Congress Delivers Stunning Blow To Auto Workers And Organized Labor

[Better Believe It]

And "friends of labor" are supposedly in charge!

-----------------------------------------


December 9, 2008
No Dreams, Only Nightmares
The UAW in Peril
By DAVID MACARAY

It must be nice to sit on the sidelines and glibly second-guess a union advocate who is, literally, fighting for his life. A union advocate whose organization is under siege, simultaneously, from (drum roll, please) foreign competitors, the media, the Congress, auto company executives, Wall Street bankers, environmentalists, libertarians, the weakest U.S. economy in 75 years, and his own demoralized membership.

The nightmare scenario for the UAW went something like this: Congress fails to agree on a rescue package; the Big Three go bankrupt and tumble, one after another, like corporate dominoes. While the UAW is decimated, the automakers regroup, leave Detroit and relocate in the South, where low wages, lax workplace and environmental rules prevail, and organized labor in the United States is dealt a crushing, near-fatal blow. In this scenario, the bad guys win, the standard of living is lowered, the American workforce inches closer to resembling a glorified Third World ensemble.

Beyond the business-as-usual stuff, anyone who watched the congressional hearings couldn’t help being struck by the extent to which both the auto executives and union leadership were berated and ridiculed by committee members who seemed to relish the opportunity to poke these supplicants with a rhetorical sharp stick. It was brutal. Besides the obvious question of where were these raised hackles when Wall Street bankers came calling, hat in hand, asking not for a paltry $35 billion but a whopping $700 billion, it also demonstrates how much institutionalized animosity there is for the car companies and the union affiliated with them. These politicians appeared to genuinely despise Detroit and all it stands for.

But for the UAW there was always another nightmare scenario looming beside the one just mentioned, and it went like this: Having no realistic alternative, the UAW capitulates. It does what it’s told. With virtually zero room to move, the union is more or less forced to recast itself in an image palatable to the bankers, anti-union House and Senate members, and “low information” American taxpayer who now have the union’s destiny in their hands.

In this scenario, the union is so severely damaged, it never recovers. Not only does it never recover, it never even regains the modicum of hopefulness and self-confidence necessary to “dream” about recovering. The only option the UAW had in this matter was choosing between two nightmares. It’s a stunning blow to organized labor.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.counterpunch.org/macaray12092008.html

[T Wolf]

1. When more and more real "workers" are destroyed by the economy and come to see

the inequity on how "their" government treats different segments of that economy, maybe there will be a reaction similar to those from the early days of unionism.

The sit-down at Republic, I hope, was the first baby-step. If these workers get pissed enough, they will not be content to write angry letters to newspapers or make calls to their {un-responsive} congress-whores. They will take real action and I welcome that.

It is long-past time to play nice.

[navarth]

2. recommend.

I'll go read that at counterpunch. Thanks.

[sufrommich]

3. Truly frightening article. I fear Americans won't figure

out what went wrong until it's too late.k&r

[ColbertWatcher]

4. "... 'friends of labor' are supposedly in charge!" There is still only one president at a time.

Making the enemies of labor still in charge.

[mdmc]

7. next year our "friends" will be in charge...

doubt the era of "big government" will be revieved... The corporations will still call the shots... even with our "friends" in charge.

Its not like Bernie Sanders and Dennis Kucinich have a super majority to help workers... We do have a mandate to "change" dubya's disaster. That mandate won't help the kids or the working man.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Yes, but RIGHT NOW, the enemies are still in charge. n/t

[mdmc]

12. How do you describe your politics?

On facebook, I stated I'm a liberal.
Some of my friends say that they are "hopeful".

This time next year the corporate wing of the dem party is going to be in control. The left will be ostracized as small govt. ray-gun democrats prove that they are "the adults" (aka corporate stooges). If bigdog didn't cheat on his wife, he would have been the ultimate middle way triangulator, son of Ray-gun. Now he is policy son of ray-gun with the inherited libido of jfk.

Time alone, time will tell.

[Better Believe It]

14. Labor's Enemies Still Control Congress?

It sure seems that way.

[mdmc]

16. they do

for true...

No different a year or two from now... sadly...

