- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
The UAW has some nice pay and benefits (although not so extremely nice as you might think. The NYT had a good article in Wednesday's business section that breaks down the automaker's labor costs) and one might argue that they are a bit cushy, or not. But leave us never forget that the reason for the union and its protective attitude towards its members is the screw job that management at the automakers were giving the workers (without the benefit of KY jelly) before the union.
Now, IMSHO, it takes a lota damn gall for a fat cat Senator who has the cushiest retirement plan on the planet that, unlike the autoworkers who had to literally fight for everything they've got while all he had to do was vote himself the pension, to criticize the autoworkers.
And the pension plan isn't the only thing that Congress has voted for itself that isn't available to the rest of us schmucks. Nor does it address all the things that Congress has exempted itself from that we all have to comply with. And that is how we create a ruling class.
