all i know is i was a chevy guy for twenty years and my last two chevy trucks a 2000 and a 2002 both heavy duty were in the shop more than i drove them. all i got from several dealers and gm was the run around to get things fixed.
like can't duplicate the problem and that works like it should bs lines. when my 07 tundra gets to 10,000 miles without being towed back to the dealer it will be better than my last to chevys could do.
i would buy old chevy before 1999 in a minute but will never buy anything new from chevy or gm ever again
That’s ok Travelnuts I do get it and a little tidbit from me that you may or may not know is that the union workers total pay and compensation only makes up 14% of the total cost of a new vehicle. The main reason companies are going offshore is to get out from under the EPA regs and other Federal BS they have to go thru. But I’ll be just fine as my wife makes very good pay in her non union recession proof jog as a R.R.T. working for a Doctor. If something happens at Chrysler I can find work within a week making almost as much as I do now.
Chrysler has told our plant that we are getting two more torque converters and all the retooling will be done in plant by our workforce. It seems that even with our high wages we were able to build a new sear station in house for 50K and in 3 weeks. The lowest outside vendor quoted the job at 235K and 36 weeks, now we get all the work not the nonunion outside vendors.
Don
Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote: The main reason companies are going offshore is to get out from under the EPA regs and other Federal BS they have to go thru.
That doesn't explain why foreign carmakers and their supply chains - many of the same companies that supply US automakers - are setting up shop in southern states. In many cases, things are opening up in the south just as quickly as they are closing down in the North.
That's funny I’ll call the Indiana Governor and let him know that they are now in theSouth!
Honda to Build New Automobile Manufacturing Plant in Indiana
$550 Million Plant to Employ 2,000 Associates and Begin Production in 2008
Honda today announced plans to build a $550 million automobile plant on a 1,700-acre tract in Decatur County, Indiana, near Greensburg, 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis. The plant will begin mass production of fuel efficient 4-cylinder vehicles in fall 2008, with an annual production capacity of 200,000 vehicles and employment of 2,000 associates.
We have two Honda plants here in Ohio and in Dundee Mich is home to the two World Engine Plants.
Two Dundee, Michigan plants will build 840,000 engines annually * Plant efficiencies deliver premium engine features at entry-level price * Innovative GEMA operation aims at new productivity benchmark for engine plants
DUNDEE, Mich., Oct. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance (GEMA) launched volume production today of the much- anticipated World Engine in the first of two plants opening here. This plant holds the promise of a new standard of global engine manufacturing.
To commemorate the Job One event, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm joined Chrysler Group President and CEO Tom LaSorda, the United Auto Workers union and other company ... OH NO they are UNION how will they ever survive with the Evil UAW in control!
Perrysburg---Don, I'm not your enemy at all and not the enemy of a properly operated union which always remembers if the corporation goes broke or fails to make a profit, ALL will lose. It's every members livelihood and well as the company's management that goes down the drain if the corporation closes or moves offshore.
Unions do good things for their members as well as bad things just like the company management does. The difference is the company management is responsible for the total bottom line and must call the shots to make it be on the black ink side, not the red ink side of the ledger's bottom line. Ever wonder WHY, if the unions are so great and their message so perfect, they don't start their own manufacturing company with these same employees to compete against the other manufacturers making the same products and just set their whims and wishes to their members ballot desires? Heck! They own their members as it's a closed shop atmosphere any way. How quickly you'd see huge changes and the real fallacies they preach when they now have to show a profit to their "board of directors" or Wall Street. Next, the union plant would be long G O N E!!!! Bet all the jobs would be gone too, right?
In nearly every post you have written, minus a few, for the approx last couple years boasts that the union is like god and nearly always right but the company management/leaders are reaping humongous $$$, fat and sassy, at the expense of the rank and file who are being squished to death. I and so many others take offense to that kind of talk because: 1. it's not remotely true and 2. the UAW etc wages and benefit packages are so out of balance with the rest of general hourly workers of our country that it must and will change or else. Everyone buys the same loaf of bread whether their wage package is $8. per hour and no fringes or the UAW etc average of $72.+ per hour with unreal fringes included. Does this really make sense to you? Most $8./hr job would be gone overnight if the employer had to raise it to $12./hr for their unskilled. SO, the only other alternative is to lower the $72.+ average to a min of half or the job will usually go offshore for the $1. to $3. figure. As you have noticed, there's a mad exodus and giant sucking sound coming from the South and across the Oceans. Very simple economics.
You are in the "skilled trades" and in a position of responsibility. That's so far removed from the average rank and file union member. You can't be replaced by even a far above average Joe off the streets but the general hourly assembly worker can be by a below average Joe off the street at the drop of a hat. It's beyond common sense that the total compensation financial package between these skilled and unskilled workers is only just a few dollars apart. Hint! I know the union job wage scales as they are published in the releases I have access to.
Info for you-- As of 12/31/2007 there were a total of 98,700 Journeyman Tool and Die Makers in the whole USA and by the year 2016 the number will have shrunk to <91,000 total. Another tidbit of info for you is that I have served on our Regional area Apprenticeship board for over 20 years until I retired so I know the facts and program procedures very very well.
You are paid while serving your indentured apprenticeship. Starting day one at 50% to 60% 0f Journeyman wages, if your are not given additional credit, plus your benefit package and all your classroom instruction costs are paid by your employer. Your wage increases are automatic every 6 months of 1/8 of the difference between the apprenticeship starting wage and The Journeyman wage. It's a min of 5% every 6 months. Not to shabby.