[bvar22]

17. These people ARE In Charge, and have been since 2006:

Now we got Your Children's Money too !!!
And there is not a fucking thing you can do about it!
Now THAT is "Bi-Partisanship Centrism"!
Get Used To It!!!
Hahahahahaha......SUCKERS !

[Omaha Steve]

5. K&R!

Thank you for the great post.

[mdmc]

6. I never doubted that the corporations / politicians would destroy labor

The banks got billions without a whimper. The corporations will get a thrashing, but will get to rob the treasury as well. The workers get what they deserve when they elect anti-worker, pro-corporation politicians...

I can list the pols that stand with the workers against the corporations on my hands and toes.

[Jim Sagle]

22. And that's without even taking off your shoes.

[leftofthedial]

8. Both parties now have an anti-union agenda.

"democrats" by and large treat unions the way repukes treat religious fundies; they expect to get their votes because they rhetorically promise support. Once elected though, they vote for the corporations, period.

[Occam Bandage]

10. Hey, it's Better Believe It, coming in to bash the Dems. Yet again.

I think the last time I saw him, he was posting a counterpunch article bashing Dems for not passing an auto bailout bill. Now, he's posting a counterpunch article bashing them for passing an auto bailout bill. Whee!

[Better Believe It]

15. Bush told Pelosi and Frank what kind of bill was acceptable to him

And they capitulated to Bush's demands once again.

Pelosi even bragged at her news conference that auto workers would be given "a haircut" under her proposed "bailout", along with others of course.

You didn't see that or are you in a state of denial?

Why do you support those Democrats who surrender to or go along with George W. Bush?

If you've been paying attention for the last eight years you know these Democratic enablers exist.

Now get back on topic and tell everyone why you think this proposed "bailout" bill is just a wonderful thing for auto workers.

Try to stay on subject please.

[natrat]

19. dems that enable obvious crooks like reid pelosi are only serving the corporations

[tom_paine]

25. Don't you ever get tired of being wrong about most everything?

So arrogant and so wrongheaded. A very Hannity-esque pose, I must say.

How is it someone with a monniker like yours NEVER fails to assume false dichotomies, smear with innuendo, and basically converse in a way which touches on all 25 or so logical fallacies in pursuit of what ALWAYS seems to be your message to others, and one NEVER backed up with even the tiniest modicum of facts or logic, only over-seasoned with rank contempt that reflects on you much more than the targets of your nonsensical blithering.

Contempt which, coming from the likes of you is more than Hannity-esque, it's Billo the Clown level laughable. Just a moment. I have to laugh at you now.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

"Occam's Bandage". What a WOEFULLY inappropriate moniker for the likes of you!

Your DU moniker should be more reflective of the person you ARE. As such, I offer the following suggestions for your new DU moniker that is more the essence of you:

The Last to Know

Aggressively Clueless

Pretends Logic

Incident-Based Thinker

Arrogantly Scientifically Illiterate

Nothing But Ad Hominem

Now, take on the old Hannity-esque pose of wounded, whiny duck at "Mean Ol' tom_paine. Look at how he smears me hypocritically. What a bully he is." :cry:

You Lefty Limbaughs are just like your Right-Wing versions. (which you also might be, a real-life Billo the Clown, Hannidiot, or Savage Weiner, note I said MIGHT, because you show all the mental characteristics including lack of self-awareness and inability to form logical thoughts, all while considering yourself the finest in the world at forming them - my God, you should work for FOX or Heritage, if you don't already)

So listen, go ahead and pule at my mean ol' bullying. Frankly, I tried discussion with you many times, tried to invoke your logical debate. You are simply incapable of responding thusly, and it has nothing to do with whether we disagree. (though that is something you will be 100% unable to compute or understand)

So now I give you the only thing you deserve, some of the nonstop contempt for others, that your entire existence on DU is based on.

Now cry, little man. Whine and snivel that I am merely doing to you what you always do to others. Sneer and smear me. Do your usual clueless nonsense, little man. You contemptible worm.

Have the last word, tiny man. I'll never see it. But if I know you embarrassingly immature mental equivalents of FReikorpsers, you'll put it out there anyway. You can no more stop yourself than a five-year-old. Please do. Expose yourself more...as if that is possible, little man.

I will shortly be getting around to taking out the trash and putting you on ignore. How overdue, you aggressively clueless mental weakling.

