United Auto Workers voted for strike authorization.

Conditions are 46% increase in weekly pay, 32 hour weeks and a return of pensions. Companies say no, Ford, GM and Stellantis plants shutdown. Demands are based on the increases to pay and reduction of hours the executives are receiving.

14th is strike day if no deal with reached, and will cost companies 100 million dollars a day. They can afford to strike for three months if they strike against all three, or nine months if they target only one of the three.

Canadian auto workers will also be striking against Ford it appears.

Sept 4, 2023 23:30:33 GMT c said:

United Auto Workers voted for strike authorization.

Conditions are 46% increase in weekly pay, 32 hour weeks and a return of pensions. Companies say no, Ford, GM and Stellantis plants shutdown. Demands are based on the increases to pay and reduction of hours the executives are receiving.

14th is strike day if no deal with reached, and will cost companies 100 million dollars a day. They can afford to strike for three months if they strike against all three, or nine months if they target only one of the three.

Canadian auto workers will also be striking against Ford it appears.

I don't blame unions for advocating for their workers, but they are some of the most stupid and narrow-minded people alive.
We went through this in Australia, the final wash up was a complete closing down of the entire auto industry here.
That's probably not going to happen in the USA, but it is strange that unions never engage economists to find out how much people are willing to pay for a car and what portion of that money can be allocated to the workers while the company still delivers a profit to shareholders.
Instead union's make idiotic claims and are shocked when people buy imported cars instead.

I saw an interview with someone a few years ago... I think it was Toyota, he said that wages were similar in Australia and Japan and that the plant layouts were the same yet Japanese plants produced twice as many cars.
He asked on that basis why anyone would continue with manufacturing in that country? It is a valid question, Japan is hardly a third world economy.
When the auto makers here said they wanted all future pay rises to be performance based the unions fought it until the auto industry closed down entirely.
I don't believe that unions have the best interests of their workers at heart.

People been saying this for 100 years now, since Ford himself was alive. And the answer is always the same, they are free to leave the US and manufacture overseas but they lose things. First, the made in America branding. Second the tax breaks and incentives that come with American manufacturing.

If it was more profitable for them to leave, they would have already. The big three remain because the second they move their truck and SUV brands die. Rural America not gonna buy a Chinese truck and red state Americans do not want Chinese SUVs. Their luxury brands, bringing in the most profit for them, would die overnight if had to remove the America Made branding. Also why non big three Trucks and SUVs do not sell in the US right now, and why the Cybertruck is destined to fail.

Sept 5, 2023 3:48:43 GMT c said:

People been saying this for 100 years now, since Ford himself was alive. And the answer is always the same, they are free to leave the US and manufacture overseas but they lose things. First, the made in America branding. Second the tax breaks and incentives that come with American manufacturing.

If it was more profitable for them to leave, they would have already. The big three remain because the second they move their truck and SUV brands die. Rural America not gonna buy a Chinese truck and red state Americans do not want Chinese SUVs. Their luxury brands, bringing in the most profit for them, would die overnight if had to remove the America Made branding. Also why non big three Trucks and SUVs do not sell in the US right now, and why the Cybertruck is destined to fail.

You say this as if the US Automotive industry hadn't already crashed and been bailed out by the government once already.

You say this as if America has made a decent car in the last 20 years.

Made in America is about being made in America, has nothing to do with quality.

And again, if the American companies do not want to make cars in America they are free to leave. The union members overwhelming voted for a strike if their wages were not increased and pensions were not raised so not sure how the union is fucking them over. If they were happy, they would have voted against a strike for these benefits.

Still a workers market right now. And these are tradesmen now striking, so not easy to replace.

Main company being targeting, Ford, also never took a bailout in the autocrash.  But as I been saying for years, without corporate welfare most US companies would start to have serious problems operating.

Sept 5, 2023 7:03:52 GMT c said:

 But as I been saying for years, without corporate welfare most US companies would start to have serious problems operating.

Do you understand why that is?
The reason is simply that a nation cannot demand high wages and low prices at the same time.

Then let them leave. Most of the first world pays their workers more than the average American.

But not gonna be able to sell something based on Made in America branding, that is made overseas.

Sept 5, 2023 7:57:53 GMT c said:

Then let them leave. Most of the first world pays their workers more than the average American.

But not gonna be able to sell something based on Made in America branding, that is made overseas.

Yes they do... And for many of them they don't have a manufacturing industry to speak of.

Australia has been experiencing a 6-12+ wait for new cars. Ie, you pay for the vehicle and wait.. and continue to wait, then they change the delivery date, and then eventually someone cancels their order, and it happens to be the same spec and you get it early. But really you paid for it 6 months ago...

