Wednesday - December 21, 2005

Book ‘Em, Danno!

Scumbag union leaders now face hard time in jail if a certain judge in New York has his way. Excellent! Throw the bums in jail, put ‘em to work on a chain gang somewhere and let the workers go back to work. Then bring in a federal arbitrator to negotiate between the city and the transit workers. End of story ....

NYC Tightens Screws on Transit Workers
December 21, 2005, 2:11 PM EST
NEW YORK (AP)

The city and state stepped up their pressure on striking transit workers Wednesday in hopes of forcing them back to work, and a judge indicated that he may send union leaders to jail for failing to end the strike.

State Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones, who is hearing several legal issues related to the strike, directed attorneys from the Transport Workers Union to bring president Roger Toussaint and other top officials before the court Thursday to answer to a criminal contempt charge. He said he may sentence the union leaders to jail for refusing to end the strike, calling such a scenario a “distinct possibility.”

Union lawyer Arthur Schwartz said Toussaint and the other officials are in negotiations with mediators and that hauling them into court could halt the talks.

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/21/2005 at 02:31 PM   
Filed Under: • Unions-Labor •  
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Two Million Dollars And Counting

The busiest time of the year in the busiest city in the world. Add to that freezing temperatures. Then throw in a union that is determined to make everyone miserable simply because they want more money. What do you get? You get seven million thoroughly ticked off New Yorkers and a million-dollar-a-day court imposed fine.

I think Mayor Bloomberg needs to take a lesson from Ronald Reagan here. Remember in the early year of Reagan’s presidency, he fired all the air traffic controllers for doing the same thing? This kind of act by a public transportation union is reprehensible and totally without merit. Mayor Bloomberg, tell the union to go to hell and hire new workers. It’s what Rudi (and Ronnie) would have done ...

NYC Enters Second Day of Transit Strike
December 21, 2005, 6:36 AM EST
NEW YORK (AP)

New Yorkers faced another bone-chilling commute Wednesday without their cherished subways and buses as a transit strike entered its second day, leaving both patience and shoe leather wearing thin. With talks still stalled, a judge imposed a huge fine Tuesday against the Transport Workers Union—$1 million for each day of the strike—and lawyers were due back in court Wednesday.

The sanction was levied against workers for violating a state law that bars public employees from going on strike. The union said it would immediately appeal, calling the penalty excessive. The strike over wages and pensions began Tuesday morning, just five days before Christmas and at a time when the city is especially busy with shoppers and tourists.

“It’s too cold for this,” said Jose Cespedes, 55, a hotel maintenance manager who was planning on walking 25 blocks home in 24-degree weather and winds swirling. “I’m very disappointed that neither side thought enough about the community.” The mayor put into effect a sweeping emergency plan, including a requirement that cars entering Manhattan below 96th Street have at least four occupants.

Crowds were thick at both Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central Terminal as commuters waited for trains on the two suburban rail lines, where the number of riders soared. “It’s pandemonium,” said Dana Berkowitz, outside Pennsylvania Station during Tuesday’s evening rush hour. “I feel like I’m in the mosh pit of a Metallica concert.”

Bundled up in heavy coats and hats, others shared cabs and car pools, caught water taxis, biked, rollerbladed or even walked. The mayor joined pedestrians hoofing it across the Brooklyn Bridge.

- More on this story here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 12/21/2005 at 07:08 AM   
Filed Under: • Unions-Labor •  
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   Tuesday - December 20, 2005

Merry Christmas from the Union

(via boortz)

If you live in New York City, then congratulations....you have now been seriously inconvenienced. Why is that? Over 30,000 transit workers...upset with the city’s latest proposal on wages and benefits...walked off the job today. Merry Christmas, right? Gridlock won’t even begin to describe how much of a mess New York will be with all of the subways and buses shut down.  Oh, and the cost to the New York City economy?  Somewhere between $400 and $700 million.

According to union boss Roger Toussaint, “transit workers are tired of being under-appreciated and disrespected.” And just what does this government workers union find so “disrespectful?” Annual raises of between 3 and 4 percent. The city wants to raise the age transit workers become eligible for their pension from 55 to 62. And just how much do the striking workers earn? Between $47,000 and $55,000 a year. Not bad work if you can get it. But as always with government unions, it’s never enough.