'Bye now. :hi:

[Greyhound]

32. Nice. Is the ironically inappropriate name another clue, like fishing?

There are a few of them here and it is usually amusing to peruse their "pretzel logic". Rather like a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

[HillbillyBob]

11. I have never been able to join a union, lived in the South all of my llfe

You get stuck, you can't make enough to get out, go live up North.
I think it is time we over turn some of the jim crow union laws. I worked as an electrician for 11 years and I did good timely work, even ran service trucks. I never was able to break 8$ per hour, when you ask for a raise you get come back in 5 weeks or 6 months they just blow you off. I asked a boss in SoFla for a raise and was told i must be living too extravagantly, yea right I was renting a cheap house with 2 roomies and drove a motor cycle that I had pulled from a backyard and rebuilt it.
6.50$ hr I asked for a 50 cent raise and got blown off, I asked again when I was running a service truck they were charging 35$ per hr for , the truck was a 69 with no reverse had not had the oil changed in god knows how long and this was in 83. b______d told me he could not afford it, their building was paid for the only real costs they had was payroll as the rest had been paid out years previously and they did not pay into insurance..that was what eventually caught up with them they were withholding for taxes fica and not paying it to the government. I asked 3 times 4 weeks apart and got the same answer, the last time I tossed 50C at him and said you obviously see this as worth more than I am to you get another slave. put my tool box on my scoot and left. called me Monday and asked why i was not at work. I told you I quit and for me to come back it will cost you 8.50$ hr not 6.50$ dig the click.
The really bad thing is they screw you every chance they get, make you work over time then make you take off another day so they don't have to pay overtime or simply don't pay overtime at all.
Unless I see a real change in congress.. we maybe need to get rid of all of them as it is clear they are unsympathetic to us non millionaires or simply don't give a s__t if you don't bribe them err campaign donation.

[Hannah Bell]

13. that's the logical end for "company unions". try real ones.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4619242

[spoony]

33. yeah, blame the union. Nice.

Oh, better yet, pit union AGAINST union. Wow, you're really good at spin and diversion.

[Hannah Bell]

36. Sorry truth offends you so. UAW works for the bosses, has for decades.

The leadership's collaborated in the destruction of the US industry & the destuction of worker power, & I should praise them?

[natrat]

18. good thing reid and pelosi are sticking up for working people, oh wait....

[rhett o rick]

20. Without tariffs and more industry in the US, all labor unions are domed. There is

a glut of skilled labor in this country. This puts the little manufacturing we have in the drivers seat. They can get labor cheap. Unions have no leverage. we need tariffs and more US manufacturing jobs.

[Tigress DEM]

21. My problem is with the leadership going along with pushing the *ush oil guzzlers on us.

Union and workers didn't have a say in that, but if they were going to continue to produce as they had been, it would be business as usual and no one can afford to drive the gas guzzlers anymore.

Unfortunately I think it's like learning from the mistakes made with the oldest child. Big bank bailouts and all the AIG parties etc... caused a need for more oversite.

I'm really sorry the Congressional Committee played those games. The unions really have helped all of us for a long time and while no one gets support without question, the unions are probably the closest to it.

Support first, question later.

[hfojvt]

23. Counterpunch likes to punch at Democrats

but it sure seems like they left themselves wide open to this by not taking a strong stand in defense of unions jobs.

[Better Believe It]

28. Why do you like to comment on articles you haven't read?

If you had actually read the article before commenting on it you would know that the article takes a much stronger stand in defense of union auto worker jobs than your apparent hero Pelosi.

In the future, please read an article before you express an opinion on it.

Thank you.

[hfojvt]

30. you think I am bad

but you commented on a post you hadn't read. I wrote "....Democrats ... they ..." Meaning that I said Pelosi and Reid and Dodd, etc. did not take a strong stand for union jobs.

[Better Believe It]

31. I read it but I'm glad you clarified your post.

When you wrote "they" it sounded like hundreds of attacks I've read directed at the CounterPunch website. It was a kneejerk reaction on my part.

"They", Pelosi, Reid, etc., have not taken a strong stand in defense of unions. And they have gone out of their way to satisfy the Bush government and Republicans in Congress who want the domestic auto industry along with the UAW destroyed.

Thanks for the clarification.

[Hubert Flottz]

24. The Nazi Terror

snip...

