Re: Advice on Buying a Schwinn Bike

[Garrison Hilliard]

Brian Cloutier )wrote:

>I thank you for that info. Better to be assembled here by American workers
>than overseas. Unfortunately many things built here have foreign components.
>Being a UAW member I always try to purchase goods made by fellow Union and
>American workers.

That's the attitude that killed the Schwinn company, you know.
Fornicate the UAW!

[GRL]

This is ancient information, but you might want to read the book Rivithead
by Ben Hamper. This guy worked as a assembly line man at the Flint Bus and
Truck plant GM had there in the early '80's. Fascinating (and funny) to read
about the crap the UAW guys got away with back then. Well, eventually the
plant closed, but for a while they got away with it.

****er is that the UAW did not come down hard on their members for their
shoddy workmanship, so customers got crappy vehicles and went running to the
Japanese brands, never to come back, so the UAW lost membership because
plants shut down. Funny how not doing the right thing can come back to bite
you. I think they eventually did learn the lesson of cooperation with
management to not screw/****-off customers, though. My Yukon is a nice
vehicle. Reliable. Made in Mexico, though. I don't think it's a UAW plant.

--

- GRL

"It's good to want things."

Steve Barr (philosopher, poet, humorist, chemist,
Visual Basic programmer)
"Garrison Hilliard" > wrote in message
...
> Brian Cloutier )wrote:
>
> >I thank you for that info. Better to be assembled here by American
workers
> >than overseas. Unfortunately many things built here have foreign
components.
> >Being a UAW member I always try to purchase goods made by fellow Union
and
> >American workers.
>
> That's the attitude that killed the Schwinn company, you know.
> Fornicate the UAW!

"GRL" > wrote
. . . s n i p . . .
> ****er is that the UAW did not come down hard on their members for their
> shoddy workmanship, so customers got crappy vehicles and went running to
the
> Japanese brands, never to come back,

Was it defective assembly or was it defective design?
I recall the worst car I ever had was a 1975 Chevy Vega. The door hinges
were welded on, but they only had bitty spot welds and weren't very
strong -- the doors would sag quite a bit when opened. Plus, the engine
drank two quarts of oil a week (no leak).
A couple books you might find interesting:
1) On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors -- by John DeLorean, an
interesting story of GM management behind the scenes. (from the 1950's)
2) Confessions of a Union Buster -- by Marty Levinson, interesting accounts
of how he and other people thwarted abused worker's unionizing efforts, and
why he quit (guilty conscience) and went to work for the AFL-CIO. (should
still be in print, on Amazon)
Ya, sometimes when a company goes down, it's the fault of the workers.
Other times, it's because of lousy management. Spectators like us should
become well-informed about the issues before placing blame one way or the
other, IMHO . . .
--Tock

[David Kerber]

In article om>,
says...
>
> "GRL" > wrote
> . . . s n i p . . .
> > ****er is that the UAW did not come down hard on their members for their
> > shoddy workmanship, so customers got crappy vehicles and went running to
> the
> > Japanese brands, never to come back,
>
> Was it defective assembly or was it defective design?
> I recall the worst car I ever had was a 1975 Chevy Vega. The door hinges
> were welded on, but they only had bitty spot welds and weren't very
> strong -- the doors would sag quite a bit when opened. Plus, the engine
> drank two quarts of oil a week (no leak).
> A couple books you might find interesting:
> 1) On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors -- by John DeLorean, an
> interesting story of GM management behind the scenes. (from the 1950's)
> 2) Confessions of a Union Buster -- by Marty Levinson, interesting accounts
> of how he and other people thwarted abused worker's unionizing efforts, and
> why he quit (guilty conscience) and went to work for the AFL-CIO. (should
> still be in print, on Amazon)
> Ya, sometimes when a company goes down, it's the fault of the workers.
> Other times, it's because of lousy management. Spectators like us should

And a lot of times, both are involved, especially in a big company.


--
Dave Kerber
Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

[Garrison Hilliard]

> wrote:
> Ya, sometimes when a company goes down, it's the fault of the workers.
>Other times, it's because of lousy management. Spectators like us should
>become well-informed about the issues before placing blame one way or the
>other, IMHO . . .

In the case of Schwinn, it was probably a fifty-fifty split on the reason Schwinn (the famed original company) died... yes,
the management headed by Ed Schwinn, jr. had this "We're Schwinn, we don't have to compete!" attitude and was slow to
adopt innovation, but the UAW put in the fatal blows to the
Chicago Schwinn plant by moving in and demanding that bicycle
company personnel get treated and paid exactly the same scale as automobile company personnel (despite the difference in the product and product price point)!