UAW busting, Southern style

[babylonsister]

UAW busting, Southern style
Foreign carmakers are enlisting the help of GOP senators from states in the South to break the union.
By Bruce Raynor
December 18, 2008


The foreign nonunion auto companies located in the South have a plan to reduce wages and benefits at their factories in the United States. And to do it, they need to destroy the United Auto Workers.

Last week, Senate Republicans from some Southern states went to work trying to do just that, on the foreign car companies' behalf. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Bob Corker ( R-Tenn.) and Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) -- representatives from states that subsidize companies such as Honda, Volkswagen, Toyota and Nissan -- first tried to force the UAW to take reductions in wages and benefits as a condition for supporting the auto industry bailout bill. When the UAW refused, those senators torpedoed the bill.

They claimed that they couldn't support the bill without specifics about how wages would be "restructured." They didn't, however, require such specificity when it came to bailing out the financial sector. Their grandstanding, and the government's generally lackluster response to the auto crisis, highlight many of the problems that have caused our current economic mess: the lack of concern about manufacturing, the privileged way our government treats the financial sector, and political support given to companies that attempt to slash worker's wages.

When one compares how the auto industry and the financial sector are being treated by Congress, the double standard is staggering. In the financial sector, employee compensation makes up a huge percentage of costs. According to the New York state comptroller, it accounted for more than 60% of 2007 revenues for the seven largest financial firms in New York.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-raynor18-2008dec18,0,4066838.story

[Hubert Flottz]

1. WE need to stop buying those products.

PERIOD.

[ogneopasno]

2. Some of us never have.

[Historic NY]

5. Never will especially not the companies that built the planes,

tanks, etc. that were used against the US or those that enslaved our troops & thousands of other people to make their products.

[liberal N proud]

4. Never did

[Hubert Flottz]

6. Nor have I

And I never will...

[INdemo]

7. Its a liitle late for that now

We should never have started started......as of about 30 years ago....
........It's not just the UAW, all unions will take a hit.The Repukes see their chance to break them but,with just 31 days left I dont think they have time..With GM temporarily closing all those plants they should be able to survive.

[Hubert Flottz]

9. I have been a union member for about 35 years and I've watched

as the GOP did it's best to turn back the clock to 1900.

America needs Fair Trade, instead of "Free Trade"...Give the Big Three all the perks and breaks that the government has given these foreign industrial invaders and the Big Three would get well quickly. Import no more cars from a foreign country, than that foreign country is willing to import from the US. Import nothing from a country where the worker safety, environmental standards and the standard of living is less than our own and level the playing field and the Big Three will prosper.

The neocons would love to turn the US into a pre 1900 coal camp.

[ananda]

12. That clock is going way past 1900..

.. to virtual serfdom.

[fasttense]

3. The worker's tax dollars go to rich Wall Street firms and CEOs.

Talk about taxation without representation.

When do the workers get their bailout?

[INdemo]

8. You have a good point there......

For every loss on wall st,someone gains..So if all that money from individual pension funds,annuities,etc..who gained...And on top of the losses the Wall St. money managers still got their management f e e s..
It wasn't just about the mortgage market.

[eilen]

10. In my fantasy universe

the big 3 merge and together with the union, fire all existing top management, produce a plan to buy out all the shareholders, jettison GMAC and allow it to bankrupt, and pare down the number of models to one of each type and reengineer them to hybrid/diesel/electric (depending on function). They become employee owned rather than shareholder owned. They come up with an economy (electric) car that caps out at $12,000 price tag and they build it here, in small plants located throughout Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, NY, NJ, and Illinois.

And tell the Southern Senators, the "gimme states", Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and the Chinese automakers, the Bush Administration and all the anti union, anti domestic car-making folk to FUCK OFF.

[FreakinDJ]

11. Lets send "Shoes" to those RATpublican Senators

Reaganomics and Trickle Down Theory FAILED - Look around at the Melt-Down STUPID