Bagdad Bronxboy- "There is nothing wrong with bailing out the union workers."
Posted on 12/15/2008 5:44:50 AM PST by SJackson
United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger holds up a document during a news conference in Detroit, Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. A relieved Gettelfinger said he's happy that the White House appears poised to step in and rescue the beleaguered auto industry, and he accused GOP senators who blocked emergency loans of trying to "pierce the heart" of organized labor. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)(CNSNews.com) - The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is “solely” to blame for the collapse of negotiations on a $14-billion auto bailout deal that stalled in the Senate Thursday, Sen. Tom Colburn (R-Okla.) told CNSNews.com on Friday.
But UAW President Ron Gettelfinger in a press conference Friday morning blamed Republican senators, who he said resented his organization.
The auto bailout bill, which passed the House in a 237-170 vote on Wednesday, was defeated in a 52-35 procedural vote in the Senate late Thursday night after negotiations between automakers, the UAW, and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) fell apart.
“As far as the failure of last night, it solely lies on UAW,” Coburn told CNSNews.com. “All we asked was, ‘Just give us a date at which you will have competitive wage rates. We will put it in and that’s what you will have to meet.’ They would not move. They would not renegotiate their contract with GM as far as wage rates.”
Coburn was referring to an amendment crafted by Corker that would have required the auto makers to reduce their labor costs to a level equal to the salaries paid by non-unionized foreign auto companies operating in the United States, firms such as Nissan, Toyota and Honda.
Gettelfinger, however, blamed senators like Coburn who opposed the bailout.
“Corker admitted to our people on the ground that they [concerns about pay] were largely about politics within the GOP caucus,” said Gettelfinger. “There is no question that the UAW has demonstrated leadership in this process. There were some in the Senate, who, we felt, resented that.”
Gettelfinger also said that since financial workers were not asked to make concessions in the $700 billion bailout, senators were applying a double standard to the UAW.
Before Thursday’s vote, Coburn told CNSNews.com that he thought the domestic auto companies would never be viable without the kind of sacrifices called for in Corker’s amendment.
Coburn, however, also said that he does not blame unionized labor for the financial difficulties of the automakers.
“I don’t put the blame of their long-term troubles on the UAW,” Coburn told CNSNews.com. “I put it on the management of the auto companies who signed ridiculously expensive contracts with the UAW.”
But Dan Griswold, director of the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the free market Cato Institute, told CNSNews.com on Friday that the UAW is, in part, to blame.
“UAW contracts have played a big role in pulling automakers into the crisis they now face,” said Griswold. “Those contracts are the single biggest difference between domestic and foreign-owned competitors operating on U.S. soil.”
Griswold also said that it was the UAW’s “adversarial attitude” in the bailout negotiations that caused the talks to collapse.
In Thursday’s Senate vote, three Democrats sided with 31 Republicans in opposing the bailout.
Sorry Charlie but most of your union members wouldn’t vote for the GOP if we held a gun to their head. We have pretty much lost Michigan and Illinois in the Midwest no matter what we do. Indiana employs more workers in plants owned by Subaru and Toyota than GM and Ford and has been a dependable Republican state so has is those evil southern states with the foreign auto plants as well. Ohio is going to go Democrat no matter if we bail you out or not the way the trends has been going.
We would be better off seeing strong union and Democrat states like Michigan and Illinois lose population and electoral votes than to waste billions trying to save them. Population trends and political power is going to the southern states anyway so that is where the Republican party future is at. For example in 1900 the 4th largest city in the United States was St Louis, Missouri. Today it is Houston, Texas. By your reasoning we would of spent billions of taxpayers money trying to keep St Louis the fourth largest city since 1900. In 1900 the horse and mule industry as a whole was about the same percent of the economy if not larger than the auto industry is now. If they only had a bailout then perhaps we would have the same buggy whip manufacturing jobs as we had then.
The economy isn’t going to be run into the ground any more than when the domestic electronics industry went overseas or when the railroads went bankrupt or for that matter the canals in the 19th century.
I really resent that someone like me making a little more than minimum wage at a retail store has to subsidize your workers mortgages. Trust me I have overpaid your workers for years. We have never owned a foreign car but boy have we owned some clunkers your overpaid workers put together. It is damn hard to feel sorry for UAW workers making $60 an hour when you have to borrow from friends and family to get your only car out of the shop because your lazy workers didn’t put it together right.
People like me has been the bedrock of your customer base. Most of the liberals your union supports has gone over to foreign cars years ago but it has been conservatives who buy American out of tradition or patriotism who have supported you.
Now you demand our taxes to support you without making much concessions. How much are you making dude? I wouldn’t be surprised if after your pay cut you are still making a six figure salary.
If GM was so in danger then why did the UAW strike against the company in 2007? Seems to me that the UAW didn’t care about the company survival then so why the hell should I care about it now.
