Thought this might interest some people. Inventory is at a premium, that I can personally attest to. I just hope they get this resolved quickly because the CEO of American Axle is willing to ride it out or get new workers and if it continues too much longer we won’t have any new cars to sell. Thank God we have enough dealerships to be able to handle it. When GM went on strike back in 1998 or 1999 we actually lost one of our stores, a Chevrolet store on Camp Rd in Hamburg where the giant RV place is now.
Pontiac Assembly
Chevrolet Silverado Pickup
GMC Sierra Pickup
Flint Assembly
HD Chevrolet Silverado Pickup
HD GMC Sierra Pickup
Moraine Assembly
Chevrolet Trailblazer
GMC Envoy
SAAB 9-7
Arlington Assembly (Production resumes 5/5)
Chevrolet Tahoe
Chevrolet Suburban
GMC Yukon
GMC Yukon XL
Cadillac Escalade
Cadillac Escalade ESV
Wentzville Assembly
Chevrolet Express Van
GMC Savana Van
Shreveport Assembly
Hummer H3
Mishiwaka Assembly
Hummer H2
Detroit Hamtramck Assembly (Resumed production Monday April 28)
Buick Lucerne
Cadillac DTS
Lordstown Assembly (Lordstown is still running and did NOT stop production).
Chevrolet Cobalt
Pontiac G5
Ramos Arizpe, Mexico Assembly (Down 2 weeks, 4/21 and 4/28, resume production 5/5)
Chevrolet HHR
Lansing Delta Township Assembly (Production stopped 4/17 due to local GM - UAW disagreement)
Buick Enclave
GMC Acadia
Saturn Outlook
Fairfax Assembly On local strike as of Monday 5/5 at 9:00 AM
2008 Chevy Malibu
2008 Saturn AURA
Oshawa Car Assembly (Reduced to 2 shifts from 3 shifts)
Buick LaCrosse
Chevy Impala (Not producing the Impala SS, the Impala LTZ or the Anniversary Impala - due to parts shortage for the FE3 Sport Suspension)
u have to realize that people in unions stand up for whats right… its the wal-mart fucks that are ruining this country… people keep shopping for the right deal and most of the time it goes over seas… cant blame em for standing up for what they believe is right… put yourself in there shoes and u would be out there standing up for what is right… a well paying job in the USA
So you honestly believe that someone doing something that a trained monkey could easily do, should be making >$60k a year, with full pension and an unbeatable health care package?
GM is pulling around 120million dollars worth of work from american axle. AAM will be closing the plant here in tonawanda and one in Detroit within the next year.
The UAW offered to take HUGE cuts. But AAM kept dicking them around until GM decided they had a enough. Now AAM has taken the unions offerings and has been cutting more and more out for these people. Plus closing the plants as mentioned above.
most people aren’t affected personally by this so they act like complete assholes. Yup, fuck the American worker…what a great mentality that is. I’m sure a trained monkey can write entire programs to machine parts :rollseyes:
Well guess what, the company is not willing to pay them that amount anymore, so either take a cut, and scale back, or lose the job and the industry as a whole.
Skilled labor like machinists and engineers are worth the $$$$
But assembly line workers are not worth $28 an hour. That’s like paying a kid flipping burgers $28 an hour.
I used to work at American Axle and GM. I got paid a lot for assembly line work. I hated it. The pay was great, but I even thought, “Why the hell am I getting so much money to assemble parts”.
Get in people that will do the same work for $15 an hour and health insurance. I’m sure you can find a ton of people to take the jobs. If they don’t want to take the cut to what they SHOULD be making and would rather the plant close, then that’s just dumb. The ride on easy street has to end somewhere or we’re going to have more vacant factories in WNY.
US automakers have to restructure or they’re screwed. The cost of the cars is escalating due to the cost to manufacture and the ridiculous rates that they have to pay the union workers.
If the Americans are too fucking stupid to realize that they are KILLING the companies they work for then yes, fuck them. WHATS THE POINT of STANDING UP FOR WHATS RIGHT if your actions force the company to lose money, close plants, and eventually go bankrupt or scale back to where they fire your dumb ass along with thousands of others?
I dont understand why its so hard for these people to agree on something productive
funny because the agreement for unskilled workers is something like 11-16 dollars an hour depending on time with the company. and the UAW agreed to it.
edit:
AAM decided on closing the factories…UAW could only say ok. In the last week they have been going over what will happen for the employees during the time it takes to shut down operations. They were supposed to reach a tentative agreement today but i doubt it. AAM keep changing things.
