Janesville Plant Workers Poke Taxpayers In the Eye

Gee… remember when the taxpayers of Wisconsin ponied up their hard earned money to keep the GM plant in Janesville open and secure the workers’ jobs?

General Motors Corp. will spend $175 million to upgrade its Janesville truck and sport utility vehicle assembly plant to prepare the factory to take on new vehicles, it was announced Wednesday.

The investment secures future SUV and truck production and jobs for 3,900 employees. The Janesville plant makes versions of the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban and GMC Yukon and Yukon XL. It produced nearly 258,000 vehicles last year.

The Detroit-based automaker plans to renovate the plant and retool the body shop and general assembly areas in preparation for the new vehicles. Renovations will begin this year. GM will announce specific product information and timing on new vehicle production at a later date.

Recent news reports speculated that GM plans to produce the next generation of SUVs at the plant. New vehicles could include hybrid gas-electric models, according to reports.

The state of Wisconsin is providing GM with an incentive package valued at $5 million. The package includes: a $2 million grant from the Department of Commerce, a $1 million grant from the Department of Workforce Development, a $1 million grant from the Department of Administration to help with the acquisition of new energy-efficient technology, and a $1 million grant from the Wisconsin Technical College System to provide training to workers.

Governor Jim Doyle touted the need to invest in state workers to ensure that jobs remain in Wisconsin.

And how do those workers thank us?  By walking off the job.  Nice job, folks.  When GM has to close that plant because their business is damaged by this strike, I don’t want to hear any of these “workers” crying for more help. 

1. Jesus, what’s the big deal with you and GM workers?  Their contract is between them and GM.  If the two parties don’t want to settle, that’s their business.   

   As far as grants go, I oppose all such grants, but the grants are not to GM workers and they are hardly within the control of those on strike.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1119 hrs




2. Here’s a clue, BVBigBro.  Suppliers to GM will have to shut down, truckers who drive the cars to dealerships may go bankrupt, dealerships may have to lay off workers.  Many of htese people will have to go unemployment and collect food stamps or whatever they are called now.  These strikers are selfish pin heads.  They only care about themselves and they don’t care about the consequences of their actions.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1140 hrs




3. Dan, is GM’s management a bunch of selfish pinheads?  They could end the strike too.

   Second, your argument can be made about anyone quitting a job ever.  Am I being selfish if I quit my job and put the local Qwik E Mart employee at risk because I now don’t buy a cup of coffee every morning?  GM’s workers need to look out for themselves.  No one else is going to do it for them.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1210 hrs




4. Don’t forget that the federal gov’t paid to reconstruct the runway at the local airport for GM.  They fly in the component parts and needed a bigger runway so the feds bought it for them so that the Janesville plant would not be closed (there was a competing plant with access to an already suitable airport).

   http://www.house.gov/ryan/press_releases/2001pressre leases/FEDERALFUNDINGTOGOTOROCKCOUNTYAIRPORTRUNWAY.html

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1217 hrs




5. Second, your argument can be made about anyone quitting a job ever.  Am I being selfish if I quit my job and put the local Qwik E Mart employee at risk because I now don’t buy a cup of coffee every morning?

   Hardly an applicable comparison considering the effect of you as an individual vs. a union as a group of thousands and thousands.

   GM’s workers need to look out for themselves.  No one else is going to do it for them.

   No, that’s what the union is for. 

   If union employees looked out for themselves (like the millions upon millions of other employees do every day of the year in non-union private sector jobs) we wouldn’t have this problem of mass strikes.

   If GM goes bankrupt because they can’t afford their cost of labor (which includes huge costs for retirees) competing against Toyota then what did the union accomplish?

   I heard a dumb-ass union guy on the news last night outside the janesville plant say “manufacturing jobs have been leaving for the last 20 years, and its time to take a stand”

   Does he REALLY think striking is going to save manufacturing jobs in the U.S.  What an idiot.

   Isn’t that just like an uninformed union laborer.  Claims to be concerned about manufacturing jobs while clinging to a union and a union pay structure that is one of the BIG reasons why manufacturing jobs leave. 

   Newsflash union workers:  Change happens!  The unions unwillingness to change and adapt fosters the demise of the jobs they are supposedly trying to protect.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1222 hrs




6. GM employees get to determine what their interest is.  No one else can determine it for them. 

   GM’s biggest problem is that they are a large company that has consistently underestimated the competition and misread the consumer, thus their loss of market share.

   Unions have lost market share for precisely the same reasons.

   Both have resorted to the same strategy: whine to the government and try to bully the competetion.  Neither has been terribly successful.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1238 hrs




7. One benefit to the people of the Janesville area is if the strike goes for any amount of time boats, 4x4s, guns, fishing equipment, motorcycles etc will be put up for sale – cheap!