So now they’re on strike. According to the governor and the mayor, it’s an illegal strike. If you know anything about unions and the union mentality, the law doesn’t matter; the employer doesn’t matter.  All that matters is the union.  Mayor Bloomberg is threatening to dock the union workers two days pay for every day they stay out on strike.  That would be absolutely beautiful, if he could make it stick.  Fat chance.  Not only do unions like to ignore the law, but politicians like to enable them in that endeavor. You can expect a judge to order them back on the job. We’ll see if that works.  If it doesn’t, perhaps the city might look into firing them all...and hiring replacements. That should get their attention and would teach them not to bite the hand that feeds them.

Merry Chirstmas New York!

Posted by Drew458     on 12/20/2005 at 10:06 AM   
Filed Under: • Unions-Labor •  
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   Monday - November 21, 2005

Automakers: Counterpoint

In an earlier post below ("GM: Shut ‘Em Down"), we looked at GM’s decision to layoff 30,000 workers and shutdown nine plants. We discussed the reasons why GM is in this bind. Now we turn to the other side of the equation (we always try to be fair and mentally unbalanced here at BMEWS) as we examine GM’s largest parts supplier, Delphi, and what’s going on there. For starters, Delphi plans to layoff 24,000 over the next three years and reduce average wages from $27 per hour to $9 per hour .... while giving CEO Steve Miller a $3.7 million signing bonus a few months ago and paying out $90 million to 486 senior managers as a reward for “steering the company through bankruptcy”. It’s starting to look like there’s a lot of greed on both sides of this equation. Lucky for us it’s not a quadratic ....

GM parts supplier Delphi plans to axe 24,000 jobs:
Reduce hourly wage from $27 to $9;
Pay managers bonuses worth $90m
(FINFACTS)

Former General Motors parts unit Delphi, which is in bankruptcy protection, has said that it will close all its US plants unless trade unions agree to wage cuts to rescue America’s largest auto parts-maker. Delphi CEO Steve Miller, who received a signing-on hello bonus of $3.7 million last summer, said that he hasn’t received union counteroffers to his proposal, which includes reducing wage levels from an average $27 per hour to as low as $9 and slashing up to 24,000 jobs over a three-year period. Motor union UAW President Ron Gettelfinger called Delphi’s offer an “insult.”

“We are going to try and save as many jobs as we can, but at the current wage rates, we would have to close down all of our US plants,” Miller said. Delphi will pay an average US wage of $26.97 an hour in 2005. Delphi was spun off from General Motors in 1999 and a strike could cripple both the parts maker and its largest customer GM.

Last Wednesday, loss-making General Motors’ stock fell to a 14-year low - it fell 6 percent to $21.29, its lowest level since 1991 and embattled chief executive Rick Wagoner was compelled to issue a statement to employees that the company has “absolutely no plan, strategy or intention” to file for bankruptcy. Despite the firmness of the intentions, there is a Custer’s Last Stand feeling about the strugggle of the onetime icon of industrial America, to pull the fat from the fire.

Delphi filed for court protection in October after Miller failed to win concessions from unions and financial help from former parent General Motors. Miller has said he will ask the bankruptcy court to let the company impose terms if unions don’t agree to pay and benefit reductions by December 16th. The UAW, along with Delphi’s other trade unions, said its primary focus in coming weeks will be to expose and challenge generous executive compensation packages Delphi is proposing for senior management.

Delphi plans to pay almost $90 million in bonuses for 486 top managers as a fair reward if the company emerges from bankruptcy. It also said a recently improved severance program is necessary to keep 21 key officers from leaving.

Money, get away. 
Get a good job with good pay and you’re okay.
Money, it’s a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I’ll buy me a football team.

Money, get back. 
I’m all right jack keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, it’s a hit.
Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit.
I’m in the high-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a lear jet.

Money, it’s a crime. 
Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today.
But if you ask for a raise it’s no surprise that they’re
Giving none away.

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/21/2005 at 01:56 PM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Unions-Labor •  
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GM: Shut ‘Em Down!

Just in case you haven’t been keeping track of current events, GM is bleeding money all over the place because of a ridiculous retirement plan and health care benefits that the UAW squeezed out of the automaker over the last twenty years. So, in order to keep paying retirement and healthcare for workers who are no longer making cars, GM is being forced to close plants and layoff workers who currently are making cars.

I just typed that and I had to re-read it three times before I realized just how ridiculous it sounds. Isn’t this the same kind of plan that caused Fwance to become the useless entity that it currently is? Help me out here, folks! How does this help our economy and more importantly, how do we get out of this mess? Do we kill off the UAW or just let GM outsource more jobs overseas? What happens then? How can we afford to buy cars if we’re all unemployed? Help me make sense of this. It’s starting to look like John Galt needs to go ahead and turn off the motor of the world** ....

