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Believe Packard53 mentioned something along these lines about potential difficulties re Chrysler-Fiat re-badging a few weeks ago when the buyout was taking place. Comments?
apnews.excite.com/article/20090926/D9AUMMJ80.html

There was another article earlier about Ford either building or partnering with others for a new factory in China to make the Focus.

Ford just announced a major move and new vehicle in India as well this week.

Chuck wrote:
"I work in an American factory, making an American product. The only reason I still have a job is that we have no union here. Most of the parts and even supplies we use here are imported, even the teflon pipe tape says made in India!"

I often hear similar claims as above. Unfortunately, the third sentence of the above claim is a conspicuous contradiction of the first sentence.

Quote:
Good point! I've often wondered if our product here is really an American product if most (if not all) of the items used in it's manufacture are imported.
Looking around tonight, the only US products I've found are the paper towels and stuff in the vending machines.
I did exclude ancient machinery that was here when this company bought the place in the 80's.
If we can't even make our own pipe tape...

THe fundamental problem at the root all of our challenges:

IN RECENT YEARS India, China, 3rd world countries et-al have a well educated and trained work force Willing to work for ten bucks a day and a bag of rice.

It does not matter how well any American thinks or even IS at his job or position. In terms of COMPENSATION he can not feasibly compete IN INDUSTRY with the $10/day crowd in 3rd world countries. THe only place he can compete for wages is at the LOCAL diner for a waitressing job or maybe move to India or China.

Amongst all this I will let you guys know that the local Chevy dealer near my workplace took care of me pretty well. I was coming off the freeway last Wednesday, and as I was slowing to the stop light at the bottom of the off ramp the truck started to shake pretty violently. At first I though I blew a tire or something, but it wasn't pulling to one side. I gave it a little bit of gas a the shaking stopped, then as soon as the RPMs came back down, it started shaking away. So I limped in into the closest dealer which was about a mile away.

The truck is out of bumper to bumper warranty, but still under Power-train warranty with about 45,000 miles on odometer. So I was at first dreading what they were going to tell me as I am 40 miles from home, a week from payday and need a vehicle. Long story short they came back and told me that the head is cracked. Causing a leak between cylinders 3/4 on the I-5 motor (same motor that is in the H3 Hummers). Power-train warranty covered it completely. The replaced the entire new head and valvetrain, replaced all the fluids, washed the truck and gave me a free rental car for 5 days while everything was being ordered and worked on (over a weekend). All without a hassle.

So I just got it back, runs great now. The Service Advisor told me that tomorrow is the last day and the dealer get shuttered. So amazing they were able to still perform this level of professional customer service even though they were all days from being without a job.

So hats off to them, and I hope they find new jobs with soon, sorry to see them go.

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And here I am telling the guys on my crew that the reason we only run 5 of 7 machines and don't have parts for anything anymore is that we can't compete with "work or die". It's all for nothing anyway. I did the math last week and I'm doing hardly any better than when I first started here in 94. All the promotions and merit increases sound good on paper but with inflation, I'm still near the starting rate back then even though I make 3 times that now. Also, I figured out that the newer guys here aren't even making minimum wage for 94 when adjusted for inflation!