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Barnacles of Class War Around Our Necks
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For more proof that the Republican opposition to the auto bridge loan is ideologically based class war against workers and their unions, look no further than yesterday’s comments by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who wants to force the American auto industry—at the cost of 3 million to 5 million U.S. jobs—to its knees:
I’m not trying to get rid of the unions but I am saying that they appear to be an antiquated concept in today’s economy and if a company cannot be competitive with the union structure that they have then we need to recognize that.
…Most of this is being done to protect unions. It’s not to protect the workers. What I want to do is make sure we have jobs for these workers and we have first-class American auto companies and we’re not going to do that with the barnacles of unionism wrapped around their necks.
The media is abetting the corporate-instigated class war, by endlessly repeating the falsehood that UAW members make $70 an hour—when, in fact, their salaries are close to those of workers at foreign automakers—and by otherwise blaming workers and their unions. Media Matters has been relentless in tracking these lies and sums it up here:
Even though the crises facing the financial and automotive industries were born primarily of the actions (or inaction) of those in positions of power in private industry and in government, many conservative media figures have assigned blame to specific groups of less wealthy or less influential people—the poor, minorities, undocumented immigrants, and union members, among others—disregarding the facts that belie such assignments of blame.
The media also is abetting the reactionary spin that has renamed the Big Three the “Detroit Three.” By regionalizing the crisis, opponents of a unionized auto industry hope to divide and conquer workers from the primarily unionized North from the “right to work” for less South.
Fight back by urging your senators to vote for the auto bridge loan.
Because class war means ripping off the barnacles of reactionary thuggery from around our necks.
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11 Comments
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Only a person with their head in the sand would not see that the Republicans goal is to bust the UAW and the union movement before the new president and congress take office and this is their last chance. With the help of the media they are succeeding. How can this be stopped? There is only one way and that is for organizations like the AFL-CIO to call a nationwide strike for Monday by all union members nationwide to show that unions are relevent and necessary to provide the checks and balances a democracy needs to survive.
As far as I know, from the newspaper and the evening news on PBS, the agreement does not treat the real issue that has long troubled the industry, namely, how to make good, efficient, safe, long-lasting cars.
On a personal note: Back in 1995 I bought a Saab 9000. When I heard that GM was about to take an interest in the prodution of that car, I was glad that my year (the 95) had come in before GM.. You see, I dreaded what they would do to that fine car–kind of what Gillette did to Wilkinson Blades. Well . . . guess what! (Ford’s Volvo and Jaguar to follow??)
The Big Three lost the biggest lead in the history of competition in human history!
Sorry, but as the agreement stands, NO sympathy!
In it, you are free to go about building more beasts of burden.
PS: “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
John G.,
Who cares if you bought a SAAB, I have owned several Chevrolets, Fords, and Dodges, they were the reliable vechicals I ever owned, in fact I presently have a 2001 Chevy Cavalier, which the only thing I have had to buy for it besides oil & Gas is tires & batteries, and I get 35mpg on it, I also own a ’04
Mercury Marquis and it gets 26mpg, and I haven’t spend anything else but tires on it.
If your income or one of your loved ones depended on the Auto Industry, I would care to bet you’d change your mind about forgein autos.
I feel you need to go, the country which built and live there instead of being a U S Citizen!
I feel I can say that because I retired from the U S Army w/27yrs. and retired from the Railroad as well.
My time in the Military earned me the right to speak to you as I feel, so if you don’t like it, do something about it.
The problem is not unions but the fact that EVERYBODY is not in a union or at least working under a scheme (used all over the world) where non-union firms work under the same contract conditions agree to to by union firms: the latter is called sector-wide labor agreements.
Only in this crazy modern economy are foreign manufacturers allowed to come in and under-price domestic factories by paying their employees less. Sector-wide labor agreements is not a crazy exception (Rent-A-Center brain fellow Americans — i was as ignorant about the labor market as most of you until my late fifties) — sector-wide is the rule!
I am convinced (my cabdriver “expert” on everything self) that we would not have to worry that much about immigration if we simply MAINTAINED LABOR’S PRICE. Imagine if Australia had a 1000 mile land border with China — Australia would have to have some pretty heavy reinforcements of labor’s price, wouldn’t it?
We ARE in exactly that kind of position in North America and we (not Canada!) are the only such modern economy where labor is under pressure from BOTH massive immigration (I don’t object) AND the never-ending home grown race to the bottom AND NONE OF THE NORMAL SUPPORTS FOR LABOR’S PRICE: effective unionization and an as high as practicable minimum wage.
Is there anything from Alabama and South Carolina WORTH boycotting? The Republican transplant Senators are laughable!
What an idiot! Do you think he meant “manacles” instead of “barnacles?”
The media tells us that unemployment is about 8 percent
Eight percent of 200 million is 16 million.
The whisper number that includes the people not counted or those that have given up is about 13 percent
Thirteen percent of 200 million is 23 million.
I think that unemployment is about 20 percent.
Twenty percent of 200 million is 40 million.
Now lets put that into dollars and how it affects America and how it Affects our retailers, manufacturers and raw material producers
Using an average salary of 50,000 dollars
16 million people out of work would take 800 BILLION out of the economy, of which 240 BILLION would be taken from your town, your county, your state and your countrys budget and 560 BILLION would be taken from our retailers, manufacturers and raw material producers
23 million people out of work would take 1 TRILLION 150 BILLION out of the economy, of which 345 BILLION would be taken from your town, your county, your state and your countries budget and 805 BILLION would be taken from our retailers, manufacturers and raw material producers.
40 million people out of work would take 2 TRILLION out of the economy, of which 600 BILLION would be taken from your town, your county, your state and your countries budget and 1 TRILLION 400 BILLION would be taken from our retailers, manufacturers and raw material producers.
Now do you see why GM is having a tough time making ends meet ?
And no amount of bailouts are going to solve the problem.
It will take jobs.
It will take our political and corporate leaders waking up and realizing that their insistence on sending our jobs overseas is destroying the whole world’s economy.
Why the whole World’s economy ?
Because American consumers are the biggest spenders in the World and they want things and as long as they have money, they will buy these things.
A lot of them are made in other countries.
So when the American consumer has to stop buying because they no longer make what they used too, the trickle down effect, affects the whole World.
Right now, our experts and our political and corporate leaders are in denial.
They say that what is good for them is good for America.
We need to work together to get them to see what they are doing to America and the rest of the World.
If we can’t do that, we need to use our vote and get somebody in there that will put their town, county, state and country first.
Virgil
http://www.KeepAmericaAtWork.com
I called my supposed Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, & told to pass the darn Automobile Bail out, it didn’t do a bit of good. I voted against him in the recent Elections, opting for Bruce Lunsford who last. Too, bad the elections were last month because if they were in a few days McConnell most likely would lose now.
My father & older brother both retired from General Motors, I also have other relatives who either have retired from, or are still working for the Automotive Industry. I suppose you guess what this will do to their RETIREMENT. It is about the most awful thing that these Republican Senators have declined to help the millions who will be affected by their decision.
I just goes to show who the Republican represent, the RICH CREDIT Industry over the working men & women.
The Republicans, could give a crap, about those they are supposed to represent, men who even worked with me, Union Members who voted Republican like their parents & grandparents before them. Idiots!
Sorry! That had to be said, perhaps when the Republicans win and bust the Unions then maybe they’ll change their minds then.
Jim DeMint’s comments aqbout wanting to rid the country of unions should not surprise anyone. He was once heard to utter that the los of the textile mills in his state were, “Worth the cost, just to get rid of the unions”. Wow, he supports a loss of jobs to foreign countries just to settle scores, or to look to gain advantage over workers.
All I have to say is that anyone, any union worker, buying a car made by a foreign manufacturer here in the States is a union buster. If people realize that they are cutting their fellow workers throats by their actions, maybe we can staunch this loss of jobs for the unions.
And maybe we can get rid of senators like DeMint, shelby, McConnell, and their ilk. Here is an idea: Have senators work for the fedceral minimum wage, and buy their own health insurance. If they think american workers are well off, let them live like us.
Perhaps our primary purpose is to help the workers in the south to unionize. They need to see the value of belonging to a union. The import manufacturers are providing jobs, but at lower income and with fewer benifits than union workers. Complaining doesn’t get us as far as organizing and bringing in more workers.