On Tuesday, Joe Biden was flown to Michigan, lifted from a coffin containing soil from his native land, then propped up in a UAW picket line to show his support for hard-working voters who would like to work less hard and for a lot more money.
Specifically, old Joe is supporting the idea that the American auto industry should be shut down unless (ahem) "workers" get a 46% pay increase (specifically to help deal with Biden's inflation) AND have their 40-hour work week cut down to 32 hours over a 4-day work week. Mind you, they'd still get paid for 40 hours because the UAW likes round numbers.
It's interesting to note Joe's enthusiasm for a strike to shut down an important national industry at the same time he's claiming that it's an act of treason for Republicans to go "on strike" and potentially shut down our government rather than approve preposterous and unaffordable spending increases being pushed by Democrats.
Then again, the only consistency Joe really cares about is making sure his ice cream hasn't completely melted by the time he's loaded back aboard Air Force One.
I can't understand all the complaints! Biden is the best president we've had since Trump!
ReplyDelete(Also the worst!)
UAW——- Ugly A$$ Whiners ??
ReplyDeleteHe forces the railroad workers back to work yet stands on the picket line with the auto workers!!!! I’m as confused as he is!!!
ReplyDeleteWe can't afford the new car prices as it is. Do they want to kill off their jobs when demand for new vehicles drops even further over the inevitable sticker price increases that will result to cover their wages/benefits?
ReplyDeleteExactly. Where do they think the 46% raise will come from? (And really? 46%? My S.O. will be lucky to eek out a 7% spread over 3 years with their negotiation next month.) Ford & GM will just tack that on to already crazy stupid prices. $40k for a base model Explorer will be close to $55k. Who can afford that when they can barely afford to put groceries on the table?
Delete@miniskunk - Its all part of the plan. Old school autos become waaaaay too expensive and voila, the EV is now looking affordable. Just what 3rd term Obammy wants.
ReplyDeleteIt really is a perfect plan. Push wages for workers through the roof which will drag used car prices along for the ride. When no one can afford a car, new or used, the oil industry crashes due to poor fuel sales. Then the economy crashes and Socialism rides in to save us all from ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI've said this elsewhere on the 'web, that having done myself, final vehicle assembly during my expat days for a Japanese OEM (called it new employee boot camp), I can say without reservation that a.) vehicle assembly line work requires the ability to be on one's feet for long periods of time, being able to deal with repetitive tasks and be somewhat agile. This work however IS NOT skilled labor (those who maintain the machinery do have skilled labor though) , no matter what the UAW in its self-interest says it is.
ReplyDeleteB.) Having observed final vehicle assembly at Ford's Rouge plant, these striking UAW workers, when they are working, haven't half the tasks to do at each station as a Japanese final assembly worker has.
Last I looked, the hourly wage for a UAW worker was something on the order of $30+ per hour(add the costs of benefits and I am sure the figure is higher). That is ridiculous for that kind of work.
We need Biden to go on strike
ReplyDelete(not to be confused with a nap/vacation)
If the company caves into demands, the only way profits will remain is raising the price of the vehicles sold to the buyer. So EVERYBODY pays for the autoworkers raise - staycation - pension feathering.
ReplyDeleteHelluva way to run a railroad. Surprised Biden didn't suggest hiring new immigrants to replace the current autoworker. They would work for much less $$$.
Um… didn’t Donald Trump recently decide to pander to the same auto workers, or was that more lies from what passes as the newsthe news media?
ReplyDelete"A man of the pimple." 'Zit true?
ReplyDeleteKeep them-there workers employed, udderwise they jist might go to werk for the gubbermint at departmunt of moter viaculs.
ReplyDelete(misspellings and other miss-takes intented 🤪🤨). Jist sayun.
I don't know why anyone would worry about a 46% increase in wages, it should be more than adequately covered by what's left of the whopping 2024 projected 3.2% COLA for social security. After all it can't be the teens and early 20 somethings earning those high Walmart and McDonald's wages buying the high priced new vehicles that they are counting on.
ReplyDeleteBiden must think the UAW is dumb if he thinks they believe his 'good ole boy' spiel. This photo tells you what the UAW thinks of Biden.