You don't want that. And you don't want the inflated prices that come with it. Since when does a Toyota Hilux cost $75,000?

And you're probably looking at say, the top 25 selling cars in The United States for example and thinking, well, outside of a handful of Fords, Rams and Chevys everything is Japanese or Korean. But they're produced in the United States also.

So you can lose the car industry, but you kill a massive industry, and the parts industry that revolves around it and both likely destabilise the local economies around it.

Unions can do good. But when they choose to do other things, they are lethal. Milking towns were reduced to ghost towns due to industry being killed off by excessive entitlements, as were fruit manufacturers. Ardmona being a classic example... an extra 50c a hour, because cans don't have labels on them.. the so-called " shiny cans " tax on top of 30 different entitlements. My clothes or boots got wet, that's a another $1 a hour. And fruit packers picnics? You kidding me? There's no picnic, it's a random paid day off.

Sept 5, 2023 7:57:53 GMT c said:

Then let them leave. Most of the first world pays their workers more than the average American.

But not gonna be able to sell something based on Made in America branding, that is made overseas.

How much of the 'American' car is made IN America? I guarantee you lots of the cable and widgets are not, so it's already NOT 'Made in America' unless instead of China their factory is in Mexico or South America, but likely not.  That's why when you buy a new car right now you are waiting 6 months +.  I could go on about fuses for an hour.  

For the big three, the country where the majority of the parts are made is actually America. The Made in America label on cars is a legally defined term and percentage of domestic is listed on the Monroney label, and listed on the Department of Transportation site. Only Canadian parts are allowed to also be considered American, Mexican ones are not. Rest of the parts would be Mexico as NAFTA allows free importation.

Watchdog groups constantly check as well, and send demand letters, keeping this all in check as the car companies do not want to go to court over mislabeling. Ford F-150 Lightning and Tesla Model Y's are among the current cars that have demand letters and possible lawsuits coming. Not really gonna matter for Tesla stuff as rural America already considers all of his cars Chinese socialist nonsense, but the F-150 Lightning it will hurt bad if they cannot advertise made in America.

///

WBD reported half a billion in costs from the Hollywood strike, and plan for a much higher loss next quarter if the strike does not end. Total cost is an estimated 5 billion so far.

Studios still believe they will crush the strikers any day now by just waiting them out. Strikes say the strike was pointless if they just return now.

Broadcast TV moving to reality shows, game shows and talent shows for primetime for the Fall. Reruns will be mixed in to pad out things. Believed this will push a significant amount of people to canceling cable and moving to ad supported free TV streams on apps as more and more become familiar with devices like the Roku.

Sept 5, 2023 20:14:32 GMT iron maiden said:

Sept 5, 2023 7:57:53 GMT c said:

Then let them leave. Most of the first world pays their workers more than the average American.

But not gonna be able to sell something based on Made in America branding, that is made overseas.

How much of the 'American' car is made IN America? I guarantee you lots of the cable and widgets are not, so it's already NOT 'Made in America' unless instead of China their factory is in Mexico or South America, but likely not.  That's why when you buy a new car right now you are waiting 6 months +.  I could go on about fuses for an hour.  

I agree with you completely, I think it only has to be 60% US made to be classed as made in America.
It is hard to see the actual details, but I found this site: kogod.american.edu/autoindex/2021

The numbers they mention include labor, profit and R&D so the amount of manufactured components imported are likely higher when measured against only the total component cost.
It is also a question of how they determine what 60% is, a measure of dollar value or number of components? Different answers either way.
Most electronics are imported

For American cars they would likely be made domestically. There is no reason to order foreign parts when they can be gotten for the same price domestically. US military machine uses Made in America so we have manufacturing all over still to supply these parts. To pad profit, each plant will take on one or two car companies and make parts.

The plant I did inventory at did electronic components for GM.

People kept forgetting how little most Americans make. People making parts here are making about the same that people making parts in China make. Do not need to move a factory to Mexico when labor is cheaper in Alabama or Mississippi. And in many places now can hire middle school kids to do the repetitive tasks of screwing together casings or housings, switch assembly or even arranging parts per stage and pay them subminimum wage.

Sept 5, 2023 22:54:31 GMT c said:

For American cars they would likely be made domestically. There is no reason to order foreign parts when they can be gotten for the same price domestically. US military machine uses Made in America so we have manufacturing all over still to supply these parts. To pad profit, each plant will take on one or two car companies and make parts.

The plant I did inventory at did electronic components for GM.

People kept forgetting how little most Americans make. People making parts here are making about the same that people making parts in China make. Do not need to move a factory to Mexico when labor is cheaper in Alabama or Mississippi. And in many places now can hire middle school kids to do the repetitive tasks of screwing together casings or housings, switch assembly or even arranging parts per stage and pay them subminimum wage.