GM to Cut 30,000 Jobs, Close 9 Plants
DETROIT (AP)

General Motors Corp. (GM) will eliminate 30,000 jobs and close nine North American assembly, stamping and powertrain plants by 2008 as part of an effort to get production in line with demand and position the world’s biggest automaker to start making money again after absorbing nearly $4 billion in losses so far this year.

The announcement Monday by Rick Wagoner, GM’s chairman and CEO, represents 5,000 more job cuts than the 25,000 that the automaker had previously indicated it planned to cut. The 30,000 job cuts represents about 9 percent of GM’s global work force of about 325,000 people.

“The decisions we are announcing today were very difficult to reach because of their impact on our employees and the communities where we live and work,” Wagoner told employees. “But these actions are necessary for GM to get its costs in line with our major global competitors. In short, they are an essential part of our plan to return our North American operations to profitability as soon as possible.”

The plan will cut the number of vehicles GM is able to build in North America by about 1 million a year by the end of 2008. GM said the assembly plants that will close are in Oklahoma City, Lansing, Mich., Spring Hill, Tenn., Doraville, Ga., and Ontario, Canada. A shift also will be removed at a plant in Moraine, Ohio.

An engine facility in Flint, Mich., will close, along with a separate powertrain facility in Ontario and metal centers in Lansing and Pittsburgh. Wagoner said GM also will close three service and parts operations facilities. They are in Ypsilanti, Mich., and Portland, Ore. One other site will to be announced later.

GM said the plan is to achieve $7 billion in cost reductions on a running rate basis by the end of 2006 - $1 billion above its previously indicated target.

- Read more on this moto-madness here

** - “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/21/2005 at 11:12 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Unions-Labor •  
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   Thursday - October 13, 2005

Quote Of The Day

It’s The Kerry Gigolo versus The Governator: Kerry thinks unions should spend all the money they want on political campaigns without bothering to get union members’ permission. The Governator thinks otherwise. Key quote from The Governator: “I don’t pay much attention. He has his beliefs, I have mine.”

Kerry Criticizes Calif. Union Dues Proposal
LOS ANGELES (AP)

Sen. John Kerry said Thursday that a ballot initiative on union dues backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could end up depriving working people of having a say in politics. Proposition 75 would require public employee unions to seek written permission from members before using dues for political purposes. Kerry, speaking outside a downtown firehouse, said the initiative would condemn workers to “a completely unfair system.”

The proposal “represents part of an ongoing effort by the Republican Party to create an unfair playing field, to change the balance of democracy in America,” the former Democratic presidential nominee said. “They want a one-sided argument—their side.” While pharmaceutical, insurance and other industries pump millions of dollars into political races, the California proposition would “take away the voices of the firefighters, the police officers, the teachers, the nurses,” the Massachusetts senator said.

Schwarzenegger, on a campaign stop in Burbank, said little when asked about Kerry’s criticism. He noted that he skis and plays hockey with Kerry—they both vacation in Idaho. Kerry never mentioned Schwarzenegger by name, but focused his criticism on the proposition.

“I don’t pay much attention,” Schwarzenegger said. “He has his beliefs, I have mine.” Schwarzenegger has argued that the initiative is not about workers but union bosses who have frustrated his agenda in Sacramento. Public employee unions see it as a threat to their political strength.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/13/2005 at 10:32 PM   
Filed Under: • Politics • Unions-Labor •  
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   Tuesday - September 13, 2005

Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day

Today’s award for unbelievable asinine activity goes to the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) who hired temp workers to man the picket lines in 104-degree heat in Las Vegas to protest Wal-Mart workers who had better working conditions than they did. It seems the union couldn’t stand the heat so they opened their own “sweat shop”.

The Strange Business of Protesting Jobs That May Be Better Than Yours
(LAS VEGAS WEEKLY)

The shade from the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market sign is minimal around noon; still, six picketers squeeze their thermoses and Dasani bottles onto the dirt below, trying to keep their water cool. They’re walking five-hour shifts on this corner at Stephanie Street and American Pacific Drive in Henderson—anti-Wal-Mart signs propped lazily on their shoulders, deep suntans on their faces and arms—with two 15-minute breaks to run across the street and use the washroom at a gas station.

