On The Table

Tuesday

Dec072010

Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 11:16AM

December 8, 2010

Bob King. The Chief Shit Disturber of the UAW is at it again. Just when we thought he got all-enlightened about the global reality of the auto business after his participation in a State of Michigan trade mission, King and an estimated 150 UAW officials and workers staged a protest yesterday outside the Hyundai-Kia America Technical Center in Superior Township, as reported by the Detroit Free Press, insisting that Hyundai officials should respond to the demands of striking temporary subcontract workers in South Korea who have held a sit-in strike since Nov. 15, demanding to be made permanent employees. UAW President Bob King told the Freep that the union’s support for the temporary Korean workers kicked off the emphasis on global justice he had promised since his election this summer. Really, Bob? Global justice? For what and for whom? No, what this is really about is King's dream to unionize all of the workers at import factories here in the U.S. - who want nothing to do with the UAW, by the way - and he decided that he needed a photo-op just to remind everyone he's still around. Just think about this: It's damn near 2011 and we're still having to deal with this Bush League Bullshit from the UAW? Ridiculous. King is said to be leading a delegation to Korea on Friday to meet with officials from the Korean Metal Workers' Union. Here's an idea, Bob, why don't you just stay there and never come back?

Bob King, the UAW. A double jolt of down arrows for the Chief Shit Disturber for hiring union organizer Richard Bensinger as a "consultant" and trotting him out at the Hyundai plant yesterday. We feel a train wreck coming, one that will unfold in a scenario something like this: The three domestic automakers, chastened by the Great Recession and the near-death experiences brought on by bankruptcy, return to profitability and claw out a somewhat stable - albeit tenuous - future for themselves using lessons learned to run their business with a focused consistency on the product and a new-found religion as to how not to do it. And then in steps King and his posse demanding to "get theirs" while staging massive strikes when the next contract comes up for renewal, proceeding to run the whole damn thing into the ground all over again. We've seen this movie before, and it never ends well.

Bob Corker, R-Tennessee. The intermittent pain in the ass from Tennessee was lucid and on point to the Chattanooga Times Free Press when he said that it would be "highly detrimental" for VW to allow the UAW to organize workers at its new Chattanooga assembly facility. As picked up by Automotive News, Corker also said that the UAW "breeds an 'us vs. they' relationship, and I just don't think it's healthy for a company to be set up in that regard." You go, Bob, as a matter of fact that's our AE Quote of the Week.

Bob King. Not willing to let Corker's comment go Bob King said - as reported by Automotive News - that Corker was "talking about the past and not the present or future." Really? All actions to the contrary, Bob. Watch for a present that will be delivered to Solidarity House before your trip to Korea. What is it? We don't want to spoil the surprise but it's definitely not the AE Quote of the Week trophy. Come to think about it how does a giant, designer bowl of shut the fuck up sound?

Boneheads R Us. In addition to the gang of UAW members and officials, the Freep reported that two members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra - who also on strike, by the way - were also on the sidewalk outside the Hyundai Technical Center yesterday, carrying photos that showed injured Koreans and holding signs with messages such as, “Justice for striking Hyundai workers.” WTF? We won't go into the fact as to why the DSO is on strike - not now and not ever - but suffice to say after living off the cultural largesse of the auto companies for decades, Detroit's cultural institutions are on the ropes because the free money spigot has basically run dry after the worst economic downturn in seven decades. And they have no clue how to fix it. But DSO members walking the picket line yesterday at Hyundai? Please. And we wonder why the state of Michigan has a corrosive reputation as a union-dominated state? We have four words for the DSO: Shut up and play.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The senator wants to know why the Federal Reserve spent billions of dollars helping foreign-based automakers during the financial crisis two years ago? Really, Bernie, are you seriously just getting on the clue train about this? Pathetic.

The non early adopters. As electronic controls grow exponentially in our cars there's a clear demarcation - make that a looming Cultural Divide - brewing between consumers who get it and want more - as in the early adopters of Ford's MyTouch system - and those who don't and who find the MyTouch system frustrating. Memo to the non early adopters, it's only going to get worse from here on out.

(GM)
The Gas Company (TGC), General Motors and ten companies, agencies and universities have joined an initiative to make hydrogen-powered vehicles and a fueling infrastructure a reality in Hawaii by 2015. The plan, called the Hawaii Hydrogen Initiative (H2I), aims to integrate hydrogen as an essential building block for Hawaii’s sustainable energy ecosystem. The effort to reduce the state’s 90 percent dependence on imported oil is expected to make hydrogen available to all of Oahu’s 1 million residents by 2015. The goal is for 20 to 25 hydrogen stations to be installed in strategic locations around the island. Today TGC produces enough hydrogen to power up to 10,000 fuel cell vehicles and has the capacity to produce much more hydrogen. GM has been a leader in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and has fielded the world’s largest fuel cell demonstration fleet – more than 100 vehicles – beginning in 2007. The key detail? Hydrogen initiative partners are evaluating methods to distribute hydrogen through existing natural gas pipelines, addressing the longstanding problem of how to cost effectively produce and distribute hydrogen.

(BMW)
BMW has formally introduced the BMW 1 Series M Coupe. With an in-line M TwinPower Turbo 6-cylinder engine and direct fuel-injection, the new machine develops a maximum output of 250 kW/340 bhp. The new M has a power-to-weight ratio reduced to 4.4 kilograms per bhp and accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds, reaching the 200 km/h mark in 17.3 seconds. Its average fuel consumption in the EU test cycle is 9.6 litres per 100 kilometres, while CO2 emissions are at 224 grams per kilometre. The BMW 1 Series M Coupe will be available in the U.S. in 2011.

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Publisher's Note: Check-out John McElroy's daily news show covering everything about the auto biz by clicking on the graphic below. Good stuff guaranteed. - PMD

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" with hosts John McElroy, from Autoline Detroit, and Peter De Lorenzo, The Autoextremist, and guests this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.