PLEASE READ! EVERYONE CAN HELP!

[©hris]

This only takes a few minutes.... www.gmfactorfiction.com .... click on "I'm a concerned citizen" ..... then follow the on-screen instructions....

I think this concerns all of us and we should be doing everything we can to make it happen....

As I am sure that you have heard, there is currently pending before Congress a request for aid to the automotive industry. It is important to note that what is being asked for is a loan, not a donation or hand-out. This request has been cast in various lights by different sources, but the truth of the matter is this: the failure of any or all of the “Big 3” US automotive manufacturers will have catastrophic effects on the US economy. 4% of the US Gross Domestic Product is generated by this industry and 1 in 10 jobs in the US are tied to the auto industry, whether though a manufacturer, a dealership or a supplier. All manufacturers would be devastated if the Big 3 cannot survive, as they all share common parts suppliers and those suppliers could not survive the loss of any of the Big 3.



One can argue about how these companies came to be in this position, but the fact is that the recent collapse of the US financial markets has pushed them to the brink and none of us can afford to let them go under. Again, the effects upon the entire economy would be devastating.



My request is simple: please contact your US Congressmen and Senators and ask them to support relief for the automotive industry. The manufacturer with which I am contracted has made it easy, and will literally take only minutes of your time. Just go to the website www.gmfactsandfiction.com and click on the “Concerned citizen” or other applicable tab. After filling out some basic information, the site will automatically generate a letter to your (as determined by your zip code) elected officials. Please note that some legislators require that you choose a category as to what type of request you are sending them. The menus vary, but “labor” or even “other” seem appropriate. Just point, click and send. It is that easy.

[civic95]

How about the unions do what airline workers did a few yrs ago, and agree to take a paycut to keep the company going. Or GM could build cars that people are interested in buying.

Last time I checked they wanted a piece of the bailout plan. Which is going to be funded by the tax payers in the long run. Either way they will be right back in the same situation in 6 months if they do not drastically change things. This is the only way the unions will go away. I say let them fail.

Checkout how costly unions are:


While there are no doubt many individual members of labor unions who feel they have benefited from collective bargaining, the overall evidence is overwhelming that labor unions in contemporary America have had harmful aggregate effects on the economy.



The economic cost of unions (determined by combining lost income and output over the period 1947 to 2000) exceeds $50 trillion, according to estimates by economists Richard K. Vedder and Lowell E. Gallaway.


Unionization lowers incomes for all, albeit more in the relatively higher income states that on average have higher levels of unionization.


A state with a 10 percent unionized work force can expect a 0.7 percent increase in its unemployment rate.


For each four additional workers who become unionized, one less person works.
In the final years of the 1990s, the decline in union density in the private sector has been sharp, adding to the vitality of the economy at the beginning of the new century. As a result, there has been renewed economic growth and a rising proportion of the working age population that actually works.




If unions succeed in wage hikes, and employers raise the prices they charge consumers to maintain their own profit margins, and the supply of money remains the same, then something else has to "give." Either the prices of goods and services in nonunion sectors have to fall and offset the union sector hikes, or people's cash balances need to fall, in terms of their purchasing power.