• Alan talks to the congresswoman who could replace President-elect Obama in the Senate, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).
• Republican Strategist Roger Stone reveals why he now regrets helping George W. Bush win the presidency in 2000.
• UFO enthusiast Stephen Bassett of the Extraterrestrial Phenomena Political Action Committee explains why he wants the Obama administration to release the real-life “X-Files.”
Wow ! I work in a nursing home as the ast hskp suv. I only make 11.30 an hr myself living here in LEX.,KY. mY LADY IS A CNA and she makes close too 13 on 3rd shift. I blew it in OHIO. I was working at WRIGHT ST UNIV as a hskp. The job was a state job and i was able to go to school their free for being a state worker. I was a member of the TEAMSTERS pushing a broom. Most of my friends in DAYTON area where GM workers and the 80,s where hard on those folks. After 10 yrs i left the area,i was a wild and crazy guy back then.
I cannot in good conscience say they deserve a bail out. We own a small construction managment firm. This year we have had to strategize and re-think a lot of things with the economy.
We aren’t asking for a bail out. part of business is ingenuity. Part of that ingenuity is changing with the tide.
If the company can’t afford to pay their wages, then their wages are too high…or their product isn’t what it should be.
Forgive the comparison, but throwing money at a prostitute time after time will not make her change her ways. It only makes her prone to continue with business as usual.
I understand the disparity of wages and the anxiety it can cause. Originally, the “line” workers were paid more because the work was repetitive and became so boring that people kept quiting. To quell the onslaught of quiters, the auto industry started to raise the wage. Once unionized, the workers bargained effectively and now earn a “fair and honest” wage rate.
Nurses are desparately underpaid….but, the worst job rate is teaching….now, those people really get hosed.
I have personal knowledge of many primary teachers who, not only are grossly underpaid, but also contribute by buying supplies for their classrooms that the school districts cannot afford to provide.
Auto workers are not over paid. Auto workers work hard and deserve the wage they get.
Note…if the auto industry declares bankruptcy, those retired workers who get benefits and pensions will become vendors and eligable for compensation….in other words, they become the same as other debts that can’t be satisfied….the auto industry would still have to pay them.
Steve,
I would LOVE to get paid as much as they while I work as a nurse. Sadly, my starting hourly pay for day shift was a measly 17.83 and I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing.
They won’t just die if they file for bankruptcy. And in my opinion, 40/hour is plenty to put a car together.
Come on! Those guys earn their money. Are you jealous you are not a UAW worker? T. MASON, i still disagree with you to a degree. You have some good points on this issue. Letting the BIG 3 just die is craps. They need to re-tool. We need fair trade like that 1 union guy was saying today. Most of non-union auto makers are in red states and they are non-AMERICAN companies as well. Just seems kinda of odd to me.
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After how many years .. Alan now understands his show .. good catch Alan .. glad your awake ..
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I have a example of Mrs.Obama’s comment about her husband getting shot going to the gas station(for the caller who asked for clarification). I live on the east side of Buffalo NY, I was walking into my mothers driveway Sunday night and just missed getting shot in the head by 1 of 5 bullets being fired at someone on a bicycle who did get shot 3 times. I was visiting my mom and the area has taken a turn for the worse, I was a inocent bystander.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:21 pm
One of the things that I would like clarity on is the Clinton Administration’s signing of the Chinese and NAFTA agreements. These agreements took away jobs from America. Almost everything you buy is made from China. Could this have started the economic downturn that we are currently in? Could the greed of the companies to take advantage of the inexpensive labor costs caused a slow downturn of the American economy? What was the Clinton’s intention for signing these agreements. Will President Obama remove these agreements?
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Alan – if you are reading this, the answer to all of your callers quoting this $70/hour pay figure for auto workers, which they heard on Fox is that it is an outright falsehood. The inflated figure is one that anti-labor right-wingers drummed up by padding their wages with their calculated cost of healthcare, including the cost of healthcare for retirees.
The actual pay rate of GM auto workers is approximately $30/hour.
They justify the totally deceptive $70/hour figure by including the cost of all benefits for current and former employees and acting as if that were part of the autoworkers actual salary. Of course they never explain this when they quote the $70/hour figure all over the place. Disgusting.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:00 am
According to GM
The average wage for a GM vehicle assembler as
of Dec. 31, 2006 was $26.09 (base wage) plus $1.93 (COLA)
or $28.02 per hour. Also as of Dec. 31, 2006, the average
wage of a GM machine repair electrician was $30.50 (base
wage) plus $1.93 (COLA) or $32.43 per hour
http://media.gm.com/manufacturing/handbook/other_benefits.pdf
Here is a link to the actual GM website which shows you where the $70/hour figure came from. They are attributing all costs of benefits in this figure, and even the $36/hour “cash salary” figure includes OVERTIME and VACATION pay. Only when you get to the second page do you see the actual salary which was only $26.09/hour in 2003.
It makes me sick to think of this $70/hour lie that is being spread around like a virus, only one of millions such lies that are knowingly spread to deliberately capitalize on people’s ignorance of the facts.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 am
“It makes me sick to think of this $70/hour lie that is being spread around like a virus …”
Lies and deception are all they’ve got to work with since the facts aren’t in their favor.
Some of the line workers at the Asian transplants make more than their UAW competitors. They can only make more because their hourly wage is set just high enough to keep the union out without meeting their wage plus profit sharing the last few years added a bit to the transplant paychecks.
If the UAW were no longer a threat, the transplant wages would quickly fall to a more “competitive” fast food style wage.
The Detroit-3 are saddled with retiree costs the transplants don’t have. That’s the only difference between them. The only way to make Detroit truly competitive with the Asians is to put the Detroit retirees on the federal government’s books (with new retirement checks a fraction of their former amount) or put them on the street.
