http://www.uaw599.com/forum/ Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:57:32 +0000 MyBB http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=609 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 07:13:27 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=609 Monday, July 26, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Banker greed is like ugly on a toad – it can't simply be rinsed off, no matter how much regulatory soap you use.

Congress has now enacted new rules to govern America's huge banks, thus completing Washington's response to the unbridled Wall Street greed that crashed the financial system and crushed our economy. The regulatory reforms were hailed by Democrats as possessing powerful cleansing power, while Republicans wailed that the new rules were overly caustic, imposing such a heavy-handed governmental scrub that the delicate layers of Wall Street innovation and profitability will be rubbed away.

Meanwhile, big bankers are grinning from ear to ear, for the bill requires no restructuring and decentralizing of the monopolistic grip that these giants have on America's credit system. Thus, they still retain the power to rip off consumers, gamble with depositors' money, haul in exorbitant profits, and pay themselves ungodly bonuses – all while remaining "too big to fail."

Yes, the banking barons now have to adjust to stricter regulations, many of which are good and long overdue. But these guys are experts at slipping out of governmental leashes. JPMorgan Chase, for example, had 90 "project teams" plotting end runs around the regulations even before they were passed. Take electronic derivative trades, the casino game that caused the Wall Street implosion. Rather than outright banning them as an intolerable threat to our economy, Congress' bill attaches a bunch of strings to the game, hoping to tie it down. But JPMorgan alone has long had more than 100 of its derivative traders and other casino technicians scheming to untie the strings – so you can bet they'll keep their game going.

They won't stop gaming the system until we fundamentally restructure Wall Street. The way you'll know that real reform has come is that the bankers will have those grins wiped off their faces.

Americans for Financial Reform:
http://www.ourfinancialsecurity.org.

"JP Morgan's chief Jamie Dimon gets $18m pay package," http://www.telegraph.co.uk, February 5, 2010.

"Its Fight Ended, Wall St. Is Already Working Around New Regulations," The New York Times, July 16, 2010.

"With Settlement, Blankfein Keeps His Grip," The New York Times, July 16, 2010.

"Congress Passes Major Overhaul of Finance Rules," The New York Times, July 16, 2010.

"S.E.C. Setting Its Complaints With Goldman," The New York Times, July 16, 2010.


http://jimhightower.com/node/7205]]> Monday, July 26, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Banker greed is like ugly on a toad – it can't simply be rinsed off, no matter how much regulatory soap you use.

Congress has now enacted new rules to govern America's huge banks, thus completing Washington's response to the unbridled Wall Street greed that crashed the financial system and crushed our economy. The regulatory reforms were hailed by Democrats as possessing powerful cleansing power, while Republicans wailed that the new rules were overly caustic, imposing such a heavy-handed governmental scrub that the delicate layers of Wall Street innovation and profitability will be rubbed away.

Meanwhile, big bankers are grinning from ear to ear, for the bill requires no restructuring and decentralizing of the monopolistic grip that these giants have on America's credit system. Thus, they still retain the power to rip off consumers, gamble with depositors' money, haul in exorbitant profits, and pay themselves ungodly bonuses – all while remaining "too big to fail."

Yes, the banking barons now have to adjust to stricter regulations, many of which are good and long overdue. But these guys are experts at slipping out of governmental leashes. JPMorgan Chase, for example, had 90 "project teams" plotting end runs around the regulations even before they were passed. Take electronic derivative trades, the casino game that caused the Wall Street implosion. Rather than outright banning them as an intolerable threat to our economy, Congress' bill attaches a bunch of strings to the game, hoping to tie it down. But JPMorgan alone has long had more than 100 of its derivative traders and other casino technicians scheming to untie the strings – so you can bet they'll keep their game going.

They won't stop gaming the system until we fundamentally restructure Wall Street. The way you'll know that real reform has come is that the bankers will have those grins wiped off their faces.

Americans for Financial Reform:
http://www.ourfinancialsecurity.org.

"JP Morgan's chief Jamie Dimon gets $18m pay package," http://www.telegraph.co.uk, February 5, 2010.

"Its Fight Ended, Wall St. Is Already Working Around New Regulations," The New York Times, July 16, 2010.

"With Settlement, Blankfein Keeps His Grip," The New York Times, July 16, 2010.

"Congress Passes Major Overhaul of Finance Rules," The New York Times, July 16, 2010.

"S.E.C. Setting Its Complaints With Goldman," The New York Times, July 16, 2010.


http://jimhightower.com/node/7205]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=608 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:48:21 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=608
http://blog.yert.com/2010/06/02/new-vide...prototype/]]>
http://blog.yert.com/2010/06/02/new-vide...prototype/]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=607 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 07:54:35 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=607 Monday, July 19, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Michael Duke is the Big Wally of Walmart. As CEO of the low-wage behemoth, he siphons some $19 million a year in personal pay from the global retailer.

How much is $19 million? Let's break it down in terms that Duke's own workforce can appreciate. While Big Wally's workers average about $9.50 an hour, Duke's pay comes to about $9,500 an hour. So he pockets as much in two hours as Walmart workers make in a whole year! But Walmart doesn't give a damn about such gross pay gaps between privileged elites and the rest of us. As a spokesman scoffed, "I don't think Mike Duke... needs me to defend his compensation package."

Really? If not you, who?

Those who think that the hoi polloi don't notice, much less care, about America's growing income disparity, should take a peek at a recent opinion survey run by the right-wing, corporate-funded Peter Peterson Foundation. This outfit intended to show that the general public backs the teabag agenda slashing of government spending, including balancing the federal budget by putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block.

But – woopsie-daisy – the survey of thousands of Americans went badly wrong for the Peterson ideologues. For example, far from wanting to gut Social Security payments, 85 percent of the people favored extending the program by the making rich pay into the fund, like all the rest of us do.

And – hey, Mike – this one's for you: nearly six out of 10 of the folks involved in the foundation's "America Speaks" survey want a new, higher tax bracket to make millionaires pay their fair share of providing for the common good.

The foundation tried to bury these surprisingly progressive results, but you can see a good analysis of them at the Center for Economic Policy and Research: http://www.cepr.net.

"Americans Care About Jobs, Not Deficits -- When Will Obama Listen?" http://www.alternet.com, June 28, 2010.

"Walmart CEO Pay: More in an Hour Than Workers Get All Year?" http://www.abcnews.com, July 2, 2010.

"Executive Profiles* Mike Duke," http://www.businessweek.com, July 6, 2010.


http://jimhightower.com/node/7200]]> Monday, July 19, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Michael Duke is the Big Wally of Walmart. As CEO of the low-wage behemoth, he siphons some $19 million a year in personal pay from the global retailer.

How much is $19 million? Let's break it down in terms that Duke's own workforce can appreciate. While Big Wally's workers average about $9.50 an hour, Duke's pay comes to about $9,500 an hour. So he pockets as much in two hours as Walmart workers make in a whole year! But Walmart doesn't give a damn about such gross pay gaps between privileged elites and the rest of us. As a spokesman scoffed, "I don't think Mike Duke... needs me to defend his compensation package."

Really? If not you, who?

Those who think that the hoi polloi don't notice, much less care, about America's growing income disparity, should take a peek at a recent opinion survey run by the right-wing, corporate-funded Peter Peterson Foundation. This outfit intended to show that the general public backs the teabag agenda slashing of government spending, including balancing the federal budget by putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block.

