"Cheap Chery Chinese Cars"..Daimler/Chrysler is NOT an "American Company"

[SoCalDem]

We need a whole new definition of what IS an American company..

That's what needs to happen first..

In MY opinion, if the product is not MADE in the US, by AMERICAN citizens, and the PROFITS of the company are not "housed" in US banks (to be loaned to AMERICANS), we cannot call it an American Company..

We are a large enough country to provide a sufficient workforce to produce/market just about anything we need/want (we USED to do it)..

The race to the bottom of the wage/price barrel is ruining us all.

Globalization SHOULD be about helping other countries help themselves..with schools, housing, health services...NOT about moving OUR companies there, to use the inhabitants of the third world as guinea pigs for our drug testing, or slaves to make our tennis shoes...(while our companies slip out the side door with their natural resources)..

[mdmc]

1. I would take them over GM any day

I like your definition of American

BUY LOCAL!

[90-percent]

3. made in America

I can't define it, but I know it when I see it. With a complex product like a car, it's made from pieces supplied from all over the world. It gets real hard to determine what percentage is "made in America".

A real tough issue and I read somewhere once that "direct labor" made up a small percentage of total product cost. Materials made up most of the cost. So American corporations are paying say $5 for material and $00.50 for direct labor per unit, and sell it for say $20. Now they outsource and pay $5 for material and $00.15 per unit, and pocket an extra $00.35 per unit, still selling at $20. That's worth closing down American plants and manufacturing capability!????? sheesh!

My facts and numbers are fuzzy, but the point is direct labor is a small part of manufacturing costs.

-85% jimmy

[Fierce]

5. All I want to know is, was it made union?

No? Well then, keep your "but my Nissan was made in the USAAAAAAAAAAA!" to yerself.

(Not you; the general "you.")

[SoCalDem]

8. UNION..yes..

ALL workers should be union,. but of course we know how this would be recieved by "management"..

Unions made the middle class..and as they have declined, so has the middle class :(

[Fierce]

9. Way I see it, if they could organize U.S. Steel...

...they could organize anyone.

[Selatius]

12. There's a reason why new automanufacturing plants aren't up in Michigan.

They're called "right-to-work" laws, and they're designed to suppress unions. Companies like Nissan and Honda are opening up car manufacturing plants in the South and Midwest because they all have "right-to-work" laws on the books that helps them stop workers from unionizing.

[Fierce]

15. If all it takes is a right-to-starve law to keep the people from organizing,

then we're in worse shape than I thought.

[Selatius]

18. Well, the statistics don't lie with respect to unionized workers.

They represent roughly 10 percent of the US workforce. Sweden, on the other hand, has 80 percent of its workforce represented by labor unions. Somebody has been losing out, and I can tell you it hasn't been Sweden.

[doc03]

17. I am a Union member myself, but why is it the

the best rated cars in Consumer Reports made by an American company is the Ford Fusion and its siblings the Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKX. All are new models that traditionally have more problems
and they are made in Mexico. As far as Daimler/Chrysler they have fewer cars on the recommended Best Buy list than any other company foreign or domestic.

[durtee librul]

16. I work for DCX

and I can tell you there are suppliers of theirs in MX and across the ocean who pay thier employees about $12 a week....and no bennies.

Ford has a cheapest price contingent in their supplier contracts - meaning in layman's terms, the supplier has to find the cheapest materials and labor to save FORD money....the plastic pieces in your car are molded from resins...the resin and the folks who run the molding machines are paid as little as possible while Ford makes the profits. If the supplier cannot prove they have found the cheapest, then they don't get the contract.

Same at GM.

What we need is a UAW with some backbone...not the wusses that have been heading it. Leonard Woodcock (don't go there) started the patsy attitudes back in the 70's. The UAW leadership has just plain sucked in the past decades.

One only has to look at the CAW and how they are doing....much better than their UAW counterparts who work for the same automakers and in some cases, the exact same vehicle.

[madokie]

2. I guarantee that would go a long way to solving all our problems

We should come first all others second. not to leave anyone out mind you but take care of ourselves first

[madrchsod]

4. chrysler is not an american car company

because they were bought by daimler a german company.

[SoCalDem]

6. True, but they are still "calling" themselves "American"

because of the vestigial traces of Chrysler (in name only, most of the time)

[dogman]

But they are opening three shifts in Belvedere.

UAW jobs I believe.

[madrchsod]

14. maybe-- i`ve got relation that works there

he`s laid off for now cause the industry is crap right now. he`s a temp so he`s always on the bubble but there are some people suing the union over that contract. the germans poured almost a billion dollars into the plant.

[jody]

7. We export high paying jobs and import illegal aliens to work for minimum wage.

IMO that’s fast track to third world status

[Auggie]

10. Yeah, but the genie has been let out of the bottle. Out-sourcing and

off-shoring means higher stock prices and profits, which CEOs get rewarded for. It's a vicious circle.

[Reterr]

11. If we were in good shape

economically however, I would be all for helping developing/under deveoped countries any which way.
We owe the world a lot for what we are doing/have done to the environment.

[RB TexLa]

13. A North American or Global company is free to manufacture where they see fit

The world becoming smaller is a good thing, contrary to what the New Know Nothings say.