Detroit and it's emergency manager!!

[Hollis]

http://www.freep.com/article/2013031...303160079/This is very troublesome!! Can this really pass the bill of rights and constitutional muster?Overriding the voter and elected officials.Will Indiana-Ohio-Wisconsin. follow suit with like thinking Governors .Funny note, Orr had to pay his property liens and child support. lol

[balljoint]

Need to overide undeducated voters. good for them.

[Clayton_Wetter]

In a city ruined by big unions it's time to get away from that.

[Barbecueboy]

In a city ruined by big unions it's time to get away from that.

Agree 100000%...............

[Bubstr]

In a city ruined by big unions it's time to get away from that.

It's so easy to give away someone else's rights. What happens when they give your rights away?

Something don't make sense here. When the Unions where doing well, the city was doing well. It would be very liberal to believe that deregulation, that allowed a lot of local business to outsource from overseas decimated the tax base there, caused the problem. The fact is, all big business wants cheap and abundant labor and they don't want to pay the bill for it. It really looks like the lack of unions caused this problem.

[Barbecueboy]

I have a hard time understanding how certain union employees will walk around a pile of crap instead of picking it up or cleaning it up just because they have senority or it isn't part of there job......( this is just a hypothetical scenario ) .I dont really need a lecture, but someone please tell me how that is maximizing productivity and being efficient......In most lines of work , the most productivity comes from groups of people that act like a team.......everybody pitching in if need be.

[halfast07]

a lot of the blame goes to a generation of bad management. But the main reason for Detroit's decline is the greed of the industry's main union, the UAW, which priced the Big Three out of the market.
As recently as 2008, GM, Ford and Chrysler paid their employees on average more than $73 an hour in total compensation. The 12 foreign transplants, operating in nonunion states mostly in the South and Midwest, averaged about $42 an hour.
Guess which manufacturers are healthiest and expanding their market today? In 2008, the Big Three still made 59% of all cars in the U.S. But, according to recent estimates, their market share is now 46% - with foreign companies selling the bulk of all U.S. cars. So Detroit's loss has been the South's and Midwest's gain.
Behind this is the gold-plated benefits package once guaranteed to UAW workers. I am not against workers getting what they deserve, but total pay and benefits for a full-time worker for the Big Three until recently averaged about $140,000 a year.
The transplants? Just $80,000. Add in an estimated $2,000-plus per car for retiree health care and pensions for the Big Three, and the cost gap is huge.

[halfast07]

It's so easy to give away someone else's rights. What happens when they give your rights away?

Something don't make sense here. When the Unions where doing well, the city was doing well. It would be very liberal to believe that deregulation, that allowed a lot of local business to outsource from overseas decimated the tax base there, caused the problem. The fact is, all big business wants cheap and abundant labor and they don't want to pay the bill for it. It really looks like the lack of unions caused this problem.

Two years ago, the Center for Automotive Research estimated that for every job created by a foreign transplant, 6.1 jobs were lost by the Big Three - many of them in Detroit. No city can take that much economic and Union abuse.

[15jr]

a lot of the blame goes to a generation of bad management. But the main reason for Detroit's decline is the greed of the industry's main union, the UAW, which priced the Big Three out of the market.
As recently as 2008, GM, Ford and Chrysler paid their employees on average more than $73 an hour in total compensation. The 12 foreign transplants, operating in nonunion states mostly in the South and Midwest, averaged about $42 an hour.
Guess which manufacturers are healthiest and expanding their market today? In 2008, the Big Three still made 59% of all cars in the U.S. But, according to recent estimates, their market share is now 46% - with foreign companies selling the bulk of all U.S. cars. So Detroit's loss has been the South's and Midwest's gain.
Behind this is the gold-plated benefits package once guaranteed to UAW workers. I am not against workers getting what they deserve, but total pay and benefits for a full-time worker for the Big Three until recently averaged about $140,000 a year.
The transplants? Just $80,000. Add in an estimated $2,000-plus per car for retiree health care and pensions for the Big Three, and the cost gap is huge.

