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UAW and common sense

In the last installment I talked about the UAW strike situation, but let’s talk about the nonsense and long term effects of it all. Shawn Fain is determined to keep pounding on the automaker to get an impossible contract. How far is too far? I don’t know how the UAW knows what the companies can afford to pay, but I think it’s conceivable and likely that this demand has exceeded what they can do. The UAW is upset at what CEO’s are making, but we are talking about millions for that, but this contract would add billions to the bottom line. What does common sense tell you about this situation? Let’s ask a few questions….

Who benefits? Certainly the UAW workers will benefit at some point, but what about everyone else? We should be protesting the extortion that is happening right now. You think the already too high car cost is going to get better? The money to overpay the workers has to come from somewhere, and that would come from car buyers. This will just add to the inflationary trends that are already out there.

Covid changed a lot of things. Among them was the increase in car prices. lack of computer chips, car parts, production created higher car prices. In 2020 if you were lucky enough to find a car, you would pay the price. Dealerships found they could add to the cost since supply and demand said they could. It was thought that the prices would come back down after Covid subsided. They did reduce a little, but not to the levels that they were before Covid. Look at that graph below and you’ll see that average retail prices on a car went from approximately 38k to 47k within a year and as you can see in 2022 it dropped maybe 1000, but still maintains most of the cost increase. Ask yourself what will happen if the cost of UAW labor goes up by 20 to 60%. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that a lot of folks will be priced out of a car soon.

I’m sure there will be disagreement here, but the autoworkers were already overpaid. I understand that they didn’t get much in the way of increases in the last 5 years, but they were making a decent wage at that time. These new wage demands will take the UAW worker to a new bracket. Ahead of many college graduates, more that most medical staff, teachers, and many other jobs with higher qualifications. It’s great for them if they get it, but not great for anyone else. What part of that makes sense to you?

So while UAW workers get more money and benefits, what are some possible effects of this?

The simple take is the cost of making a vehicle goes up, if cost goes up, so follows price. Car prices will go up yet again and parts too. UAW workers will be able to afford a car or their car repair, will you?

Other unions have been watching. I think you will see others doing something similar after the success of this extortion. What you saw with this event is the UAW selectively increased their pickets and put increasing pressure on the automakers. Someone had to come up with something to keep cars being built and once an automaker puts out hard to refuse agreement, the other two must follow. ( and they did)

What’s the result of this? More higher salaries, more cost to products, and of course more inflation of prices. You think it’s bad now, watch the results of what the UAW did over the next 4 years, and it won’t be just with cars. Also watch to see if while some get their big raises others may see some layoffs.

What’s up with UAW?

The current UAW strike doesn’t make a lot of sense. Yes, i’ll start with that. It’s a perfect example of extortion by an organization that has a leader on a mission. Mr. Fain has taken what he “believes” and want he thinks makes it fair into negotiations and is holding the big three automakers hostage. This isn’t a simple few percent raise, this is a 46% increase and working 32 hours and getting paid for 40. It has additional benefits, even for contract help. Realize these aren’t minimum wage employees he’s fighting for, These are folks that average over $30/Hr already and jobs that don’t have some of the educational requirements as those that make less. This union demand would have wages hit $85k+ for less productivity.

Mr. Fain doesn’t care about the companies and whether these demands can actually be met without major harm. He has convinced the membership that what is being asked is possible and i’ll call it hope rather than greed that keeps union employees from taking the offers that have been put forward already. Ford made a very good offer that was just dismissed. Take a look at the offer and see what you think. These details aren’t really presented in the news, so the rest of us are not informed at what kind of offers are being turned down. Here is what Ford put out recently.

You should look that over, but a few stand outs are the over 20% wage increase, with at least 10% immediately. The 4 year to six figures wage progression, the $0 health premiums, bigger retirement contributions, and even more time off. The also state that this would make employees among the top 25% of wage earners in America. There is a lot of value in there beyond wage, and turning this down is insane to me. This will have a ford regular employee with better benefits and wages than some managers with college degrees. I know, I know, vocation is a choice, but the common sense here will come out in my next article. It will bring out more of why this whole action hurts the rest of us, and maybe some of their own employees.

Finally back!

