Roger and Me : flint plant closings

[OccupyAPayrollSlot]

Companies do not exist for the benefit of their employees. They exist to create a profit. When they do, the employees too benefit. Roger Smith did EXACTLY the right thing, just not enough of it, and not quickly enough. Michael Moore is a Communist, and I don't think he would argue that. So if that is your political belief, you are welcome to it. In the Capitalist system, and in our democracy you are free to say it. But not the other way around. Remember that when you listen to this man.

[gopconservative78]

Roger Smith saw the writing on the wall long before anybody else. Before he was CEO he came from accounting and saw that most of the cars were losing money. He did the right thing and try to slim down......He didn't do it fast enough. However Flint is a shithole and good riddens to that city.

[burtlakebuddy]

Michael Moore is a narcissist. You know Moore's estimated net worth is over 100 million dollars! He is everything he fights against. What a moron!

[atosafi1]

@burtlakebuddy So? Olof Palme was a democratic socialist yet he came from an upper-class background - your logic is flawed.

[burtlakebuddy]

@atosafi1 - My logic is not flawed. I said that Moore is a Narcissist. That is accurate and correct.

[supreme2005]

Roger Smith really fucked up GM.

[TELEVISIONARCHIVES]

Lots of lies in this . ABC never had a Satellite Truck stolen . Nightline never planned to do a live show from Flint. Moore made it all up. Also, At a flashy "Great Gatsby"-style party, they hire the out-of-work to pose as "human statues." . Not correct. That party was a charity even for the poor. The human statues were hired actors for that event. Moore only showed the black actors to make it look racist. The man who held the charity event sued Michael Moore

[rpy75]

roger moore looks like your typical fat lazy union worker! By the way where does roger work? thats right he travels around shooting his mouth off about the problems that his own party caused! Typical lasy demoncrate!

[cosmotcat]

@rpy75

What the fuck is a "lasy demoncrate!"?

[IUEC38]

@rpy75 And who is Roger Moore?

[gopconservative78]

should have fired 130,000 workers......Flint died and Honda and Toyota won! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[IUEC38]

@gopconservative78 Yeah, human suffering and the destruction of our manufacturing sector is hilarious if it happens to hurt your political opponents. Never mind the insurmountable deficits and economic pain this has caused the entire country.

[gopconservative78]

@IUEC38 typical from a union scumbag....go do hero worship to your communist heroes

[IUEC38]

@gopconservative78 Ad hominem: the dead give away that you've no meaningful defense.

[Vdawg1337]

What's this, spics making my car, nty ill buy a honda.

[Vdawg1337]

What's this, spics making my car, nty ill buy a honda.

[jackiechan511]

Why did GM get out of the bus making business. GM buses especially in the 80s were meant to last. Just look in Toronto Canada where GM buses are still running to this day.

[EMUmonster]

Fuck you Roger Smith!

[deadpool03mm]

dude, I grew up in MIchigan, I know how the whole "company town" thing works bro, but believe me: The big 3 lied their asses off, and they did it to cut American labor out of the pciture. The Auto side of the company was deliberately sabotaged when Smith took over. Why? Because Roger Smith came from GMAC (Bank of GM) And finance capitalism, coupled with using a "failing" Auto industry as an excuse to bust unions and get out of paying taxes, was better business.

[BradleyTn20]

Haha.. The description says "From the Roger Moore film".. I didn't know James Bond made a documentary.

[bazmataz]

James Bond made documentaries before he became a secret agent I think.

[railmogul2]

The truth of the matter is that GM has been consistently losing money since the 1950s, due to the a number of factors, mainly the UAW.

[unbridledenthusiasm]

Don't blame GM's downfall on unions, blame it on the inferior cars they've continued to produce.

[deadpool03mm]

Do you honestly buy the story that a Union who's membership has been declining steadily for decades bullied a corporation of absolutely terrifying power and wealth into bankrupcy? Where was this God like power when Buick City closed shop? GM got wrapped up in finance like everyone else did. Cars became a 2nd string tax break for them. Unfortunately, you loan money to the same people that your firing from high paying jobs long enough, and well....

[RJWooller]

GM and Ford are getting their comeuppance for what they did 20 years ago and what they are doing now and since. If I was the president, they needn't think they'd get any help off me for the CEOS.

[jackiechan511]

GM has a terrible record as a business. Whether its destroying North American streetcar networks, destroying the electric car, closing plants unecessarily, poor environmental record and now they want bailouts from Canada and US governments. How sad!

[harley145000]

I never worked for a poor person

[VertNinja]

Remember the race between the tortoise and the hare? We are playing the hare, if you haven't noticed by now, and the Asians are kicking our ass...

[harley145000]

unions destroyed the u.s. car companies

[UnionProud06]

Is that so? What about the milloinaire CEOs? The union workers have nothing to do with the fact that GM and Ford haven't created hybrid vehicles like Honda and Toyota. What unions have done is create living wages, provide health insurance, and a stable retirement. I guess if it were up to you, you would pay the workers minimum wage or just send the work to Mexico so the millionaire CEOs can make a few extra million.

[brixtonsaint]

the power of unions is the failure of management. if the management had done their job correctly by listening to visionaries like John DeLorean in the sixties when he suggested firstly it was time to stop ripping off the customer by having them buy a moderately updated gas guzzler when the rest of the world was looking at producing economical cars. There's a zillion reasons why the US and UK car industry is on its knees in the former and dead in the latter. Complacency by management is the main1

[gopconservative94]

Unions are communist scum, I'm glad Flint is dying...hail capatalism

[shoobydoowow]

You mean American scum(d-bag); Unions ARE capitalism, Unions made our nation great.