Most companies don’t close down and ship over seas because they are losing money. They do it so they are making more to keep share holders happy. Not because their business will go under if they don’t.
When you have hit a maximum in growth and you are leveling off. But still have to convince share holders to stay, you have to make a bigger profit. So the way to this is to cut back costs. Not because you have to to stay open. But because you always need to show growth. A company that has leveled off is as good as one that is loosing money in investments.
In fact most of the time when you hear “so and so suffered a loss of $80 million this quarter” they aren’t actually loosing money, they are just $80 million under the projected profits.
work a week on the line, or any other production job in a plant and tell me about your experience, you would probably quit after it, even if the money is good. My dad is barely holding onto his job, he has 25 years in at GM and is hoping to hit 30 and retire without losing it all before hand. He has done just about every job at the engine plant over the years. I had many other relatives work and retire from GM, also some that worked for and retired from Ford as well. Believe me, its not a glorious job and never was, hes lucky to even see a steady 40 hour paycheck with all the strikes and shit thats going on. Anyone can say that any job is not worth the pay. Is an engineer worth as much as they can make? What about a computer programmer? or even a retail store manager? I know people who do all those jobs for a living and all they talk about is how much time they spent sleeping at their desks or taking care of personal business on company time. At least those people you think arent worth the $60k a year are busting their ass all day long EARNING the pay they get. By the way, what do you do for a living?
I was taken in as a D2 temporary employee around 1992. I started working at the Delevan plant doing line assembly and inspections.
Training would be having a guy in a white helmet show me the parts and how to put them together. I basically would stand (or sit if I was lucky) in one spot and do repetative motion for a few hours, take a short break, then repeat.
Then I got moved to the American Axle plant in Tonawanda. I did a few different jobs there. I did the heat forge line. I would stand at the center of one of 3 machines that would heat up steel shafts to 3300 degrees and drop them along a conveyor belt. I would take a pair of metal tongs and grab the shaft and put it through a multi-ton press that would stamp the end of the shaft into a rough axle shaft. The heat was immense. Mid winter we would open the rear doors in the middle of a snowstorm and sweat our nuts off still. And while making the axle, 3 of my fingers on one hand would be inches away from becoming a part of the axle shaft press.
Everything was timed and if you missed or stuck during the repetative motion doing hundreds (or thousands) you would “bang” the machine and have to shut down the whole line and inspect the machine to see if it was damaged. And I would have to drop into the press. If I didn’t lock a certain safety item, the press could trigger and I would become a human pancake.
I got sick of that job but after doing it so much I got tendanitis.<sp> I literally lost feeling in 3 fingers and the wrist on bost hands. I got put on light duty which meant I would sit around a large basin of small parts with a few others and stare at each piece for visible defects.
So in all I worked at GM/American Axle for less than 2 years. And while it was great money for a 20 year old to make, the job sucked. And it way overpaid people in my group, but the non-temps were even getting paid more than me. Anyone could do the job I was doing. Just a few hours of training and you were done. Anyone appreciate of just having a job would die for one of these jobs for $12-$15 an hour. Having the union in there negotiate these guys to get $28 an hour PLUS benefits is just sick.
I now do sales and marketing for a non-for-profit part of UB. I work for my money and have to have significan training and skills to do my job. You CAN’T pull someone off the street and have them do my job in a matter of a days training. Just as this, I think that any skilled labor is worth their pay. But unskilled should be a fair wage without excess and those that get those jobs will appreciate the job if it pays $13 to $15 an hour. If GM doesn’t shake itself down, they are done for. Their cars are getting to a point where dollar for dollar they can’t compare to the non-union made import brands in the US.
Oh, and my father was a 34 year employee with GM. Retired in 2000. He was partially skilled labor, but worked his ass off. He built up a nice pension, but wasn’t anything to brag about. My uncle was a skilled electrician there. So I have GM family.
I worked for the union doing construction for 7 years and completely agree if the workers went for training or could do the work themselves without the help of robots id think they were worth the money but fact is if one of the robots break they stand around not knowing what to do. I had to go for training for 5 years to get that money and they taught us the basics so when the plasma cutter breaks you can fabricate the shit with your hands.
Also the auto industry has no non union competition here in the states which cause a huge problem because the companies are fucked and have to just go with whatever they say, if we were to go on strike the contractors would say fuck it shit still needs to be built and would go with the non union employees. This is the worst time for a contract negotiation if the union higher ups had half a brain they would suspend contract talks untill the economy stabilizes and not ask for higher wages when they barely are keeping afloat now. if they were to put off talks help the industry get back on its feet then negotiate when things were good they would get more anyways.