Periodically one of them will sit down in a slightly larger slice of shade under a giant electricity pole in the intersection. Four lanes of traffic rush by, some drivers honk in support, more than once someone has yelled, “assholes!” but mostly, they’re ignored. They’re not union members; they’re temp workers employed through Allied Forces/Labor Express by the union—United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). They’re making $6 an hour, with no benefits; it’s 104 F, and they’re protesting the working conditions inside the new Wal-Mart grocery store.

“It don’t make no sense, does it?” says James Greer, the line foreman and the only one who pulls down $8 an hour, as he ambles down the sidewalk, picket sign on shoulder, sweaty hat over sweaty gray hair, spitting sunflower seeds. “We’re sacrificing for the people who work in there, and they don’t even know it.”

The union accuses Wal-Mart of dragging down wages and working conditions for other grocery-store workers across the nation. “Whether you work or shop at Wal-Mart, the giant retailer’s employment practices affect your wages. Wal-Mart leads the race to the bottom in wages and health-care,” says the UFCW’s website. “As the largest corporation in the world, Wal-Mart has a responsibility to the people who built it. Wal-Mart jobs offer low pay, inadequate and unaffordable healthcare, and off the clock work.”

But standing with a union-supplied sign on his shoulder that reads, Don’t Shop WalMart: Below Area Standards, picketer and former Wal-Mart employee Sal Rivera says about the notorious working conditions of his former big-box employer: “I can’t complain. It wasn’t bad. They started paying me at $6.75, and after three months I was already getting $7, then I got Employee of the Month, and by the time I left (in less than one year), I was making $8.63 an hour.” Rivera worked in maintenance and quit four years ago for personal reasons, he says. He would consider reapplying.

Rivera is one of few picketers here who have ever worked for Wal-Mart—it’s strictly coincidental that he was once in their employ. Most of the picketers were just looking for work through the temp agency. While Rivera’s words for Wal-Mart seem less than harsh, he does add, “I did not want to get insurance from them because it was too expensive.” That, says UCFW organizer Bill Hornbrook, who drove workers to the site one morning last week, is one of the reasons the union wants these protestors here.

“Wal-Mart has no benefits at an affordable rate. The (Wal-Mart) workers can’t afford the insurance with the wage they’re making. We’d like to see them improve their working conditions,” Hornbrook said. “The Neighborhood Markets are the same as a supermarket like Albertson’s or Safeway. Some supermarkets start (pay) at $7 an hour, but they do get benefits. These people (employees at Wal-Mart) have to pay for theirs,” Hornbrook said. So the UCFW is protesting each of the five new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets in the Vegas area; this one in Henderson opened June 29.

Wal-Mart is infamous for its labor and consumer battles—more than 40 cases alleging the company prevented workers from receiving adequate wage and overtime pay are being considered by courts for class-action status. Additionally, six current and former female employees are pursuing a class-action lawsuit charging that Wal-Mart discriminates against women in its promotion practices.

“We’re just trying to help the women that get discriminated against in Wal-Mart,” says Greer. “We’re out here suffering a lot for these people.” He pauses, moves his sign so that it blocks the scorching sun on his leathery face, and considers the working conditions of his colleagues out here working for the union. “We had one gal out here in her 40s, and she had a heat stroke. I kept making her sit down, I noticed she was stepping (staggering), and I made her sit in the shade,” Greer said. She went home sick after her shift and didn’t ever return to work.

Another woman, Greer said, had huge blisters on her feet and he took her inside to the Wal-Mart pharmacy. The pharmacist recommended some balm, and Greer bought it for her. Since then, he said, other picketers have purchased the balm for their blisters inside the Wal-Mart they are protesting. The group has no transportation to go elsewhere—they are dropped off by a union van and picked up later. On weekends, they have to find their own transportation, Greer said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/13/2005 at 06:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Outrageous • Unions-Labor •  
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   Friday - June 24, 2005

Death Of An Automaker

The year was 1953. Dwight Eisenhower had just been elected President and was promising to build a national system of “interstate” highways to make transportation across America much easier and to provide easy access for national defense in light of the rising communism in Europe. General Motors executives brought a new phrase into American folklore when one of them stated, “What’s good for Genera Motors is good for America”.

Cars were being built at an astounding rate and Americans were buying them up. Life was good. Then along came the Auto Workers Union who decided their workers deserved a bigger piece of the pie. Gradually, over the years, wages increased, often outpacing price increases on cars. In addition, the union held out for a medical plan for its members that was unprecedented .... completely free medical care with GM paying 100% of the premiums, guaranteeing auto workers a lifetime of free medical care.