Very Well said my friend

[Bubstr]

a lot of the blame goes to a generation of bad management. But the main reason for Detroit's decline is the greed of the industry's main union, the UAW, which priced the Big Three out of the market.
As recently as 2008, GM, Ford and Chrysler paid their employees on average more than $73 an hour in total compensation. The 12 foreign transplants, operating in nonunion states mostly in the South and Midwest, averaged about $42 an hour.
Guess which manufacturers are healthiest and expanding their market today? In 2008, the Big Three still made 59% of all cars in the U.S. But, according to recent estimates, their market share is now 46% - with foreign companies selling the bulk of all U.S. cars. So Detroit's loss has been the South's and Midwest's gain.
Behind this is the gold-plated benefits package once guaranteed to UAW workers. I am not against workers getting what they deserve, but total pay and benefits for a full-time worker for the Big Three until recently averaged about $140,000 a year.
The transplants? Just $80,000. Add in an estimated $2,000-plus per car for retiree health care and pensions for the Big Three, and the cost gap is huge.

That is one way to look at it, but could it be as unions fell from 60% of the jobs to 7% of the jobs, that all the rest of the jobs failed to keep up with inflation. This cost the middle class big time in standard of living and has not stopped deteriorating. This directly effect the tax base of all cities and no one, not even the ones that profit from it are willing to pay the bill.

Anyone can say all unions are corrupt because of isolated incidents but you could say all white people are racist because one is and we know that isn't the truth. We could say all black people are on welfare, but it isn't true. We could say all brown people are illegal but that is not true either. How about all dirt track race fans are inbred bumpkins? See what I mean?

The fact is some have vilified the unions and they was the last entity to lobby for all working middle class. This is not an attack on Unions, it's an attack on the working middle class and it's working. It isn't that the unions should be making what you are. It's that you should be making what the unions do. Just look at the drastic shift of wealth. Look at the profit margins. Look at wall street doing well and main street going down the dumper. Some can't see the forest for the trees. Unions effect all jobs, not just union jobs.

[Clayton_Wetter]

Unions should not be political. This is a big part of their downfall, along with unrealistic benefits that can not realistically be met after retirement. The Democrat party made sure they were political though.

[Barbecueboy]

That is one way to look at it, but could it be as unions fell from 60% of the jobs to 7% of the jobs, that all the rest of the jobs failed to keep up with inflation. This cost the middle class big time in standard of living and has not stopped deteriorating. This directly effect the tax base of all cities and no one, not even the ones that profit from it are willing to pay the bill. Anyone can say all unions are corrupt because of isolated incidents but you could say all white people are racist because one is and we know that isn't the truth. We could say all black people are on welfare, but it isn't true. We could say all brown people are illegal but that is not true either. How about all dirt track race fans are inbred bumpkins? See what I mean?The fact is some have vilified the unions and they was the last entity to lobby for all working middle class. This is not an attack on Unions, it's an attack on the working middle class and it's working. It isn't that the unions should be making what you are. It's that you should be making what the unions do. Just look at the drastic shift of wealth. Look at the profit margins. Look at wall street doing well and main street going down the dumper. Some can't see the forest for the trees. Unions effect all jobs, not just union jobs.

Is there a company or industry in the u.s that is predominately controlled by union workers that is healthy and growing? Im sure there must be some but,None really come to mind....... Again, not looking for a lecture, just asking the question.My own personal opinion is that unions are no different than any other share the wealth socialism programs...........I'm sure that most unions started out with good intentions and good structure(a lot like our govt.).......but somewhere along the way , common sense and good hiring practices took a back seat to job entitlement and overpayed floor sweepers and the like.......it has cost us dearly over the last 30 yrs in quality of goods, competitiveness with other countries and added a whole crapload of apathetic workers to the work force.......

