GM Killing On-Demand Fr8 Ops?
11-21-2008, 07:40 AM
#22
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2005
Position: 767 captain
Posts: 2,701
I think sometimes we are all like old time inmates in a prison, we all know each other too well, and can predict what each other will say in a given situation. Watch out in the shower room 
(still an O Rourke fan myself, he does him better than you do)
11-21-2008, 07:43 AM
#23
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2005
Position: 767 captain
Posts: 2,701
11-21-2008, 07:45 AM
#24
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2007
Posts: 424
ewr,
UAW costs are just one of many that need to be cut to be competitive. Certainly management salaries need to be cut. They need to become much more efficient, concentrate on successful products and scrap the others.
Bankruptcy might be the right option. These companies are dinosaurs and haven't kept up with their competitors. If you ask the vast majority of Americans who makes the best cars, I'll bet they aren't one of the big three. They do need to massively restructure to be competitive.
If they weren't begging for government handouts, I couldn't care less about their payroll or profitability. If they want a bailout, they need to fix some of the problems that got them here in the first place. There is no question that sales will be extremely slow for some time. Not many people are buying cars now (or anything else for that matter).
Also, if the auto workers want the huge airline salary that you speak about, maybe they should have picked another profession. And, by the way, if you haven't noticed, most airline salaries have been slashed to become more competitive as well. Or others that were laid off (like myself) during restructuring.
It isn't that I am not sympathetic, it is just that throwing more money to a failing industry isn't the answer. Fix some of the underlying problems and I have no problem for loans.....
UAW costs are just one of many that need to be cut to be competitive. Certainly management salaries need to be cut. They need to become much more efficient, concentrate on successful products and scrap the others.
Bankruptcy might be the right option. These companies are dinosaurs and haven't kept up with their competitors. If you ask the vast majority of Americans who makes the best cars, I'll bet they aren't one of the big three. They do need to massively restructure to be competitive.
If they weren't begging for government handouts, I couldn't care less about their payroll or profitability. If they want a bailout, they need to fix some of the problems that got them here in the first place. There is no question that sales will be extremely slow for some time. Not many people are buying cars now (or anything else for that matter).
Also, if the auto workers want the huge airline salary that you speak about, maybe they should have picked another profession. And, by the way, if you haven't noticed, most airline salaries have been slashed to become more competitive as well. Or others that were laid off (like myself) during restructuring.
It isn't that I am not sympathetic, it is just that throwing more money to a failing industry isn't the answer. Fix some of the underlying problems and I have no problem for loans.....
11-21-2008, 07:47 AM
#25
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: MD11 CPT
Posts: 1,077
, which was actually pretty generous considering I was even then making far less than the average UAW worker.
11-21-2008, 07:58 AM
#26
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2005
Position: 767 captain
Posts: 2,701
I don't think I made more than an auto worker for the first 10 years of my career. I think I had a Ford once that was built while a guy was reading a magazine. As for the guys comment that they do build cars people want (suv's etc.) that is right, they just don't build them well, and if the line guys worked for free, American managers would still be finding new uses for plastic bolts.
Has anyone noticed that for the few quarters when the airlines were making money, at UAL at least, the amount of the profits were exactly equal to the amount of givebacks that the unions had made? Management has not improved one iota at the airlines and it won't at the US auto companies.
We have had a couple of those "final checks" floating through here where we didn't know whether to frame them or cash them. We cashed them, but at this point, a framed check for 20 bucks from Eastern or Braniff on the wall would have been quite the conversation starter. We could put it right next to the UAL stock certificates that went from a half million to another "final check" of a couple hundred.
Gotta type fast before this thread gets closed
11-21-2008, 08:05 AM
#27
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Oct 2006
Position: MD11 CPT
Posts: 1,077
Aren't student loans governement help? They are guaranteed by another one of the Mae sisters, Sally Mae.
I don't think I made more than an auto worker for the first 10 years of my career. I think I had a Ford once that was built while a guy was reading a magazine. As for the guys comment that they do build cars people want (suv's etc.) that is right, they just don't build them well, and if the line guys worked for free, American managers would still be finding new uses for plastic bolts.
Has anyone noticed that for the few quarters when the airlines were making money, at UAL at least, the amount of the profits were exactly equal to the amount of givebacks that the unions had made? Management has not improved one iota at the airlines and it won't at the US auto companies.
We have had a couple of those "final checks" floating through here where we didn't know whether to frame them or cash them. We cashed them, but at this point, a framed check for 20 bucks from Eastern or Braniff on the wall would have been quite the conversation starter. We could put it right next to the UAL stock certificates that went from a half million to another "final check" of a couple hundred.
Gotta type fast before this thread gets closed
I don't think I made more than an auto worker for the first 10 years of my career. I think I had a Ford once that was built while a guy was reading a magazine. As for the guys comment that they do build cars people want (suv's etc.) that is right, they just don't build them well, and if the line guys worked for free, American managers would still be finding new uses for plastic bolts.
Has anyone noticed that for the few quarters when the airlines were making money, at UAL at least, the amount of the profits were exactly equal to the amount of givebacks that the unions had made? Management has not improved one iota at the airlines and it won't at the US auto companies.
We have had a couple of those "final checks" floating through here where we didn't know whether to frame them or cash them. We cashed them, but at this point, a framed check for 20 bucks from Eastern or Braniff on the wall would have been quite the conversation starter. We could put it right next to the UAL stock certificates that went from a half million to another "final check" of a couple hundred.
Gotta type fast before this thread gets closed
.Don't get me started on management perks, especially at USAir
11-21-2008, 08:20 AM
#29
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Mar 2005
Position: 767 captain
Posts: 2,701
?Looks like we've veered away from pciking on the elected people to picking on the annointed ones.
11-21-2008, 10:09 AM
#30
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Feb 2008
Position: MD-11 Captain
Posts: 320
I'm certainly betting that you certainly don't think YOU make too much money, do you? After all, you sit up in the cockpit, read a magazine (or flight manual) for a few hours, look at the gauges every now and then, and make around $175 or more an HOUR. The laborers at the auto manufacturing jobs actually WORK all day and bust their rear ends. I'm sure they'd LOVE to have a job like you making the money you do and having the days off you do. That's the problem here..... too many think the little guys make too much, and the top level too little. Sorry to rain on your parade, but heavy pilots aren't the only ones who deserve a LIVable wage.
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