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Job-Killing Republicans |
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The senators who yesterday blocked the $14 billion bridge loan to the auto industry out of ideological hatred for unions and workers who make a middle-class living did so knowing that if the American auto industry collapsed, between 3 million and 5 million jobs would be killed.
Think Progress documents the extent to which these Republicans are willing to go to fulfill their visceral hatred for America’s middle class and unions. A memo sent among Senate Republican staffers on the auto loan negotiations called for Republicans to “stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor.”
In fact, if even one automaker went under, the ramifications for job losses are massive—uncertainty in the auto supply chain would freeze the process and result in a domino effect that in turn would cause the other automakers to fold.
Some 300 employees in western Kentucky already have lost their jobs this week at an auto supply dealer in Owensboro. Most of the company work involved manufacturing parts for the auto industry, and it lost business from Toyota and General Motors. Those 300 workers are the tip of the iceberg.
So far, 1.9 million U.S. jobs have been lost this year. Jason Rosenberg puts that horrifying figure into real terms. Those lost jobs equal 547,267,000 months, to be more or less exact, of work, productivity and income the U.S. economy lost under George W. Bush. Analysts expect much more job loss in the coming months, and that’s without the auto industry crashing.
Just last week, initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits jumped by 58,000, the biggest increase since September 2005, to a seasonally adjusted 573,000 in the week that ended Dec. 6, from an upwardly revised 515,000 the previous week.
Last week’s jobless claims were far more than the 525,000 claims Wall Street economists expected. The number of people continuing to claim jobless benefits also jumped much more than expected, increasing by 338,000 to 4.4 million. Economists expected a small increase to 4.1 million.
But so vicious is the hatred of Republicans for unions and their efforts in ensuring that all U.S. workers don’t become 21st century corporate serfs that they are willing to sacrifice millions of jobs and burn the entire U.S. economy down at the same time.
Meanwhile, their media mouthpieces are so desperate to pretend the economy isn’t in flames they are…pretending the economy isn’t in flames.
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Why would a working/Union man or woman vote for a Republican?
They only people they care about is who the can line their pockets, not who they repsesent, the voters.
WHEN WILL THE VOTERS REALIZE THAT and KEEP the REPUBLICANS AT HOME and NOT IN WASHINGTON!
A travesty, that’s what this is. A compleate TRAVESTY and a blow against all unions. However as we all know, the unions were not the cause of the auto industry down fall, but of course it’s the union who is willing to make the concessions, NOT THE CEO’S of course.
What’s wrong with this country? Just another reason we must pass the Employee Free Choice Act. We need to rebuild not only the auto industry, but all of the unions that have been losed across the nation due to the anti union leadership we have been living with and have to live with every single time a Republican steps in to the Oval Office.
So, what’s next?
This is class warfare.
The banking industry did not have to submit to any of the concessions being asked of the UAW and the auto industry AND it is not being monitored even now. There are still thousands of workers on Wall Street who can count on their jobs and futures thanks to the bailout.
Only the blue collar worker gets trashed.
When will we, as a society, realize that we cannot be successful without our industries and the people who work there at a fair wage (do bankers & their CEOs ($1 a year) make $14.50 an hour?)?
How do we convince the rest of the country? Where are the PR machines to support us …. and our unions?
Reading these comments gives me great hope for the future!! Let’s not forget that during the depression, many unions were born and grew almost overnight into mighty institutions. The people had had enough and demanded a change! Their efforts created the most prosperous middle class the world has ever seen!!! I believe we’re on the verge of a great new wave of organizing workers and economic justice. We’ve reached the point where we’re fed up and we’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!! The people are taking back their government and destiny from the corporations and the right wing ideologues that work for them. Conservatism has been proven a failed idea. The needs of the majority of the people are not and never will be served by conservatism. I believe the Republican party is dying and I thank God for it.
This is my hope as well. Change occurs when people reach their breaking point. This nation is at that point, and people are FINALLY waking up to the realization that not only do they matter, but they can do something about it!
WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT …GO UNION!!!!
The posters thus far have been eloquent in their condemnation in the tactics of the GOP, but when are the Democrats (who supposedly are labor friendly) going to stand up and call these morons out? Senator Reid last night said on the floor ot the Senate that they could stay that night, the next day and night and still not have a working idea for the Big 3.
Apparently, Senators Corker, McConnell, Shelby, Ensign and others, are more concerned about keeping their fiefdom and the hell with the rest of the country. One might ask these supposed representatives how much money their auto companies contributed to any 9/11 funds or better yet, how many troops they sent to Afghanistan. Now I’d like to hear these idiots outrage!
