The United Auto Workers: Busted?

Re Mr. Obama paying attention to what is important: uh, does this make any sense to you?
Obama Invites Iranian Officials to 4th of July Parties
Obama administration authorizes U.S. embassies around the world to invite Iranian officials to Independence Day parties they host.
AP Tuesday, June 02, 2009
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -- In a new overture to Iran, the Obama administration has authorized U.S. embassies around the world to invite Iranian officials to Independence Day parties they host on or around July 4th.
A State Department cable sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates late last week said that U.S. diplomats could ask their Iranian counterparts to attend the festivities, which generally feature speeches about American values, fireworks, hot dogs and hamburgers.
The notice, sent on Friday, said that the posts "may invite representatives from the government of Iran" to the events, a State Department official said Tuesday, quoting from the document. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an internal communication.
It was not immediately clear how many embassies and consulates would actually invite Iranian diplomats to the July 4 parties or whether any Iranians would accept the invitations.
The cable was first reported by The New York Times.
The move comes amid the administration's ongoing efforts to engage Iran in variety of venues, including formal diplomatic meetings over its nuclear program, violence in Iraq and the situation in Afghanistan.
But Iran has given mixed responses to the overtures, which began early in the administration when President Barack Obama recorded a videotaped greeting to the Iranian people and its leaders for their new year.
Since then, the administration announced that it would be a full participant with Iranian officials in six-nation talks aimed at getting Iran to address concerns about its suspect nuclear program. The U.S. and others accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran maintains it is only interested in a civilian atomic energy program and has refused to accept a package of incentives offered by the U.S. and its partners to get it to stop enriching uranium, a process that can produce the fuel for a nuclear weapon.
The U.S. also ensured that Iran was invited and attended an international conference on Afghanistan at which U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke and an Iranian official had a brief exchange with a senior American diplomat.
During that meeting in The Hague, U.S. delegates passed an informal note to Iranian officials seeking information about three Americans then missing or detained in Iran.

We have to be fair on this one for sure. All of us must accept responsiblity

???Too big to fail,??? we said in our collective arrogance. Too much pain. Too many suppliers forced out of business, too many workers unemployed, too many pensioners struggling to survive on reduced benefits. All probably true, and all part of the economic logic that built this country. Brutal, yes, but when you see the pain that the Indians and Chinese are willing to bear in order to supplant us as world leaders, you may remember that it???s a price our ancestors bore when America was ascendant.
The truth is that as a nation, we???re no longer ???up to it,??? the ???it??? being the costs associated with world leadership. We, GM and America have entered our dotage. Obama isn???t the problem, he???s just a symptom. (And to demonstrate how non-partisan this is, remember that it was Republican Bush ???43 and his trusty sidekick ???Help U.S.??? Hank Paulson who argued for Detroit???s first $25 billion as well as $700 billion in TARP funds. It was at that very moment that Old America was declared dead and gone by its elites. All Obama has done is turn up the volume on the same song.)
As a collective group we elected Obama to stop the pain. By making General Motors in effect a new department of the federal government, Obama, by deferring the pain to the Chinese government???s willingness to buy our bonds, has only done what some predicted and others turned their euphoric heads to--- America???s decline???it???s only a secret inside this country.

Incompetent greedy & deceitful execs, overpaid workers-rediculous union benefits, too many models, low quality cars couldn't keep up with Japanese quality, and let's not forget too many perks for the execs who are just as corrupt as politicians.

I have seen the enemey and it is us...

An independent study of economists earlier in the spring estimated that GM's labor costs were roughly$76 per hour when taking into consideration salary, wages and benefits as opposed to Toyota's $46 per hour. Enough said.

If this article describing whats going on isn't describing communism's arrival in America, and if Newsweek isn't Pravda, then there is no God.
Just who in their right mind is ever going to buy a car from a GM that is going to make cars that have to be made of cardboard (to meet the mileage requirements) and powered by the wind (because all the earths oil will b and costing more than a Lexus (the meet all the environmental, safety and politically correct rules). And we're supposed to want the cars they build. Will all the Secret Service agents and Senators and Congressmen give up their Suburbans, will all the Police Departments now be driving hybrid subcompacts, Taxi/Limo drivers have electric cars.... but giving the people what they want is no longer valid in this new age of Government Motors. We will buy what they make and like it, so says the new owner of GM.

Glad to see that the UAW and all the union workers out there are finally geting what they deserve. Unions love to make sure under qualified and under educated people make much more than a fair wage for what they contribute while the people who actually do contribute are screwed. When they guy who tightens a bolt on a vehicle makes as much or more than the guy who designed the vehicle there is a problem. I just wish all unions would get theres like the UAW. When I see a union worker the only thing I can help but think is worthless. I would sooner buy chinese than buy something made by a union here in america.

Hindsight being 20/20..... what the automakers should have done years ago is what reagan did to the Air traffic Controllers, FIRE THEM!!! IF.... they had only busted the union they would be in business today

WOW - how many of you would do the following? If you owned a company and hired me at 18 and I worked for you for 30 years (I would now be 48). You paid me for those 30 years - correct?? Then how many of you would be happy paying me a pension and healthcare benefits until I die? That would be at least another 30 years - and I didn't have to do a single function of work for you for those last 30 years. Great business model isn't it???

WOW - how many of you would do the following? If you owned a company and hired me at 18 and I worked for you for 30 years (I would now be 48). You paid me for those 30 years - correct?? Then how many of you would be happy paying me a pension and healthcare benefits until I die? That would be at least another 30 years - and I didn't have to do a single function of work for you for those last 30 years. Great business model isn't it???

Goodbye UAW...and good riddance. These crooked, business busting, crime-rid organizations have long ago served their original purpose. Society has changed. And so too should the notion of $65K unskilled labor jobs. So long!

Let's see if I have this right. The UAW had agreed not to strike against the UAW until 2015. Are they really that stupid? Well, yeah. Probably.