Contrast that to a college student for a teaching degree. He earns NOTHING and is borrowing constantly from a student loan bank to pay for everything. 10's of thousands of dollars per year. 4 years of this is minimum for a degree and then one year of unpaid student teaching to qualify for a minimum teaching certificate. Now you can get a job teaching for the outlandish salary of maybe up to $45,000 a year and start paying on the $100,000 plus interest student loan now hanging around your neck. Whoops!!! Second year in teaching you are told you must upgrade your education level. So it's back to school in those do nothing summer vacation months and shuck out more of that huge salary for college classes etc to work on your masters if you have a dream of a higher yearly salary in a few years.
I detect a big difference in the two actual acounts, don't you????
Sounds like an apprentice doesn't really have it that bad after all. Now, can you tell me what the "paid my dues" comment you posted was really all about?
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Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote: That's funny I’ll call the Indiana Governor and let him know that they are now in theSouth!
You guys are way too funny
Don
You're all over the map.
Fist you state that companies are fleeing the US due to "EPA regs and other Federal BS"
Then you post stuff showing companies setting up shop in the US.
Which is it?
I'm corn-fused.
Either way, the construction of auto-related manufacturing in Michigan ("the north") is far less than what happening in other states ("the south" e.g. Alabama, South Caroline, etc.)
Honda is huge, no doubt. 10% of US auto production is due to Honda. But shuttered UAW plants in Michigan do not exactly show industry confidence in the way thigns were...look at how many other states are getting plants. And how many you're losing.
For better or worse, the UAW is having trouble claiming victories anywhere.
travelnutz wrote: Contrast that to a college student for a teaching degree. He earns NOTHING and is borrowing constantly from a student loan bank to pay for everything. 10's of thousands of dollars per year. 4 years of this is minimum for a degree and then one year of unpaid student teaching to qualify for a minimum teaching certificate. Now you can get a job teaching for the outlandish salary of maybe up to $45,000 a year and start paying on the $100,000 plus interest student loan now hanging around your neck. Whoops!!! Second year in teaching you are told you must upgrade your education level. So it's back to school in those do nothing summer vacation months and shuck out more of that huge salary for college classes etc to work on your masters if you have a dream of a higher yearly salary in a few years.
Not to hijack the post but add a couple of comments regarding the teacher stats...Education students, at least here in WA do not student teach for an entire year. The student teaching responsibility is only one term/semester. Starting salaries are 33,000 not 45.000. I am making the 45,000 after 34 years of teaching experience.
Resident tuition at Western Washington University is about $1700 per quarter which includes all the extra fees less books or special labs. Room and board is another issue!
FYI...Most teachers are contracted for 180-185 7.5 hr days per year. Some have Extended Contracts for special situations (library, FFA etc.) Most teachers work many hours above and beyond what they are paid for.
I do appreciate your support for professional educators! So many have ill feelings toward public schools and the mission they have been mandated.
Thanks for chiming in. I concur with your comments as to your requirements and particulars in Washington. You should know! Yes, an good teacher spends many more hours each week than required. Teachers don't punch a time card like hourly laborers do and their time card better not show an hour or two late in punching out as it sets off alarms as to why when you were not asked to work that overtime. SH, How can you live or exist in the Northwest with those low wages. We've been there several times and it's such an extremely expensive cost of living area compared to most of the rest of the country. Far higher than here!
The numbers and conditions I had cited in my post are ACTUAL in our area of West Michigan. Our grandson-in-law to be in June just completed his ONE year of student teaching after 4 years at a major university, has his teaching certificate, and has accepted a teaching position not far from here at $44,600. per year to start with an ___$ co-pay for his MESA insurance. His contract has a continuation of teacher education clause also. Basically, it ties the salary to the level of teacher education completion/Masters Degree. Granted we live in a well heeled area and teacher's wages are higher but our school board is also quite tough and demanding too. That may be part of the reason our test results are so far above the state average. We'd have it no other way!!!!
The 180 to 185 days of 7.5 hours minimum each day is (quite standard) for the actual school year with students in class. --- School year! There also is a clause in his contract requiring a minimum of one pre-year week of in-school teacher attendance for just to mention a few of the items, classroom setup/general meetings/and subject criteria etc review, etc. There's a 2 week post school year required teacher attendance for a whole list of various items. Perhaps, that's why the salary may be different also.
You sure cite cheap quarterly tuition's. His was far more than double that along with the very expensive books etc and then add the dorm cost R&B and the cost was closer to 20K a year just for the base and he thought it would nice to eat/do something occasionally/etc too. Clothes do wear out and need replacement etc. He had some good financial help but his roommates didn't and they are in deep debt for the 4 years and then the student teaching requirement! The dorm life etc is necessary when you're in school that's maybe a hundred or more miles from home. What a daily commute that would be and think of the travel expense that would be incurred!
No, I didn't sugar coat anything! They are actual facts.
Starting salaries in South Carolina are even less. 2004 starting salary was $27,883. I'm sure that's up a little in the last 3 years but probably not much more than the "cost of living" index.
Ya, and it seems your self-centered and arrogant....What,you too embarrassed to have a sig with your truck..??
trailrider325 wrote: to many people have smartened up and stopped buying gm junk
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