But – woopsie-daisy – the survey of thousands of Americans went badly wrong for the Peterson ideologues. For example, far from wanting to gut Social Security payments, 85 percent of the people favored extending the program by the making rich pay into the fund, like all the rest of us do.

And – hey, Mike – this one's for you: nearly six out of 10 of the folks involved in the foundation's "America Speaks" survey want a new, higher tax bracket to make millionaires pay their fair share of providing for the common good.

The foundation tried to bury these surprisingly progressive results, but you can see a good analysis of them at the Center for Economic Policy and Research: http://www.cepr.net.

"Americans Care About Jobs, Not Deficits -- When Will Obama Listen?" http://www.alternet.com, June 28, 2010.

"Walmart CEO Pay: More in an Hour Than Workers Get All Year?" http://www.abcnews.com, July 2, 2010.

"Executive Profiles* Mike Duke," http://www.businessweek.com, July 6, 2010.


http://jimhightower.com/node/7200]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=606 Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:47:23 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=606 TAA Approved for UAW 599 Members at GMPT Flint North Site

We have received the initial notification that Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) benefits have been approved for UAW 599 members at the Powertrain Flint North site. This is the Federal program formerly known as TRA that effectively extends Unemployment Compensation benefits and is administered by the State of Michigan. I believe that this may help some of our members who will or have already exhausted their unemployment compensation benefits.

The initial notification includes few details. Like you, I have a lot of questions about exactly who is covered and how to access the benefits. We are working diligently to get answers. As soon as we know more, I will schedule an informational meeting. If possible, we will get someone from the State of Michigan to the meeting so that you can ask questions directly to the people who administer the program.

Please check back and watch the Headlight for additional information and meeting times.]]> TAA Approved for UAW 599 Members at GMPT Flint North Site

We have received the initial notification that Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) benefits have been approved for UAW 599 members at the Powertrain Flint North site. This is the Federal program formerly known as TRA that effectively extends Unemployment Compensation benefits and is administered by the State of Michigan. I believe that this may help some of our members who will or have already exhausted their unemployment compensation benefits.

The initial notification includes few details. Like you, I have a lot of questions about exactly who is covered and how to access the benefits. We are working diligently to get answers. As soon as we know more, I will schedule an informational meeting. If possible, we will get someone from the State of Michigan to the meeting so that you can ask questions directly to the people who administer the program.

Please check back and watch the Headlight for additional information and meeting times.]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=605 Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:05:36 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=605 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TUKBNHWJ...re=related]]> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TUKBNHWJ...re=related]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=604 Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:55:27 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=604 REAL WORLD?-(I'll bet my last quarter they also live in a "GATED COMMUNITY").

THE CORPORATE REALITY OF CARLY AND MEG
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Big news in California politics: The Golden State's GOP has nominated a pair of golden gals to try to take the state's top two political offices.

Meg Whitman, running for governor, and Carly Fiorina, running for U.S. senate, are both former CEOs and multimillionaires who spent truckloads of their corporate loot to win the Republican nominations. Whitman, for example, dumped a breath-taking and record-breaking $73 million of her own money into the primary race.

On election night, the two free-spenders issued a joint statement of triumph: "Career politicians in Sacramento and Washington, DC, be warned – you now face your worst nightmare: two businesswomen from the real world."

The real world? Only a pampered CEO could think that the luxurious confines of the executive suite come anywhere near other people's reality. Aside from private jets and other platinum-level perks, they pocket absolutely unreal paychecks. When she departed Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina was handed a $21-million fare-thee-well gift, and Whitman hauled off more than a billion bucks during her tenure at eBay.

And let's get real about the worthiness of their CEO experience. Fiorina was such an executive disaster that Hewlett-Packard's board dumped her in 2005. "Nobody liked Carly's leadership all that much," said a market analyst at the time, adding that "anyone will be better." Likewise, costly management missteps by Whitman caused eBay's board to conclude that the corporation was simply too big for her to run.

If they can't run a big company, why should voters think they can run a state that is bigger than most countries? Besides, a corporate CEO is head of an autocratic, secretive, top-down, self-serving, single-purpose organization – not exactly ideal qualities for leading a democratic government.

"More from the real world," Austin American Statesman, June 16, 2010.

"Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, millionaire businesswomen win Calif. GOP primaries on historic night," http://www.nydailynews.com, June 9, 2010.

"Fiorina out, HP stock soars," http://www.cnn.com, February 10, 2005.

"Carly the buffoon, meet Mark the wonder boy," http://www.cnet.com, August 18, 2006.

"Ebay's Meg Whitman to Step Down After a Decade as CEO," http://www.techcrunch.com, January 21, 2008.

"Meg Whitman Reportedly Plans To Retire From eBay," http://www.informationweek.com, January 22, 2008.

"EBay Chief Whitman, Web Pioneer, Plans to Retire," http://www.wsj.com, January 22, 2008.

http://jimhightower.com/node/7195]]> REAL WORLD?-(I'll bet my last quarter they also live in a "GATED COMMUNITY").

THE CORPORATE REALITY OF CARLY AND MEG
Tuesday, July 13, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Big news in California politics: The Golden State's GOP has nominated a pair of golden gals to try to take the state's top two political offices.

Meg Whitman, running for governor, and Carly Fiorina, running for U.S. senate, are both former CEOs and multimillionaires who spent truckloads of their corporate loot to win the Republican nominations. Whitman, for example, dumped a breath-taking and record-breaking $73 million of her own money into the primary race.

On election night, the two free-spenders issued a joint statement of triumph: "Career politicians in Sacramento and Washington, DC, be warned – you now face your worst nightmare: two businesswomen from the real world."

The real world? Only a pampered CEO could think that the luxurious confines of the executive suite come anywhere near other people's reality. Aside from private jets and other platinum-level perks, they pocket absolutely unreal paychecks. When she departed Hewlett-Packard, Fiorina was handed a $21-million fare-thee-well gift, and Whitman hauled off more than a billion bucks during her tenure at eBay.

And let's get real about the worthiness of their CEO experience. Fiorina was such an executive disaster that Hewlett-Packard's board dumped her in 2005. "Nobody liked Carly's leadership all that much," said a market analyst at the time, adding that "anyone will be better." Likewise, costly management missteps by Whitman caused eBay's board to conclude that the corporation was simply too big for her to run.

If they can't run a big company, why should voters think they can run a state that is bigger than most countries? Besides, a corporate CEO is head of an autocratic, secretive, top-down, self-serving, single-purpose organization – not exactly ideal qualities for leading a democratic government.

"More from the real world," Austin American Statesman, June 16, 2010.

"Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, millionaire businesswomen win Calif. GOP primaries on historic night," http://www.nydailynews.com, June 9, 2010.

"Fiorina out, HP stock soars," http://www.cnn.com, February 10, 2005.

"Carly the buffoon, meet Mark the wonder boy," http://www.cnet.com, August 18, 2006.

"Ebay's Meg Whitman to Step Down After a Decade as CEO," http://www.techcrunch.com, January 21, 2008.

"Meg Whitman Reportedly Plans To Retire From eBay," http://www.informationweek.com, January 22, 2008.

