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GM to be focus of 60 Minutes tonight

GM to be focus of 60 Minutes tonight

Posted Apr 2nd 2006 4:00PM

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Tonight, 60 Minutes will air a segment on Steve Kroft’s interview with workers at General Motors' plant in Janesville, Wisconsin. Kroft, a correspondent for CBS, interviewed former and current employees of the plant at a nearby restaurant. He questions them about the automaker’s past and current financial situations; and how it will affect Janesville and the United Auto Workers.

"Almost everyone in Janesville either works for GM or has a relative or family member that does," Kroft says in a voice-over during the program.

Information on what channels the segment will air can be found at the link.

[Source: Gazette Extra]

Category: Trends, Etc., GM, Earnings/Financials

Tags: interviews, Janesville, Sixty Minutes, UAW, Wisconsin

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23 Comments

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iQuack

With respect to the "60 Minutes" segment, I hope the anticipated vehicles that were under those blue covers aren't "concept" cars that'll never be buit.

Too many of those concept frauds carry a new name that's then given to a boring POS eventually offered for sale. Think Buick LaCrosse!

GM might be doing less of this concept deception now--the Solstice and SKY are real cars and that's a good sign. The Saturn AURA is another one that could be a hit if not too expensive.

Union workers are nice people who aren't responsible for GM's bad management; however, unions are parasites that ultimately kill their hosts.

Most workers in the modern, not the dream, world and certainly the rest of us would be better off without the UAW to kill the largest company on which it depends.

April 04 2006 at 12:22 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

James Chaplin

I am a UAW represented worker at a General Motors plant in Shreveport, Louisiana. I agree with the observation that most poeple have about the Union and our wages and benefit packages. It IS too much. The majority of the people that work at the plant are indeed mediocre at best. There are a few overachievers in the group who try to work hard enough to justify the money spent on them, but at the end of the day, no amount of hard work by a few can compensate for the overwhelming majority who are truly worthless. The problem is simple, and therefore the solution is simple as well. Socialism. People all truly believe that they are equal in regards to there monetary worth in the plant. The union forces management to look at everyone like they are. If management were free to reward those who are hard working and overachieve and able to discipline and financially punish those who are not worthy employees, maybe the business as a whole would be able to rehabilitate itself. There is no room in a free market society for a socialist workforce. This is coming from a member of the socialist workforce who is taking my $70,000, running in the other direction, and looking for an employer who is free to reward me, because I am one of the few who are worth it.

April 03 2006 at 3:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Gumby

Richard Warren. Those documents you post are not only very old, they are thinly disguised union propeganda. How dare you assert that you are unbiased.

What a moron!

April 03 2006 at 2:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steve Gomer

#18- Dick, talk about antiquated ideas and BS:

"Working for the Japanese: Inside Mazda's American Auto Plant" was published in 1990!

"The Global Assembly Line" was done in 1986!

And the link you provide is over six years old. C'mon dude, post something relevant to the topic. You ARE VERY biased and it insults our intelligence that you try to convince us otherwise.

April 03 2006 at 2:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Richard Warren

#14 Yes, I caught that comment and it's true. That when GM was in the 50's 60's and early 70's the designers held the power and the bean counters made it work out.

By far one of the best comments made on GM's plight.

#13 The whole incentive thing. Well, let's try this. why do you have to be PAID TO DO A GOOD JOB? Your job, union or non-union is to do the best job you can for an employer, and it's real easy to understand, it's a matter of PRIDE IN YOURSELF.

How many folks here hate seeing a car salesman? Why, well, lets be real honest, they are working on INCENTIVE, to make the most money. Did you catch that? INCENTIVE. But, "That's different they try to screw me" sorry, it's not.

Just because a union is involved does not mean you have a forever job, Ah, just ask the Delphi employees. Most union contracts will let you terminate anyone, if you follow the proper procedures laid out in the contract.

They usually work out something like this, verbal warning, in employee file, 1st, 2nd, 3rd warning written and you're out. The problem is MANAGEMENT that does not and piss poor documentation. When I managed 9 stores I was also on the union grievence commitee from the management side. I was called for every meeting. Why? Because I was tough but fair. Know how many times I had to vote for the bad employee? Too many! Why because the managers did such a crap job of documentation.

In all the years I managed I only went to arbitration twice in our own stores for firings, that was upheld, because of proper documentation including photgraphs of the offendig situations and work. And yes the union guys said, yep, had it coming.

There is a way to reward union employees over and above it's called overscale, while it's not used very often it is avaliable. It's used in the trade unions quite a bit.

#16 Actually, the unions if you were watching are agreeing to change and in the last medical cut backs asked for they gave up and the vote was about 85% to make the changes. Someting else Steve, during the years the majority of problems I saw in the rpair end were not from assembly, but from poor engineering. Keep in mind the dealerships see the car in a more raw state than most customers, while doing the PDI (pre delivery inspection) I've seen it all and truly the majority of the problem is design, not assembly, then keep in mind how much of the assembly is automated. Folks have the view that it's so much hand work involved, in reality it's not. The crummy low cost parts? That's a management decision, to roll the cars out the line with known problems, that's the plant managers decision. Oh that ties into the other comments, INCENTIVE, well the INCENTIVE for the plant manger is to shove the product out. NOTE, not quality product, just product. So who has the most INCENTIVE to shove it out? Sorry, that would be mangement, not union.

