blame the workers
by HERNANDO!!! • December 13, 2008 • too random • 8 Comments
Senate to Middle Class: Drop Dead
Friends,
They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers start building only cars and mass transit that reduce our dependency on oil.
They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers build cars that reduce global warming.
They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers withdraw their many lawsuits against state governments in their attempts to not comply with our environmental laws.
They could have given the loan on the condition that the management team which drove these once-great manufacturers into the ground resign and be replaced with a team who understands the transportation needs of the 21st century.
Yes, they could have given the loan for any of these reasons because, in the end, to lose our manufacturing infrastructure and throw 3 million people out of work would be a catastrophe.
But instead, the Senate said, we’ll give you the loan only if the factory workers take a $20 an hour cut in wages, pension and health care. That’s right. After giving BILLIONS to Wall Street hucksters and criminal investment bankers — billions with no strings attached and, as we have since learned, no oversight whatsoever — the Senate decided it is more important to break a union, more important to throw middle class wage earners into the ranks of the working poor than to prevent the total collapse of industrial America.
We have a little more than a month to go of this madness. As I sit here in Michigan today, tens of thousands of hard working, honest, decent Americans do not believe they can make it to January 20th. The malaise here is astounding. Why must they suffer because of the mistakes of every CEO from Roger Smith to Rick Wagoner? Make management and the boards of directors and the shareholders pay for this.
Of course that is heresy to the 31 Republicans who decided to blame the poor, miserable autoworkers for this mess. And our wonderful media complied with their spin on the morning news shows: “UAW Refuses to Give Concessions Killing Auto Bailout Bill.” In fact the UAW has given concession after concession, reduced their benefits, agreed to get rid of the Jobs Bank and agreed to make it harder for their retirees to live from week to week. Yes! That’s what we need to do! It’s the Jobs Bank and the old people who have led the nation to economic ruin!
But even doing all that wasn’t enough to satisfy the bastard Republicans. These Senate vampires wanted blood. Blue collar blood. You see, they weren’t opposed to the bailout because they believed in the free market or capitalism. No, they were opposed to the bailout because they’re opposed to workers making a decent wage. In their rage, they were driven to destroy the backbone of this country, not because the UAW hadn’t given back enough, but because the UAW hadn’t given up.
It appears that the sitting President has been looking for a way to end his reign by one magnanimous act, just like a warlord on his feast day. He will put his finger in the dyke, and the fragile mess of an auto industry will eke through the next few months.
That will give the Senate enough time to demand that the bankers and investment sharks who’ve already swiped nearly half of the $700 billion gift a chance to make the offer of cutting their pay.
Fat chance.
Yours,
Michael Moore
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That is economics for ya. The employee is the highest cost of doing business and all those UAW union members are making effective $80 an hour. How many people with advanced degrees do you know that make that kind off scratch? Their southern counterparts are making closer to $40 for the same semi skilled job working for honda. They just cant be competitive with that kind of payroll. They also make shitty cars that suck down the petrol.
*sigh*
“UAW union members are making effective $80 an hour” …
this number has been debunked over and over again.
You can go to Factcheck.org and find a clear statement as to how the bogus inflated number (corporate propaganda) was derived:
“The automakers arrived at the $70+ figure by adding up all the costs associated with providing wages and benefits to current and retired workers and dividing the total by the number of hours worked by current employees.”
Wages are NOT why the american auto industry is in trouble. It’s because of mismanagement, corporate greed, and the heavy-handed influence of OIL companies in the american political process.
but, i’m a socialists. so, my perspective is going to be biased to begin with.
i believe in the social contract. i believe in paying my tax dollars to help all of us.
I’m not sure why you wouldn’t include all costs (pensions for former and current employees). It all has an effect on the P&L (and cash position).
It’s very clear that the big three’s costs are higher. Even the UAW admits that (the UAW boss said that he did not want to get to parity or something like that because they would lose all that they gained).
On the flip side, there’s greed on the management side too.
I wish they would build cars that we want. One part of me wishes that they would fail, but it would be painful in the short run.
