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Andy Fletcher, a keyboardist and founding member of Depeche Mode, has died, the band announced. He was 60 years old. cnn.it/3wY1Hnk
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President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will visit Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday after 19 children and two adults wereâ€twitter.com/i/web/status/1…rE
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The gunman in the Texas elementary school shooting wasn’t confronted before entering the school, an official says.twitter.com/i/web/status/1…RtLB
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The Supreme Court will allow the Biden administration to continue to use a metric that estimates the real-world cosâ€twitter.com/i/web/status/1…rb
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Ray Liotta, who starred as Shoeless Joe Jackson in “Field of Dreams” and Henry Hill in “Goodfellas,” has diedtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…QervBHOy4P
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Former President Trump and his children Ivanka and Donald Jr. must sit for depositions in NY attorney general’s civtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…dJHg
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Actor Kevin Spacey has been charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men, UK prosecutors say cnn.it/3NAe7bx
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Update: GM family still cranking out cars
Thanks to you, the Green clan is still cranking out cars in Lansing, Michigan.
CNN introduced you in November 2008 to 10 members of the family who had provided a collective 300 years of service to General Motors and the United Auto Workers union. GM's future was hanging in the balance as the federal government weighed whether to save the automaker with an infusion of billions of taxpayer dollars.
"We're not asking to be bailed out, we're asking for a loan," Mike Green, the president of UAW Local 652, said at the time. "We're not asking for a handout, we're asking for a hand up."
The $50 billion loan was approved, a new version of GM emerged, the taxpayers recouped their money, and the extended Green family kept working.
"I think the government made one of the best investments it ever made," Green, now 50, told CNN this week. "I'd like to thank the American public for having faith in an American company."
Green has been re-elected as president of UAW Local 652, his sister Cindy DeLau continues to work on assembly line ergonomic improvements, and his son Rollin, 26, is "hanging in" at GM's Delta Plant, just west of Lansing, despite having been laid off a couple of times in the last three years.
Painful concessions by the UAW were part of the survival plan, Mike Green noted.
"Because of the sacrifices of the membership, we made it through," he said.
Not only did GM survive, but it's bringing 600 to 700 more jobs to Lansing next year when production starts for a new Cadillac product.
"It's been good for Lansing," Green said. "We appreciate that GM is bringing work here. That's what we do here. You bring it, we'll build it."
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GM- another company that is a Capitalist of convenience. What ever happened to the market determining whether a business succeeds or fails? If they were making products that people actually bought, there would be no problem They lost money because of faulty management of the corporation. This happens everyday in America. For some reason, though, I have a feeling the government wouldn't bail me out if a business I had was going to go under. I'm beginning the countdown now until GM's next infusion of government money.
I read the article. Then expected to see some heart warming comments from AMERICANS saying how proud they were for saving GM and hundreds of thousands of jobs including that of this family's. Instead, I'm reading comments that make me wonder if I'm in the Twilight Zone.
Are there any REAL Americans left in this country?
Businesses by definition should be self-sustaining. If not, we should not protect them for their sentimental value.
The people who, before the gov't stepped in, supported and invested in GM, got screwed, while the failing business practices that drove them to go broke were rewarded with the ultimate bailout. This is not something to celebrate.
I to find it distasteful that American taxpayers bailed out GM and Chrysler. This wasn't done for most other business. My uncle lost his store and went bankrupt. I don't remebmer any union crying that he needed a "hand up." This whole thing was a scam for Democrats to pay back their base. The Green family should be ashamed of itself.
It is strange how only union jobs were worth saving...Vote out the Democrats or in the words of Hoffa "take them out."
Amen brother! Vote out all of the union loving Democrats.
The Auto workers paid it back. It is the capitalitistic REpublicans that made the deal with the banks and corporate america that Bush made the Tarp that did not have to be repaid. Know history before you speak.
I look at the faces of this family, and I see prisoners. Prisoners of the UAW. They live and die with their union. The union that is responsible for a bailout that rewarded their failure. Subsidizing a failed business on the backs of the rest of America is not something to feel good about.
They paid it back. Bush did not make it so the Banks paid us back.
UAW= unemployed auto workers.
Unemployed Koch Bros. Go Back to Russia.
And a bailout is what you got, not a handout.
Current estimates put it at about 16 billion dollars lost on the GM rescue, not including the 17 billion handed to GMAC (now Ally Bank). It would have been better to give that 30+ billion to the workers and walk away.
I just want to point out those who may have never worked outside a union. I have worked for both. I take home more not being in the union that I did as a paying member. Reason being I get to compete for my job. I am a good employee. I can go in and ask for a raise. I could not do that with the Union. I had to accept whatever pay was contracted. I also do not lose about 3 dollars an hour to the union (dues, retirement benefits, training fees, etc). My benefits are exactly the same (health care, dental, vision, etc) I also have a 401k, not a pension, so that money is mine. As a good employee I do not have to worry about someone having seniority over me and getting preference solely on that metric.
I truthfully do not understand why any smart, hard working person would want to be a union member. it makes no sense what so ever.
You obviously worked in a decent place to work. Most factories are not decent places to work. Management in an auto plant wants you there 140 hours a week when cars sell and they want you to sit home when cars don't sell. They want you do work at dangerous jobs with no training. They want you exposed to chemicals and repetetive motion injuries. They want to cut your pay while the company is still making huge profits. Someone sitting at a desk probably doesn't need a union, people who work in dangerous environments under demanding conditions need union protections.
I bet the men and women who started the unions are proud they gave you what you have. 40 hour work week, breaks, if you are to be taken in the office and taken to task you can have representation. The right to work states we the first to begin to break the unions, you are at the mercy of the likes of the Koch Bros who just want to win, and knock the workers down to their mercy.
@Scottish Momma you are a complete fool. Unions have lost their usefullness.
How soon people forget that long before GM the government gave hundreds of billions to banks and Wall Street firms that were responsible for the economic disaster we are still living in. Those firms have not changed their practices. The $50 billion loan to GM that is now 100% paid back saved around 3 million jobs per the experts. It is one of the best investments the U.S. government has ever made.
Unions create slaves.
Another sloppy job of reporting by CNN and all you took it hook line an sinker. GM DID NOT pay it all back. They only paid back the initial loan (approximaltely $15 Billion). The last $40-50 Billion they used to by stock in GM and gave 65% of that ownership to the UAW. Believe me, we will NOT EVER see that money paid back.
The unions have wrecked business in this country – look back at the steel mills. I also agree that we should not have bailed out GM or Chrysler. When you make a terrible product, you go out of business. Spend the money to retrain workers to rebuild our aging infastructure.
Outsorcing and bringing steel from China bent the steel mills. Koch Bros probably bring in steel just like they bring in China Dryboard.
I wouldn't ague that investment bankers should have gotten a handout. None of them should. Bad decisions are bad decisions. I would not have lost any sleep if Citi Bank or Bank of America had gone bankrupt. No more than if the same had been done to GM and Chrsyler.
Only a really uninformed person would argue that it was paid back. Gm borrowed more money from the taxpayer to "payback" this loan. I mean really, a company in the red paid back 180 billion dollars in less than 2 years. Are you daft? If they could do that why did they need a loan? Sheesh
This truly is a success story. We should all be proud to pay the costs of their retirement when we purchase a car. It is the American union way.
We pay your social security.
OLD PEOPLE, OLD IDEAS = GOVERNMENT