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House Passes Emergency Loan for Automakers |
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The U.S. House last night approved and sent to the Senate a $14 billion emergency bridge loan for the nation’s Big Three automakers. The 237-170 vote marks a big step in the effort to prevent the shutting down of one or more of the automakers, which could lead to the loss of more than 3 million jobs in the first year.
The Senate could take up the bill as early as today. Although the loan enjoys strong support from both sides of the aisle and the Bush White House, a small minority of Republican senators have threatened to try and block the legislation when it comes to the floor.
In the House debate leading up to the vote on H.R. 7321, the Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act, members of Congress stressed that the bipartisan bill was necessary to save the auto industry. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said:
Quite simply, we cannot let Detroit fail. [The auto industry] is the backbone of our economy.
Before the vote, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the bridge loan is necessary to save the economy.
Investing in America’s manufacturing base makes sense. Otherwise, 3 million jobs are at risk, along with pension and health benefits for more than a million retirees. Thousands of businesses that supply the auto industry would be forced to close, and government at all levels would lose hundreds of billions in tax revenues—far more than the assistance being requested.
If lawmakers do not act this week, Gettelfinger said, one or more automakers will be forced to liquidate operations, throwing 3.3 million workers in the auto and related industries out of jobs.
During the debate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) put it this way:
One in 10 American jobs is linked to the domestic auto industry, and it is a key pillar in an American manufacturing sector critical to our national security and economic competitiveness for decades to come.
The legislation includes tough conditions, such as limits on executive compensation, a prohibition on dividends, an equity stake to protect taxpayers and ongoing federal oversight. The bill also requires automakers to develop restructuring plans for long-term viability, which will involve shared sacrifice from all stakeholders, including management, directors, bondholders, shareholders, suppliers, dealers, UAW members and other company employees.
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I am so angry that there is so much hesitation about the “Big Three” bailout, and the fact that the auto industry is put on the chopping block in regard to their coming up with specific ‘plans’ and making drastic concessions in order to keep people working, when Wall Street got a FREE pass to taxpayer dollars, with NO oversight, NO regulations, NO compromises; combine this with their greed and lack of desire to give anything back to the ‘average’ American in the way of low interest loans, help with foreclosure, small business incentives, and it is easy to see why we are in no better shape than we were before the bailout. People need jobs and a decent, living wage. Why can’t “Wall Street” get that? All I see is CEO’s continuing to give themselves raises (on top of the billions they already make), and hording all the money in their banks.
So what is the difference here? For anyone who has not figured it out yet, the answer is simple. Our government and private corporations want the “Big Three” to fail, because they represent the largest union in America, and nothing would please the current administration more, along with the wealthy CEOs, to see the Auto industry fail. Union busting has been a prevalent enterprise for many decades, because the very wealthy want to privatize everything without concern for fair wages, adequate health insurance, pensions, safety and equal working conditions, as well as JOB SECURITY. The American worker has been screwed for so long that many do not even know what it is like to work in a union plant. Well, let’s tell them.
I will be the first to admit that the auto industry has not kept up with the times and has not made the necessary innovative changes that could insure the survival of their companies, but our government failed them too, by allowing the type of free trade that has prevented not just the auto industry but many American companies from actually maintaining an effective profit to keep their businesses running. Cheap labor overseas, exploiting woman and children, huge tax breaks for outsourcing, have all contributed to the demise of American industry. DO NOT BLAME THE AMERICAN WORKERS for this problem. Blame our ‘look the other way’ government, the ‘laissez faire’ mentality that has prevented American industry from prospering. Now, we are in a serious decline, and it is going to take a tremendous amount of talent, brains and hard work to get things going again. However, NOTHING can even get started without financial assistance. I fear that if the auto industry fails, our economy fails as well. Maybe the banks should loan the auto industry the money they need, since they got most of it anyway, money which they are not spending, except on themselves! I fear the Republicans in the Senate will NOT allow this bailout for the BIG THREE, but they should. They, more than anyone else, are responsible for the economic mess we have in this country. I BLAME THEM!
It’s clear the Senate Republicans have decalred war on the UAW, and this has nothing to do with the auto industry. They know the EFCA will be passed soon, and this is their last shot at unions. I wish someone would just ask the Republicans what they feel a good middlle class salery is in the U. S.? The average auto maker is making 57k a year, what do they think it should be, 30k? Of course they would love that, and then you would be asked to pay for your health care, pension, mortgage, kids college etc. out of that! What nobody is saying is that the Japanese auto makers pay for their workers health care in Japan, meaning they can sell their cars for less here, because they are government subsidized. Also two years after retirement, the Japanese government picks up the pension of the Japanese auto makers workers. In the U.S. unions are bad guys for having pesions at all! Republicans say they want U.S. automakers to be competetive (i.e. decalre bankruptcy so the union contracts can be thrown out), why don’t they advocate for our government to pay for U.S. workers healthcare to level the playing field and make them more competetive? They’d rather choke first! To bad it’s going to happen any way when Obama and Daschle pass a National Health Care system. Even with the Japanese government subsidy, the U.S. cars are no more expensive. The UAW needs to do a better job of getting the facts out there.
Check out the link to the votes on the bill and send a message to your representatives: a warm thank you to the good guys and a message to the no-sayers that “we elected you to represent us and you are doing the bidding of corporate America and the union-busters instead of representing working America”. These bozos need to be constantly reminded of their “promises” during their campaigns and their responsibility to the majority of Americans and not the special interests. If they “forget” their responsibilities, we can be the thorn in their side to constantly remind them….
As the oldtimers said it “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”.
The one point that has been either intentionally or stupidly overlooked by the media “experts,” senators, representatives and the UAW hierarchy is the fundamental fact that the states in which the majority of the “transplant” auto plants have been located are “right to work” states. I trust that everyone interested in this blog are aware of the importance of that fact. The smarmy statements by various senators, representatives and media members ignore that fact and the effect it has on wages, benefits and contract negotiations. It is the fundamental difference between the states of the “north” and the “south.”
The second point, which I finally heard from a Michigan Republican representative. is that the “Big 3″ built the vehicles that the buying public wanted until the commodity traders got greedy and created the oil price bubble. At that time (and a point overlooked or ignored) GM and Ford already had multiple hybrid platforms (”the cars they [the great unwashed] want “) on the market when “Wall Street” induced the financial collapse. For them to opine and say they (the Big 3) were not building what the buying public “wants” comes from “experts” in New York, their disciples and those breathing the rarified air inside the beltway that renders almost all rational people into people that are stupid, greedy or dogmatic, and/or all three.
Also, and to complete the blame game, the sales stopped when the lending market collapsed, not a lack of desire for cars.
Finally, (if anyone remembers) GM loaned an ALL ELECTRIC car to a number of users (mainly California and New York, if I remember correctly) to test the market and found the market was not there. Thanks.