Sometimes you have to wonder who our representatives are really working for. They don’t often seem to have the best interests of “America” at heart anymore. We’ve known for a while the White House was owned by Houston corporate interests but Congress must be owned by someone too.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:14 am
The contrast between the handwringing over aid to Detroit and the no-questions-asked checks (orders of magnitude larger) written to Wall Street is most curious.
Perhaps this is a good clue pointing at who might have bought and paid for Congress?
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 am
“Roger Stone reveals why he now regrets helping George W. Bush win the presidency in 2000.”
He’s sorry, so sorry, that he was such a fool.
He didn’t know, Bush could be so wrong.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, uh-oh, oh, yes.
He’s sorry, so sorry.
Please accept his apology.
But love was blind.
And he was too blind to see.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:52 am
Bush didn’t win….when you steal, you aren’t winning.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:54 am
It’s unlikely any janitors at GM are making $75000/year.
Very unlikely.
(Your caller made up a little story.)
At other UAW employers, the janitors were outsourced long ago and are no longer represented. The janitors are now illegal aliens or working retirees making $8/hr.
Our first non-union janitorial crew included a man later arrested for murdering his girlfriend’s baby. When the cops busted him and searched his house, they recovered a pile of laptop computers he’d stolen from us.
Our second non-union janitorial crew were all busted for stealing equipment from the plant late at night and sneaking it out through a hole in the perimeter fence.
Our third non-union janitorial crew included an old man who used to pass my desk late in the evening and empty my waste basket. One evening, he spotted several expired aspirin in the waste basket I’d discarded. He recovered them from the bottom of the can, tossed his head back and downed them.
I guess he had a headache. I should have asked if he was going home to a supper of dog food.
$8/hr? I guess you get what you pay for.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:09 am
Thanks, Mr. Stone. Hindsight is 20/20 but FRIGGEN FORESIGHT IS PRICELESS, AIN’T IT?!!!
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:45 am
Good grief. Still ranting about Bush “stealing” the election? What a crock of crap.
And you say republicans are the party of whiners.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:17 am
Anony,
Was I sleeping or didn’t democrats vote YES for the first bailout??? I think that includes obama and Biden
Were they bought and paid for too?
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:18 am
Hey Robert, T.Mason has a point. Liberals complain about republicans being whiners, but why is it that you guys can’t quit whining about the 2000 election. After all is was Al Gore who brought the courts into the election and the High Court said enough is enough. Besides Al Gore only wanted a few select, heavyly democratic counties recounted. Why didn’t he just call for a statewide recount? Maybe Al baby was trying to steal the election?
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:29 am
“It makes me sick to think of this $70/hour lie that is being spread around like a virus …”
Wolf Blitzer just repeated it on CNN. Again.
“UAW workers make $73/hr in wages and benefits while non-union employees make $48/hr”.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Union workers make WAYYYY more than the workers at non-union plants. How in the world can you be so dumb to think that you can continue to overpay your workers, bow to the unions, lose a 1,000 bucks on every car that rolls off you assembly line, and think that bailout money is gonna solve your problems?
Small business owners have to lay off employees, restructure, re-organize, etc etc if they aren’t making money. They don’t go to the government and ask for money all the while twiddling their thumbs and letting the unions run them in the ground further.
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Come on! Those guys earn their money. Are you jealous you are not a UAW worker? T. MASON, i still disagree with you to a degree. You have some good points on this issue. Letting the BIG 3 just die is craps. They need to re-tool. We need fair trade like that 1 union guy was saying today. Most of non-union auto makers are in red states and they are non-AMERICAN companies as well. Just seems kinda of odd to me.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Steve,
I would LOVE to get paid as much as they while I work as a nurse. Sadly, my starting hourly pay for day shift was a measly 17.83 and I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing.
They won’t just die if they file for bankruptcy. And in my opinion, 40/hour is plenty to put a car together.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I understand the disparity of wages and the anxiety it can cause. Originally, the “line” workers were paid more because the work was repetitive and became so boring that people kept quiting. To quell the onslaught of quiters, the auto industry started to raise the wage. Once unionized, the workers bargained effectively and now earn a “fair and honest” wage rate.
Nurses are desparately underpaid….but, the worst job rate is teaching….now, those people really get hosed.
I have personal knowledge of many primary teachers who, not only are grossly underpaid, but also contribute by buying supplies for their classrooms that the school districts cannot afford to provide.
Auto workers are not over paid. Auto workers work hard and deserve the wage they get.
Note…if the auto industry declares bankruptcy, those retired workers who get benefits and pensions will become vendors and eligable for compensation….in other words, they become the same as other debts that can’t be satisfied….the auto industry would still have to pay them.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
I cannot in good conscience say they deserve a bail out. We own a small construction managment firm. This year we have had to strategize and re-think a lot of things with the economy.
We aren’t asking for a bail out. part of business is ingenuity. Part of that ingenuity is changing with the tide.
If the company can’t afford to pay their wages, then their wages are too high…or their product isn’t what it should be.
Forgive the comparison, but throwing money at a prostitute time after time will not make her change her ways. It only makes her prone to continue with business as usual.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Wow ! I work in a nursing home as the ast hskp suv. I only make 11.30 an hr myself living here in LEX.,KY. mY LADY IS A CNA and she makes close too 13 on 3rd shift. I blew it in OHIO. I was working at WRIGHT ST UNIV as a hskp. The job was a state job and i was able to go to school their free for being a state worker. I was a member of the TEAMSTERS pushing a broom. Most of my friends in DAYTON area where GM workers and the 80,s where hard on those folks. After 10 yrs i left the area,i was a wild and crazy guy back then.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:26 pm