Free Republic

One of the most egregious abuses of the Obama Administration's auto bailouts was the blatant favoritism evidenced in the treatment of Delphi (General Motors' parts supplier) retirees. After the Delphi bankruptcy, UAW retirees had their pensions "topped off" by General Motors, apparently with taxpayer money accessed through TARP. While the UAW retirees maintained their pension benefits, non-union, salaried retirees of Delphi lost theirs. There was no logical reason for one group to have their pensions saved while another group lost theirs, just the facts that the distributions were inequitable and the only difference between the groups was that one belonged...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Cheryl in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the Indianapolis Colts' flags are at half-mast. CALLER: (chuckles) Hi, Rush. RUSH: Hi. CALLER: Thanks for taking my call. RUSH: You bet. CALLER: I wanted to talk about the crony capitalism from a personal standpoint for myself. My husband was an engineer with Delphi, which is part of GM. And when the bankruptcy was taken care of and the auto bailouts and the whole thing that Obama's so proud of, what most people don't know is what happened to the salaried retirees from Delphi in the whole deal. The union people...

...we are seeing citizens being invited to “participate” in various forms of meetings...to “help determine” public policy in one field or another. They are supposedly being included to get ”input” from the public ... in one of these meetings... ...you will find that there is already someone designated to lead or “facilitate” the meeting. ... Actually, he or she is there for exactly the opposite reason: to see that the conclusions reached during the meeting are in accord with a plan already decided upon by those who called the meeting. The process used to “facilitate” the meeting is called the...

The US government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage "fake people" on social media sites and create the illusion of consensus on controversial issues. The contract calls for the development of "Persona Management Software" which would help the user create and manage a variety of distinct fake profiles online. The job listing was discussed in recently leaked emails from the private security firm HBGary after an attack by internet activist last week.Click here to view the government contract (PDF)According to the contract, the software would "protect the identity of government agencies" by employing a number...

In the 1960s, I came across a small training manual distributed by the Communist Party that showed how a small group of people – as few as four – could dominate a much larger group and sway the outcome of any action taken by that group. It was called the Diamond Technique. The principle is based on the fact that people in groups tend to be effected by mass psychology. They derive comfort and security from being aligned with the majority, especially if controversy or conflict is involved. Even if they do not like what the majority is doing, if...

Lights, camera, Acropolis! Officials in cash-strapped Greece approved a cheaper pricing plan meant to lure film crews and photographers to its historic attractions — including the home of the Parthenon. The Greek culture ministry slashed the cost of a one-day film shoot at the Acropolis by more than half, from more than $5,000 a day to about $2,050. The rate for photographers was cut by roughly one-third, from $385 a day to $256. The reduced rates come with a plan to speed up approval of the permits.

The unprecedented intrusion of the executive branch of the US government into the American auto industry when the Obama Administration orchestrated the General Motors and Chrysler bankruptcy processes is now leading to unprecedented responses. Groups that were clearly discriminated against and had their rights subordinated to politically powerful unions may actually have a winnable case against our own government as lawsuits are being brought against the US Treasury Dept. and others.The Delphi salaried retirees who saw their pension benefits disintegrate after the GM bankruptcy are now suing the US Treasury, the Auto Task Force, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and ex-Auto...

Is anybody who filled out the DoD DADT survey surprised at the announcement of its results? The questions made the outcome a foregone conclusion. My question is this: isn't the very fact that those who were most against repeal are the ones who do what militaries are made for - fight - a perfect reason to keep the ban in effect? Colonel, USAFR

The White House believes it can win back depressed and economically stressed voters by turning President Obama into the storyteller-in-chief again. But consider the real-life horror story of 20,000 white-collar workers at Delphi, a leading auto-parts company spun off from GM a decade ago. As Washington rushed to nationalize the US auto industry with $80 billion in taxpayer "rescue" funds and avoid contested court termination proceedings, the White House auto team schemed to preserve UAW members' costly pension funds by shafting their nonunion counterparts. The nonunion pensioners also lost all of their health and life insurance benefits. The abused workers...

I just discovered this and since the MSM hasn't picked it up yet I thought I'd break it here. Anyone who knows me here knows that I'm a electric car nut. I've been following Aptera for a while. Aptera Motors is a company in Vista, CA that's making the "google car", the Aptera 2e. It looks like an wheeled iPod and uses almost no energy; the gasoline version gets 130 mpg and the electric version goes 100 miles. But there's trouble in California. Last fall they handed control of the company over to Paul Wilbur. Paul's greatest fame was running...

General Motors Corp will likely take on some of the operations of its bankrupt supplier Delphi Corp to make sure it gets needed auto parts, and is negotiating terms with Delphi's estate, according to a source familiar with the company's plan.

We still have a chance to not fail in our historic opportunity to turn this nation back to its roots. Unfortunately, many people think the activities of April 15, 2009, have done just that, but they are wrong. Simply attending a TEA Party, even several TEA Parties, is not going to move Washington. What needs to happen, if we’re going to move Washington, is this: We must organize into Action Groups to first take back our party Precinct Meetings in an overwhelming majority of the precincts in the nation, then advance that effort to the State level. That will not...

"Everyone has a right to take part in this discussion, nobody has the right to take it over and dominate. The status quo is the one option that's not on the table, and those who seek to block any reform at all -- any reform at any costs will not prevail this time around," he added. A direct quote from the president at the recent health care summit."nobody has the right to take it over and dominate" Does that include you Mr. President??? You and your nanny state health care buearocrats?Click here to get to The Peoples Cube!What no one...

I just wanted to make everyone aware of the Delphi Technique. It is a Consensus and Facilitation technique that keeps those who are unaware of how it works from being effective political activists. For those who are just beginning as politically active conservatives, mastering the countering techniques will help us be much more effective as we move against the Marxists who have overtaken our government.

I've been reading through President Obama's much touted Recovery.gov web site and thought I would share the Frequently Asked Questions part of the site. It is in fact, the Delphi Technique in action. Through the whole of that web site, the Consensus and Facilitation of the Hegelian Principle is at work. To fight this phenomenon in our country, Freedom Lovers need to understand the forces at work, and master the language and techniques that will allow us to overcome the Barrage of facilitators and change agents who have just overtaken our country, fully, at the federal level. Please take some...

NEW YORK (AP) — A bankruptcy judge says Delphi can stop paying for health care and insurance benefits for its retired salaried workers. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain on Tuesday provisionally approved the auto supplier's request to cut off the benefits effective April 1. But he says the 15,000 affected retirees can form a committee to investigate if they have the right to negotiate with the company. The committee will present its findings at a March 11 hearing. Troy, Mich.-based Delphi Corp. has been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since 2005. It says it needs to cut off the...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/business/17bizbriefs-DELPHITOSLAS_BRF.html

Tradition attributed the prophetic inspiration of the powerful oracle to geologic phenomena: a chasm in the earth, a vapor that rose from it, and a spring... The ancient testimony, however, is widespread, and it comes from a variety of sources: historians such as Pliny and Diodorus, philosophers such as Plato, the poets Aeschylus and Cicero, the geographer Strabo, the travel writer Pausanias, and even a priest of Apollo who served at Delphi, the famous essayist and biographer Plutarch... in about 1900, a young English classicist named Adolphe Paul Oppe['s] opinions were so strongly expressed that his theory became the new...

DETROIT - A union representing more than 2,000 of Delphi Corp.'s hourly workers said Friday it has told the auto parts maker that it plans to terminate its contracts, a first step toward a possible strike in October. The International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America said the notification, delivered in a letter earlier this week, comes as contract talks have dragged on concerning job security, wages and benefits. "There is still much time to change our course," IUE-CWA Automotive Conference Board Chairman Willie Thorpe said in a statement. "But we cannot sit back and be unprepared. In our...

An obviously angry Ann Coulter this morning ripped into critics who deliberately distorted her comments about former senator and presidential hopeful John Edwards. After a relentless 24-hour firestorm during which much of the mainstream media used selective quotes to mangle the meaning of several of Ann’s comments about Edwards, Coulter set the record straight while talking with Joe Scarborough host of MSNBC’s "Morning Joe” program. Coulter told Scarborough: "I’ve never seen people avoid ideas so much in such an obvious way and try to alert Americans not to read anything, not to listen to something someone said — not because...

The Delphi Technique and consensus building are both founded in the same principle - the Hegelian dialectic of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, with synthesis becoming the new thesis. The goal is a continual evolution to "oneness of mind" (consensus means solidarity of belief) -the collective mind, the wholistic society, the wholistic earth, etc. In thesis and antithesis, opinions or views are presented on a subject to establish views and opposing views. In synthesis, opposites are brought together to form the new thesis. All participants in the process are then to accept ownership of the new thesis and support it, changing...

Costly Promises LOCKPORT, N.Y. — For two and a half years, Michael Tucker was mayor of this small city by day and an autoworker by night. Then in May, he became one of the nearly 50,000 workers at General Motors or its former Delphi parts division to take buyouts, lured by the $33,000-a-year pension his company offered. That pension, and a smaller one he expects to collect from the state after his years as mayor, makes him a little unusual in a nation where more and more workers are not covered by such plans. But now, as mayor of Lockport,...

DETROIT -- Delphi Corp. said today that 6,300 hourly employees represented by the IUE-CWA union, or 83 percent of those eligible, have agreed to early retirement or a buyout. The attrition program, financed predominantly by General Motors, continues to relieve pressure for a strike at Delphi. Earlier this summer, the UAW said nearly 13,000 of its Delphi members had taken a buyout or early retirement, with an additional 5,000 expected to transfer eventually to GM. Delphi is restructuring its U.S. operations under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, spun off by GM in 1999, has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court...

The UAW plans to ask its 24,000 members at Delphi Corp. to authorize a strike. UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker gave the go-ahead Wednesday when he met in Detroit with UAW local presidents and other officials on the union’s Delphi council. The locals, representing workers at about 20 Delphi plants, have until May 14 to conduct the votes, said UAW spokesman Paul Krell. The authorization would give the international union the ability to strike Delphi if it cannot reach agreement on wage and benefit concessions of 60 percent that Delphi is demanding. A union official who attended the UAW council...

DETROIT -- The United Auto Workers and other unions opposed Delphi Corp.'s attempt to cancel its labor contracts in court filings Friday, saying the auto parts supplier has failed to prove it needs to slash workers' wages as part of its Chapter 11 restructuring. "This is a case in which the debtors have opted to place litigation before bargaining and to place confrontation before consultation," said the United Steelworkers, which represents about 1,000 of Delphi's 33,000 U.S. hourly workers. Unions aren't the only parties opposed to Delphi's motion. Appaloosa Management LP, a New Jersey-based hedge fund that owns 9.3 percent...

As fears grow that General Motors will go bust, management and unions are locked in a mournful embrace. “IN THIS case, it takes three to tango.” So said Rick Wagoner, the boss of General Motors (GM), this week—his re-working of an old cliché, capturing the contortions he is having to perform as he struggles to save the ailing giant of the car industry. Given its shrinking market share, GM would be hard enough to revive were it any firm in any industry. But GM is not any old firm, and designing more sellable cars is arguably the least of its...

Auto parts maker Delphi Corp. is free to move ahead on its plan to offer thousands of hourly employees the chance to retire, a bankruptcy judge ruled Friday, marking a key milestone in the company's effort to tame staffing levels amid falling production. The ruling allows Delphi, one of the world's largest suppliers of auto parts, to pay as many as 13,000 hourly employees to retire. Based in Troy, Mich., Delphi filed for bankruptcy protection in October and is trying to shed what it says are increasingly unsustainable labor agreements that have left it overstaffed and saddled with costly benefit...

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- Delphi Corp. workers angered by the auto parts supplier's proposal Friday to close or sell many of its plants said the plan would ruin some employees' lives and hurt communities that rely on the facilities for jobs and tax revenues. ADVERTISEMENT "You're going to see the tumbleweeds," said Allen Huguely, who works at one of five Delphi plants in the Dayton area that employ 6,000. "This whole city is going to suffer." Delphi asked a federal bankruptcy court to void its labor contracts as part of a restructuring plan that includes selling or closing 21 of...

GM, Bondholders and Unions Attack Parts Maker's Plan To Shed Jobs, Contracts...UAW Threatens 'Long Strike' Delphi Corp. filed a radical reorganization plan that includes closing or selling most of its North American plants and slashing as many as 30,000 union and salaried jobs. The move sets in motion a power struggle as Delphi, its labor unions, and its largest customer, General Motors Corp., seek advantage in the auto-parts supplier's bankruptcy-court proceedings. Delphi also threw a big wrench into the restructuring plans of its largest customer, General Motors Corp., filing a motion to void more than $5 billion in contracts to...

DETROIT | Bankrupt supplier Delphi Corp. has identified 14 U.S. factories it will shed as part of its reorganization in another sign of how bloody the restructuring of the nation's largest auto parts maker is turning out to be. The Troy, Mich.-based parts maker — now with 28 U.S. plants and 33,000 hourly workers — intends to close all but four of 18 factories represented by the United Auto Workers after it emerges from bankruptcy, according to a UAW letter distributed this week to workers in Oak Creek, Wis.. Contents of the letter were confirmed by other local union officials...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Delphi announced plans Friday to throw out its union contracts and shed more than 28,000 workers as it shut down most of its U.S. operations -- moves that could spark strikes at the auto parts maker and a possible bankruptcy filing at its biggest customer, General Motors. Delphi (Research) filed motions with the federal judge overseeing its bankruptcy proceedings to shed contracts with the United Auto Workers union (UAW) and another union that it says it can no longer afford. It also announced plans to sell or close 21 of its 29 plants. But it said...

Delphi, UAW Brace For Collision Delphi Corp. and the United Auto Workers appeared to be on collision course as the union flatly rejected the company's latest contract proposal, which would have reduced by 18 percent the compensation of Delphi's workers to $22 per hour, starting July 1. Under terms of the deal, wages would have continued to drop, falling to $16.50 per hour in September 2007. The proposal, blasted by the union, also had not been approved by GM. Under the terms of the deal, GM would have had to underwrite a one-time $50,000 payment to Delphi workers to make...

DETROIT - In one of the largest buyout programs ever, more than 125,000 hourly workers of General Motors Corp. and auto supplier Delphi Corp. are being offered up to $140,000 to give up their jobs to help cut the companies' crippling labor costs. GM did not say how many workers it expected to accept the offer, but it is aiming to slash 30,000 hourly jobs by 2008. Some workers wasted no time in declaring the deal "fantastic" and started calculating what they would get, based on years of service, if they accepted the offer. GM and Delphi have said that...

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. and the auto parts supplier it once owned, Delphi Corp., announced deals Wednesday with the United Auto Workers that would offer buyouts to 13,000 hourly Delphi employees and up to 100,000 hourly GM workers represented by the United Auto Workers.GM workers will be eligible for payouts of between $35,000 and $140,000 depending on their years of service. At Delphi, up to 5,000 workers will be eligible to return to GM, Delphi's former parent, while 13,000 U.S. hourly workers will be eligible for a lump sum payment of up to $35,000 to retire.

General Motors is trying to stave off the possibility of collapse by thrashing out a last-minute job reduction plan with its former subsidiary and now major parts supplier, Delphi, and the powerful United Auto Workers union. The plan on the table is believed to involve offering up to 35,000 employees in both companies cash incentives of up to $35,000 (£20,000) to take early retirement. ...

Detroit - About one-third of the automotive parts industry is probably headed for bankruptcy. The chilling prediction comes from Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. He spoke at a conference for automotive writers Saturday, a week before the North American International Auto Show opens to the public Jan. 14 at Detroit's Cobo Conference and Exhibition Center. Faced with financial hemorrhaging, automakers are paring down their number of suppliers and are working closer with the remaining companies to get a better handle on costs. Those suppliers in top market positions can invest in...

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- The largest Chinese auto supplier,Wanxiang Group, aims to take over the partial business of the U.S.-based auto supplier Delphi Corporation, which filed for bankruptcy two months ago, said the China Securities Journal on Wednesday. But the Wanxiang Group said it is still unclear whether it will succeed in the purchase, said the journal. Lu Guanqiu, chairman of the Wanxiang Group, affirmed the plan and said the two parties have started negotiating the purchase, said sources with the Wanxiang Group. Ni Pin, manager of Wanxiang America Corp., said the company plans to expand business in the...

Delphi Corp.'s proposed wage and benefit cuts have not factored in aid from General Motors Corp., which now gives the bankrupt company alternatives in its union labor talks, chief executive Steve Miller said on Thursday. The company's proposal has met stiff opposition from unions that represent nearly all of Delphi's 34,750 U.S. hourly workers and have formed a coalition to fight the terms, raising the possibility of a production-disrupting strike. "The prospects of additional financial support from General Motors has really changed the nature (of the discussions)," Miller told Reuters in an interview at Delphi headquarters. "The financial assistance will...

KOKOMO, Ind. (AP) -- At least a thousand people rallied in central Indiana against steep wage cuts proposed by auto parts manufacturer Delphi Corp., which has filed for bankruptcy protection. Workers say the proposed cuts -- from $27 an hour to between $10 and $12.50 -- are unfair, especially as Delphi has given bonuses to managers and other executives. United Auto Workers officials have said a strike against Delphi appears increasingly likely. "To the Delphi workers here and everyone else, there are 380,000 union workers in the state of Indiana who will march in this battle with you," said Indiana...

To some, turnaround specialist Robert S. "Steve" Miller is a straight-shooter. To others he's a trigger-happy cost-cutter bent on destroying the middle-class lifestyle enjoyed by Midwestern auto workers. Miller, who took over as chief executive of Delphi Corp. in July, may never be a household name like former Chrysler chief Lee Iacocca, but he could leave a larger, more lasting imprint on the U.S. auto industry. The drastic pay cuts he seeks at the auto-parts company could set the pattern for hundreds of thousands of workers and, his critics warn, help sink America's middle class. "The unpleasant truth about the...

Troubled U.S. automakers and their allies on Capitol Hill are seeking billions of dollars in aid from the federal government ranging from health coverage for their workers to extra tax write-offs for themselves. They're also asking for one rhetorical favor: Please don't call the requests a bailout. "I don't view it as a bailout," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said. "We're not looking for a bailout," agreed William C. Ford Jr., chairman of Ford Motor Co. The "B" word has been taboo ever since Chrysler Corp., faced with impending insolvency, sought and narrowly won $1.5 billion in loan guarantees from...

Massive job cuts at General Motors, America's largest carmaker — coupled with the bankruptcy of Delphi, America's biggest autoparts maker — have provoked predictable handwringing from liberal pundits who worry that America is "losing its manufacturing base." But the wrenching change now buffeting the auto industry defies the usual press formulas. Just listen to Steve Miller a turnaround specialist who is steering Delphi's restructuring process. He exploded the myth of America's "endangered" union manufacturing jobs at his October press conference announcing Delphi's move into Chapter 11: "We cannot continue to pay $65 an hour for someone to cut the grass...

<p>INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana likes having the nation's highest portion of workers -- 20 percent -- in manufacturing, so five days before Delphi, the Michigan-based automobile parts manufacturer, entered bankruptcy, Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican who believes that ``conservatism can be active,´´ called Delphi. He praised Indiana as a paradise for even more Delphi operations than are already there.</p>

General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers are discussing the possibility of having the car maker offer buyouts to encourage older workers at Delphi Corp., GM's former parts division, to retire, people familiar with the matter said. Such a deal could help Delphi, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, pare its payroll and ease the transition to retirement for some of the auto supplier's 34,500 UAW workers. GM isn't under any obligation to buy out Delphi workers, but such buyouts could help reduce the threat of a strike and labor uncertainty stemming from Delphi's bankruptcy filing. GM is liable...

Senator 'Stunned' By Delphi Offer To Unions Auto Supplier To Appear In Federal Bankruptcy CourtPOSTED: 4:24 pm EDT October 26, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Sen. Debbie Stabenow said Wednesday she was "stunned" by Delphi Corp.'s proposal to union members to slash hourly workers' pay and jettison health and pension benefits, and urged the auto supplier to abandon its strategy. The Michigan Democrat, in a letter to Delphi Chairman and CEO Robert S. "Steve" Miller, called the proposal to the United Auto Workers the "wrong strategy" to help the company come back from bankruptcy protection. "I was stunned to see that Delphi's...

Delphi's bankruptcy filing -- a result of mounting, unsustainable pension costs incurred decades ago -- was grim news for its creditors, its stockholders, and its tens of thousands of workers. But it was also a warning of things to come: for the entire American auto industry, and for Social Security as well. Delphi was a GM division until its spinoff in 1999. As part of that deal, America's largest auto maker granted over 4,000 Delphi employees the right to return to GM. Now, those workers are taking General Motors up on its generous promise. GM will take responsibility for their...

The Debacle of Delphi The industrial welfare state forces the auto-parts giant into bankruptcy. by Richard Burr 10/21/2005 12:00:00 AM WHEN THE LARGEST INDUSTRIAL BANKRUPTCY in American history happened more than a week ago, Washington barely noticed. But the fight between the automotive parts giant Delphi Corporation and its unions could take a big bite out of taxpayers' wallets. The rhubarb started when Delphi, the former in-house parts supplier for General Motors, warned that it was near financial collapse. It couldn't afford to keep paying its workers $25 to $31 an hour, about $52,000 to $64,500 a year--plus benefits. Delphi...

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers , outraged over handsome severance packages proposed for 21 Delphi Corp. executives, some of whom receive upward of $1 million a year, said Friday it will file a complaint with the bankruptcy court against the auto-parts supplier. "It’s disgusting," said UAW spokesman Paul Krell of the severance packages. Five of the top 21 executives receive between $800,000 and $1 million a year. Delphi Chief Executive Officer Steve Miller would not be covered by the severance proposal. Krell said the UAW’s attorney will file a complaint protesting the auto supplier’s Key Employee Compensation Program with...

GM bets the ailing parts maker will win big labor savings -- and it can follow suit Delphi Corp. had barely filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 8 when all eyes turned to General Motors Corp. (GM ) It's not hard to see why. In the weeks leading up to Delphi's announcement, many analysts had figured GM would never allow its former parts unit to file for Chapter 11. Doing so meant the already troubled auto maker could inherit up to $11 billion of Delphi's pension and health-care obligations. Even worse, a bankruptcy judge could force GM to pay more for...

Forget about General Motors' tumbling stock price, its downgraded debt and its potential $11 billion liability. Robert S. "Steve" Miller's move to put Delphi into bankruptcy proceedings is good news for the auto giant and good news for Detroit. We have seen this movie before. Like steel and airlines before it, the traditional U.S. auto industry is struggling mightily, but futilely, to shore up a crumbling edifice. All Mr. Miller has done is push the fast-forward button. The end is now near. The sooner we get to the sequel, the better.