and Chrysler are more like commodities. Their price is largely set by the market and their customers would buy other products if their pricing was way out of line with their competition. Most things in life are far more complicated than these simple little analogies make them out to be.
You've not been to Germany I take it because Benz and BMWs are as common there as Ford and Chevy are here. C class Mercedes is not a "premium" car and it is priced pretty comparably to similar American cars.
What gives the Germans the aura of being premium vehicles and the reason they can ask premium prices is because they last. Not just the new ones but the old ones too. The guys in the ivory towers in Detroit thought the best way to make money was to build cars that would only last a few years and then you'd need another. Planned obsolescence they called it. Paying a few thousand $$ for a product that will have 2, 3 times the life is actually less expensive for the consumer. American cars have gotten much better but the decisions made in the penthouse offices ruined the reputation of the brands and we all know that a customer lost is much harder to regain than one you never had.

From FactCheck.org...
Labor costs only account for about 10 % of the cost of producing a vehicle. And it’s not the cost of American cars that people complain about; they’re already often thousands of dollars less than their Japanese counterparts. Whatever changes may be made in the carmakers’ labor agreements, we’re convinced, and the recent hearings show, that there are much bigger problems in Detroit.

Lastly, regardless what contribution that labor costs has with this issue...it's those guys with 7 and 8 figure salaries that agreed to those terms.
 

fuzz77

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The workers at FORD are getting a $10,000 bonus. The poor bastards. Damn capitalism. DWS
Ford CEO Mark Fields earned $18.6 million in 2014, a year that saw him move into the top position in July upon the retirement of Alan Mulally.

Fields' salary was $1.7 million, plus $3.2 million in cash bonus and the rest in long-term stock options, performance equity awards and compensation for items such as security and travel, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The payday was up 82% over the previous year but less than his predecessor.

Mulally still earned $1 million in salary for 2014, part of a total compensation package of $22 million including a new Taurus.


Why is it all the union haters begrudge workers receiving a bonus but say nothing about the 8 figure earnings of these guys?

Name and Title
William Clay Ford Jr.Executive Chairman$10,683,359
Mark FieldsPresident and Chief Executive Officer$14,949,161
Alan MulallyFormer President and Chief Executive Officer$22,042,128
James D. Farley Jr.Executive Vice President and President - Europe, Middle East & Africa$4,494,764
Joseph R. HinrichsExecutive Vice President and President - The Americas$5,044,485
Robert L. ShanksExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer$4,866,483
 

mdlUK.1

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Ford CEO Mark Fields earned $18.6 million in 2014, a year that saw him move into the top position in July upon the retirement of Alan Mulally.

Fields' salary was $1.7 million, plus $3.2 million in cash bonus and the rest in long-term stock options, performance equity awards and compensation for items such as security and travel, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The payday was up 82% over the previous year but less than his predecessor.

Mulally still earned $1 million in salary for 2014, part of a total compensation package of $22 million including a new Taurus.


Why is it all the union haters begrudge workers receiving a bonus but say nothing about the 8 figure earnings of these guys?

Name and Title
William Clay Ford Jr.Executive Chairman$10,683,359
Mark FieldsPresident and Chief Executive Officer$14,949,161
Alan MulallyFormer President and Chief Executive Officer$22,042,128
James D. Farley Jr.Executive Vice President and President - Europe, Middle East & Africa$4,494,764
Joseph R. HinrichsExecutive Vice President and President - The Americas$5,044,485
Robert L. ShanksExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer$4,866,483
Those guys made the $10,000 bonus possible. It's capitalism, you got a better system? And why do libs never whine about the ridiculous salaries of pro athletes? Movie stars?