Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Two of the things that has been both amazing in listening to Corker and his fellow wrecking crew is that they acknowledge that current UAW workers are not paid that much more than their non-union counterparts. The problem is retired workers and what various managements agreed they should have. What Corker does not say is what should not working people do their pensions are healthcare benefits are cut.
Another point that Corker misses is the ratio of pay that Japanese and German executives get in comparison to their workers. When American CEOs curtail their pay and that of fellow executive to some limited multiple of their fellow employees the attacks on the UAW will be more credible.
If Corker and fellow Republicans want to put the Detroit automakers, and it is not clear that long term car making in Detroit is viable, why are they not advocating national health insurance and great social security benefits? This will go a long way to put American manufactures on a par with their foreign counterparts.
The favoring of foreign manufacturers over American companies comes close to treason. Further, no other company getting federal assistance had to agree to take wage cuts. This is what is meant by class warfare. It is war on the working class.
...then why is it that the GM execs aren't joining Corker and Shelby in attacking them? All I see are Neo-Confederate Republicans and their surrogates, like you.
The reality is here (the third video shows what no TradMed story on this will mention -- the Republican strategy memo describing just how they planned to screw us): http://www.uaw.org/auto/12_12_08auto2.cfm
Oh, and if anything the UAW has bent over backwards to accomodate the industry: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/aam-f29.shtml
Let's face it people. We have millions of Americans out of work who's companies got no bailout, but the Unions think they're entitled to taxpayer money to foot the bill for their gold-plated benefits packages? Hell, no!
Don't get me wrong, the Big Three made this mess by vehemently opposing increased fuel efficiency standards for the past two decades. But guess who was helping the CEOs defeat mileage standards? The UAW! The idea that somehow the UAW is a victim in this is beyond asinine. Chrysler shouldn't even be allowed to go to congress to ask for money, because Cerberus Capital, their parent company, is sitting on enough money to finance the entire bailout themselves.
I'd love to make $30+ an hour to sit on my fanny (heard of the UAW "Jobs Bank" program?), but it's unrealistic, and I'll have a degree from UNC, one of the best schools in the country in May, which, by the way, I got no help paying for. So the UAW, GM and Chrysler can stick it as far as I'm concerned.
I have a 1994 Dodge Dakota with 327,492 miles on it. It still runs like a watch. Show me a Rice Burner that can match that.
Mr. Mumrock
Its easy to attack the Senators and their un-American agendas. But why is it so difficult to attack their arguments and their solutions? Perhaps cause they got it right this time!
Right now the Southern states used by foreign car makers are happy as they were many years ago when the shoe and textile industries left New England to avoid unions and the higher wages there. But since capitalists have no loyalty to any nation much of this eventually went to the cheaper waged areas of Asia escpecially China where anyone supporting a union would suffer what the Tibetians now endure for clamoring for independence. Most of us will not live long enough to see the car industries now located in these southern states transferred to Asia. China is already in the process of creating a car industry which will under-cut anything any other country can produce. As the Iranian president said "The U.S. is a spent nation." Many years ago young Henry Ford jubilantly displayed the robotics of the future to a union leader saying "You won't get too many members from these machines." The retort was "No, and you sure won't sell them any cars, either." Can any nation lacking an industrial base such as has been happening with our de-industrialization survive? Revolution anyone?
If the GOP had its way, the United States would win the international race to the bottom as the country with the lowest wages, smallest benefits, and nonexistent union presence. In their view, Americans ought to be happy to have any job at all, even if it's minimum wage. Why should blue collar workers enjoy financial security or even a middle class standard of living? For that matter, why must America have a middle class?
The GOP's long-term goal is to turn the United States into a banana republic with a tiny upper class, no middle class, and vast impoverished lower class that is too busy trying to survive to interfere with the very important business (of acquiring ever greater wealth and power) of their aristocratic overlords.
What else should we expect from a party whose stronghold is that part of America that fought to the death for the continuation of slavery?
So far we have seen no such loyalty exists in many states here in the U.S. Steve, Wrold War 2.
But what really matters? I'm not sure somedays. But:
1. The powers that rule are winning, they have the middle class fighting against the middle class. Classic class warfare conducted by masters.
2. Company Management (a term I use loosely) failed miserably to envision and plan for the future by underfunding pensions and health insurance commitments in search of higher dividends and pay. Now the workers are blamed. ALL the top management needs to be completely replaced with no severance or golden parachute. They just plain failed. Golly they might have to seel a house or two to put food on the table for their starving kids.
3. How much in corporate welfare did the Southern states handout to get the foreign factories to move in? I am willing to bet the number is in the multiple of billions.
4. The UAW has already renegotiated contracts and lowered wages, especially for new hires. The future wage commitments for the socalled Big Three are going down. The Union has made an effort.
5. All the Southern states receive more tax money back than they pay in, so they are direct recipients of tax shifts. I realize that much is related to defense but it still is a net gain for them in dollars and jobs paid by other states. Neither good nor bad just a fact. The way to address this is to kill the fatted calf of the Military budget and spend it on the people of America, not fork it over to the Merchants of Death.
6. A single payer national health program would level the field for all Americans and American employers in many ways.
7. The car of the year last year was the Chevy Malibu which gets over 30mpg. A spark of hope?
8. When we bail them out it needs to be from a totally different reference point. CAR COMPANIES ARE OBSOLETE and will pass into history. What we need are TRANSPORTATION COMPANIES that deal with real issue of getting my sorry behind from point A to point B in the best, most efficient fashion. If they insist on remaining simply a car company they will absolutely fail.
9. Old Head Thinking got us into this. People with no vision, foresight, imagination, who only want to maintain a system that enriches a few at the expense of the many. We need New Head Thinkers in charge. Case in point: Why the heck fly on a private jet for tens of thousands when a face to face real time meeting is possible for an investment of a few thousand in IT equipment not millions in jets.
10. WE need to bring our jobs back or we will evaporate into history as a failed state. Some call it protectionism but nearly all of our major economic competitors have mercantilist trade laws in place that protect their own manufacturing base. We are the whores of the world used for them to dump their products on so we can buy their crap with money we borrowed from them. How stupid or uninformed is the average American? Why are we uninformed? Follow the money trail for this answer.
11. But remember in the words of Red Green "WE are all in this together and I am pullin for ya."
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
