Gimme More

Ok, this is my opinion.

I've lived in communities where GM and Ford were major employers for a long time. These people get paid very well, for unskilled labor. The local GM plant is closing and I feel bad that people are loosing their jobs. But.... the general feeling by many is... it's hard to feel sorry for them.

I know there are people that went in there and gave their all every day but there are a lot of stories from workers bragging about being lazy on the job. Stories of people clocking in then finding a box to take a nap on and sleeping most of their shift. That's napping at $25-$30/ hour. A friend's grandfather retired from there. The grandfather died and GM paid for the funeral, paid for the attorney to settle his estate and the wife still uses his medical policy because it's better than the one she had as a retired nurse. They had a 20 and out policy. So you only had to work 20 years then you could retire with most of your pay and awesome benefits.

I know of a family where 1 family member worked for Ford and they were given a computer for each member of the family and classes at the local college to learn how to use them.

Just about everything that would come up the auto companies had covered. It was a good place to work for a long time, people took advantage and also had a sense of entitlement. If your Dad worked there you were almost guaranteed a job. The local news keeps showing a video of an assembly line and one of the workers is on the cell phone! NOW, if you were at work and a news crew showed up wouldn't you turn off your phone!?

They made a lot of good money for a long time. New vehicles, big homes the works. On no education. The union demands grew and grew. It was near impossible to loose your job. The union helps the people who don't do their job and don't show up but the people who show up and do what they're supposed to get nothing. They need nothing they do what they're supposed to and most of what the slackers aren't doing. It's all so aggravating. Isn't sleeping at work like steeling from the company! It should be automatic firing, but UAW backs them up and keeps their job and after 20 years of slacking they can retire and get a large amount of their pay and keep benefits. What company WOULDN'T go bankrupt?

They can blame Bush, Obama the stock market. But it's a lot closer to home. It's a loss of management, a loss of being able to make people do their jobs. It's a loss of pride in your job and a job well done. It's sad...