"EBay Chief Whitman, Web Pioneer, Plans to Retire," http://www.wsj.com, January 22, 2008.

http://jimhightower.com/node/7195]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=603 Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:31:42 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=603 Wednesday, July 14, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Deficit hawks are on the fly in Washington, madly screeching that America can no longer afford... well, the American people.

Having slashed taxes for the wealthiest one-percent of our society, having lavished gabillions of dollars on unnecessary wars that enrich politically-connected government contractors, having laid out trillions of dollars to bail out Wall Street's casino banksters who crashed our real economy – Washington's brave fighters for extending more of our nation's wealth to the already-rich have suddenly turned into born-again budget whackers.

Are they cutting back on any of the above elites, you ask? What a joker you are! No, no – it's regular folks who must pay the price for the decade of excess that these politicos lavished on the rich.

In recent weeks, for example, Republican senators have repeatedly blocked an extension of jobless benefits for America's hardest-hit families. They've also denied aid that would keep states and cities from firing hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, and other essential public employees, "Can't afford it," bellow these newly-minted spendthrifts, even as their failure to act is intentionally increasing unemployment and economic-pain across our land.

Governors are also running the same sort of budget scams on their people. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, for example, recently dealt with his state's deficit by slashing spending for public health, higher education, the elderly and the disabled. He then vetoed an income tax on Minnesota's richest people, declaring that this effort to balance the budget and share the pain was "nonsensical." Likewise, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is terminating state workers while vetoing a tax hike on millionaires, calling the wealth tax "irresponsible."

So, students, the lesson here is that public spending is only sensible if it goes to the moneyed elites, and budget cuts are only good when applied to the rest of us.

"The Real Deficit Is Jobs," http://www.ourfuture.org, June 29, 2010.

"17 Senators From State With Double-Digit Jobless Rates Repeatedly Vote To Filibuster Unemployment Benefits," http://www.alternet.org, July 1, 2010.

"Undermining The Stimulus," http://www.thinkprogress.org, June 25, 2010.


http://jimhightower.com/node/7196]]> Wednesday, July 14, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Deficit hawks are on the fly in Washington, madly screeching that America can no longer afford... well, the American people.

Having slashed taxes for the wealthiest one-percent of our society, having lavished gabillions of dollars on unnecessary wars that enrich politically-connected government contractors, having laid out trillions of dollars to bail out Wall Street's casino banksters who crashed our real economy – Washington's brave fighters for extending more of our nation's wealth to the already-rich have suddenly turned into born-again budget whackers.

Are they cutting back on any of the above elites, you ask? What a joker you are! No, no – it's regular folks who must pay the price for the decade of excess that these politicos lavished on the rich.

In recent weeks, for example, Republican senators have repeatedly blocked an extension of jobless benefits for America's hardest-hit families. They've also denied aid that would keep states and cities from firing hundreds of thousands of teachers, police officers, and other essential public employees, "Can't afford it," bellow these newly-minted spendthrifts, even as their failure to act is intentionally increasing unemployment and economic-pain across our land.

Governors are also running the same sort of budget scams on their people. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, for example, recently dealt with his state's deficit by slashing spending for public health, higher education, the elderly and the disabled. He then vetoed an income tax on Minnesota's richest people, declaring that this effort to balance the budget and share the pain was "nonsensical." Likewise, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is terminating state workers while vetoing a tax hike on millionaires, calling the wealth tax "irresponsible."

So, students, the lesson here is that public spending is only sensible if it goes to the moneyed elites, and budget cuts are only good when applied to the rest of us.

"The Real Deficit Is Jobs," http://www.ourfuture.org, June 29, 2010.

"17 Senators From State With Double-Digit Jobless Rates Repeatedly Vote To Filibuster Unemployment Benefits," http://www.alternet.org, July 1, 2010.

"Undermining The Stimulus," http://www.thinkprogress.org, June 25, 2010.


http://jimhightower.com/node/7196]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=602 Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:21:40 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=602
SHANGHAI (AP) -- Factory workers demanding better wages and working conditions are hastening the eventual end of an era of cheap costs that helped make southern coastal China the world's factory floor.

A series of strikes over the past two months have been a rude wakeup call for the many foreign companies that depend on China's low costs to compete overseas, from makers of Christmas trees to manufacturers of gadgets like the iPad.

Where once low-tech factories and scant wages were welcomed in a China eager to escape isolation and poverty, workers are now demanding a bigger share of the profits. The government, meanwhile, is pushing foreign companies to make investments in areas it believes will create greater wealth for China, like high technology.

Many companies are striving to stay profitable by shifting factories to cheaper areas farther inland or to other developing countries, and a few are even resuming production in the West.

"China is going to go through a very dramatic period. The big companies are starting to exit. We all see the writing on the wall," said Rick Goodwin, a China trade veteran of 22 years, whose company links foreign buyers with Chinese suppliers.

"I have 15 major clients. My job is to give the best advice I can give. I tell it like it is. I tell them, put your helmet on, it's going to get ugly," said Goodwin, who says dissatisfied workers and hard-to-predict exchange rates are his top worries.

Beijing's decision to stop tethering the Chinese currency to the U.S. dollar, allowing it to appreciate and thus boosting costs in yuan, has multiplied the uncertainty for companies already struggling with meager profit margins.

In an about-face mocked on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Wham-O, the company that created the Hula-Hoop and Slip 'n Slide, decided to bring half of its Frisbee production and some production of its other products back to the U.S.

At the other end of the scale, some in research-intensive sectors such as pharmaceutical, biotech and other life sciences companies are also reconsidering China for a range of reasons, including costs and incentives being offered in other countries.

"Life sciences companies have shifted some production back to the U.S. from China. In some cases, the U.S. was becoming cheaper," said Sean Correll, director of consulting services for Burlington, Mass.-based Emptoris.

That may soon become true for publishers, too. Printing a 9-by-9-inch, 334-page hardcover book in China costs about 44 to 45 cents now, with another 3 cents for shipping, says Goodwin. The same book costs 65 to 68 cents to make in the U.S.

"If costs go up by half, it's about the same price as in the U.S. And you don't have 30 days on the water in shipping," he says.

Even with recent increases, wages for Chinese workers are still a fraction of those for Americans. But studies do show China's overall cost advantage is shrinking.

Labor costs have been climbing about 15 percent a year since a 2008 labor contract law that made workers more aware of their rights. Tax preferences for foreign companies ended in 2007. Land, water, energy and shipping costs are on the rise.

In its most recent survey, issued in February, restructuring firm Alix Partners found that overall China was more expensive than Mexico, India, Vietnam, Russia and Romania.

Mexico, in particular, has gained an edge thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement and fast, inexpensive trucking, says Mike Romeri, an executive with Emptoris, the consulting firm.

Makers of toys and trinkets, Christmas trees and cheap shoes already have folded by the thousands or moved away, some to Vietnam, Indonesia or Cambodia. But those countries lack the huge work force, infrastructure and markets China can offer, and most face the same labor issues as China.

So far, the biggest impact appears to be in and around Shenzhen, a former fishing village in Guangdong province, bordering Hong Kong, that is home to thousands of export manufacturers.

That includes Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology, a supplier of iPhones and iPads to Apple Inc. Foxconn responded to a spate of suicides at its 400,000-worker Shenzhen complex with pay hikes that more than doubled basic monthly worker salaries to $290. Strike-stricken suppliers to Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., among many others, also have hiked wages.

