it makes headline news, it’s blown up, and sensationalized.

Last edited Mon Apr 22, 2024, 12:13 AM - Edit history (1)

But in retrospect, Ford and gm don't lay people off via email, with no warning when laws dictate warnings be given, and send them home in the parking lot if they didn't see the email hours earlier.

But even so, there are plenty of stories when other auto makers have layoffs or other bad news. So I'm not sure what you are talking about.

Like this when I realized my boss was an idiot.

Which was usually the case.

At least my idiots didn’t go around making a public spectacle of themselves.

He had been very lucky and was quite wealthy. But he was a grumpy, bitter and angry old man.

I learned that if I did the opposite of what he told me to do, the project would succeed!

Which is why so many idiots end up as bosses.

People who are good at socializing during and after work with higher ups get the promotions.

People who are good at their jobs stay in their jobs. If you're the best at (fill in the blank___) on your job that's all you'll ever be until they find someone cheaper or just lay you off.

However, if you're good at spitting jargon at meetings and over drinks after work, up the ladder you go.

Wikipedia:

that basically said; "come to Texas and screw us Elon! We're a "right to work state!"

at their neighbors, family members, co-workers, "friends" and fellow parishioners that support a political party that fucks over Middle Class workers as a policy goal, as they are with me for pointing out that the Face-Eating Leopard party bit their nose.

But, it's Texas, so I imagine they will blame Democrats for not saving their jobs.

Yeah unregulated free-markets and weak labor protections, right?

I’m sure for the majority it was “hey, there’s a new factory opening next month that pays more than my job. Better go apply”. I would do the same if I lived in Texas and was in need of a job.

People have to make a living. Why blame the little guy when the big guy is worth tons? (and is off the wall)

In 2023, 16.2 million workers in the United States were represented by a union—an increase of 191,000 from 2022. But while the unionization level increased, the share of workers represented by a union—the unionization rate—declined from 11.3% to 11.2%.Jan 23, 2024 Economic Policy Institute.

few years. Bought an Audi instead.

MAGA don’t own EVs.

He's trying to build cred with the very people who will never buy his cars, and driving away the people who would buy his cars if he wasn't a rightwing zombie.

He's not the Tony Stark, genius wannabe everyone thought 10 years ago.

Tesla is a corporation.

Musk is a person.

I like the car, not the person.

Wonder what the ratio of buyers is for the two categories.

caused a layoff. If you can't sell the stuff you are making, you need fewer employees to make the stuff you can't sell.
What do either politics or unions have to do with any of this?

This is from last summer:

https://jalopnik.com/survey-shows-elon-musk-is-driving-tesla-model-3-owners-1850686774

And now another study from this April finding the same:

https://www.slashgear.com/1552798/elon-musk-reputation-survey-data-tesla-interest-consumers/

That's where the political aspect comes from.

And due to Musk's political leanings, he moved Tesla jobs to Texas, a solidly right-to-work, anti-union state, so that's where the union aspect comes from.

are declining rapidly across the board, it's not just Tesla sales.
A union wouldn't have prevented any of this or protected anyone from it either. In fact, it likely would have resulted in even more layoffs due to the probability of wage costs being even higher.
I find it interesting that Musk used to be the darling because of his technical accomplishments through Tesla cars, and now he's the enemy to many for no other reason than fleeing extreme taxation and taking a libertarian approach to politics.
I'm no fan of Musk, I think his most refined skill is collecting money via government subsidies and contracts, but the hatred is a little much. He contributed to a large step forward in the EV market and developing a product that became mainstream. Electric cars were an absolute joke before Tesla set the new standard for them. I just don't like how he did it using consumer tax credits for sales gains.

I'll cite mine:

how you left off the last 1 1/2 years. Must have been an oversight.
Sales have slowed dramatically. You have google.

Because 2023's data is preliminary, but it also shows an increase.

And I do have Google. And common sense. Which is why I did a search to begin with to see if what you said was true -- it was not. Not even close.

The closest thing I found was that the GROWTH in sales has been slowing, but that doesn't mean a decrease in sales, much less that sales are "declining rapidly across the board" as you claimed. It just means that sales aren't increasing as fast as they had been over the past decade. But they are still increasing.