I am tired of arrogance, I am tired of everybody wanting to get into my pockets but nobody is looking out for me. I don’t care if those states never vote for the Republicans again. I am getting to the point where I don’t care if the Republicans will win again. The way I see it is that it is getting to the point where everyone needs to save themselves rather than worrying about others saving them.
You threaten that if you don’t get your bailout you will never go visit a southern state again, fine. But if they do get their bailout I can bet you will not have the money to go visit anywhere for long because myself and others will never buy a Big Three UAW product again. If Michigan and Ohio want to vote Democrat until the end of time I don’t give a rat’s ass about their stupidity. I don’t care if Michigan becomes as poor as Haiti if their voters is stupid.
He contradicts himself so often that he wouldn't know his own lies if they bit him in the ass. Just ignore him. His nonsense is non stop. He says you can't change a contract, but says they changed to silly work rules already. Nonsense. Of the 2200 pages of the contract, a large portion is stating the work rules that cripple the Big 3.
He states that it isn't a bailout, but a loan. There is NO way that GM can repay a loan the way it is set up. Management is also a huge problem with the company. Heck, they are banking their future on the Volt, a car that is battery run and can go a whole 150 miles before needed a recharge. Boy, that will be a practical car, not.
Just shut them down now.
There are myriad reasons besides the bailout to have that stand.
I never figured out why he thought contracts can’t be changed. From what I understood of Business Law if both parties to a contract agree to change or void a contract then it can happen.
Since we know the auto companies would agree to the changes then if the auto union would also agree to changes to get the federal bailout it could happen.
It is a strange world. Wall Street millionaires and autoworkers making $60,000+ a year needs my help but people I know who work two jobs just to get by has been screwed constantly by those same autoworkers (higher car prices on poorly made vehicles) and bankers (bank and credit card fees that is a damn rip off) yet we are not patriotic if we don’t support the bastards with higher taxes on our hard earned money.
I don’t see the guy laid off at a gas station or the worker of a chicken processing plant getting the deal that BronxBoy wants for his boys.
“There are myriad reasons besides the bailout to have that stand.”
Yeah, that’s true.
You misunderstand completely. I do not threaten, I warn. If you think only union members will vote Dem in the Mid West if this region is devastated by a big three meltdown...you live in the land of denial. I am telling you based on living in Ohio and having contact with many in other Mid Western states that there is palpable rage from everyone-Dems,Repubs, Auto people, non-auto people. The GOP is going down a very bad path with this issue and will pay dearly-no GOP presidents for who knows how long.
Perhaps, you could explain how a party which is losing voters everywhere except the South can win a presidential election? The GOP has never regained power in New York or New England or California. Once Mid Western voters desert the GOP in droves which is happening now-they will not return.
We shall see. The Japanese are between a rock and a hard place. In this downturn, they don’t have enough money to continue to sell cars below market in the US in order to gain market share and sell high in Japan to cover their US losses...Japan is in worse shape then us surprisingly. It may come to the point where they can not sell the transplant cars for enough money to warrant continuing operations. Also,with unemployment rising in Japan, Japanese citizens want manufacturing to come home. Japan is a full employment country...unemployment is dangerous to their society.
Already, the Mississippi transplant won’t open as planned-indefinitely postponed. The state can’t even get their money back the contract was so bad. There has been no announcement concerning Georgia or Tennessee (both have future transplants going in supposedly), but I’m hearing Georgia will not be buil and maybe not Tennessee. I certainly hope these states protected their taxpayers with contracts that enable then to recoup the taxpayer money spent to entice these guys unlike Mississippi.
Thanks to Sen. Coburn and others, people who work in the auto worker sector and their families are not safe...nor is this country if we lose 3 million jobs in this dangerously weak economy. Sen. Coburn and the other Senators are ‘thug’s, they put their country’s welfare last and are posturing for political reasons-playing to the base while this country is in the worst economic situation I have ever seen. Ah well, Nero fiddled as Rome burned.
You would be buying a car from a foreign manufacturer if they go away at a much higher price... and sending any profit to a foreign country. Losing the entire auto sector is a big deal for this country now and in the future. You choose not to understand this because of irrational hatred for unions.
I may or may not lose my job with any loan from the government. There will job losses either way. I will get another job. However, America will not get another auto industry. This is what’s at stake as far as I am concerned. I don’t want to lose my job-who would? But, I don’t want to see this country destroyed.
We can not remain and economic or military power if we build nothing. Selling hamburgers to one another and making bad loans in order to create wealth has bankrupted this country. We need to save the auto sector, reform trade and bring back American manufacturing in a big way. If we don’t, we will see America continue to decline. The greatest generation faced their challenges and made this country stronger. What will our legacy be? Are we to hand over a dependent, pathetic country to our children and our grandchildren?
At least Pres. Bush is taking about a pre arranged bankruptcy, that might give them a fighting chance to survive. Without it, giving them money is just tossing it down the rathole.
There is nothing wrong with giving a bridge loan to the big three and saving an entire industry...Baghdad Bob would have more in common with you-he was a propagandist you know.
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