Smashing the Unions

The trade union movement fared no better. Hitler declared the First of May a National Labour Day, to which the trade union leaders humbly offered their full cooperation. The official organ of the German TUC, Gewerhschaftszeitung, published an article for its May Day edition with the following scandalous statement: 'We certainly need not strike our colours in order to recognise that the victory of National Socialism, though won in struggle against (the Social Democrats)...is our victory as well'!

After the National Labour Day mass demonstration of 100,000, Goebbels wrote: 'Tomorrow we will occupy the trade union buildings. There will be little resistance'.

The next day the SA occupied the trade union headquarters, dissolved the unions, confiscated the funds and arrested its leaders. They were loaded into trucks and taken off to the Nazi concentration camps. Theodor Leipart and Peter Grassman, leaders of the Trade Union Confederation, proclaimed their readiness to cooperate with the fascist regime. 'The Leiparts and Grassmans,' declared Doctor Robert Ley, assigned by Hitler to reorganise the trade unions into a German Labour Front, 'may hypocritically declare their devotion to the Fuehrer as much as they like but it is better that they should be in prison.' And that is where they were carted off.

The end was shameful and inglorious. There was no resistance to the totalitarian nightmare, only abject capitulation by the labour leadership.

http://www.marxist.com/germany/chapter8.html


Eight Steps to Becoming Dictator

snip...

5 Trade Unions banned - 2 May 1933
The Trade Unions offices were closed, their money confiscated, and their leaders put in prison. In their place, Hitler put the German Labour Front which reduced workers' pay and took away the right to strike.

http://www.johndclare.net/Nazi_Germany1.htm


Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
Volume II Chapter XV
Criminality of Groups and Organizations
The Nazi Party Leadership Corps
(Part 12 of 12)

Soon after the seizure of power (mid-April 1933), Reichsleiter Robert Ley was directed by Hitler to smash the independent unions. Reichsleiter Ley, in his speech to the Nurnberg Party Congress of 1936, declared:


"*** My Fuehrer! When you, my Fuehrer, ordered me in mid-April 1933 to take over the trade unions, I could not understand why you gave this order to me since I could not see any connection between my task as Organizational Leader of the Party and my new task. Very soon, however, your decision, my Fuehrer, became clear to me and I recognized that the organizational measures of the Party could only come to full fruition when supplemented by the organization of the people, that is to say, by the mobilization of the energies of the people and by their concentration and alignment. If the Part represents the concentration of the Political Leaders of the people -- as you, my Fuehrer, have told us again and again -- then the people is the retinue and must be organized and trained according to the same principles. Leader and retinue, elite and community at large -- these were the clear directives for my work. These were the consequences:

http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/nca/nca-02/nca-02-15-criminality-02-12.html

Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression Volume IV
Document No. 2277-PS

snip...

The house had been taken over on 9 March 1933 by Herr Kurt Frey, and returned to us on 15 March by the former executive secretary of the Hotel, Restaurant, etc. Employees' Association, Herr Reichart. This Nazi, with whom I did not get along too well because of his equivocal attitude, believed that the opportunity had arrived to wreak his vengeance on me.

I was dragged to the great hall, paper and pencil put before me with the challenge to designate these Nazis who had committed thefts during the period of 9 to 15 March 1933. I could not do that, since I did not know the individuals. As I refused my signature about 10 Nazis beat me promiscuously and indiscriminately until I collapsed. Upon that they seized me and threw me into the bottom of the light shaft of the Trade Union Headquarters Building. After lying there for some time I summoned up my strength and tried to rouse myself. When the Nazis noted that, they again dragged me into the hall and beat me until I collapsed and fainted. My colleagues Josef Gessl, former executive secretary of the Cobblers' Association, and Richard Moses, employee of the General Mutual Benefit Local Pay Office , Munich, grabbed me and brought me in this condition to the Munich-Schwabing hospital. In addition to many other injuries, Professor Dr. Kerschensteiner, director of this institution, diagnosed serious concussion of the brain with hemorhage into the brain. I remained from 15 March to 5 May 1933. On 5 May the Precinct Physician, at that time already a Nazi, certified that I was sufficiently fit for arrest. On 5 May I was transported to the Ettstrasse Police Prison, and from there to Stadelheim. I remained in Stadelheim until 25 August 1933.

