I currently own two GM products. I have found GM vehicles are good as, or better than the competition. The only down side as I see it is the large amount added to the cost of each vehicle to fulfill UAW obligations. Prior to retirement and after retirement I paid quite a large amount each month for a “Family Health Insurance Plan” and a Dental Plan”. In conservations with other they also pay for individual and family health and dental insurance coverage. The plans I had and still have includes co-payments for Doctor’s visits and prescription medication. As I understand it we as consumers pay for current UAW workers their families and UAW retirees and their families’ health and dental insurance and their out of pocket cost is zero. We also pay a certain amount on each vehicle for the “No Job Lost” in the UAW contract. Prior to retirement when I was working I did not have such a job guarantee. Others I have talked to also did not have a guaranteed job where salary, health insurance, dental insurance, retirement benefits and seniority continued even when I was not working.
A couple of years ago my wife and I were in Florida on vacation. We stopped in the Denny’s Restaurant in Cocoa Beach Florida one morning for breakfast. A large crowd was in the circular booth next to us and one of the gentlemen in the crowd was relating in a loud voice how he and his wife worked for GM and had not worked on the assembly line for a couple of years. He also stated his and her salary, health and dental benefits, retirement and job seniority continued all because of his outstanding UAM no “Job Cut or Loss” contract and union representation. Needless to say I drove away from the restaurant in a GM vehicle with the feeling I had been taken advantage of.
My thoughts today are “No Tax Money for the Auto Industry”. I think individuals associated with the auto industry should have to do as I and others do, pay at least a portion of their health, dental and retirement coverage. I cannot see why I should have to provide such coverage for myself and them. They, the auto companies should if unable to arrange private financing be allowed to go into bankruptcy and reorganize therefore eliminating the costly UAW costs added to each vehicle. I will take my chances on warranty repairs on the two GM vehicles I currently own. I have owned in the past and currently own items that required warranty repairs after a company filled for bankruptcy protection. If you have flown on an airliner lately you either flew on a plane owned by a company in bankruptcy or recently out of the bankruptcy constraints. Where you worried about warranty repairs on the aircraft when you were flying? They say foreign car manufactures are not having the financial problems Americans automobile manufactures’ are having. I wonder why?
A couple of years ago my wife and I were in Florida on vacation. We stopped in the Denny’s Restaurant in Cocoa Beach Florida one morning for breakfast. A large crowd was in the circular booth next to us and one of the gentlemen in the crowd was relating in a loud voice how he and his wife worked for GM and had not worked on the assembly line for a couple of years. He also stated his and her salary, health and dental benefits, retirement and job seniority continued all because of his outstanding UAM no “Job Cut or Loss” contract and union representation. Needless to say I drove away from the restaurant in a GM vehicle with the feeling I had been taken advantage of.
My thoughts today are “No Tax Money for the Auto Industry”. I think individuals associated with the auto industry should have to do as I and others do, pay at least a portion of their health, dental and retirement coverage. I cannot see why I should have to provide such coverage for myself and them. They, the auto companies should if unable to arrange private financing be allowed to go into bankruptcy and reorganize therefore eliminating the costly UAW costs added to each vehicle. I will take my chances on warranty repairs on the two GM vehicles I currently own. I have owned in the past and currently own items that required warranty repairs after a company filled for bankruptcy protection. If you have flown on an airliner lately you either flew on a plane owned by a company in bankruptcy or recently out of the bankruptcy constraints. Where you worried about warranty repairs on the aircraft when you were flying? They say foreign car manufactures are not having the financial problems Americans automobile manufactures’ are having. I wonder why?
