Capitalists are so god damned impatient!

Strikers were placing bets and '100 to 110 days in' was the best guesstimate going around the burn barrel. They had pegged that the first major incident involving AAM retaliation would come somewhere around that point in their struggle. But it was only three weeks into their long strike when AAM sent out their goons to pick a fight on the picket line yesterday. The picketers were confronted by long-distance lorries, news media, and constabulary dressed in full crowd control order. Three of the strikers were arrested, handcuffed, taken to the local lock-up, cited for disturbing the peace, and released. There were no police actions taken against any other participants.

These industrialists must stop picking employees' pockets!

The stockmarket investors have dramatically downgraded their outlook for GM. It appears that the attacks against the auto industry's working class were for nought. Their anticipated employment level cutback and layoff savings benefits won't last because the vehicle sales tanked. The analysts are now boldly warning one another to get away from GM at all costs.

GM ain't looking good on Wall Street any more.

They earn millions in compensation for doing their vision thing. But these miserable results have left GM North America in disarray. Of course, it's silly to be so fussy when the 100 year rival is also heading for the dumpster. Ten major banks are expected to fail, and the first one to collapse, Bears Stearns, is sending tremors through the investment community. So this plan by GM to use AAM to turn everyone of its hourly rated employees against GM management doesn't bode well at a time when they are looking for loans. The market cap of the home grown automobile industry is heading south.

---

Arrests mar talks in American Axle strike

by Associated Press
Friday March 14, 2008, 5:55 PM
DETROIT -- Talks between the striking United Auto Workers union and parts supplier American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. continued Friday as the work stoppage appeared headed into its third week.

The talks continued as police arrested two people Friday morning outside the company's Detroit headquarters on disorderly conduct charges.

Company spokeswoman Renee Rogers said bargaining took place Friday, but she did not know if the full negotiating teams were present for both sides. She also did not know if any progress had been made. Only the lead bargainers for both sides met on Thursday, she said.

A message was left for UAW spokesman Roger Kerson.

About 3,600 UAW workers at five American Axle plants in Michigan and New York left their jobs for the picket lines on Feb. 26.

The resulting parts shortage forced GM to close all or part of 28 plants, affecting more than 37,000 hourly workers.

***

Shares in Ford (F) And GM (GM) Collapse
24/7 Wall St
March 13, 2008
By Douglas A. McIntyre

The wheels finally came off in Detroit. GM (NYSE: GM) is down 8% to $19.13, a new 52-week low. The stock bounced around that level in late 2005 and early 2006 when there were rumors of a bankruptcy.

Ford (NYSE: F) is off almost 10% to $5.15, well below levels the stock hit when Chapter 11 rumors were in the media.

It has finally occurred to Wall St. that the two companies will not have profitable North American operations in 2009, as they had planned. It may well be that they will not be profitable at all, ever. The dynamics of the business have turned so profoundly against the companies that they may never be able to be changed.

Rising oil and rising metal prices are destroying the domestic car industry. Lehman Brothers says that increasing commodities costs will add over $350 to the cost of each car. Gas, heading above $4, will fracture the sales of the big profitable SUVs and pick-ups, driving the few buyers left into small, less profitable sedans.

Car loan interests rates are not coming down. Banks won't pass along what the Fed is giving them. The recession, which has already begun and is deepening, will keep buyers out of car dealers for months to come.

When the UAW contracts were settle, plants were closed and tens of thousands of workers were bought out or fired, the industry cut itself to its core. Any more cuts and the businesses will disappear down their own throats.

At a market cap of under $12 billion, Ford is almost worthless. GM is the same at $11 billion.

The US car companies are, to a large extent, lost. They may make money overseas but they have ceased to the rulers of the market where they were founded and made their bones.

***

Stay away from GM in its death spiral
MSN >> Money Blog >> Top Stocks
Mar 14 2008, 11:40 AM
By Robert Walberg

While the old saw "as goes General Motors, so goes the nation" no longer holds much relevance, it's interesting to note that with oil prices skyrocketing to $110 per barrel, gold prices reaching the $1000 per ounce pinnacle and the economy on the brink of recession, that GM's shares have plunged to levels not seen since Ronald Reagan was president. So even though GM and the auto industry no longer drive the U.S. economy, they most certainly are victims when it crashes.

Of course, like the passenger that gets seriously injured for failing to fasten their seatbelt, much of the pain GM feels today is the result of its own bad decisions. When gas prices were cheap (hard to believe that we're only talking a few years ago), GM and its brain trust decided that bigger was better. So it gave us the Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon and Chevy Suburban. If that weren't enough, the company decided to acquire the Hummer brand name -- the very symbol of SUV excess, especially with regard to burning gas.

Considering that margins were higher in these oversized vehicles, and that consumers couldn't buy big enough, you could hardly blame them for chasing the almighty dollar. Unfortunately, management's job is to not only address the current needs but to envision where the marketplace is going -- and on that front GM failed miserably. It didn't foresee the relentless climb in energy prices, leaving it with a boatload of unwanted inventory and a dearth of smaller, gas/green friendly cars.

Compounding these bad decisions is the current state of the economy in which consumers are going to want to spend less and get more -- mileage in particular -- out of their cars. So it came as no surprise that GM -- despite some nice new product like the Buick Enclave/GMC Acadia line -- posted miserable sales figures in February.

As a result of the bleak sales picture, GM did what it always does: it announced more production and job cuts. Of course, the one job it didn't cut was that of CEO Richard Wagoner. In fact, GM's board gave Wagoner a package that could total as much as $5.7 million in 2008. I'm sure that news sat well with all the union workers that made concessions or lost their jobs for the sake of restoring GM to profitability.

How in the name of good conscience does the company reward Wagoner with a compensation package of that size when all he has done is help oversee the demiss of this once great company? He failed to match production with demand; he failed to chart a bold course when it comes to design (all GM models look alike); he failed to predict the shift in consumer demand (forcing the company to follow rather then lead) and he failed to make the tough decision to reduce the number of brands. What he succeeded in doing is selling off the company's money-making financing arm, demoralizing the workforce, overseeing a sharp drop in sales and shareholder value and making gobs of money for himself in the process.

Obviously all of GM's woes don't fall on Wagoner alone, but he's the captain of the ship and the ship is sinking. It's time for a mutiny before it's too late and there's nothing left to salvage. Until there's a change at the top, there will be no change in the bottom line -- and that is to avoid GM shares even at today's depressed price.

Thank you
John Martyn