Chrysler and Union Workers Unable to Make A Deal

As we all know from watching Roger & Me in class, the feelings between the auto workers and the big car corporations are extremely tense. Especially now because many of the jobs that Americans once had have been outsourced to other countries. In addition, Ford, GM, and Chrysler have all been trying to find ways to cut costs since they almost collapsed in the recession in 2009. One way they cut costs was paying more workers at entry-level rates (only about $15 an hour compared to the $29 an hour veteran workers make). The union workers don't want this; they want to protect the veterans.

Chrysler and a few UAW (United Auto Workers) representatives met in Detroit this week to come up with a new collective bargaining agreement (Chapter 9 in our book). The talks ended on Wednesday because of a major stalemate between the two groups. Chrysler doesn't want a limit on the number of entry level workers they can hire while the UAW wants there to be a cap on the number of workers making entry-level pay. Neither side wants to budge, so there is a major stalemate. The UAW is moving on to talks with Ford to work out an agreement with them. The UAW already reached an agreement with GM so many people thought Chrysler would follow, but that didn't happen. I may not know all the facts so my opinion may not be that informed, but I'm going to have to side with the workers in this argument. A cap on the number of entry-level workers Chrysler can hire is not a huge thing to ask for. Chrysler can still hire some new workers to cut costs, but veterans would still be protected. And job security in an economy like ours is very important.

Will We Be Driving In The Future?

Researches in Berlin have created a car that can completely drive itself. It doesn't just keep the driver in his lane or stop when the car in front of it does; it literally drives itself around. The researchers let the car drive around the streets of Berlin without any human controlling it, and it drove around without any incidents. The car began as a $19,995 Volkswagen Passat, but after all the upgrades to make it drive itself it would cost a consumer $551,800. So you have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars more to not be able to drive the car; that doesn't seem like a good deal. Raul Rojas, the head of the artificial intelligence research group at Berlin's Free University, says that when these cars become more available they would just be summoned by someone who needed a ride. So basically people would not need to own a car anymore. That is ridiculous. People are not going to give up owning cars. For many people, cars are prized possessions and driving them is enjoyable. Why would they want to give them up? I know that sitting around in a car that isn't mine and waiting for it get me to my destination does not seem appealing at all. I would much rather own a car that I choose and drive it however I want to. Not only will consumers not like these new cars, car insurance providers with despise them as well. If every car is self-driven then the amount of car crashes is certainly going to decrease. If there are fewer accidents then people are not going to pay for car insurance. So we wouldn't be seeing any more of those hilarious Geico commercials. There are many accidents on the roads today and something should probably be done about that, but self-driving cars are not the answer. They will not work mostly because consumers will not easily accept them.

To learn more about self-driving cars click on the title of this post for a link to the article with all of the information.

Do you recall the last recall?

With Toyota’s reputation at hand, thousands of 2009-2010 cars are being recalled due to a variety of errors. The most recent of issues involves one of the top selling cars in the U.S., the Corolla. “A Corolla recall would add to a repair list of more than 8 million vehicles on five continents.” The Toyota recall is due to issues involving power steering; where as other cars are being recalled for brake and accelerating problems. The Prius recalls should be about 80% complete by the end of February. Although it is frustrating to find out that a previously reliable car brand has lowered their manufacturing standards, causing a recall, there is a positive to the issue. At least Toyota is taking responsibility for their errors, and is doing everything possible to fix the issue. It is possible that Toyota’s recall will leave them a better company because they have the ability to learn from their errors. Although they lost the trust of many individuals, they can make positive changes to reverse the bad reputation.