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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Wake me when you have something new to tell me.
These are the same people that shit on the Constitution every chance they get.
They're the people the founding fathers warned everyone about.
The only thing worse than Republican politicians are the vast numbers of UnAmerican douches that vote for them.
The southern states have been giving large tax breaks to northern companies for years - I worked on the East Coast during the great exodus of the 70's when almost all of the bearing industry relocated to South Carolina, Georgia etc.
This is the most brazen attempt to dismantle northern industry - the Civil War is not over and any American north of the Mason-Dixon line who buys a car produced by foreign manfacturers should be prosecuted for treason!
...So, we cannot let simple-minded ideas take over. I respond now mainly to Poster Libertyaintfree's post about his or her experience in a manufacturing union.
1. I was a member of the UAW in 1972, making transmission parts for GM. We all worked hard, and everybody except me made great parts. I did not have much talent with the grinding machines.
Back then, if you looked at the little green booklet that laid out the bargaining agreement, the most striking thing was the names, the signatures at the end. The union guys were (e.g.) Joey Swidwinski, Tony Gharabaldino, Ti-Leandro Bates. In contrast, the management guys were H. Farnsworth Higgins, Christopher Hyght-Figgins, Lester M. P. Henderberg.
And the union signed off with a little over the top thing about, "fighting our common enemy, the management of the Hydramatic Division." Things have changed since then, in rhetoric and in fact. But, please note, we all worked hard and made good parts, even back in those 1970s. We had 35 minutes for lunch, and we worked lots of tough overtime for a little over five bucks per hour. I worked twenty days in a row once.
I suggest that your experience in a Navy shipyard is much different from the UAW. The UAW works in a for-profit real economy industry. In contrast, the US government may put up with lazy, old-fashioned workers, but the UAW and GM do not, even 36 years ago they did not.
2. Southerners in the North: Just west of Detroit, we have the city of Ypsilanti, Michigan. Southerners started moving there decades ago to work in the auto plants. To this day, Ypsilanti is known as, "Ypsi-Tucky," because so many southern families live there, because of the auto jobs. And the Ypsi Southerners themselves say, "Ypsi-Tucky." This is not some elitest put-down. It is a happy jest.
The whole Detroit area is populated by white and black families who came here to work in the auto plants. Many of them still have southern accents, and southern families, southern roots. These people are not fooled by creepy, simplistic southern senators, and neither are their families in the South.
3. We cannot have a new Civil War or a second secession based on geography, because Americans are inextricably mixed now. e.g. Indiana would have to go with the Confederacy, and Florida would have to stay with the Union.
The arrogant, unnaturally-self-assured, willfully ignorant, cartoonish Southern Senators who try to push a Cultural Civil War are following an evil path. They would get more credit and more votes if they took a 21st-Century path toward reconciliation and new paradigms. Tennessee Senator Corker sounds and thinks like a young Foghorn Leghorn. How long will it take him to realize how preposterous he is?
It is apparent to me that the Republican senators that blocked the auto bail-out want more than anything to break not only the back of the UAW but all of organized labor. I am sure that UAW has made its share of mistakes over the years but we must remember that if were not for the unions we most likely would not have a vast middle class in this country. There were many people who were unable to complete high school or go onto college. If not for unions representing their interests they would be screwed.I remember reading how back in 1937 Henry Ford hired goons to smash the skulls of auto workers trying to organize & join the UAW.
Let me very blunt- anytime an employer can get away with shafting their workers they will do so! I am all for our capitalistic system but unless the worker and the community are considered the system will run roughshod over everything. People forget that unless you have a contract one is at will employee entitled to only the minimum wage, a lunch break and rest breaks which depend on how many hours you work. That is basically it- unless you have a union to represent your concerns you are at the mercy of your employer.
Since Ronald Reagan the Republicans have been hell bent on destroying organized labor. That has been of their prized goals and a top objective. Ever since he fired the air traffic controllers union it has been apparent that the objective has been to cast organized labor as a primary villian for what troubles America. We must not forget the discredited economic theory, Reaganomics and his deregulation mantra which unfortunately was embraced by both political parties.
GM is far from perfect and they have engineered many lousy cars over the past few decades. This so called bail out which in reality is a bridge loan is not about GM or Chrysler it is about jobs and keeping people in their homes, food on the table and communities together. Once again the Republican party has screwed the everyday worker be. I hope that the good people of America's industrial heartland remember this the next time these brown shirts start to campaign bellowing how they are looking for out for them . BTW nobody ever mentions the enormous tax breaks given to foreign car companies so they would build their plants down South. Maybe Shelby and the other Confederates would like a return if not to master/slave the system of share cropping .LOL -the Republicans expect to make a "comeback"-who are they kidding?
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Salon headlines in your mailbox