ReplyDeletehttps://citizenfreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/biden-uaw.jpg
40 hour pay for 32 hours work is a 20% bonus already, besides the 40+% increase they’re demanding. Smart management would be comparing automation savings vs union demands for the future. Glad I’m too old for this scheiss.
ReplyDeleteThat first sentence is priceless.
ReplyDeleteBy some estimates, after their raise, restoration of pension benefits, and reduction of working hours by 1/5th, UAW workers will be making well over $100-an-hour. Not bad. It's also why more, if not most of any car you buy by the next decade will be made mostly in China.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, while this would be temporarily awesome for the remaining UAW workers, it will just mean more inflation for everyone else who'd like an automobile. Yea.
As it is, Ford is already losing over $40,000 per EV they sell because they are very expensive to make and the pool of affluent straight, white older-males who buy them is very limited. Ford can only afford to do that because they are making huge profits on selling the ICE SUVs and pickup trucks that people actually want to buy. Once ICE vehicles are outlawed, Ford and the other automakers will no longer have a viable business.
So even if the UAW gets a fraction of the demands they are making, it won't be for very long.
This is why I am convinced that the automakers are just waiting out the collapse of the Democrats and their green agenda, and all of these absurd mandates will evaporate.
Are the UAW and its members really not able to see that shit like this just drives consumers further away? Math tells me that a 46% increase in wages will result in an approximate 46% increase in car prices that are already beyond most people's reach. Then top that off with what is basically giving employees an additional 52 holidays per year. Do they deserve raises? Yes, but 46% and 52 extra paid days off?
ReplyDeleteI've not bought a new vehicle since my 2000 Dakota (which is still a daily driver). I swore I would never pay that price again for new car smell, and bet many more join me in that philosophy. The highways in the US are going to resemble Cuba 20 years from now, so I guess the socialists are getting one more thing checked off their list to turn the US into a third world shithole.
@BeeGee,
That photo says a lot! But I'll bet most UAW members STILL vote Democrat.
@American Cowboy,
I about crapped when I saw the projected Social Security COLA number. Inflation is more like 13.2%, not 3.2%. I'd like to find the "economist" who came up with the gubmint's method of calculating inflation, and kick him in the nuts a few times.
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder if anyone in the government really knows what "inflation" actually is. One thing it isn't is some mysterious percentage of some unknown number. All it is is the government printing money with nothing to back it up but they try to make people believe there's some other cause.
The UAW is trying to get a massive raise now, before the automakers crash and burn. They must know they are making cars too expensive, but they are just angry that the companies "made record profits" and the union thinks those profits should go to them. Just like what the unions did to Hostess a few years back, the unions won't be happy until there's no company left to pay them.
It seems like the union "workers" think their employer is the union, not the outfit actually paying them. I wonder what they'll do when they're ALL replaced with robots.
When I heard that the people running the company had gotten a 400% raise, the 40% didn't seem out of line.
ReplyDeleteAs to the 4 day work week, I wonder if we are hearing the same arguments they used against the 5 day work week?
I am so glad I've come back from a two week media-free vacation. NOT
ReplyDeleteFuck Joe Biden....I mean Let's Go Brandon. Or something like that.
ReplyDelete@ John:
ReplyDelete"This is why I am convinced that the automakers are just waiting out the collapse of the Democrats and their green agenda, and all of these absurd mandates will evaporate."
One can only hope and hope.
As further evidence (if there is need for) of the insanity this nation is gripped by, the State of Assorted Nuts, is considering, in pursuit of the never to be achieved grail of zero emissions, limits on how far a classic automobile may travel.
@Colby Muenster said "Are the UAW and its members really not able to see that shit like this just drives consumers further away?"
ReplyDeleteNo, just as they failed to see most of the rest of the former northern state auto jobs move overseas or south to the right-to-work states.
Last week, the UAW expanded their strike to parts manufacturers to put pressure on dealerships that make most of their money doing repairs. So Joe Lunchbox who makes a small fraction of what the UAW is demanding will have to wait much longer to get his pickup fixed. You all will.