Foxconn refused repeated requests for comment on plans to move much of its manufacturing capacity to central China's impoverished Henan province, where a local government website has advertised for tens of thousands of workers on its behalf.

But among other projects farther inland, Foxconn is teaming up with some of the biggest global computer makers to build what may be the world's largest laptop production hub in Chongqing, a western China city of 32 million where labor costs are estimated to be 20 to 40 percent lower than in coastal cities.

Given the intricate supply chains and logistics systems that have helped make southern China an export manufacturing powerhouse, such changes won't be easy.

But for manufacturers looking to boost sales inside fast-growing China, shifting production to the inland areas where many migrant workers come from, and costs are lower, offers the most realistic alternative.

"The new game is to find a way to do the domestic market," says Goodwin.

Many factories in Foshan, another city in Guangdong that saw strikes at auto parts plants supplying Japan's Honda, have left in the past few months, mostly moving inland to Henan, Hunan and Jiangxi, said Lin Liyuan, dean at the privately run Institute of Territorial Economics in Guangzhou.

Massive investments in roads, railways and other infrastructure are reducing the isolation of the inland cities, part of a decade-old "Develop the West" strategy aimed at shrinking the huge, politically volatile gap in wealth between city dwellers and the country's 600 million farmers.

Gambling that the unrest will not spill over from foreign-owned factories, China's leaders are using the chance to push investment in regions that have lagged the country's industrial boom.

They have little choice. Many of today's factory workers have higher ambitions than their parents, who generally saved their earnings from assembling toys and television sets for retirement in their rural hometowns. They are also choosier about wages and working conditions. "The conflicts are challenging the current set-up of low-wage, low-tech manufacturing, and may catalyze the transformation of China's industrial sector," said Yu Hai, a sociology professor at Shanghai's Fudan University.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Companies-...5.html?x=0]]>
SHANGHAI (AP) -- Factory workers demanding better wages and working conditions are hastening the eventual end of an era of cheap costs that helped make southern coastal China the world's factory floor.

A series of strikes over the past two months have been a rude wakeup call for the many foreign companies that depend on China's low costs to compete overseas, from makers of Christmas trees to manufacturers of gadgets like the iPad.

Where once low-tech factories and scant wages were welcomed in a China eager to escape isolation and poverty, workers are now demanding a bigger share of the profits. The government, meanwhile, is pushing foreign companies to make investments in areas it believes will create greater wealth for China, like high technology.

Many companies are striving to stay profitable by shifting factories to cheaper areas farther inland or to other developing countries, and a few are even resuming production in the West.

"China is going to go through a very dramatic period. The big companies are starting to exit. We all see the writing on the wall," said Rick Goodwin, a China trade veteran of 22 years, whose company links foreign buyers with Chinese suppliers.

"I have 15 major clients. My job is to give the best advice I can give. I tell it like it is. I tell them, put your helmet on, it's going to get ugly," said Goodwin, who says dissatisfied workers and hard-to-predict exchange rates are his top worries.

Beijing's decision to stop tethering the Chinese currency to the U.S. dollar, allowing it to appreciate and thus boosting costs in yuan, has multiplied the uncertainty for companies already struggling with meager profit margins.

In an about-face mocked on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Wham-O, the company that created the Hula-Hoop and Slip 'n Slide, decided to bring half of its Frisbee production and some production of its other products back to the U.S.

At the other end of the scale, some in research-intensive sectors such as pharmaceutical, biotech and other life sciences companies are also reconsidering China for a range of reasons, including costs and incentives being offered in other countries.

"Life sciences companies have shifted some production back to the U.S. from China. In some cases, the U.S. was becoming cheaper," said Sean Correll, director of consulting services for Burlington, Mass.-based Emptoris.

That may soon become true for publishers, too. Printing a 9-by-9-inch, 334-page hardcover book in China costs about 44 to 45 cents now, with another 3 cents for shipping, says Goodwin. The same book costs 65 to 68 cents to make in the U.S.

"If costs go up by half, it's about the same price as in the U.S. And you don't have 30 days on the water in shipping," he says.

Even with recent increases, wages for Chinese workers are still a fraction of those for Americans. But studies do show China's overall cost advantage is shrinking.

Labor costs have been climbing about 15 percent a year since a 2008 labor contract law that made workers more aware of their rights. Tax preferences for foreign companies ended in 2007. Land, water, energy and shipping costs are on the rise.

In its most recent survey, issued in February, restructuring firm Alix Partners found that overall China was more expensive than Mexico, India, Vietnam, Russia and Romania.

Mexico, in particular, has gained an edge thanks to the North American Free Trade Agreement and fast, inexpensive trucking, says Mike Romeri, an executive with Emptoris, the consulting firm.

Makers of toys and trinkets, Christmas trees and cheap shoes already have folded by the thousands or moved away, some to Vietnam, Indonesia or Cambodia. But those countries lack the huge work force, infrastructure and markets China can offer, and most face the same labor issues as China.

So far, the biggest impact appears to be in and around Shenzhen, a former fishing village in Guangdong province, bordering Hong Kong, that is home to thousands of export manufacturers.

That includes Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology, a supplier of iPhones and iPads to Apple Inc. Foxconn responded to a spate of suicides at its 400,000-worker Shenzhen complex with pay hikes that more than doubled basic monthly worker salaries to $290. Strike-stricken suppliers to Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., among many others, also have hiked wages.

Foxconn refused repeated requests for comment on plans to move much of its manufacturing capacity to central China's impoverished Henan province, where a local government website has advertised for tens of thousands of workers on its behalf.

But among other projects farther inland, Foxconn is teaming up with some of the biggest global computer makers to build what may be the world's largest laptop production hub in Chongqing, a western China city of 32 million where labor costs are estimated to be 20 to 40 percent lower than in coastal cities.

Given the intricate supply chains and logistics systems that have helped make southern China an export manufacturing powerhouse, such changes won't be easy.

But for manufacturers looking to boost sales inside fast-growing China, shifting production to the inland areas where many migrant workers come from, and costs are lower, offers the most realistic alternative.

"The new game is to find a way to do the domestic market," says Goodwin.

Many factories in Foshan, another city in Guangdong that saw strikes at auto parts plants supplying Japan's Honda, have left in the past few months, mostly moving inland to Henan, Hunan and Jiangxi, said Lin Liyuan, dean at the privately run Institute of Territorial Economics in Guangzhou.

Massive investments in roads, railways and other infrastructure are reducing the isolation of the inland cities, part of a decade-old "Develop the West" strategy aimed at shrinking the huge, politically volatile gap in wealth between city dwellers and the country's 600 million farmers.

Gambling that the unrest will not spill over from foreign-owned factories, China's leaders are using the chance to push investment in regions that have lagged the country's industrial boom.

They have little choice. Many of today's factory workers have higher ambitions than their parents, who generally saved their earnings from assembling toys and television sets for retirement in their rural hometowns. They are also choosier about wages and working conditions. "The conflicts are challenging the current set-up of low-wage, low-tech manufacturing, and may catalyze the transformation of China's industrial sector," said Yu Hai, a sociology professor at Shanghai's Fudan University.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Companies-...5.html?x=0]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=601 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:04:33 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=601 Wednesday, June 30, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Should bank robbery be legal, as long as the robbers wear name tags?

