UAW Strikes While Rome Burns

The UAW went on strike today to try and get job security. How can they demand job security when American car companies are being gutted? They should be pressuring management to build better cars since that is the only thing that will help them in the end.

The UAW went on strike today at General Motors. I feel deeply for the families and hope that it is resolved soon. But at the same time I can't help feeling it is much too late and over the wrong things. The union should be protesting the company's overall strategy and the quality of the cars it has delivered to the American customer over the last 30 years.

I remember in the 1980s looking at GM cars and wondering what they were thinking. A Cadillac that looked exactly like a Chevrolate but that cost $20,000 more? Come on.

To some degree GM never recovered from those bean counting days and it is still paying the price. Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, BMW have all done well at its expense.

I keep waiting for GM to wake up and realize that only high quality, affordable cars are going to make a difference. Cadillac has gotten a bit better it seems, and they seem to have some popular cross-over vehicles. But how can you take a car company seriously that still sells the horrendously ugly Grand Prix?

And how can I feel any sympathy for a company that built bigger and bigger gas hogs while the Japanese concentrated on both gas hogging SUVs and small fuel efficient hybrids. It always seems that Toyota and the foreign companies are two steps ahead.

I hope the strike is resolved but I really don't see a bright future for GM - or Ford and Chrysler for that matter. American car companies can't seem to build cars anymore.

It's a shame and it will impact a lot of people.

Sol Nasisi
Sol Nasisi: Sol Nasisi is the co-founder and a past president of BestCashCow, an online resource for comprehensive bank rate information. In this capacity, he closely followed rate trends for all savings-related and loan products and the impact of rate fluctuations on the economy. He specifically focused on how rates impact consumers' ability to borrow and save. He also has authored a wee

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Comments

  • Jerry Green

    September 26, 2007

    I agree with you completely. The collapse of the big 3 isn't new. These guys were behind the 8-ball 30 years ago and they have only fallen further and further back.

  • Brian

    October 01, 2007

    Labor costs are a big reason the Big 3 are behind. That and foreign government prop up their domestic auto industries. Toyota builds cars for volume, not for profit and can get away with it because of a system that protects their home market and ensures a certain level of profit. They can afford to take an initial bath on hybrids, etc.

    The real question is whether car manufacturing is even a profitable industry anymore or is better left to developing countries. Other than for defense issues, a rich industrialized nation probablyh doesn't add enough value.

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