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Wednesday, Nov 4, 2009
The Union has to Get Real
Since the US auto industry was making billions before the banksters crashed the financial economy, the unions are not to blame.
If you wingnuts want to waste your time and the remaining shreds of your credibility by posting long-winded screeds which are easily blown out of the water with a single simple fact, I have no objection.
Thank god for common sense - that is, the Republicans. No one, with any intelligence or work ethic, would like the unions. Hence, the liberal love fest for the unions. Enough said.
When I heard that the GOP Senators crushed the deal, I thought to myself "this is good news".
It's a temporary setback for the auto industry and the millions it employs, but the Bush administration will float them with money from the 700 bn, at least until the incoming Democratic congress does a more permanent fix. So all that will be okay.
The really good news though, is that the GOP just lost another 10% of their constituents. Anyone who works at a US car factory, or a parts supplier, or auto dealer, anyone who 'buys American' or has a nostolgic passion for 57 Chevies and 64 Mustangs, anyone who recalls that Ford, GM and Jeep won two world wars for America, is going to remember what the GOP did this past week.
And they never have been. This is not the Teamsters or the Mine Workers or some 1960s English union. The UAW have been free-traders, not protectionists. The UAW have partnered with the auto companies very closely for ten years, and had the OEMs on track for a huge comeback.
Almost all the anti-union posts here are cliche, theoretical misconceptions from people who know nothing about unions. They remind me of fundamentalists who rant about gay people, even though the do not even know any gays.
give people a little test about Unions; what they are, how they function, why they started, what they have done for all workers, what they do poorly, what they do well, how they are corrupted, the answers would be enlightening as to what position many of those posting here make their assertions.
With just over 8% of Americans in Unions, down from a high of over 25%, tracking the real income gains of American workers since the Unions decline would be an interesting exercise.
Most Americans have had stagnant or falling incomes for nearly 20 years(CBO Numbers). Productivity gains of the workers have gone to quick profits and management and nearly none has gone to workers in any industry. Workers generate wealth, management harvests wealth. How the welath is divided or shared is the major issue.
The net worth of the wealthy has climbed dramaticly while the net worth of the vast majority of Americans has stagnated or declined, especially if debt is factored in.
But the Masters have a winning strategy; get the middle class to fight with the middle class. Only the middle class loses.
No one, with any intelligence or work ethic, would like the unions.
Adam Smith, the darling of capitalists, thought unions were essential, as did Lincoln and Eisenhower.
But never mind that. Just rant away. If you pub thugs proclaimed your stupidity and self-hatreds more loudly it would probably help the country.
You'd think that his fellow Salonistas would pay him more repsect.
Yes, the UAW has one of the better records in the history of the union movement. In the world, not just the USA. It has been a remarkably clean, crime-free, and -- I like this part best -- productive -- union. Of course UAW "productivity" has been in large part hammered out by the Detroit Three automakers. In North America, car making (be it Toyota, or GMC, or BMW) is remarkably efficient manufacturing, providing phenmomenal, unprecedetned value to consumers whether they decide to buy a Fusion, a Camry or a Malibu. "Competition" has given the car conusmers in North America the greatest selection of the highest-quality cars, at the lowest wage-adjusted cost, in world history. That is competition, amigos.
But why, I ask, did the UAW kill a potential deal with the Senate Republicans based on the mere timing of a wage-parity deal?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122912631328803145.html
1) At 90K miles the Chrysler mini van's transmission self destructs. This problem has gone on for years. They haven't fixed the problem and and they don't give credit toward the repairs. That is how much Chrysler cares about their customers and their product. So why should the customers they had no regard for be forced to save the CEOs that were so blatantly incompetent?
2) Chrysler is a privately owned equity company. Why should the taxpayer bail out hedge fund owners who are well educated and know their risks?
3) GM had an electric car, the EV. Then they scrapped it. Now they are promising (with government money) that they will research and design an energy efficient car?
4) The executives of the big-three, knew that gasoline was going to be an issue in the future. They knew they would be facing a moment like this but they failed to take action. In fact, they fought every change from improved mileage standards and to improved safety standards. They continued to glamorize the large vehicles in their advertisement because they preferred the profit in the big vehicle. The big-three knew that they were too big to fail.
The employees paddle the boat. The executives steer the boat. But let the boat get into rough water and they want to throw the employees over board. Employees are people just like us. They have house payments, children in college, and a working wife. They don’t have the discretionary income that executives have. The executives need to make the sacrifice.
Let’s face it. All these discussions and the media attention is just window dressing. Both the politicians and the big-three are dancing to sell us their package.
I think that we cannot have the ripple effect of this many lost jobs in our economy right now. We need something that will take care of the people and hold the executives’ feet to the fire. So lets pass a bill that has some auditors, some consequences and some teeth in the package -- for the sake of the country.
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