Such an absurd concept is at the core of the proposal by Democratic congressional leaders to "restrain" the ability of corporations to steal America's elections. Corporate giants – from Wall Street to Walmart – were unleashed to pull off such robberies by the Supreme Court in an absurd January decree that corporations are "persons" with free-speech rights and, therefore, are entitled to spend unlimited sums of money from their massive corporate treasuries to run their own campaigns to defeat or elect anyone they want.

This is the nuclear bomb of politics, empowering corporations to drop megatons of money on candidates, literally letting this narrow special interest buy our government.

Democrats promised quick action to stop this armed robbery of the People's democratic authority. But – flexing milquetoast rather than muscle – the Dems proposed nothing but a disclosure bill. It meekly accepts the "right" of corporations to steal people's political power – as long as the barrage of corporate campaign ads come with name tags, revealing who's doing the stealing.

Yet, so-called leaders of the party are now even backing off on disclosure, watering down their own milquetoast. First came the NRA, shooting a hole in the bill to let them escape the disclosure requirement. Of course, other entities – from AARP to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – want the same exemption, so it’s fast becoming a non-disclosure bill... and a joke.

Backers say that these exemptions are the "only way" to win enough votes to pass the bill. What wimps! There is another way – Democrats should get out of Washington, where corporate money already rules, and go to the people, rally grassroots America to ram meaningful reform down the throats of these thieves.

"Loopholes Grow In Bill To Offset Campaign Ruling," The New York Times, June 18, 2010.


http://jimhightower.com/node/7184]]> Wednesday, June 30, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Should bank robbery be legal, as long as the robbers wear name tags?

Such an absurd concept is at the core of the proposal by Democratic congressional leaders to "restrain" the ability of corporations to steal America's elections. Corporate giants – from Wall Street to Walmart – were unleashed to pull off such robberies by the Supreme Court in an absurd January decree that corporations are "persons" with free-speech rights and, therefore, are entitled to spend unlimited sums of money from their massive corporate treasuries to run their own campaigns to defeat or elect anyone they want.

This is the nuclear bomb of politics, empowering corporations to drop megatons of money on candidates, literally letting this narrow special interest buy our government.

Democrats promised quick action to stop this armed robbery of the People's democratic authority. But – flexing milquetoast rather than muscle – the Dems proposed nothing but a disclosure bill. It meekly accepts the "right" of corporations to steal people's political power – as long as the barrage of corporate campaign ads come with name tags, revealing who's doing the stealing.

Yet, so-called leaders of the party are now even backing off on disclosure, watering down their own milquetoast. First came the NRA, shooting a hole in the bill to let them escape the disclosure requirement. Of course, other entities – from AARP to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – want the same exemption, so it’s fast becoming a non-disclosure bill... and a joke.

Backers say that these exemptions are the "only way" to win enough votes to pass the bill. What wimps! There is another way – Democrats should get out of Washington, where corporate money already rules, and go to the people, rally grassroots America to ram meaningful reform down the throats of these thieves.

"Loopholes Grow In Bill To Offset Campaign Ruling," The New York Times, June 18, 2010.


http://jimhightower.com/node/7184]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=600 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:51:23 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=600 Wednesday, July 7, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Republican congress critters have once again stomped on the fingers of out-of-work Americans who're clinging to unemployment aid to keep from tumbling into the depths of poverty.

Every single Republican senator recently locked arms to block consideration of a $33 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits to those who've been without work for more than six months, at which point their jobless payments expire. Longterm joblessness is now at the highest rate since the Great Depression, and the Republicans' cold recalcitrance means more than a million Americans will now loose even the meager weekly payments that've kept them hanging on in today's jobless economy – and another 200,000 workers will join them every week.

"Too costly," grumped the GOP senators. They've suddenly turned into budget skinflints, after approving trillions of dollars to bail out Wall Street fat cats who caused today's economic mess, and while continuing to shell out $12 billion a month for nation-building in Afghanistan.

Adding insult to economic injury, the Repubs have taken to dissing out-of-work Americans as unworthy of a helping hand. "We should not be giving cash to people who basically are just going to blow it on drugs," sniffed Sen. Orrin Hatch. Sen. Jon Kyl complained that $300-a-week jobless payments are a "disincentive for them to seek new work." Rep. Dean Heller worries that the payments are "creating hobos." And Sharron Angle, a GOP teabag candidate for senate, declares that unemployment benefits "really have spoiled our citizenry."

What a disgrace! It's these privileged lawmakers who're spoiled – spoiled so rotten they can't even smell the hypocrisy of showering tax dollars on the moneyed elites, then piously turning their backs on America's grassroots folks in a time of real need.

"Republicans block unemployment benefits extension for lazy drug addicted breeding hobos," http://www.free-press-release.com, June 25, 2010.

"Republicans Kill Senate Unemployment Bill," http://www.cbsnews.com, June 24, 2010.

"GOP Sen. Kyl: Unemployment Benefits Make People Not Want To Get A Job," http://www.huffingtonpost.com, March 1, 2010.

http://jimhightower.com/node/7190]]> Wednesday, July 7, 2010 | by Jim Hightower

Republican congress critters have once again stomped on the fingers of out-of-work Americans who're clinging to unemployment aid to keep from tumbling into the depths of poverty.

Every single Republican senator recently locked arms to block consideration of a $33 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits to those who've been without work for more than six months, at which point their jobless payments expire. Longterm joblessness is now at the highest rate since the Great Depression, and the Republicans' cold recalcitrance means more than a million Americans will now loose even the meager weekly payments that've kept them hanging on in today's jobless economy – and another 200,000 workers will join them every week.

"Too costly," grumped the GOP senators. They've suddenly turned into budget skinflints, after approving trillions of dollars to bail out Wall Street fat cats who caused today's economic mess, and while continuing to shell out $12 billion a month for nation-building in Afghanistan.

Adding insult to economic injury, the Repubs have taken to dissing out-of-work Americans as unworthy of a helping hand. "We should not be giving cash to people who basically are just going to blow it on drugs," sniffed Sen. Orrin Hatch. Sen. Jon Kyl complained that $300-a-week jobless payments are a "disincentive for them to seek new work." Rep. Dean Heller worries that the payments are "creating hobos." And Sharron Angle, a GOP teabag candidate for senate, declares that unemployment benefits "really have spoiled our citizenry."

What a disgrace! It's these privileged lawmakers who're spoiled – spoiled so rotten they can't even smell the hypocrisy of showering tax dollars on the moneyed elites, then piously turning their backs on America's grassroots folks in a time of real need.

"Republicans block unemployment benefits extension for lazy drug addicted breeding hobos," http://www.free-press-release.com, June 25, 2010.

"Republicans Kill Senate Unemployment Bill," http://www.cbsnews.com, June 24, 2010.

"GOP Sen. Kyl: Unemployment Benefits Make People Not Want To Get A Job," http://www.huffingtonpost.com, March 1, 2010.

http://jimhightower.com/node/7190]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=599 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:27:21 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=599 Sounds like this will bring a whole new meaning to "bring your child to work day"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DETROIT -- (07/07/10)--A new owner is in town. General Motors announced Wednesday the sale of its auto parts supplier Nexteer Automotive to Pacific Century Motors.

The move is a joint effort between Asian automotive manufacturer Tempo and E-Town Development, the financial investing arm of the Beijing Municipal Government.

