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Back Seat Driver: Guilty of Dangerous Driving

I was out walking with my 5-year-old son Charlie in the dense fog that enveloped Jamestown last night when a couple of teenage nitwits hurtled by on roller blades while holding onto the door handles of a car driven by another nitwit teenager.

Fair enough. I was a nitwit teenager once upon a time. Just hope they wise up before they hurt themselves.

But I am no longer a nitwit teenager and as I was heading home from work earlier in the evening, I finally came to the conclusion that I had allowed myself to get into some pretty bad driving habits of late. And I bet that I am not the only one.

These habits are driven by a couple of devices most of us now own: the cell phone and the iPod.

Making phone calls on the cell phone is bad enough, but at least most of the numbers we call - family, friends, doctors, colleagues, etc - are already entered and all it takes is the click of a couple of buttons to locate them.

But when it comes to text messaging, it is impossible not to take one's eyes off the road for extended periods of time. Not only one's eyes but one's whole concentration. Yes, I have text messaged many times without incident. But I cannot help thinking it's only a matter of time.

And I also cannot help thinking that if everyone else is texting, when is one going to hit me?

And then there is the iPod. Some months ago I bought one with 30G of memory at the same time I was buying a new Apple MacBook. (I am a Mac man going back to the early 1980s.) I confess that it sat on my desk for a couple of months before my 14-year-old stepson Patrick showed me how to turn it on!

But once he did, I was sold and have uploaded a substantial portion of my eclectic CD collection which ranges from the sublime Mr. Handel to Van Morrison (40 albums) to the Soukous dance music of Kanda Bongo Man of the Congo.

All very well. But then I bought a connection to my car stereo through the tape player and found myself dithering around selecting music when I should have had my eyes on the road.

So I am officially swearing off texting and changing music on my iPod while driving.

Talking on the cell phone? Well, I am not so sure about that. Three nights ago, Charlie fell off his bike and broke his elbow. I bundled him into the car and set off for South County Hospital and was mighty glad to be able to set up an appointment with Dr. Dan Coghlin of Narragansett Bay Pediatrics on the way down there.

- Peter C. T. Elsworth

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 9:31 AM to Safety | Permalink | Comments 0

GM could get labor pay savings from UAW deal: report

NEW YORK - General Motors Corp would be able to buy out as many as 24,000 UAW workers and replace them with lower-paid hires under a tentative contract agreement, according to Reuters citing a Wall Street Journal report on its Web site.

Such a potential buyout stems from a move by the union to expand the definition of non-production job classifications, the article said, citing management and union officials briefed on the pact.

GM will be able to hire at a much lower pay package janitors, landscape workers and material handlers, the report said.

It will also be allowed to define some entry-level production work and skilled-trade positions as a "non-core position," whereby they get paid about half or less of the $70-to-$75 an hour wage-and-benefit package traditionally given UAW members, the report said.

Those workers would have the opportunity later to transfer to the higher-paying production jobs, the report said.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 9:27 AM to GM , Unions | Permalink | Comments 0

UAW locals to hear details

UAW local leaders are expected to meet in Detroit this morning to learn the much-awaited official details of the tentative agreement reached early Wednesday between the union and General Motors Corp., as UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and other union officials work to get the deal ratified, according to the Detroit Free Press.

Today is the first time the union will broadly distribute the specifics of a landmark deal that restructures retiree health care, introduces a two-tier wage system and eliminates wage increases for the duration of the 4-year contract. And the union's more than 73,000 GM workers are anxious to see the hard facts.

Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth  at 9:23 AM to Auto industry , GM , Unions | Permalink | Comments 0