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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
First, I’m a left-liberal who voted Green the last two presidential elections. I’m not defending Southern senators.
But... There’s myths about the UAW, Japanese Big Three and right to work that you’re perpetuating.
Not only, of course, is Kentucky NOT right to work, but, Honda’s FIRST plant is the one in Marysville, Ohio, which is not only NOT r-t-w, but which is strongly pro-labor.
Second, UAW President Douglas Frazer INVITED the Japanese Big Three to come to America in 1980 so the Big Three would get more competition. He had contacts with the Japanese equivalent of the UAW to ask about unionization issues. Japanese companies here in America made no overt antiunion activity.
Simply, Fraser et al screwed up on getting Japanese plants unionized.
http://socraticgadfly.blogspot.com/2008/12/uaw-cut-its-own-throat-20-years-ago.html
(I haven’t even mentioned the UAW, at corporate level, signing off on the Big Three claim it couldn’t make fuel efficient cars, etc. And, I haven’t even TOUCHED the “Monday car/Friday car” issue, which, as of the mid-1990s, was still very true in Detroit. I taught college classes in Flint and suburban Detroit – adult ed to UAW workers using bennies to work toward a degree. Rank-and-file, and officers from union locals, talked to me after classes.)
Deh-twah is in this pickle for two reasons only:
1) Old auto workers who *just won't die* who are sucking up lots of retirement benefits. Furthermore, the pension funds have heavily invested in the stock market, so the recent crash has led to even more of a money crunch in the pension fund.
THIS IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE UAW.
2) Very few people--I'd venture to say mostly men with self-esteem issues and soccer moms who think carpooling home from practice one day per week justifies a huge vehicle--really want the dreck that Deh-twah has been peddling for years now.
THIS IS THE FAULT OF BAD BUSINESS MODELS, POOR PLANNING, AND TUNNEL VISION.
Solutions?
1) Can't kill off the retired line workers (though I'm sure the Southern Repubs would love to because many of them voted for Obama), but we can learn from this since other pension systems, including social security, are eventually going to be in the same scary financial straits. Some MBA needs to figure out a solution SOON.
2) Create a car like the Honda Accord: I've had (a 2002 used model) one for two years and put 50,000 hard miles on it; it's needed nothing but oil changes and new brake pads (knock on wood). Moreover, it's cute and comfortable.
My former car, (from an American car company) meanwhile, was nothing but a money pit. Ask people who've switched over, and you'll hear many of the same stories. I have a friend whose new Pontiac was painful to drive...because the seat was designed for a 6-foot-something man and not a 5-foot woman. My little rice burner on the other hand? None of the blind spots of my old car.
BTW, The money I once spent on keeping my American car running is now spent on other things--which helps the rest of the economy, though my auto mechanic misses me horribly.
"Those who do not know their past are doomed to repeat it." Before you criticize them, you should, if you care about yourself and your family, read the history of the unions in the USA.
There is a union in which each member receives a "Golden Parachute". It is called The Houses of Congress. They receive, from Day One, the best health-care available, annual automatic pay increases, pensions for life, per-diem travel pay, paid vacations, paid sick leave, paid staff, expense accounts, cost of living adjustments, etc.
The foreign automakers have already received bail-out funds from their home countries. So, they just watch us feed on each other, like crabs in a pot, knowing we never agree to one average worker achieving more than another. So, go ahead, help destroy the unions. Who will protect "blue collar" jobs then? The corporations will then do whatever they like with no repercussions. See if a political party will go against their campaign supporters for you.
whatever it takes to break the unions hold on gm and chrysler, we should do. it costs gm $2400 more per car to cover pensions and benefits than it costs japanese carsmakers. why should gm now be penalized for gross stupidity on the part of management for caving in to unions over the last 50 years?
unions murder people who disagree with them, the bosses live like billionaires by siphoning off millions from union dues every month for their own use. they take millions to elect crooked politicians who will do whatever they are told to do and vote for by the bosses.
the unions decide which cars gm can build, where and for how long each year. the unions have been running the company for years. including benefits, which are medical insurance for life for their kids, and grandkids, the gm union retirees are given 100K to 140K for the rest of their lives.
their jobs are not worth more than $8 per hour and could be done by machines like toyota, nissan and honda build their cars; and we are supposed to feel sorry for these employees. the AMERICAN people should go on strike against any car built in AMERICA by these evil unions.
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THIS INFO IS DESPERATELY NEEDED. BRAVO.
I'm from the Midwest. I now live down South (Georgia). Observations:
1. Midwesterners/Northerners, like anyone who won a war, don't really concern themselves much with the goings-on of the South. The South is like your dim-witted cousin that you keep inviting to holidays because your Uncle Sam would never forgive you if you didn't.
2. In school in the North, we learned that the main cause of the Civil War was not slavery (although it is a morally abnominable institution) but economics.
In contrast:
1. Like most losers, the South (by this I mean white Southerners) is fixated on a war that happened 150 years ago. They are *still* suspicious of Northerners, the educated, black people (OMG, Obama is all three!)
2. Southerners are taught that the Civil War was fought mostly because of slavery and the Damn Yankees' wish to impose their moral standards on the entire country (irony is not well understood here).
Mix this all in a pot, and yes, this is a big F-U from some Southern Republicans. And I bet every single one of them gets re-elected, because regional schism and hate still sells down here. It jsut doesn't wear a white hood anymore.
PS. Case in point: There is a Ford dealer in Hardeeville, SC, (outside of Savannah) running a radio ad in which he disparages "foreign-made" cars.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
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Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