Pacific Century Motors says it has worked with General Motors and the UAW for the last six months to reach this deal.

GM says the sale allows them to focus on their core brands while providing Nexteer continued capital and new growth opportunities.

"I live in America," said Joe Darby of Freeland. "Why would I want to work for a Chinese company?"

Darby sn't pleased with thought of a foreign boss.

"It's outsourcing, but it's insourcing at the same time," he said.

Darby has been inside Nexteer Automotive's plant in Buena Vista for four years. He doesn't want to see his hard work come to an end.

"It was a memo of understanding," he said. "It will be interesting, a totally different ball game here. I hope they are good on their word. We will deliver on our side."

"As far as selling to Asia, I'm not happy about it, but at least we sold it to somebody," said Steven Hanes.

Hanes, of Saginaw Township, is optimistic new owners Pacific Century Motors won't cut jobs but he isn't sure what the future could bring.

"Pretty sure we will feel an impact one way or the other," he said. "Just have to wait and see what happens. We've felt the impacts the last four years. What's the next five years going to be like?"

"I don't think it's going to change anything. I'm still going to do my job," said Steven Decaire.

In a statement released by PCM, it says Nexteer headquarters will remain in Saginaw County and the current management team will continue to run the auto parts supplier.

Darby hopes they don't back out on their word.

"I just hope they come through and they honor their agreement," he said. "We will do what we've got to do to keep this place running, but get us the business and keep us running."

The sale should be completed by the end of the year.

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?sectio...id=7542029]]> Sounds like this will bring a whole new meaning to "bring your child to work day"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DETROIT -- (07/07/10)--A new owner is in town. General Motors announced Wednesday the sale of its auto parts supplier Nexteer Automotive to Pacific Century Motors.

The move is a joint effort between Asian automotive manufacturer Tempo and E-Town Development, the financial investing arm of the Beijing Municipal Government.

Pacific Century Motors says it has worked with General Motors and the UAW for the last six months to reach this deal.

GM says the sale allows them to focus on their core brands while providing Nexteer continued capital and new growth opportunities.

"I live in America," said Joe Darby of Freeland. "Why would I want to work for a Chinese company?"

Darby sn't pleased with thought of a foreign boss.

"It's outsourcing, but it's insourcing at the same time," he said.

Darby has been inside Nexteer Automotive's plant in Buena Vista for four years. He doesn't want to see his hard work come to an end.

"It was a memo of understanding," he said. "It will be interesting, a totally different ball game here. I hope they are good on their word. We will deliver on our side."

"As far as selling to Asia, I'm not happy about it, but at least we sold it to somebody," said Steven Hanes.

Hanes, of Saginaw Township, is optimistic new owners Pacific Century Motors won't cut jobs but he isn't sure what the future could bring.

"Pretty sure we will feel an impact one way or the other," he said. "Just have to wait and see what happens. We've felt the impacts the last four years. What's the next five years going to be like?"

"I don't think it's going to change anything. I'm still going to do my job," said Steven Decaire.

In a statement released by PCM, it says Nexteer headquarters will remain in Saginaw County and the current management team will continue to run the auto parts supplier.

Darby hopes they don't back out on their word.

"I just hope they come through and they honor their agreement," he said. "We will do what we've got to do to keep this place running, but get us the business and keep us running."

The sale should be completed by the end of the year.

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?sectio...id=7542029]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=598 Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:23:32 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=598
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a website that offers basic information on health care insurance options based on such factors as age, health status and state of residence. The website is at http://www.healthcare.gov

Currently, there are more than 1,000 private insurance companies' plans listed on the website. In addition, there is information on public insurance plans including Medicare, Medicaid and new state and national high-risk insurance pools that provide coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Through the website, you can access the websites of insurance providers and obtain the providers' customer service telephone numbers. In addition, the website links to summaries of the insurance plans' benefits and you can check to see if your doctors are part of the plans. You can also find out about the prescription drug coverage offered by the plans. The website will add pricing data in October, including premium costs, co-payments and deductibles.

The website is also a resource for comparing quality of care at hospitals, learning about the health care overhaul law and obtaining wellness tips. According to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the website is intended to help consumers until 2014 when much of the new health care reform law takes effect.

I encourage you to browse the website to learn what information is there that may be of use to you now and in the future. Consider bookmarking http://www.healthcare.gov so you can easily find the website when you need health care information.

Bill Kadereit
President, National Retiree Legislative Network]]>
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a website that offers basic information on health care insurance options based on such factors as age, health status and state of residence. The website is at http://www.healthcare.gov

Currently, there are more than 1,000 private insurance companies' plans listed on the website. In addition, there is information on public insurance plans including Medicare, Medicaid and new state and national high-risk insurance pools that provide coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

Through the website, you can access the websites of insurance providers and obtain the providers' customer service telephone numbers. In addition, the website links to summaries of the insurance plans' benefits and you can check to see if your doctors are part of the plans. You can also find out about the prescription drug coverage offered by the plans. The website will add pricing data in October, including premium costs, co-payments and deductibles.

The website is also a resource for comparing quality of care at hospitals, learning about the health care overhaul law and obtaining wellness tips. According to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the website is intended to help consumers until 2014 when much of the new health care reform law takes effect.

I encourage you to browse the website to learn what information is there that may be of use to you now and in the future. Consider bookmarking http://www.healthcare.gov so you can easily find the website when you need health care information.

Bill Kadereit
President, National Retiree Legislative Network]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=597 Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:10:06 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=597
Article:
http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0602]]>
Article:
http://www.nlcnet.org/reports?id=0602]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=596 Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:16:17 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=596
It seems like everywhere you go in this country, you hear story after story of Americans who have been let down by the private health insurance system. Parents in Texas unable to buy coverage for their infant born with a heart defect. A Los Angeles woman forced to stop chemotherapy for months while fighting her insurer's claim that her cancer was a pre-existing condition. Patients whose life-saving treatments and therapies are cut short due to annual or lifetime coverage limits.

Yesterday, President Obama put an end to these unfair practices once and for all by announcing new rules made possible by the Affordable Care Act. These new rules will take effect for most plans starting on or after September 23rd. They will remove barriers between you and your doctor and help provide the peace of mind that health insurance will be there when you need it the most.

You can watch the President and me speak about the people who these rules will help and why we fought so hard to make them part of the new law:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/patients-rights

A major goal of the Affordable Care Act is to put American consumers back in charge of their coverage and care.

Here are a few key ways these new rules will help do that:

Stop insurance companies from imposing pre-existing condition exclusions on your children;
Prohibit insurers from rescinding or taking away your coverage based on an unintentional mistake on an application;
Ban insurers from setting lifetime limits on your coverage and restrict their use of annual limits on coverage;
Ensure that you can choose the primary care doctor or pediatrician you want from your plan's provider network;
Eliminate the need for a referral to see an ob-gyn;
Prohibit insurance companies from requiring "prior approval" before you seek emergency care at a hospital outside your plan's network.
These rules effectively put in place a basic set of consumer protections known over the years as the "Patient's Bill of Rights." This is a concept introduced 15 years ago and supported by both Democrats and Republicans. After years of effort and the passage of the Affordable Care Act, I'm proud to say we are finally protecting those rights and putting health care back in the right hands: yours.

Now, let me touch on a few other updates about what we're doing to implement health care reform.