Slave labor for low wages, no benefits , and discrimination is the communist model...that means your a communist scumbag!

I'm glad the GOP is dying!

[gopconservative94]

Unions are lazy scum, watch the 1984-85 Miners strike to break a Union and watch the economy flourish as a result. Communists in Russia helped the unions, you scum should be rounded up and shot.

[UnionProud06]

You Repubs talk about patriotism, but I guess paying your workers liveable wages isn't patriot to you guys. I guess underemploying people would be considered patriotic to you guys. So your corporate CEO buddies can take all the wealth and then ask for more from the government when times are tough. If anyone is scum, it's people like yourself and the elite CEOs who fantasize for slave labor.

[jabberwolf]

Um the unuions and socialization to keep the company factories open are what fukked over EVERYONE.

Only now you realize that Obama and his socialist part are backstabbing and making GM keep them open...losing money.

Now they are closing as many as they wanted to in the first place.

But now Obama OWNS GM as a bonus!

SUCKERS!!

[boland44]

Unions had no power in The Soviet Union.

[nesnman]

Blame the Unions. They are the reasons why GM closed.

[Halesinfamous]

You're retarded.

[nesnman]

It's true. It's also the reason they struggle today. Do you have any educated comments to make or is it because you're not educated being from Canada?

[Halesinfamous]

I'll ignore the Canada comment heh.

Well, Unions are the reason the jobs are worth having in the first place, without the Unions the workers would have low wages and poor job security. The workers Unions are the only reason people with little skills can support their family with the work they do. So yes, the Unions may have made it harder for GM to increase their profits which can cause the factorys to move but no one was going to work for 8 dollars and hour and expect to earn a living.

[86cookiemonster]

Explain the job security and low wages. Honda is none union, and there are multiple people, in the Ohio marysville plant, that get paid 90 grand a year. I have a cousin who has been working there for the last 10 years. And there are tons of people who have been there longer. Unions have their uses. But most cause more harm than good. Look at the facts, as much as it pains me to say it, Honda Toyota none union, going strong, GM Ford union doing bad. Simple logic.

[bobanddoug96]

it's just really sad to think that probably in another 20 or 30 years all the american companys will be out of buisiness and the only kind of car you'll be able to buy is a japaneese car but if that ever happens i'm going to walk,fly or take a train everywhere i go, just anything but one of those pices of jap crap

[pooptalkerlive]

look where the auto industry is now in the toliet. every thing Moore says is true! You watch the next 10 and 20 years america is going to get even harder. will be back at that healthcare issue. america should be in a deep revolution right now

[airdriver]

I remember this happening. What's sad is that everybody blamed the "lazy, overpaid pampered union workers" for the auto industry's hard times and not the greedy, short sighted, incompetent, blindly ambitious executives or managers.

[BrynMawrYamBag]

Wait...30,000 jobs went to Mexico...OK Fine...Then why are we being invaded and drained by illegal immigrants if the bastards of industry moved a lot of production work to the 3rd world cesspool known as Mexico.

[NewYorkMan89]

Flint needs to elect Ryan Eashoo for Mayor or Dayne Walling!

[TheDoorsFan1232]

roger smith is a crook piece of shit

[KatearSS]

What BS. You close things when they become unnecessary -- not when you're losing money. That's how you PREVENT losing money. You act, not react. Plants get old, and it eventually costs more to overhaul than build anew.

[tyranny09]

No, that's BS. With a profit like that of GM the little difference between rebuilding and tearing down a factory or the like wouldn't matter at all. GM could easily employ those 30000 (counting all outsourced jobs) and still make profit.. after all, that's what they're doing the whole time. I'm not a communist, but this is another example of cold, greedy capitalism that those lucky CEOs feed on.

[KatearSS]

Yeah, you're clearly an expert on these things, what with a name like Tyranny09. You have very little understanding of business. It wouldn't have worked. GM treated the workers great anyways, they get so much after they're laid off/retire that it's ridiculous. Do some research

[tyranny09]

You're right. I guess I'm spoiled with those anti-lay off laws that we Germans have.

[KatearSS]

You're not even IN America and you presume to pass judgement on how we should run our businesses? There's a Michael Moore fan for you. I'm not telling you Germans how to make your economy as strong as ours. Our GDP per head is 38,000. Yours is 28,000. I think we know what we're doing, thanks.

[zio5q]

lolz your economy is going down the train and usa is going broke.

[zio5q]

anyone with a little sense of economic can see that. m

[backwardk]

Do you mean drain dumbass?

[harbinmeister]

Your a dumbass, quit speqing that line. Americans live in cardboard aka sheetrock houses and trailer parks that get torn up at the first sign of flood or tornado. People in germany may have smaller gdp per head, but believe me, they're standard of living, from education, to healthcare, to housing quality is much better than the US. GDP/head is inflated in America and it's concentrated in the hands of a few.

[thaddeusj]

Isn't BMW laying off a bunch of people now?? And their profits are up. Interesting...

[FlintWoman56]

What happened to Michael Moore and Ryan Eashoo opening up a movie studio in Flint? I read about it in the newspaper last year!

[DHR1]

Actually, Roger Moore did the James Bond Film Octopussy, amongst others. MICHAEL Moore did Roger and Me

[bazmataz]

Ok. Was Roger and Me about Michael trying to get an interview with 007 Rodger Moore?

[MisterKwakkles]

yea, the Roger Moore film. Sweet... no, I mean, BODACIOUS!