   Posted by Marcus Aurelius on September 25, 2007 at 1240 hrs




8. I don’t know what the problem is.  Healthy Wisconsin is going to come in and rescue GM.  How is that supposed to work with all the companies and unions that have insurance coverage via contracts?  Does it all get dropped and Doyle will decide?  No more strikes over health coverage.  Could be worth a look.  Now if only it aplied to WEAC and the state employees.
   As an aside, if it’s supposed to be as good as the state employees get, why aren’t they just moved over to the same program.  I can understand WEAC, they make too much money from supplying the coverage to bother, oh and it’s a much better plan.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1246 hrs




9. Healthy wisconsin would take over when union contracts expire.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1250 hrs




10. State assistance does not get doled out keep just any jobs, right?  State assistance to keep GM was to keep good jobs, with good pay and good benefits.

    So the questions are on what basis did the workers determine that the jobs, the pay, the benefits, aren’t keeping up?  Is this based on comparables in the industry, or in Janesville, or ?

    If the workers are wrong, they’ll be out of their jobs.  If the workers are correct, then it might just be GM management that isn’t living up to the invisible strings attached to what we gave ‘em.  So since it seems that we can’t tell now what the answers are to those questions, time will tell.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1417 hrs




11. Gotta love the haves telling the hav nots they are being selfish.  Absolutely AWESOME!

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1502 hrs




12. Owen- you should be upset with the management walking away from the table after they took all that tax money.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 25, 2007 at 1540 hrs




13. Dan, there’s a ripple effect Nation wide whith this strike. Now, all the carriers that haul auto parts will be scrambling to find other frieght. That means some other driver will lose miles/money because of the addition of trucks that normally haul auto parts. Trust me, we drivers make quite a bit less than auto workers. I don’t begrudge them their wages, but they’re shooting themselves in the foot. In case you hadn’t guessed, I don’t like unions.

    Posted by Billiam on September 25, 2007 at 1627 hrs




14. Owen, what tactic would you suggest to even the playing field between owners and workers?  Surely you don’t suggest the field is even already!  Open market theory makes assumption that are not necessarily born out in practicality (unbounded rationality and willpower come to mind), and unions serve as a correction for those inequalities.

    Of course union action is far from perfect, and often very near to laughable, but knee-jerk aspersions simply because unions are “liberal” ignores the normalizing function they play in a free market economy.

    Spice

    p.s. and who did those subsidies really benefit most - owner or worker?

    Posted by jim spice on September 25, 2007 at 1638 hrs




15. I don’t know what the Janesville Local 95 of the UAW vote was, but the strike is a national one. Janesville has under 4,000 of the 73,000 or so of the strikers.

    Many of my friends that work there seem to think the union is trying to show some bravado after being seen as wussified.  They didn’t vote to strike and we all hope it’s a short one.

    I still think it’s weird that our state representative is also the Local 95 president, Mike Sheridan.

    Posted by Steve Burri on September 25, 2007 at 1835 hrs




16. “what tactic would you suggest to even the playing field between owners and workers?”

    I suggest that if an auto worker doesn’t like his job or wages, he should go work for another car company.  If he doesn’t like that, he should learn to do something else.  If the auto companies can’t find workers, they will pay more and offer more benefits. 

    That’s how it works in the majority of the rest of the economy and those sectors are doing just fine.

    Posted by Owen on September 25, 2007 at 1938 hrs




17. With all due respect, Owen, I hope you have never asked or never intend to ask your employer for a raise without first securing a firm offer of employment from another company for a better compensation package than what you have now.  Because by your own logic, that would make you a hypocrite.  If you ever feel underpaid, you shouldn’t ask for more money.  You should just quit.  If you deserved the money, surely your employer would have given it to you already.  Because employers are always extra generous that way.  Always.

    Sure, there are a few other factors in play in this particular case.  For instance, you’d probably have a hard time getting your job back after going on “strike.”  But that’s a matter negotiated in this instance between the employer and the employees.  That all of these employees will get their jobs back when the strike concludes is part of what is established in the CBA between the union and GM.  You might hate collective bargaining, but for people in industries whose skills are highly specialized AND not terribly portable, it’s often the approach that makes the most sense.

    Were it that the world were as simple as you try to paint it here sometimes…

    Posted by Recess Supervisor on September 25, 2007 at 1955 hrs




18. If the auto companies can’t find workers, they will pay more and offer more benefits.

    Or, more accurately, even with a glut of available workers, if they can find cheaper labor elsewhere, they will outsource.  That is the rational choice in an unbridled free market.

    So can I assume those in opposition to unionized labor would be willing to publicly applaud outsourcing?  That’s asked sincerely; I honestly can’t predict what your reactions might be.

    Spice

    Posted by jim spice on September 26, 2007 at 0516 hrs




19. Jim, I’ll bite on that hook

    If it is outsourcing merely to supplant a worker shortage, then I will gladly applaud it.  Today’s outsourcing is merely a cost savings / greed tool.

    Take a look at the number of recalls from goods coming from China as an example.  The US companies save a lot of money doing what they do, simply because of the social differences between China and USA.  They don’t have the same standards and social framework that we do, and as such that’s why cost of labor is so much cheaper there.  That’s intolerable.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 26, 2007 at 1202 hrs




20. Hmm…been a couple of days…not much reaction (but thanks Jason).  I guess I will have to remain stumped on the question of the right and outsourcing.

    Spice

    Posted by jim spice on September 28, 2007 at 0507 hrs