Over the past several weeks, we have:

Ensured that if you like your current health care plan, you can keep it -- by issuing some new regulations for insurance plans that give you, your family, and your business more control over your health care choices;
Worked to get coverage to one of the groups who is least insured, young people, through a new provision that will allow children up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents health care plan (a benefit that we successfully persuaded many insurers to implement ahead of schedule);
Announced tax credits that will benefit millions of small businesses that have been struggling to provide care to their employees;
Begun mailing $250 checks to tens of thousands of seniors who have reached the ‘donut hole' -- a term used to describe the gap in Medicare Part D prescription coverage -- to help seniors manage their health care costs;
Announced new support to strengthen and expand the health care workforce, including increasing the number of primary care doctors and nurses.
You can learn more at:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/patients-rights

The passage of the Affordable Care Act was an historic victory for the American people, laying a new foundation for relief from skyrocketing health insurance costs and for secure, stable, and affordable health care coverage. But passage brought us an important new challenge -- implementation -- and I look forward to sharing additional news and updates as we steadily turn the promise of health reform into reality.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary of Health and Human Services]]>
It seems like everywhere you go in this country, you hear story after story of Americans who have been let down by the private health insurance system. Parents in Texas unable to buy coverage for their infant born with a heart defect. A Los Angeles woman forced to stop chemotherapy for months while fighting her insurer's claim that her cancer was a pre-existing condition. Patients whose life-saving treatments and therapies are cut short due to annual or lifetime coverage limits.

Yesterday, President Obama put an end to these unfair practices once and for all by announcing new rules made possible by the Affordable Care Act. These new rules will take effect for most plans starting on or after September 23rd. They will remove barriers between you and your doctor and help provide the peace of mind that health insurance will be there when you need it the most.

You can watch the President and me speak about the people who these rules will help and why we fought so hard to make them part of the new law:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/patients-rights

A major goal of the Affordable Care Act is to put American consumers back in charge of their coverage and care.

Here are a few key ways these new rules will help do that:

Stop insurance companies from imposing pre-existing condition exclusions on your children;
Prohibit insurers from rescinding or taking away your coverage based on an unintentional mistake on an application;
Ban insurers from setting lifetime limits on your coverage and restrict their use of annual limits on coverage;
Ensure that you can choose the primary care doctor or pediatrician you want from your plan's provider network;
Eliminate the need for a referral to see an ob-gyn;
Prohibit insurance companies from requiring "prior approval" before you seek emergency care at a hospital outside your plan's network.
These rules effectively put in place a basic set of consumer protections known over the years as the "Patient's Bill of Rights." This is a concept introduced 15 years ago and supported by both Democrats and Republicans. After years of effort and the passage of the Affordable Care Act, I'm proud to say we are finally protecting those rights and putting health care back in the right hands: yours.

Now, let me touch on a few other updates about what we're doing to implement health care reform.

Over the past several weeks, we have:

Ensured that if you like your current health care plan, you can keep it -- by issuing some new regulations for insurance plans that give you, your family, and your business more control over your health care choices;
Worked to get coverage to one of the groups who is least insured, young people, through a new provision that will allow children up to the age of 26 to stay on their parents health care plan (a benefit that we successfully persuaded many insurers to implement ahead of schedule);
Announced tax credits that will benefit millions of small businesses that have been struggling to provide care to their employees;
Begun mailing $250 checks to tens of thousands of seniors who have reached the ‘donut hole' -- a term used to describe the gap in Medicare Part D prescription coverage -- to help seniors manage their health care costs;
Announced new support to strengthen and expand the health care workforce, including increasing the number of primary care doctors and nurses.
You can learn more at:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/patients-rights

The passage of the Affordable Care Act was an historic victory for the American people, laying a new foundation for relief from skyrocketing health insurance costs and for secure, stable, and affordable health care coverage. But passage brought us an important new challenge -- implementation -- and I look forward to sharing additional news and updates as we steadily turn the promise of health reform into reality.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary of Health and Human Services]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=595 Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:01:55 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=595 http://www.wimp.com/oilspills/]]> http://www.wimp.com/oilspills/]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=594 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:34:21 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=594 conditions and have zero rights on the job. Their conditions are
comparable to what autoworkers endured in the United States --
before they organized under the UAW and fought for their rights.

Workers at the Honda Lock factory in Zhongshan, China, have had
enough. They're on strike to win $1.34 an hour wages -- and
some justice.

And that's where you can help. Please sign the National Labor
Committee's letter to Honda's CEO in Japan:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/677...n_KEY=4125

Help these abused workers in China better their lives and win
justice. Help them show that a profitable corporation like Honda
must treat its workers fairly. Help them show that they can win,
even though the Chinese government actively discourages
independent trade unions and censors news about the strike.

And help yourselves by taking a stand against the race to the
bottom where all workers -- in China and here in the United
States -- lose. Tell Honda to stop the firings. Tell Honda to
end the violence and intimidation against workers and negotiate
in good faith.

The Honda Lock factory exports tons of auto parts to its huge
warehouse in Bremen, Ga. From there the key sets, outside door
handles, door locks, door mirrors and wheel sensors made in
China are shipped out across the U.S. and Canada. We have an
absolute responsibility to raise our voices for justice for
these workers. We must be a strong voice for those who do not
have a full voice themselves. In addition, while we are doing
the morally right thing, we are also protecting our standard of
living in the long run.

The National Labor Committee works to defend the rights of all
workers in the global economy. See their website at:
http://www.nlcnet.org

Just think of what a different and more humane world it would be
if workers all across North America, Japan and China were
united.

Sign the letter to Honda management:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/677...n_KEY=4125]]> conditions and have zero rights on the job. Their conditions are
comparable to what autoworkers endured in the United States --
before they organized under the UAW and fought for their rights.

Workers at the Honda Lock factory in Zhongshan, China, have had
enough. They're on strike to win $1.34 an hour wages -- and
some justice.

And that's where you can help. Please sign the National Labor
Committee's letter to Honda's CEO in Japan:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/677...n_KEY=4125

Help these abused workers in China better their lives and win
justice. Help them show that a profitable corporation like Honda
must treat its workers fairly. Help them show that they can win,
even though the Chinese government actively discourages
independent trade unions and censors news about the strike.

And help yourselves by taking a stand against the race to the
bottom where all workers -- in China and here in the United
States -- lose. Tell Honda to stop the firings. Tell Honda to
end the violence and intimidation against workers and negotiate
in good faith.

The Honda Lock factory exports tons of auto parts to its huge
warehouse in Bremen, Ga. From there the key sets, outside door
handles, door locks, door mirrors and wheel sensors made in
China are shipped out across the U.S. and Canada. We have an
absolute responsibility to raise our voices for justice for
these workers. We must be a strong voice for those who do not
have a full voice themselves. In addition, while we are doing
the morally right thing, we are also protecting our standard of
living in the long run.

The National Labor Committee works to defend the rights of all
workers in the global economy. See their website at:
http://www.nlcnet.org

Just think of what a different and more humane world it would be
if workers all across North America, Japan and China were
united.