An article that confirms this:

not wrong. Overall sales patterns are rapidly shrinking.

Sales GROWTH slowing doesn't not equate to a decline in sales -- it just means that sales aren't increasing as the same fast rate that they previously were.

Sales are up, every year since 2010. This includes 2023, where the data is only preliminary at this point.

SALES are not declining. They continue to increase each year.

Sales GROWTH is declining. But that doesn't mean sales are declining, it just means the rate of growth in sales isn't as fast as in previous years (which has been predicted as the market becomes more saturated with EVs/first-time buyers).

To explain it further, let's take this hypothetical:

2021: 100,000 cars sold
2022: 200,000 cars sold ... 100% sales growth from prior year
2023: 250,000 cars sold ... 25% sales growth from prior year

SALES are increasing each year; however, sales GROWTH is decreasing.

win.
Elon axed employees because he's evil, and if they had a union, it wouldn't have happened because sales are awesome.

(1) Musk is an idiot that decided to go MAGA when his climate change friendly EVs were mostly marketed to a very much non-MAGA crowd. There is no doubt that his deciding to wade into the political has hurt him and his companies to a certain extent.

(2) If Tesla workers did have a union, they most certainly would have been in a better position in terms of layoffs than they currently are, where they are all pretty much on their own and at the whim of their employer.

(3) Tesla had a record year in terms of sales, but their sales growth was not what they hoped for (https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/01/tesla-sold-1-8-million-electric-vehicles-in-2023/).

They could not legally layoff workers unless certain conditions were met. Even if a layoff occurred (never happened once in the 35 years I worked there), the union had an account to financially support the laid off workers. Laid off union workers also had the right of first recall if the company hired again.

Part of the reluctance of buying a Tesla is customers concerned about the availability of charging stations. Which political party do you think is investing in and subsidizing a nation-wide network of charging stations. Hint: The other party voted against them.

I'm sure Musk's demand for a 55 billion dollar salary does not enter the equation, either.

She could not wait to get out of there. Terrible culture where they work people to death and give them no recognition.

tesla ain't that different....

any tears for the others????

I'm sorry y'all have deal with the shitkicker all hat no cattle types in your government. And as a Native Californian, I apologize for the carpet-baggers fleeing our state for yours, messing up not only any attempts to fix your state budget to be more equitable, but your housing costs for locals who have grown up there or worked for decades there.

Haele

Americans love their huge gas guzzling cars and trucks. They will never give them up for EVs.

My grandfather rode a horse and buggy to do his business, he may have had the same attitude about gasoline vehicles. (If you are wondering, my GF was born in 1861)

My gfather, b 1898, said there was an old feller out in the countryside who would not have a telephone in his house. It was a instrument of the devil.

Everyone doesn't have a house where they can charge at home. Plug-in hybrids make more sense to me. Plug in if you can. Use gas if you can't.

I've got a 2019 Chevy Volt. The last model year of the Volt... it's a shame they don't make them anymore.

95% or more of my driving is as if I have an all-electric car. I only burn gas rarely, going many months between trips to the gas station.

But I don't ever have to worry about driving beyond my battery range, or getting stuck somewhere because I can't recharge.

The real drawback of plug-in hybrids, and why I suspect Chevy discontinued the Volt, is they are expensive to manufacture, having all of the parts of both an electric vehicle and a gas-driven vehicle.

makes any sense. When cars first hit the market there were not gas stations on every corner either. When they perfect the product, the infrastructure will folllow more rapidly than you can imagine. I remember when I got my first "bag phone" I could only get cell coverage in town, and not the whole town. Now you can't get out of site of a cell tower. It was about a ten year process before cell coverage was available in most areas.

If there is money to be made, there will be people to provide the services.

The federal government needs to expand the tax credits to include plug-in hybrids, those are a great solution to many of the problems preventing large scale EV acceptance. They fit some people great but EV adoption in the US has a ceiling around 25%. They don’t fit many consumers needs for several reasons, like they’re more expensive to purchase on average, higher insurance costs, inability to charge at home at cheap residential electric rates, prohibitive costs to upgrade home electric services/panels, long range or commercial needs, towing needs, etc.