I'm not saying the cars aren't made in the US, I'm saying many of the components aren't and iNCY's Stats back me up. 

I'd prefer we kept the work locally too- Canada has whored itself out to everyone- but the fact remains, as little as people make in Alabama, they make even less in Mexico, China, India, etc.  In US someone making $4 an hour is considered subminimum wage by a wide margin, but some people in Mexican factories are making $4 a WEEK. It's even less overseas. A penny saved is a penny earned. If it saves these companies $0.01 on a component (after landed costs) x 1,000,000 pcs that's $10,000 an order. Now to you and I, who tend to lean more on the Socialist side of things, we'd say 'that's peanuts to keep the work here', but to Mr. Big Wig who has a board and investors to answer to, it's a different story. If I'm saving 10K an order on these widgets that is just one part of a larger item, then there's a bigger picture at play. How many other parts that a vehicle, valve, computer is made of saves me by taking it overseas? It's all about the dolla dolla bill yo. 

There's a lot of things at my job I can see coming before others do (or call months ahead of it happening), because I say 'if I was the boss/owner what would I do'. I may not like the decision(s), but I understand it because USUALLY it makes the most fiscal sense. 

Culinary Union in Vegas about to strike due to automation replacing workers. Will shutdown most major eateries in the city if it happens.

Most parts are not made in the US, as most cars are not made in America, but for the subset of cars that people do care about having the Made in America label, they are. For domestic cars you can usually get the parts from American manufacturers which is why mechanics suggest you buy American as they are cheaper and faster to repair. Also funky international stuff going on right now related to right to repair and repair locks being added.

After mandating return to work, Grindr lost 70 percent of the engineering team, 80 percent of the product department and 85 percent of the product design team. Estimated that 46% of the company, 82 employees, opted to not return to work and just work elsewhere.

Those who remain are unsure that the site will continue to function without the engineering team being replaced.

Sept 8, 2023 0:11:10 GMT c said:

Those who remain are unsure that the site will continue to function without the engineering team being replaced.

That sounds familiar 😄

I have really missed the whole drawing on graphs part of my posting schtick:



It looks like the job market is starting to level out, hopefully this is the soft landing everyone has been hoping for and not something more.
The White House has been mitigating the price of oil by supplying from their reserves, but those are tapped out and the price of oil is starting to rise.
Hopefully that doesn't translate through to an inflation bump.

This next month we find out I think, soft landing or crash and burn style recession.

Not sure this really fits in here, but the “Jimmy Fallon is frequently in a bad mood and it effects my mental health” story from Rolling Stone really gave me some troubles today. So many generic expressions like “belittled” and “bullied”, so few actual examples that are actually problematic. I think I’m a fairly well-liked boss, but I have no problem believing this kind of hit piece could be written about me. Things like “Some days he was in a bad mood so you would know to keep your head down and stay focused on your work or he might confront you” could be written about every boss I’ve ever had.

Kids today are soft. I know that every generation says it, but all that means to me that kids tomorrow will be even softer. I had one of my better employees the other day tell me about how if he has a cold he’s not coming to work and doesn’t care if that means work won’t be done. A cold. I’m all for taking care of yourself, but it’s a whole new world from my expectations for myself even as an older millennial.

Sept 8, 2023 4:59:28 GMT mikec said:

Not sure this really fits in here, but the “Jimmy Fallon is frequently in a bad mood and it effects my mental health” story from Rolling Stone really gave me some troubles today. So many generic expressions like “belittled” and “bullied”, so few actual examples that are actually problematic. I think I’m a fairly well-liked boss, but I have no problem believing this kind of hit piece could be written about me. Things like “Some days he was in a bad mood so you would know to keep your head down and stay focused on your work or he might confront you” could be written about every boss I’ve ever had.

Kids today are soft. I know that every generation says it, but all that means to me that kids tomorrow will be even softer. I had one of my better employees the other day tell me about how if he has a cold he’s not coming to work and doesn’t care if that means work won’t be done. A cold. I’m all for taking care of yourself, but it’s a whole new world from my expectations for myself even as an older millennial.

Was not coming in because of illness framed in a self-centered way or was it more for the well-being of the office. I wouldn’t go in if I was sick because I didn’t want to get others sick. Me losing one or two days was better for the company that me getting multiple people sick and them being out.

Sept 8, 2023 0:55:12 GMT iNCY said:

Sept 8, 2023 0:11:10 GMT c said:

Those who remain are unsure that the site will continue to function without the engineering team being replaced.

That sounds familiar 😄

I recently interviewed an engineer that works one of the large, well-known dating sites that has been around for many years. I learned it has a 15 person engineering team and is basically held together by baling wire and needs constant manual intervention to keep it running. A lot of successful web businesses are shitily made.

Sept 8, 2023 4:59:28 GMT mikec said:

Not sure this really fits in here, but the “Jimmy Fallon is frequently in a bad mood and it effects my mental health” story from Rolling Stone really gave me some troubles today. So many generic expressions like “belittled” and “bullied”, so few actual examples that are actually problematic. I think I’m a fairly well-liked boss, but I have no problem believing this kind of hit piece could be written about me. Things like “Some days he was in a bad mood so you would know to keep your head down and stay focused on your work or he might confront you” could be written about every boss I’ve ever had.

Kids today are soft. I know that every generation says it, but all that means to me that kids tomorrow will be even softer. I had one of my better employees the other day tell me about how if he has a cold he’s not coming to work and doesn’t care if that means work won’t be done. A cold. I’m all for taking care of yourself, but it’s a whole new world from my expectations for myself even as an older millennial.

This. 

" Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times." 

Sept 8, 2023 4:59:28 GMT mikec said:

Not sure this really fits in here, but the “Jimmy Fallon is frequently in a bad mood and it effects my mental health” story from Rolling Stone really gave me some troubles today. So many generic expressions like “belittled” and “bullied”, so few actual examples that are actually problematic. I think I’m a fairly well-liked boss, but I have no problem believing this kind of hit piece could be written about me. Things like “Some days he was in a bad mood so you would know to keep your head down and stay focused on your work or he might confront you” could be written about every boss I’ve ever had.

Kids today are soft. I know that every generation says it, but all that means to me that kids tomorrow will be even softer. I had one of my better employees the other day tell me about how if he has a cold he’s not coming to work and doesn’t care if that means work won’t be done. A cold. I’m all for taking care of yourself, but it’s a whole new world from my expectations for myself even as an older millennial.

💯 though Fallon gives off those Ellen vibes, the I don't care about the little people type of thing.

Most big celebrities are going to be narsicistic assholes though, I expect it's why most want to be famous.

Sept 8, 2023 5:33:45 GMT Gyro LC said:

Sept 8, 2023 4:59:28 GMT mikec said:

Not sure this really fits in here, but the “Jimmy Fallon is frequently in a bad mood and it effects my mental health” story from Rolling Stone really gave me some troubles today. So many generic expressions like “belittled” and “bullied”, so few actual examples that are actually problematic. I think I’m a fairly well-liked boss, but I have no problem believing this kind of hit piece could be written about me. Things like “Some days he was in a bad mood so you would know to keep your head down and stay focused on your work or he might confront you” could be written about every boss I’ve ever had.

Kids today are soft. I know that every generation says it, but all that means to me that kids tomorrow will be even softer. I had one of my better employees the other day tell me about how if he has a cold he’s not coming to work and doesn’t care if that means work won’t be done. A cold. I’m all for taking care of yourself, but it’s a whole new world from my expectations for myself even as an older millennial.

Was not coming in because of illness framed in a self-centered way or was it more for the well-being of the office. I wouldn’t go in if I was sick because I didn’t want to get others sick. Me losing one or two days was better for the company that me getting multiple people sick and them being out.

It was definitely framed from his point of view. He was talking about someone who had come in with a cold because she had assignments to complete and he was like “nope the work will just have to get done without me”

UAW is on strike, and teamsters will show solidarity and are refusing to ship any cars from the big three. All three car manufacturers are targeted but only selected plants, that will vary overtime.  All three automakers already have spoken to the White House about getting government aid.

SEIU-UHW unions just authorized a strike for Kaiser Permanente health at end of the month. Effects about 85k healthcare workers in seven states.

Marijuana rescheduling will now protect your right to use marijuana at your job if you got a weed card. Would get ADA protections, regardless of your job demands, and hit federally which will overrule state and town laws. DEA advised congress they will have to change laws if they do not want this to be the case. So if you are armed security, totally cool to be high on the job with a loaded weapon.

Weed is my religion, when I smoke it I feel a supernatural connection to Jesus, a white one. How can anyone deny me of that?

Sept 15, 2023 11:06:57 GMT c said:

UAW is on strike, and teamsters will show solidarity and are refusing to ship any cars from the big three. All three car manufacturers are targeted but only selected plants, that will vary overtime.  All three automakers already have spoken to the White House about getting government aid.

SEIU-UHW unions just authorized a strike for Kaiser Permanente health at end of the month. Effects about 85k healthcare workers in seven states.

At least their claims are reasonable....
46% pay rise
32hr work week

😄

Size of strike this week is 13k. Political world said they are on their own and that the automanufacters should pay up.

Because of the way the supply line works some plants that are no striking the automakers will have to shut down themselves, and pay the workers, because there will be no parts coming.