I’ve been away for a while, but i’ll be continuing my quest for truth and of course using common sense which seems to be lacking in our current environment. I’m not looking to offend anyone, although given the wide variety of opinion and beliefs out there i’m likely to tweak some people. Realize when I look into something, I consult multiple sources figuring that the truth is in between them somewhere. Hope you enjoy the site.

Take a knee Part deux

In part one I discussed the issue of taking a knee during the national anthem.   It’s still an issue, but getting less attention. As of this writing, Colin Kapernick is still unemployed.  His views that he chooses to advertise and the possibility that he would continue to take a knee or put himself in the spotlight like that again is keeping owners from hiring him.   He’s had a shot at an opening at Miami,  but he decided it was a good idea to wear a shirt with Fidel Castro to a media interview.   Miami has a large Latino population most of whom are strongly anti-Castro so that pretty much eliminated him from consideration.   He’s done some other politically charged things as well.  Other owners are looking at him as a person that will not contribute positively to their bottom line.  Even with his talent,  you have to get people in the door, but the taking a knee isn’t something that will help that draw.

What he and some others fail to realize is that football is a business and is considered entertainment.   Owners want to put butts in the seats and attract sponsors and TV deals.   With the majority of sports watchers not liking the act of kneeling, or others sitting during the anthem, it starts affecting viewership and attendance.  You can see evidence of this with many TV stations now omitting the anthem from the coverage so not to affect viewership.   Owners however  are afraid to clamp down on players because of that tie to possible racism.   They actually succeeded in tying the Anthem to racism, and that’s where this whole thing took a turn.    Players claim it’s not about the National Anthem, but I disagree.    How about doing it right before or right after the anthem.   You still get a national audience seeing what you’re doing, but it’s not controversial.   You could still show your support, but not offend people in the process.   Colin won’t say it, but he actually is protesting against a country that would condone discrimination against blacks.  In this case, the shooting of unarmed black’s by white officers.  It’s a laudable cause, but it’s also the country that pays his salary, and provides a lot of other freedoms that he enjoys daily.  So the protest should just be about that and leave the Anthem out of it,  however the Anthem represents America in this scenario, and is necessary part of the equation.   See part three for more.

Are we powerless?

I think that many people feel that we are on the crazy train with no way to get off of it. We are at the mercy of the president and the very partisan people that work in Washington who supposedly work for us. I don’t know about you, but I don’t see how they represent our wants/needs.
Back in the good old days state representatives were elected to go to Washington and make their constituents proud by working for their State and properly representing their people. Some would argue that it’s still that way. You get elected by the majority in your state and you’re in! However, what follows after isn’t necessarily what was originally intended by a Senate and House representation in the early days.
What I see today is severe partisanship. Voting for or against something because my party says it’s what we should do, not because it’s the right thing to do. We have a couple of main breeds and they don’t mix. What happened to doing or creating things that’s best for all of us?
I see example after example of this. The most recent was the Affordable Care Act replacement vote. The way I saw it, the republicans threw together a replacement in a fairly large hurry without the input of the democrats. I personally think that the replacement wasn’t ready and democrats agreed and didn’t like who was going to get hurt in the process. It was a good thing that a few republicans saw that this might not be a good thing and were balking at supporting the bill. My favorite part of it was that President Trump made threats about the vote. The rough quote was ” If you don’t vote this in, you’ll be stuck with ObamaCare, we won’t revisit it” He made it sound like it was now or never, a bullying move that frankly didn’t work. So before the vote, he pulled the bill. Looking at it, he didn’t have a choice if he wanted to save face. He didn’t want to have to back up that childish threat of sticking us with health care that isn’t right. My hope and dream is that we can somehow get past the partisan ideals and truly work on things as they should be done, as they were meant to be done. Unfortunately we pretty much are left on the sidelines watching it all play out without any control.

Welcome!

Welcome to the first bastion of sanity.   Don’t you wonder if the world is somehow spinning off his axis?  Are you finding that this 2016 election has taken crazy turns and inspires fear in the direction our government is taking? Then you are probably in the right place.  I promise you won’t agree with everything here, but I can promise that the items here aside from opinion will be researched  and as close to the truth as you can get.  Have fun, comment as you wish, just keep it clean,  not personal, and intelligent.   Opinions are fine but arguments without facts to back it will just be deleted.    Let’s go!