ellives

It's time to throw the gauntlet down with the UAW. GM should de-unionize their plants quietly one by one. Unions are a thing of the past. The UAW must die as a useless relic of the past.

The brand count issue is debatable (clearly Toyota is successful with a lot less) and having less brands allows you to focus and nurture the ones that remain. To me LaNeve's comments raise what is more important: what brands can be saved and what do they stand for? This all goes to market perception. Clearly Saab hasn't been marketed with a particular pitch in mind (other than the company was founded by aerospace engineers. Who cares about that?) Many of the GM brands have been damaged and I'm not convinced they can be repaired in time. Buick can't because only old people drive them and they'll evenutally die off and Pontiac less so but their issue is all about product (if you buy the theme that "Pontiac is excitement.") Other than the Solstice (which people aren't familiar with) what product do they have? A Torrent? How is a mini-van "excitement?" I fear the "death by a thousand cuts" that has been bandied about a lot. Being in the hi-tech business for so long I've see it lots of times. DEC comes immediately to mind. Management would rather make minor recipe changes than the wholesale restructuring required to save the ship from sinking. The problem becomes one of "avoiding the stench of death." The quality employees flee to other companies in fear of losing their jobs, leaving behind the less capable and less desirable employees. The quality customers flee to other companies for fear of losing their warranty cover and ability to resell the product. Don't forget how dealers sold against Oldsmobile: "They're going out of business and you won't be able to an Olds serviced so you should buy my product."

This one seemed quite fair compared to the "Booth" article. That one was pure rubbish... which coincidentally matched the reputation of the Independent.

Agreed - That newsmax.com article makes no references where the information came from and buickman clearly has an agenda.

Huh? The discussion was about Civics? Accords and Camrys aren't considered "lowest rung" cars these days. In fact Camrys and more particularly the current Avalon remind me amazingly of Buicks. Strange times we live in when Buick can't sell Buicks but Toyota can.

Interesting quote "So you would rather live in a world that controls you, telling you what you are worth. With your bosses telling you what you can do to succeed, etc? " If you don't want to be "controlled" I suggest you start your own company. Being part of a union isn't going to stop this situation. "Telling you what you are worth?" To me this is just part of life in corporate America, union or not. I have always had a problem with the fact when an employee is hired, he's then on a pretty consistent march at 3% a year raises unless he's fortunate enough to get a "promotion" which basically amounts to a bullshit title change and a little more money that those around you. It's been this way with every company I've every worked for. The problem comes down to the fact that being an employee of any kind means the company owns you. It's like being in business for yourself but having only one customer which puts you at the mercy of the company's every whim. Again, not sure how you're going to change this without starting your own business and developing more customers. NWA's union issues come down to the fact that there is a supply and demand effect with labor. Apparently the labor supply is above demand so they can afford to pay less by using non-union labor. I don't see anything wrong with this. The airlines are in the same situation. Their product is really a commodity and price drives revenue. I've never liked unions. My dad was a railroad union guy. They were all about getting everything they could out of the company. Every union person I've ever met was the same way. My brother works for a city union today and they are the laziest people I've ever seen. Unfortunately without a market to force the city to worry about labor costs nothing will ever be done about these people. They should be put out on the street but the union will protect them. This is good for America?

Uh no. Not so much. Desperate for what? To burn our gas to tow YOUR POS? Some people forget there are actually companies that CARE about customer service. I had voicemail the other day from a customer bitching about how long he had to wait in our FREE tech support line. He rambled on for 5 minutes about why we shouldn't treat people that way, blah blah blah and stating he was going to go out and buy a competitor's product. Of course the idiot didn't leave his number LIKE HE WAS ASKED TO DO. He just wanted to whine. We grabbed the guy's number and called him back the next day. Turns out he wasn't in the market for new equipment. He wanted to know how to hook up a competitor's piece of equipment to a piece of ours. Not in the market for anything new as he implied (lying POS.) He was shocked we called him back since he was quite aware he hadn't left his number. (Dumbass.) The point is there ARE many companies that do care about customer service and in our case we often take calls from people who ask us questions about competitor's products because they can't get through to the competitor's tech support line. Go figure. Hopefully they buy our products the next time they buy. Hopefully the guy's daughter with the Honda will consider Saturn next time.

The UAW needs to wake up. The old days are gone and the golden goose died. It's time GM told them to go screw and hires non-union labor. This is do or die time. The absolute nerve they have ordering a "financial review." What is there to review? As I've said before, the UAW better get themselves into the other manufacturer's North America plants or get the hell out of GM. You can't have it both ways.