dieselJon

At Caterpillar Aurora, they have both union and Non-union workers working there.

Also, I have to disagree with unions keeping people off of welfare. The guy I talked about in a earlier post was off of work for 10 months before he got the bid for Caterpillar. And only 6 of those months were paid for. He has 20 years in and people who had more seniority (aka pay) couldn't seem to get a job as they were hiring apprentices left and right with not enough work to keep the guy who were there with work. Hmmm.....

I am not bashing unions, just they are screwed up right now.

Jon

dodgeguy71

Caterpillar and Navistar?? Does that mean we're gonna have big trucks going down the highway with twin flame throwing stacks now??

Had to put that in to lighten the mood. Yep, seems like there are a bunch of people doing a real good job of running this country into the ground right now. Told my wife, maybe I need to start applying at the oil companies for a job......

HOHN

Without putting too fine a point on it, ACERT is junk.

One of the main reasons Freightliner dropped CAT was because of the problems they had with the ACERT approach-- they simply were not reliable.

In fact, the CEO of Freightliner once let slip in public that the CAT ACERT engines were "junk" and this caused a HUGE rift between CAT and Freightliner (and all of Daimler Truck by extension).

It's now public info that Freightliners will again be available with Cummins engines as soon as MY2009 on the Cascadia (IIRC). This is not only because of the rift with CAT, but because many large Freightliner customer fleets were demanding Cummins engines that Freightliner couldn't offer.

True, CAT wasn't getting much of their total business from on-hwy (something like 6% of their revenue), but their exit from on-hwy has as much to do with not being able to sell engines to DTC as it does with them not being able to meet emissions.


Meanwhile, Cummins market share in class 8s continues to grow. While we dominate PACCAR, out aggregate marker share of all HD engines is over 42%. Some stock analysts think that Cummins may break 50% market share of all heavy duty on-hwy engines.

Think about it. If it happens, Cummins will have earned 50% market share by competing directly against truck manufacturer's OWN ENGINES!



Justin

RickG

People on welfare were better off than these union members and their families .
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...pagewanted=all
Oil prices are based on a world market . It doesn't matter which American political party is in office . American presidents have no control over a world market .

TrkEnvy

im not gonna sit and tell you that any organization is perfect.. religious, goverment, unions.. they all have corruption. Strikes can be bitter and people suffer. But at least unions give a chance of standing up and doing something about poor treatment and low wages.. I dont see anyone making ends meet comfortably working at wal-mart. I realize a lot of ppl hate unions and your entitled to your opinions.. Thats what makes this country great. I just wish more people could understand that if you make more you spend more and if you are letting fat cat companies get rich, while employees have no say in what health benefits they get or how much under cost of living there paycheck is then the economy and people in general are gonna suffer.


As for the apprentice issue mentioned before.. They take on apprentices at such a large level because those are the men that will be feeding those journeymen working now when they retire. Pensions dont just get pulled off trees.. they cost money and if your not growing your dieing..


I hope I havent made any enemies with this post and im sorry for Hi-jacking the thread but its something I feel very strong about. I am a 5th gen Ironworker and I am proud of my Local and my Union Brotherhood.

wiz1

I am so tired of hearing people blaming the president for high oil prices it makes me sick. Those of you that are proponents of this have no facts behind you, all you do is spout what the media tells you. Last time I checked the media is the last place to get reliable info. First off oil prices are based on supply and demand its basic, when Bill Clinton signed the no drill bill in the '80s we were doomed to the prices we see today, period. We can't get our own oil? How ignorant is that, so now the Chinese are going to be drilling 60 miles off of Florida? Who would you rather have drilling off your coast, our companies or the Chinese? Thats a no brainer in my opinion.
Our current congress came in with all these grand plans to fix gas and immigration just to name a few, what do we get investigations that are nothing but a waste of money or "ITS BUSHES FAULT" give me a break just tell the truth they have no solutions never have, typical politics, look at their approoval ratings, worse than Bush. Bush should never have signed alot of the stuff he did, he spends just like his opposition. I wish people would sit down and actually LEARN what drives prices and who is at the source of alot of these problems. Its the "Push it off on the next guy" Gov't they won't take any descicive action because they are too worried about their power, and they do everything based on the polls, (the clinton way) in stead of whats right for the country they are supposed to SERVE. Now people want to put Jimmy Carter JR in office, if he gets in we are doomed, purly from an economic perspective, thats not looking at any of his other screw ball ideas. McCain he's at least for drilling for our own rescorces, I don't like him much either. In closing since when did this country ever give a rip about what the rest of the world thinks about what we do? We almost lost the right to bare arms by one vote? We give terrorists who attack and kill our people access to the rights of citizens of this country. Yet the congress is hostile to our own troops, what has happened to this nation? SELF SERVING POLITITIONS and Ignorance of the electorate who put them there thats what. And I won't even go into the facts behind this global warming HOAX. Who is making the most money off of it? Answer it for yourself you will be suprised. Sorry but thats my $.02 "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it" Flame suit on

nelrod

Big business probably has more than their fair share of say in Government, that being said -- I HAVE NEVER WORKED FOR A POOR MAN AND NEVER KNEW ANYONE THAT DID.

wannadiesel

Got political, now it's done.