Fast forward fifty years to today. National health care costs have risen dramatically over the last two decades. They are so high that a decade ago, most companies switched over to the HMO plans and raised the amount employees had to pay for company-provided coverage. Not General Motors. The unions refused to back off on their health coverage in the contract. As you read the excerpt below from an article in today’s USAToday, keep in mind the following salient points ....

• Union retirees from GM get to keep their medical benefits, free of charge, until they die


• GM reported its largest loss in history last quarter .. $1.1 Billion


• The cost of providing this health care to union workers adds $1,100 to $1,500 to the cost of each car.


• GM spends more per car for health care than it does for steel for that car.


• GM spends more per car for health care than it does for advertising for that car.


• The United Auto Workers (UAW) union refuses to budge off of its sweet deal.

Taking a cigarette break outside a General Motors (GM) assembly plant in Lansing, Mich., last week, Mike O’Driscoll admits he has problems: diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol.

But his arteries are cleaned out, thanks to a $160,000 heart-bypass surgery a few years back.

“I ate too many steaks and not enough veggies,” says O’Driscoll with a laugh.

For as long as O’Driscoll has worked at GM, he hasn’t had to worry about health care costs. He paid nothing for his heart surgery, and he estimates that during the past five years, he has paid his cardiologist a total of $500. GM doesn’t take anything out of his paycheck for health insurance.

The American auto industry is one of the last bastions of generous benefits that were once part of many employers’ largess: fully paid health insurance, retiree medical coverage and pensions.

At a time when the average American company requires workers to pay more than $2,000 a year toward family health insurance premiums, the auto industry is among the 4% of employers that offer free family health coverage. Retirees, who outnumber workers by more than 2-to-1 at General Motors and represent significant percentages at the other major U.S. automakers, get the same deal.

As GM recovers from its worst quarterly loss in more than a decade, $1.1 billion, executives have targeted health care as a top opportunity for cost cutting. And as GM is the nation’s largest private purchaser of health care, what it does is being watched closely and could have ramifications beyond its own 1.1 million employees, retirees and dependants.

The cost of providing health care adds from $1,100 to $1,500 to the cost of each of the 4.65 million vehicles GM sold last year, according to various calculations. GM expects to spend at least $5.6 billion on health care this year, more than it spent on advertising last year.

But getting the union to agree to major changes in the middle of its contract could be difficult. Already, union members are balking at talk of trimming retiree benefits, and local union leaders are grumbling about the possibility of a strike if the company tries to force changes through; however, a mid-contract strike could be deemed illegal.

“It is a well-known fact that the U.S. automobile industry spends more per car on health care than on steel,” says Lee Iacocca, the retired chairman of Chrysler who in the early 1990s advocated a national health care program as a solution. “This problem is not going to go away on its own.”

And while white-collar workers at GM, who represent 26% of the active workforce, pay about 27% of their health care costs, unionized workers pay about 7%. Because the coverage is mainly free, that 7% comes from charges for doctor-office visits and co-payments on drugs. Outside the auto industry, single employees pay an average of 18% of the cost of their premiums, and families pay 22%, according to research by benefit firm Towers Perrin. Many also pay deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket costs on top of that.

Posted by Z Woof     on 06/24/2005 at 10:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Unions-Labor •  
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   Thursday - March 24, 2005

Unions Must Be Fit To Be Tied

It appears that governors across this great land as finally getting wise and cutting that HUGE umbilical cord between state employees and unions----the collective bargaining ploy.

You can just about imagine how unions must be pissed to no end.  After all, it’s like taking the nipple from the mouth of a baby except this baby consistently donates large sums of money from its members to democrat causes.  Plus we really get no increased productivity out of the workers for the increases in their benefits and salaries.

BWAH HA HA!  Take that, you shit-fer-brains!

Posted by Ranting Right Wing Howler     on 03/24/2005 at 07:29 AM   
Filed Under: • Unions-Labor •  
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   Monday - March 21, 2005

The UAW And Me

Recently we had a post about how the UAW stopped allowing Marines from leaving their cars in the UAW parking lots while said Marines deployed or went on exercises.

Here, here, and here.

The comments were wide ranging and interesting but very few of them touched on the issue of “quality” or “reliability” or “resale value.”

So I will do so now.