Eric
Eric,
it’s not the inclusion, it’s the calculation. dividing the costs of all current/past employees by the number of current hours worked by laborers. That’s a misleading number and NOT accurate to current laborers wages. Catch me?
And remember, failure of the auto manufacturers won’t just affect UAW workers. It’s parts distributors, dealers, international auto manufacturers building in the US who buy parts, etc.
Remember, UAW has already cut millions upon millions out of their pensions, pay, benefits over the past decade. MILLIONS, man.
The current Republican Senators killing the loan packages to the auto makers are very much trying to bust unions.
UNIONS improve our lives. I very much recommend you take a look at the history of how workers rights have been established and protected by unions.
AND, also research the absolute corruption and waste that has occurred in those unions.
people suck when they get power and money … they want to keep it.
but, workers … you and me and everyone we know … our lives are made better when we unite and collectively fight for each other.
m
I would like to comment on the sad historical irony of this situation: that is, essentially unions being blamed for undermining corporate profits. i believe a historical perspective is most necessary in this situation.
Post WWII, when other industrialized countries began developing their welfare states, things evolved quite differently in the US. After the war, booming industrialization caused increased incomes and rising inflation; thus, the government enacted price and wage controls. Unable to bargain for wage increases, corporations pressed for fringe benefits, one of those being health care, another being pensions, as a means with which to retain employees. Thus, health insurance and pensions – two central elements of the welfare state – became tied to the private sector. This benefited employers because these were non-taxed and allowed them to raise the base pay of their employees. This also became the focal point of union bargaining in the U.S.– such an incredibly contrast of the union power in Western Europe. (as lenin would say, bread and butter unionism)
So, yes, this is a very sad historical moment. Labor historians never argue about the weakness the American labor movement, or lack there of. And now we hear about the UAW giving huge concessions. Then we see that these concessions are not large enough. And now we see that Senate Southern Republicans sank short-term aid and then blamed it on the UAW, which makes it clear that they want nothing short of breaking the union completely. I’m trying to restrain myself from a total rant about this, but I’ll just say that it really surprises me that these Southern Republicans, patriots that they are, can sabotage major American manufacturing companies in order to benefit their states’ growing foreign auto plants and not get called out for it….but this is much too long already.
i still remain baffled at why people would want their cars, that thing in which they entrust their lives, their family’s lives … hell, a thing that most americans gauge their self-worth … to be built by low-paid workers.
low-paid and inevitably disgruntled workers … and your child’s safety is in their hands.
and you begrudge them making … what $50K a year. Unbelievable. It just goes to show the utter disconnect of the american consumer. everything must be cheap. everything must be at my fingertips whenever wanted.
we have killed our own ability to produce. and so, now we serve.
and, just in case anyone doesn’t realize the Republican Senators weren’t attempting to break unions:
1. This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election. This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/new-gop-memo-entitled-action-alert-abou
To continue on Beth’s rant …. part of the big problem for the ‘Big Three’ is that they promised benefits in the past but never funded them, expecting instead to pay the costs out of later profits. I have a defined benefit pension waiting for me, from another industry, to retire and collect it but the company that paid for it (now gone through merger and then subsequent death through attrition of the new parent) paid the funds for the pension into a trust account that will pay those of us who ‘earned’ the pension far into the future. The ‘Big Three’, and some other US industries, made the management decisions in the past to not fund the benefit when earned, which helped their bottom line at the time but is part of the problem of the present and future. Unless they can make sufficient profits to keep the companies alive, and pay the past benefits promised and ‘earned’, they will crumble. And the US taxpayer will be saddled with much of the pension costs, just as we were with United Airlines and a host of other companies that have used bankruptcy protection to shed themselves of the past benefit obligations. And rather than lay the blame at the feet of the past management who decided to enrich the shareholders and themselves rather than pay the full cost of labor at the time, the southern Republicans and current management want to blame the current workforce.
I have a lot of problems with the US auto industry, but let’s be honest this a problem brought on by management past and present.