Will that make Joe Lunchbox feel warm and fuzzy about the UAW or unions in general?
@JustaJeepGuy asked "I have to wonder if anyone in the government really knows what "inflation" actually is."
Oh, some do. And they don't care. As long as their small constituency (rent seekers and crony capitalists who are subsidized) comes out ahead and they get their inflation-adjusted pay bumps, they're cool with it. In the meantime, the "poor" who think they're the beneficiaries of government largesse get hurt the worst. Perhaps when the poor get better educated about how this all works, they'll become less enamored of the Democratic Party to give up voting for them. Until then, the punishment will continue until morale improves.
@Rob said "When I heard that the people running the company had gotten a 400% raise, the 40% didn't seem out of line."
Yup. Pretty boneheaded and bad optics IMHO, and this is the punishment.
@Fish Out of Water, yup. At the end of the day, whether by intent or accident, the ultimate result is an assault on all our freedoms.
Ironic Impairment - Next time the UAW leadership pontificates on the unfairness of management largesse, they should be reminded of this:
ReplyDelete‘Fat, Dumb and Happy’ at the UAW
An indictment details a multimillion-dollar corruption scheme.
The indictment claims Mr. Iacobelli availed himself of National Training Center money, buying limited edition gold Montblanc pens and a $350,000 Ferrari. He also allegedly installed a swimming pool, outdoor kitchen and spa at his Michigan home, renovations that cost $375,000, and paid off a relative’s student loans.
The indictment says the training center also spent $425,000 at a swag company owned by Holiefield’s wife, Ms. Morgan, while an additional $70,000 was funneled from the fund to the union boss’s nonprofit to his wife’s photography business. More training center cash paid for Ms. Morgan’s first-class plane tickets, her $12,400 four-night stay at the luxe Beverly Hills Hotel, and the $262,000 mortgage on the townhouse she and Holiefield owned, the indictment says.
That’s in addition to the $924,000 Holiefield received in legal union compensation between 2009 and 2014, purportedly for representing the interests of UAW members. He and Mr. Iacobelli were responsible for negotiating contracts between Fiat Chrysler and the union over pay, bonuses and working conditions.
“The UAW has zero tolerance for corruption or wrongdoing of this kind at any level,” union President Dennis Williams said of the scandal, adding that it is cooperating with investigators. Yet the UAW has quite the rap sheet. Since 2001 at least 47 of its members, including officials at several locals, have pleaded guilty to corruption and embezzlement charges.
There are also eyebrow-raising expenditures that are legal. For instance, the union, which has nearly a billion in total assets, owns a lakeside retreat and golf course in Michigan, valued at more than $34 million last year, which includes an indoor pool, two basketball courts, a sauna, beaches and hiking trails. The luxury property was “designed for the upper echelon of the UAW,” one retiree told these pages in 2009. Six-figure salaries are the norm for top brass. And the union’s last financial disclosure includes expenditures at Sea World Orlando, as well as several casinos, bowling alleys and golf courses.
@Readers- Great remarks above. I'm guessing that with their current demands, the UAW has just made robotic workers a MUCH better deal than was previously the case. So the workers had better be learning to save most of their money, because they won't have jobs much longer. Or if savings accounts don't appeal to them, Bob Menendez can instruct them on how to buy and store gold bars.
ReplyDeleteBidenomics has so destroyed the dollar that our corrupt congressmen now insist on being paid in gold bars.
ReplyDeleteIt's gold bars joke time!
ReplyDeleteA rich man was dying, so he converted all his riches into gold bars, then instructed his family to put some gold bars in his coffin so he could "take it with him." Upon his death, his family complied.
When the man got to the pearly gates, he asked St. Peter if he could bring the gold bars in. St. Peter replied, "Sure, but why do you want to bring chunks of pavement?"
I'll be here all week.
Unions don't get the idea that their members must COMPETE with other workers. No wonder there are now only two US auto makers, I remember Hudson, Studebaker, Chrysler, Jeep, Nash, all gone now thanks to greedy stupid bosses and unions.
ReplyDeleteI remember a steel, ship building, textile, clothing, carpet, small engine, tool,etc industry. All gone. Now we have gender and race hustling.