Sign the letter to Honda management:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/677...n_KEY=4125]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=593 Mon, 21 Jun 2010 09:13:26 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=593 http://moveon.org/]]> http://moveon.org/]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=592 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:01:48 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=592 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#37769319]]> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#37769319]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=591 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:23:17 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=591 who would believe that "Corporate globalization" was going to help raise the living standards of third world Countries?
CORPORATES FORMULA FOR THE PERFECT CORPORATE WORLD (the vicious circle)
formula: Corporate globalization= exploitation of third world Countries poverty= more money in Corporate Ceo's pockets= more money to lobby (buy) Congress with= The demise of "middle Class America" (more American jobs lost, lower American wages), = more money to lobby (buy) Congress with= A third world global economy of the Have's and the Have nots, with nothing in between and no voice for the people.
The perfect Corporate World.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ron Gettelfinger may have been right about globalization's effects on manufacturing wages
Published: Friday, June 18, 2010, 5:45 AM Updated: Friday, June 18, 2010, 7:15 AM

I've heard it said by some smart observers that the toughest job in the auto industry during the past decade was not held by the CEO of one of the Detroit Three automakers.

That distinction arguably goes to United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, who played a crucial role in the survival of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, as well as in the success of Ford Motor Co.

Gettelfinger, who retires this month, presided over a union that was forced to agree to hundreds of thousands of job cuts and relinquish hard-fought gains in wages and benefits.

"Givebacks" have been anathema to the union. Yet Gettelfinger accepted them time and time again.

And he was required to get the approval of workers for repeated contract concessions, a burden not shared by the chief executive officers of GM, Ford and Chrysler.

In the salad days of labor negotiations, the UAW and automakers hammered out a national contract every three or four years and pretty much stuck to it for the duration of the pact.

That changed in the latter part of the past decade as the Detroit Three nearly drove off a financial cliff. The 2007, a four-year contract became practically meaningless as the UAW and automakers continually reshaped it.

Gettelfinger had no choice, really, but to acquiesce to the demands of the hemorrhaging automakers.

The lifetime job guarantees, traditional pension plans and carefree retiree health insurance plans the UAW members enjoyed as employees of the once-dominant Detroit Three were stripped as the global economy decelerated.

A once unheard of two-tier wage system, in which new hires earn half the hourly rate of current workers, was implemented.

The cost of retiree health care has been taken off the balance sheets of the automakers and placed on the books of the UAW.

Lifetime job security measures once enjoyed by UAW members have been thrown on the scrap heap like a rusted out Chevy Caprice.

Gettelfinger often sounded the alarm that globalization was a "race to the bottom" for manufacturing wages.

But the UAW's concessions ultimately may have saved the union and the American auto industry.

A new study by Center for Automotive Research economist Sean McAlinden found the average annual wage of an hourly autoworker at the Detroit Three automakers was $69,368 in 2008, compared to $70,185 for an autoworker in the U.S. operations of a foreign automaker.

Benefit costs for UAW workers were still significantly higher than at the nonunion foreign automakers, known as the U.S. transplants, but will drop sharply in the years ahead.

Interestingly, it's the salaried side of the equation where domestic automakers are at a distinct cost disadvantage, according to McAlinden's study.

Salaried workers at the Detroit Three earned an average of $122,963 in 2008, compared $81,506 for their foreign automaker competitors.

McAlinden predicts Detroit Three automakers will achieve "labor cost superiority" over their foreign competitors here by at least 2015 and will likely hire thousands of new workers.

And Gettelfinger might even be vindicated for his "race to the bottom" warnings.

Ironically, Chinese workers recently struck Honda Motor Co., seeking sharply higher wages so they could live what the New York Times described as a "middle-class life."

Gettelfinger must have been smiling about that.

E-mail Rick Haglund: haglund.rick@gmail.com
http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2010..._been.html]]> who would believe that "Corporate globalization" was going to help raise the living standards of third world Countries?
CORPORATES FORMULA FOR THE PERFECT CORPORATE WORLD (the vicious circle)
formula: Corporate globalization= exploitation of third world Countries poverty= more money in Corporate Ceo's pockets= more money to lobby (buy) Congress with= The demise of "middle Class America" (more American jobs lost, lower American wages), = more money to lobby (buy) Congress with= A third world global economy of the Have's and the Have nots, with nothing in between and no voice for the people.
The perfect Corporate World.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ron Gettelfinger may have been right about globalization's effects on manufacturing wages
Published: Friday, June 18, 2010, 5:45 AM Updated: Friday, June 18, 2010, 7:15 AM

I've heard it said by some smart observers that the toughest job in the auto industry during the past decade was not held by the CEO of one of the Detroit Three automakers.

That distinction arguably goes to United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, who played a crucial role in the survival of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, as well as in the success of Ford Motor Co.

Gettelfinger, who retires this month, presided over a union that was forced to agree to hundreds of thousands of job cuts and relinquish hard-fought gains in wages and benefits.

"Givebacks" have been anathema to the union. Yet Gettelfinger accepted them time and time again.

And he was required to get the approval of workers for repeated contract concessions, a burden not shared by the chief executive officers of GM, Ford and Chrysler.

In the salad days of labor negotiations, the UAW and automakers hammered out a national contract every three or four years and pretty much stuck to it for the duration of the pact.

That changed in the latter part of the past decade as the Detroit Three nearly drove off a financial cliff. The 2007, a four-year contract became practically meaningless as the UAW and automakers continually reshaped it.

Gettelfinger had no choice, really, but to acquiesce to the demands of the hemorrhaging automakers.

The lifetime job guarantees, traditional pension plans and carefree retiree health insurance plans the UAW members enjoyed as employees of the once-dominant Detroit Three were stripped as the global economy decelerated.

A once unheard of two-tier wage system, in which new hires earn half the hourly rate of current workers, was implemented.

The cost of retiree health care has been taken off the balance sheets of the automakers and placed on the books of the UAW.

Lifetime job security measures once enjoyed by UAW members have been thrown on the scrap heap like a rusted out Chevy Caprice.

Gettelfinger often sounded the alarm that globalization was a "race to the bottom" for manufacturing wages.

But the UAW's concessions ultimately may have saved the union and the American auto industry.

A new study by Center for Automotive Research economist Sean McAlinden found the average annual wage of an hourly autoworker at the Detroit Three automakers was $69,368 in 2008, compared to $70,185 for an autoworker in the U.S. operations of a foreign automaker.

Benefit costs for UAW workers were still significantly higher than at the nonunion foreign automakers, known as the U.S. transplants, but will drop sharply in the years ahead.

Interestingly, it's the salaried side of the equation where domestic automakers are at a distinct cost disadvantage, according to McAlinden's study.

Salaried workers at the Detroit Three earned an average of $122,963 in 2008, compared $81,506 for their foreign automaker competitors.

McAlinden predicts Detroit Three automakers will achieve "labor cost superiority" over their foreign competitors here by at least 2015 and will likely hire thousands of new workers.

And Gettelfinger might even be vindicated for his "race to the bottom" warnings.

Ironically, Chinese workers recently struck Honda Motor Co., seeking sharply higher wages so they could live what the New York Times described as a "middle-class life."

Gettelfinger must have been smiling about that.

E-mail Rick Haglund: haglund.rick@gmail.com
http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2010..._been.html]]> http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=590 Fri, 11 Jun 2010 07:21:24 -0400 http://www.uaw599.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=590 http://www.usaspending.gov/explore?carryfilters=on#]]> http://www.usaspending.gov/explore?carryfilters=on#]]>