[halfast07]

Is there a company or industry in the u.s that is predominately controlled by union workers that is healthy and growing? Im sure there must be some but,None really come to mind....... Again, not looking for a lecture, just asking the question.My own personal opinion is that unions are no different than any other share the wealth socialism programs...........I'm sure that most unions started out with good intentions and good structure(a lot like our govt.).......but somewhere along the way , common sense and good hiring practices took a back seat to job entitlement and overpayed floor sweepers and the like.......it has cost us dearly over the last 30 yrs in quality of goods, competitiveness with other countries and added a whole crapload of apathetic workers to the work force.......

100% accurate my friend

[fastford]

unions are steadily becoming a thing of the past, in the early days unions were a blessing when men were working in coal mines and killing themselves for 2 dollars a day while one man got filthy rich at the expense of the workers health, these conditions no longer exist, now you have general motors paying $78 an hr in union plant to build a chevy malibu, how can they compete with a non union honda plant in lincoln alabama that pays $40 an hour to build a accord? they cant without government help, of course we know which branch of government the unions are in bed with, by the way a person in alabama making 40 an hr is living better than the 78 an hr person in michigan, why? because the jacked up union wages have also jacked up the cost of living. by the way these hourly wages also include benefits

[Bubstr]

Is there a company or industry in the u.s that is predominately controlled by union workers that is healthy and growing? Im sure there must be some but,None really come to mind....... Again, not looking for a lecture, just asking the question.My own personal opinion is that unions are no different than any other share the wealth socialism programs...........I'm sure that most unions started out with good intentions and good structure(a lot like our govt.).......but somewhere along the way , common sense and good hiring practices took a back seat to job entitlement and overpayed floor sweepers and the like.......it has cost us dearly over the last 30 yrs in quality of goods, competitiveness with other countries and added a whole crapload of apathetic workers to the work force.......

There are lots of construction unions, electrical unions Millwright and steelworkers unions that serve their membership and employers very well. Sure some unions have overreached, just as some employers have. You like to point out the over paid floor sweeper, but who is over paid and who is underpaid? The non union employee is loosing ground to inflation, while their employers are gaining ground. The union employee is holding their ground. That makes most rational people believe the non union floor sweeper is under paid instead of the union sweeper being over paid. This wage to cost of living equation has been a struggle since the mid 1800s. The days of the Robber Barons. I'm sure the unions or big business can be too powerful, but the most prosperous times for all is when there is a balance. Even some aspects of Socialism are not all bad. If no one is fighting for your side, you have no fight.

As it is now, with the weakening of unions and socialism, the middle class is dwindling and much of the middle class is denouncing their representatives. You don't bite the hand that feeds you. The bad guy is government intervention enabling cheap abundant labor. Allowing business to do business here and not pay tax or even bring profits back to keep the economy going. Turning a blind eye to illegal immigration, Expanding legal immigration, Outsourcing creating high unemployment, but not paying the bill for the loss. All of these things create high unemployment. As long as there is high unemployment, you just aren't worth much. Some say, I have a job, It don't bother me. How come these high gas prices hurt? How come these high food prices hurt? how come these higher taxes that are coming hurt? If half the people here can't afford to pay tax and the big business won't pay tax, who does that leave? It leaves the guy that don't have a lobby representing him. That would be the working middle class. It's always been that way.

What I'm saying is a lot of people don't know who their friend is and who means them harm, intentionally or not.

If it wasn't for the Unions, your kids would be working 16 hour days to help support the family. You can see this by how many working couples there are that have trouble making ends meet now. There is nothing to stand in the way of it reverting back to that. You and I have been put on a level playing field with the poor worker of India, China, South America or Mexico. How do you think that is going to go for you? We used to make our own, support our own and take care of our own. We now just take care of big business. If that was Socialism it was a good life in the 40s,50s, 60s, 70s. and most people want more of it. It didn't take anything away from the rich. It actually made it possible for them to get richer. There where more consumers.