Almost 3 years ago I had to get rid of my trusty Toyota pickup which I’d had for 18 years.  Four cylinder, 5 speed, NO air conditioning.  It had 150,000 miles on it.  The engine ran like a top.  I bought it in 1983 in California, drove it 3 months later to Louisiana where it got floated over the pond to Greece, my next military assignment.  From there I drove it a year later to Portugal via Italy, Switzerland, France and Spain. Oh, did I tell you all this time it had a cab-over camper (small) on it!  What a site in Europe! From Portugal it got shipped 6 years later to New Jersey where I drove it south and then west to Texas.  Several trips back and forth (Texas to Florida) and then I drove it to Virginia where I had my first “problem” with it at almost 100,000 miles.  I needed to replace the exhaust.  10,000 miles later the starter.  10,000 miles later the brakes and 10,000 miles later the clutch.  Not bad for 18 years of driving.

My father’s health did not allow him to drive any more and since my mother does not drive (can’t learn, we tried, she freaks behind the wheel--go figure!) it was incumbent upon me to pick up the slack.  So I went shopping for a new (different) car. It had to seat 5 easily and my father needed to have easy egress/ingress.  The choices boiled down to a Town Car, a Gran Marquis, a Cadillac DeVille, a 95/96 Impala SS, or a Toyota Camry.

I REALLY had my eyes set on the Impala SS but none were to be had within many miles.  My next choice was the Caddy or Towncar.  Luxurious.  Commodious.  Last on my list was the Camry.

Then I started digging into the NADA and saw the prices. 

I was looking for a 3 or 4 year old car with depreciation eaten out of it (I refuse to buy a new car because of the WALLOP one takes driving it off the lot.)

So I methodically started calculating “average retail when new” versus “average retail for a 2, 3, and 4 year old” car.  I even took it out 6 years to get an idea of, historically, where I’d be 2 years hence.  The Cadillac and Town Car were worth only about 30% of their “new” price 6 years on.  The Camry still had 50% of its value.

Being a tight wad (and very practical) I focused on the Camry.  As it turns out my parents’ neighbor had one so I went over and asked her if my father could try getting into her car because I was in the market for a Toyota but he needed to be able to get into it easily.

It turns out she had it for sale.  It was a 1998 model.  Had only 38,000 miles, was the upgraded Camry with V-6 and all options.  We negotiated a price and I bought it.

The point of all this?

Yesterday I was driving by a house that had a beautiful Town Car with a FOR SALE sign on it.  I stopped and looked.  It was a 1999.

I got home and checked its value.  Then I checked my Toyota’s.  The new Town Car sold for about $33000.  The new Toyota for about $24000.  Today, my “one year older than a town car” Toyota is worth more than the Town Car.

Granted, US cars have improved in quality but numbers do not lie.

In conclusion, yes, the UAW has a lot more to worry about than some Marines parking in their lots.

The floor is now yours.

Posted by Ranting Right Wing Howler     on 03/21/2005 at 06:53 AM   
Filed Under: • Personal • Unions-Labor •  
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   Tuesday - March 15, 2005

Union Backs Down

The UAW has changed its mind about allowing Marines to use their parking lot ....

After telling Marine reservists who drive foreign vehicles or display pro-President Bush bumper stickers they no longer could use a parking lot at the United Auto Workers headquarters, union officials have changed their minds.

The union, which has offices near a Marine Corps Reserve Center in Detroit, reversed its decision after some people said it reflected a lack of support for the Marines and the service of reservists.

“I made the wrong call on the parking issue and I have notified the Marine Corps that all reservists are welcome to park at Solidarity House as they have for the past 10 years,” UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement released by the union.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/15/2005 at 02:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Military • Unions-Labor •  
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   Monday - March 14, 2005

More Union Madness

The UAW is pissed at Marines parking in their parking lot who don’t toe the union line ....

DETROIT—The United Auto Workers says Marine reservists should show a little more semper fi if they want to use the union’s parking lot.

The Marine Corps motto means “always faithful,” but the union says some reservists working out of a base on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit have been decidedly unfaithful to their fellow Americans by driving import cars and trucks.

So the UAW International will no longer allow members of the 1st Battalion 24th Marines to park at Solidarity House if they are driving foreign cars or displaying pro-President Bush bumper stickers.

Well, BMW has a plant in South Carolina and both Hyundai and Mercedes Benz have plants in Alabama (all non-union). Therefore we are declaring this “NATIONAL DRIVE A MERCEDES WITH A BUSH/CHENEY ‘04 BUMPER STICKER MONTH”.

Oh yeah, almost forgot .... and f**k the UAW.

Posted by The Skipper     on 03/14/2005 at 12:40 PM   
Filed Under: • Military • Unions-Labor •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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