It is due to an extraordinarily fortunate circumstance that I was saved from Dachau in 1933. Medical Privy Councillor Dr. Geisendoerfer, who was chief physician in Stadelheim, knew me from the Cooperative Sickness Benefit movement (I had been on the Committee of the General Mutual Insurance Local Pay Office , Munich, for 25 years). Through the many negotiations with the physician I had been in close touch with the above-named gentleman. During my stay in Stadelheim the Gestapo had me examined five times by the chief physician, who always held a protective hand over me, and to whom I am also indebted for my early release, due to a serious illness (intestinal gap of 15 cm depth and 7-8 cm length).

I was then sick and unable to work until 24 December 1933. On that day I was sent away by the Trustee Physician of the General Mutual Benefit Local Pay Office, Munich (city), in spite of my request to allow me to draw sickness benefits until the eve of the New Year. He said that there was no reason to grant the request. As far as I know this Trustee Physician was Medical Councillor Dr. Plate. MORE...

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/2277-ps.asp

Nazi Rule

snip...

In the first months of his chancellorship, Hitler began a concerted policy of "synchronization," forcing organizations, political parties, and state governments into line with Nazi goals and placing them under Nazi leadership. Culture, the economy, education, and law came under greater Nazi control. Trade unions were abolished and workers, employees, and employers were forced into Nazi organizations. By mid-July 1933, the Nazi party was the only political party permitted in Germany. The Reichstag (German parliament) became a rubber stamp for Hitler's dictatorship. The Fuehrer's will became the foundation for government policy.

http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/nrule.htm

Benito Mussolini

snip...

1925 - On 3 January, following political and social unrest unleashed by Matteotti's murder, Mussolini seizes dictatorial control and promises to crack down on dissenters. The fascists launch a program to achieve economic and social stability, introducing large-scale public works and a one-party, police state.

Constitutional safeguards against government autocracy are removed. All social, economic and political power is centred on Mussolini. Opposition parties, trade unions, the free press and freedom of speech are banned. The leaders of opposition parties and unions are forced into exile. Public servants are required to swear allegiance to fascism. Mussolini handpicks newspaper editors. A military tribunal is set up to try antifascist "subversives".

In 1928 all executive power is ceded to the Fascist Grand Council, making it the supreme constitutional authority of the state. When the Great Depression devastates the world economy in 1929, Mussolini's policies are able to spare Italy from the full impact of the crisis. His popularity grows and all over the country his speeches draw huge crowds. MORE...

http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/mussolini.html

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=954&display_order=6&sub_display_order=28&mini_id=1090


Lots of luck reaching across the aisle to the likes of Jeff Sessions and his crew of to the manor born radicals, who wish to reinvent and modernize slavery. These southern boys want to turn the clock all the way back to 1860.

[Vinca]

26. All I know is I wish people had cared as much about the textile workers,

steel workers, television factories and small appliance makers. Their jobs were lost and nobody who could do anything seemed to care.

[pleah]

27. Me, too.

:(

[Octafish]

34. Excellent points, Vinca.

Corporate McPravda has been AWOL on the destruction of organized labor for a reason -- fair contracts cost the owners money.

Guess who led the U.S.-China Chamber of Commerce during the time of the destruction of manufacturing?

[Greyhound]

35. Thank you for pointing this out, I was beginning to believe there were

only about 3 of us here that remember the destruction and suffering we still have not recovered from.

After having their lives ripped away, with the help of their "union brothers and sisters" I might add, they were assured that retraining in the new "high tech" fields would be provided. Of course it was never provided, but it was got through having more debt heaped on them through yet another corporate welfare program disguised as school loans. Then, almost a decade later, just when things start to look less than completely hopeless, along comes Clinton and his corporate donors to kill that industry before it can even take a real hold.

Why are we not rioting? How many times will we accept the lies before we figure out these parasites have never had any intention of helping anyone other than themselves and their patrons?

"Oh, and while you're busy with those three McJobs, would you mind if we borrow your kids for a few years? We have this little meat grinder we need to put them through so we can have even more. Don't worry we'll give them a shiny new car and take care of them once we're done with them."

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face -- forever." - George Orwell

[AzDar]

29. K & R ...

:kick: