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UAW: U.S. Cars on the Road to Success
Higher profits and new fuel-efficient models have put American-made cars back on the road again—with the help of taxpayers and the workers who have worked closely with the Big Three automakers to ensure their success.
In July, Ford posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit of $2.6 billion—some $1 billion more than analysts predicted—with promises of more earnings in 2011. Chrysler, which cut its net loss to $197 million from January through March, expects to announce its second-quarter earnings in mid-August. General Motor’s (GM’s) U.S. sales for June rose 11 percent from the year-ago period and the company is again building popular cars.
Says UAW President Bob King:
The commitment, sacrifices and hard work of the men and women at UAW-represented companies is an enormous part of the positive news coming from Ford, GM and Chrysler, where UAW members are producing best-in-class quality results and building vehicles that hands-down beat global competition.
Taxpayer investment in aiding GM and Chrysler is paying off: A July 25 analysis by the Detroit Free Press suggested taxpayers could get back about $74 billion of the $86 billion the federal government made available in 2008 and 2009 to save GM, Chrysler and Ally Financial.
The Obama administration made the right move in aiding GM and Chrysler, King says, adding that because the administration understands:
how vital auto manufacturing jobs are to every community in this country, these companies and UAW workers can and will continue to succeed.
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5 Comments
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But are those profits coming from cars made in Brazil & China, or those few remaining models made in U.S. ???
This article, several paragraphs excerpted below, from asocialist perspective is worth reading. Link to full article at bottom.
Demagogy and economic nationalism from Obama
The wage-cutter in chief visits Detroit
By Patrick Martin
31 July 2010
President Obama’s four-hour visit to Detroit Friday brought him to the center of the economic catastrophe created by the profit system. The “Motor City” was once a byword for decent-paying jobs in the world’s biggest industry. But Detroit is now synonymous with poverty, urban decay, mass unemployment and the virtual breakdown of a functioning society,
…
During his visit to Detroit, Obama made no comment on the mass suffering stretching for miles in every direction. Instead, he gave a 25-minute stump speech to the 1,100 workers on the day shift at the Chrysler plant, and a briefer address to the work force at the GM plant. He did not mention the city’s staggering unemployment rate—estimated at 50 percent or more. Nor did he utter the words “poverty,” “homelessness,” “hunger,” “foreclosure” or “eviction.”
Instead, he took the occasion of his visit to the poorest city in America to boast of the great success of his administration’s economic policies. A more cold-blooded, arrogant provocation against working people can scarcely be imagined.
Obama delivered his two speeches to audiences of auto workers who have borne the brunt of the restructuring of the industry dictated by the White House. Some 330,000 workers have lost auto-related jobs in the past two years, while tens of thousands of retired workers have lost health benefits and seen their pensions threatened.
…
Obama noted that 334,000 auto jobs were eliminated between June 2008 and June 2009, and claimed that 55,000 new auto jobs have been created since then. He did not point out, however, that the bulk of these new jobs pay wages that are barely above the poverty level. The White House intervention has had the effect of completing the transformation of auto production from a high-wage, high-benefit industry to one of brutal exploitation at sweatshop wages.
Obama continued, harking back to World War II: “It was workers just like you, right here in Detroit, who built an arsenal of democracy that propelled America to victory. It was workers like you that built this country into the greatest economic power the world has ever known; it was workers like you that manufactured a miracle that was uniquely American.”
The constant references to American greatness were somewhat strained, given that circumstances now prevailing in Detroit, and the US generally, hardly resemble a “miracle.”
The nationalist phrases were not only reactionary, but preposterous. The auto industry is entirely globalized, and giant corporations conduct their operations on a world scale, pitting workers in country after country against each other.
Obama spoke at one factory run by Chrysler—now owned by Fiat, with the Italian CEO at his side—and at another operated by GM, which has sold more cars this year in China than in the United States. GM has 32,000 workers in China, while its US hourly employment has fallen from 468,000 in 1979 to only 52,000 today.
These figures suggest the reality facing auto workers and the working class as a whole: the only way forward in the struggle against corporate downsizing, wage-cutting and the destruction of all rights on the shop floor is to unite the working class on an international basis.
It is impossible for American workers to fight the giant multinationals on their own, just as it is impossible for the workers in China, Europe or anywhere else to do so. Only by joining forces with their class brothers and sisters throughout the world, in a common struggle based on a socialist perspective, can working people defend their jobs, living standards and democratic rights. This is a political fight against the Obama administration, the Democratic Party, the two-party system and the capitalist ruling class whose interests they serve.
Read the full article here:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/auto-j31.shtml
This extremely well written article by Patrick Martin hits the nail directly on the head. It’s surprising anyone as intelligent as Barack Obama would try the smoke and mirrors approach to address the American people about the state of the economy. From 1979 we have lost nearly 90% of our U.S auto industry jobs. The remaining workers have absorbed pay cuts, benefit cuts and new hire wages at the poverty level. Great! isn’t it? We have to send a message to the leaders at Ford and GM and the only way they will listen is to hit them in the pocket book. Ford is producing the “new” Fiesta in 2011 made exclusively in MEXICO for export to the United States, don’t buy it! Ram pick up and Chevy Silverado made in Mexico, don’t buy them! The UAW no longer have the guts to tell you not to buy these foreign cars because the companies are supposedly “fragile” yet they produce a 2.6 billion dollar profit? Does anyone smell a big fish here?
There are still a few models left that are American made. Ford F150 in Kansas City Mo. Chevy Malibu, Cobalt etc. Read the VIN number on the fire wall. If it begins with 1 it’s American made, 2 is Canadian, 3 is Mexico J is Japan.
Many Union members would probably disagree with me but I’d rather see someone buy a Honda that was made in Ohio than a Ford Fiesta that was made in Mexico. Just because a car has a Chevy bow tie or Ford emblem it doesn’t mean its American by any means. In the words of our leader, “Yes we can!”
Where car is assembled is only 5% of the cost of the car. Domestic content is more important. Shame on any union employee who buys a foreign car no matter if it was assembled in USA. Double shame if it has come from another country. From 63 Chevrolet Biscayne to 2000 Ford Excursion, always GM, Ford, or Chrysler product in my driveway.
Inspector_8 I’m in agreement with you as far as buy American, buy Union. The question is, what do we do about the big three hiding behind the American flag while producing more and more models each year in Mexico and soon China and Korea?
Is it O.K. in your book to buy a Ford or Chevy built in Mexico that utilizes NO American labor built non-union just because it has a Ford emblem on it?
What can we as members do where the UAW is silent?