Think about if all your ideas regarding union workers is correct, why would you send out a lot of poorly assembled product when you could work on one car all day and have a perfect product, including all the repair you made to poorly engineed parts? What's your motive for being productive at all? You get paid the same to work on one or a 100 cars a day.

Do some reading, you might just be surprised at the education the average assembly line worker has in America and how while the Japanese have put a shiny happy face on what goes on in their plants, it's interesting to find what REALLY goes on in the plants, you can start with these:

Working for the Japanese: Inside Mazda's American Auto Plant.

The Global Assembly Line New Day Films

On the Line at Subaru-Isuzu: The Japanese Model and the American Worker.
Occupational Trends: Education, Technology, Trade, and Corporate Restructuring
Visit here:
http://nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu/~lombardi/edudocs/workersUnivchron.html

I'm neither pro or anti union, just anti- bullshit and antiquated sterotyping.

April 03 2006 at 2:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steve_S

naif,

And did you miss the part where legacy costs are making GM unprofitable thereby causing the demise of GM?

What else is GM known for in th epast, unreliability, where does unreliability come from? Poor design and the assembly line. Everyone is to blame, management appears willing to make a change the union is not so where do you think the problem is?

April 03 2006 at 10:29 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike

#12, Steve S..... you took the words out of my mouth. Our regional transportation district here went on strike starting today. RTD offered bus and light rail drivers EXACTLY what the union had asked for, and they still turned it down.

I do agree that there was a time and a place for unions. For the most part (read: generalization with FEW exceptions), that time and place has passed.

In the case of the UAW, the union has been able to eliminate ALL market forces from determining wages and benifits. The have a monopoly over the control of the workers and therefore can set the wages and benifits as they see fit. The Unions (not the people working under the union) are the rats on the ship that chewed a large hole in the hull. They are the reason GM is sinking; and rather than work with the company to try to save heir jobs and improve the comapny, they are simply tightening the nuse[sp?].

April 03 2006 at 10:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

naif

There are way to many people that think the union is creating the demise of GM. Did the part of 60 minutes go un-noticed where Lutz admits that the bean counters are responsible for GMs problems. Its product, product product. No product, nothing for the bean counters to count, no GM.

April 03 2006 at 10:19 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steve_S

I think many here would agree that unions at one point were necessary. Unions to a certain degree can still be useful it depends on how they are run. The job of a union is not to coerce high benefit and pay through work stoppage/mafia style threats. When someone has little or no chance to be fired and their pay is not based on their performance then there is little incentive to do your best. Its the same with when people talk about government employees. I know a ton of government employees that work hard and but in extra time (no overtime usually) and do the best they can but I also see slackers since pay is based on seniority instead of performance. Well that is finally changing and Im glad to see it.

There is no reason to have pensions anymore; your retirement should be your responsibility. I dont expect a damn thing from the government or my job for my retirement; Ill invest in my 401k and take care of myself. Same goes for healthcare, the company should pay some as a benefit and you pay the rest.

When GM goes down its going to take the good UAW employees down too so maybe they should decide to speak up before they are all out of work.

April 03 2006 at 9:43 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Richard Warren

It was a pretty good piece.

But all anti-union bunch need to watch this movie:
Mardi Gras: Made in China

It's about the working conditions, and pay in China and the company that makes the beads for Mardi Gras.

What it shows is what we are really facing regarding cometition and why it's not fair competition at all and if you watch this and don't get it, then you really need to get your heads out of your asses and get ready for the competition to take your jobs.

Well Grumpy, in my travels around this country and others, I've seen a lot of truly lazy, greedy, useless and selfish,moronic Non Union workers. And I've seen a lot supposed educated people who don't have a clue.

So you want hard working, productive employees, OK watch the movie, caught talking while working, 1 weeks pay docked, socializing during breaks, 1 months pay docked. You'll like your take home pay too 62 dollars a month (and yes, that's good for them) but there is no way America can compete with that. By the way those beads used to be made here, and take a look at peoples faces when they see where those beads came from and how they were made at Mardi Gras. And you even get to live ther at the plant, yep, can't love outside, you get to live there.

#5 put it well, if you don't get where your benfit package was originally molded from (unuions) you better take a histroy less and get educated.

If you think the unuion is the problems ask yourself why virtually every countries auto workers are union. But of course. "that's different" then factor in what nearly every business will tell you, it's not the wages, it's the medical, then take your blinders off and see that we, yes, we are the only country that does not have some type of medical plan at a national level the automatically gives other countries workers an advantage in pricing.

So #2 what do you do for a living? Please tell us so we can determine just how lazy, useless, irrational, stupid, selfish, uneducated, etc you are.

A couple of questions to all of you,
What do you care what a union member makes?
Why should you be concerned what type of medical or retirement a union member gets?

The same could go for non union, what do you care, why should it matter to you?

Most want a car with style and great content cheap,a forever warranty, and if that was happening, you'd care less where it was made.

Lee Iacocca knew what you wanted, "The average buyer want's an Imperial at the same price as a base K-car"

Here is what I think, union workers stood up for better wages, vacations, safety, medical are getting more than you and your jealous. Know why? Because most of just go along and accept what's offered. It's OK, No, it's not.

And an aside the next story was about Americans working more hours than ever, taking work with them on vactions, etc and guess what? American productivity has fallen, except,and I repeat except in most American manufacturing plants, including auto plants which have higer productivity than many of the Asian and European plants.

Once again for the record, not union, self employed with 10 employees, going to 11 soon.

April 03 2006 at 9:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Richard Warren's comment

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