Tennessee GM autoworkers outraged that their senator torpedoed the auto industry bailout

[Omaha Steve]

http://gangbox.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/rage-in-spring-hill-tennessee-gm-autoworkers-outraged-that-their-senator-torpedoed-the-auto-industry-bailout/

Posted in Uncategorized by gangbox on the December 14, 2008
from the WASHINGTON POST:

Anger Grips Auto Workers
Critic of a Rescue, Sen. Corker Faces Backlash at Home
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 13, 2008; D01

SPRING HILL, TENN., Dec. 12 — As the workers and residents of this small town that launched the Saturn automobile see it, there are several villains in the collapse of the automakers’ rescue plan.

But what stuns many in this place defined by the General Motors auto plant and its 4,200 workers is that no person played a larger role in the demise of autoworker hopes than their own Sen. Bob Corker (R), who is now regarded by some here with the kind of disdain reserved for traitors.

Corker emerged as one of the leading critics of the rescue plan passed by the House. He lashed into the carmaker chief executives when they came to Washington looking for help. And it was Corker’s alternative proposal, which was a plan that would have been tougher on union workers, that ultimately failed.

In a dozen interviews with workers here, many suspected that he only feigned interest in rescuing Detroit’s Big Three. Instead, they say, he wants to crush GM and its union to benefit foreign automakers, such Nissan and Volkswagen, who have opened or are opening nonunionized plants in the state.

“We’re deeply disappointed in Senator Corker — that’s the official statement,” said Mike Herron, union chief at the GM plant here. “But actually my members want to choke him.”

The anger of the workers and the harshness of their words reflect the larger tension between the old Detroit-based domestic auto industry, with its unionized workforce, and the new transplant industry in the nonunion South. Emotions were stoked by the fact that GM, citing the economic downturn, had just announced that it will halt production at the plant for January and the first week of February.

FULL story at link.

[NC_Nurse]

1. When is he up for re-election? Let's beat him.

:-)

[BobRossi]

2. How many of them voted for him?

A surprising number of UAW members vote repub.

[elifino]

3. Did not GM announce that they would discontinue Saturn

As part of the restructuring. I wonder if that had something to do with Corker's lack of rational thinking on the bailout problem. I have mixed emotions on the bailout, damned if we do, damned if we don't. I would prefer damned if we do.

elifino

[2Design]

4. why are so many surprized by republicans acting like republicans n/t