aharvin

alot of people in my area have been layed off. alot of it is due to the lack of work to support wages for all of these employees. is anyone else having job security problems? who else in the automotive industry or any industry for that matter been layed off? anyone else that has been layed off having trouble finding work?

IS3_FTW

iTrader: (3)

I work in the commercial side of life. So it really doesnt effect me personal. But it does effect the company.
But for what I do, this is our normal slow season. It picks up in April. Now if it doesnt pick up, like normal. Then I will start to worry.

Also, why are peeps buying up all the trucks, when the gas prices are low. Dont you know, that your creating the gas prices to shoot back up. Economical cars are better than a 1/4 ton truck

aharvin

for sure the less trucks on the road, the less we consume. less consumption=lower gas prices.

audi2nr

iTrader: (1)

i work for audi, been with them for four years, i worked at the seattle store for three and a half years and we were always busy, typically two-three weeks out or so. during the holidays work slows down a bit but not much. now i work at our lynnwood store, and its a totally different clientele. as for the business it's pretty busy, what i see though is sales slowing down a bit, people not buying cars but rather spending the cash on repairing the cars they already own. but in all honesty people are still buying cars, we just got like 20 cars in that are in the process of becoming certified.

davidsong

lol... if audi is getting 20 cars readying for certified then that means people cannot afford brand spanking new ones, only used = people does not have more money to spare on luxury cars = we save money for a new car

okay, enuff of my rambling..

aharvin

im glad to hear you guys are staying busy enough. a few of my friends and i are losing jobs because people are taking their insurance checks and pocketing them or they feel like if their car moves around just fine i dont need to get the body work done (we work in body shops by the way). im hoping that the economy will pick back up cuz i loved what i was doing.

golfkid777

Working in the insurance litigation side of the engineering industry, we are busier than we have been in 10 years. Economy goes bad all of a sudden people want insurance to fix their problems. Hahaha.

aharvin

haha dude i want your job. and ya definately people are wanting insurance just like with cars...if they get in a wreck they are leaving it unfixed and holding the change. i dunno if it works the same way in your line of work.. but i can see why you would be busy.

IS3_FTW

iTrader: (3)

I just got a bonus, for Xmas. Its a joke, since $700, is only $400 after taxes.

Well, there was also a memo with it. Stating that there going to be putting a hold on raises, until the economy gets back on its feet. There just giving a 3 month period, before they decide to bring it back.

Everyone is getting mad, because this was there time to get there annual raise....lucky for me, I got mine in Aug. But I deserve another merit raise, for my increasing job responsibility. I was a pee-on. Now Im a lead/coordinator for my area


I know a couple of shops that closed there doors. Does your company work with other insurance companies, to get more business? Sometimes, the client will just go with insurance covered body shops. Thinking there getting the best work, since they pay thousands on insurance...Needless to say, LOL

golfkid777

No, most of what I do is multi family living litigation. $2 million minimum in losses, so insurance companies are usually decently smart and either pay the construction/engineering/architectural/investigative fees as they come in. Or wait until all costs have been incurred and paid by a third party, usually a bank in the form of a short term loan. Dont see a lot of fraud in my line of work.

aharvin

what are we going to have to do as a person, community, town, state, or country to take what we've seen in history having a pre-thought of depression to change the course of things to benifit everybody. i realize the thought of everyone benefiting is very slim, but im wondering what its going to take to prevent the obvious conclusion of our econimical state (recession/depression).

mkiiisupra

For the government to stop borrowing money to blow the desert up

There is too much fear and corruption bottom line. blue collar, white collar crime, everybody out to make a buck for themselves. Not holding themselves to strong moral values. Greed. The need to have more then the next guy. I mean think about the guys in charge. Probably some of the most cold hearted people there are. Did you see the news clips about the GM, Chrysler, and Ford (i think) CEOs laughing in response to the judge telling them they have to sell their planes for the grant. Are you F'in joking me. 5 of them all flew in on seperate jets? Isnt each flight in one of those like 40K. And what about the guy who got that huge bailout then went on the 50K vacation. Or Bush not rushing home from vacation during Katrina

Too many people in this world think theyre super humans because of their positions and are only concerned about making sure they dont lose money, or as little as possible, regardless of what happens.

My work UPS (ceo is a 4th gen family member, all he knows is a rich life handed to him. $4 billion dollars in 2006) for example stopped providing gloves and water for us. No more OT. They cut hours back. They cut a lot of full time jobs and moved them to the Midwest where insurance and pay is cheaper. They didn't buy holiday turkeys this year (they buy them wholesale after Tday for CHEAP) for the less fortunate or the huge families. But the supervisors make sure they still have candy and snacks bought with the company credit car in their closets. Instead of giving us 1$ raise, they split it up into 2 raises every 6 months at a lesser rate. And they hired more holiday help so they can fire them right after Xmas so they don't have to pay OT. In the new contract Insurance eligibility went from 3months to 1 year and its 1.5 years for your dependents. They only start at $9.00, $1.00 more then they did 25 years ago. Had wages gone up at the rate of inflation over that time period, they should be starting at 27.50. They cut jobs at BFI and moved a percentage of their volume to Redmond so now we have more volume crammed down our throats at a quicker pace. Its just stupid. But everyone needs to ship regardless so we should bounce back fairly quick . This was the first year I've felt any effects regarding work. I mean the high gas prices hurt but I was making more money back then. So far Im 3k under what I was at last year this time.

IS3_FTW

iTrader: (3)

^^^^That last part sounds just like Donald Trump...lol

Yeah, I heard about the GM, Ford, Chrysler watning an $8billion bailout. But Ford responded, we can survivve, if it doesnt go through. I think thats FORD, trying to be the stronger man, situation.

How bout all them small companies, like Aharvin's job. If they need help, do you think they will get it...Bottom line, nope. If its not helping the countries economy, it would just get looked over and thrown in the garbage. Not the recycling bin...LOL

mkiiisupra

yup, when citizens go in debt, it has to be paid back with interest but when its billions of dollars and millions of homicidal/suicidal customers involved, government just "takes care of it"

IS3_FTW

iTrader: (3)

And the home owners pay for it, in the end. Even when the voters vote no, the ballot gets revised and passed over to Congress. Then they push it through, because there forced to do so.