Let’s hope that the Free Choice Act - if it passes - will make it possible for workers to organize at the auto plants down south. For a hundred years Southern elites have made the region something like a foreign country, luring jobs away from the once-unionized northern states with the promise of low wages. And they’ve used every means at their disposal to keep unions out, including violence. Dozens of workers were killed during the Depression when workers at the cotton mills went on strike. Hopefully the AFL-CIO and other unions will target the south in a concerted organization effort. Unionized workers might be able to overturn so-called “Right To Work” laws and get some sympathetic politicians elected.
Meantime, we need to do what it takes to get the Free Choice Act passed. I wish unions would organize demonstrations instead of petitions and door-to-door canvassing campaigns. It would be great for solidarity!
While there is a great possibility that the Employee Free Choice Act is a part of the reason for the behavior of the Senate Republicans, I also believe they want to see the workers in this country reduced to desperation so they can spread the third world wages throughout America.
Take us back to the age of peasants and Lords.
I am ready to stand with my brothers and sisters and say no to these obscene demands.
I agree we need to organize huge demonstrations. Our voices are strong together.
I do not have a union job, nor does my husband. I wish we did. I have known for many, many years that the Republicans think we should work for slave wages. They have this, ” I worked for it, it’s all mine” mentality, when in reality, it takes all kinds of people to make anyone’s wages worth anything. I remember even union workers thinking Reagen was such a great guy, yet he presided over the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind with his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Now you are seeing the chickens come home to roost. You can make all the credit in the world available-if no one has a decent job, they aren’t going to borrow any money to buy a car or whatever. The outsourcing of jobs is what makes us more vulnerable than any terrorist ever could. Why were there no demands for lower pay for stock broker fees or concessions across the board in the financial industry? there is an inherent bias in this country that white collar and blue collar workers should have huge disparities in wages. a human being can only work so many hours a day no matter what they do. It truly is class warfare. I would have liked to see ANYONEget to the congressional hearings if there hadn’t been some blue colar slob who paved the road they drove there on, or ran the gas station that they bought the damn gas they put in their tank of the car they drive or whatever. Don’t even get me started on the ridiculous amounts we pay for sports or entertainment people or the stadiumd they perform in. We have allowed china to become extremely powerful and rich and they really don’t like us all that much. most favored nation status my behind. Republicnas are for the rich and always have been. People who vote for issues like family values and such are stupid- the day I need a politician telling me about family values is the day I’ll just shoot myself, thank you very much. America is full of total idiots anymore that just are simpletons that think you don’t have to pay taxes or work hard or pay a little bit of money for stuff. Sorry to burst your bubble america- just keep blaming the unions for all the executive decisons and pretty soon you, too, can find food for your family on a garbage heap like people in third world countries.
I don’t think it has anything to do with Republicans or Democrats and everything to do with Greed and the Ivory Tower syndrome.
Here is an article I recently wrote at http://www.KeepAmericaAtWork.com titled “Uncouth”
I hope it never happens, but if we don’t change our ways its liable to
===article follows ===
Uncouth, Unsavory, Illiterate, Blue Collar workers built America into a country that was Proud of who it was.
All of them had come from another country.
All of them spoke different languages.
They all had different upbringings, beliefs and religions.
Yet all of them came to America seeking their fortune amid the freedom that allowed them to be the best that they could.
Some drank too much.
Some fought too much.
Most had no education.
But they came, and they strived and they worked and they built things with their bare hands.
Things that they were proud of.
And they built this country into a country that the rest of the world envied.
And they did it with their two hands.
Because they wanted more for their children.
They wanted a better life for their children.
They wanted a better life for all Americans.
But this new breed.
The Ivory Tower Breed.
The ones that are arrogant and sure that everybody else is dumb and stupid and ignorant.
The ones that believe they deserve the riches that our great country holds and everybody else can go to hell.
They have taken the things that their forefathers have built.
They have sold them off in pursuit of global dominance.
They have sold them off to other countries that are using the knowledge that their forefathers acquired to further their own ambitions.
Even though their beliefs and ambitions might someday destroy America.
They have done this so that they could live today like kings.
Because tomorrow might never come.
And to hell with those that didnt have the foresight to do so.
To hell with all of you.
So what that you cant find work.
So what that you canf afford the necessitites.
You are nothing, and I am everything.
Because I have done what you couldnt.
But then one day came.
A day when there was no more left to sell.
A day when all of America was homeless.
A day when the other countries that had been quitely accumulating our wealth and preparing for tomorrow.
They sensed our weakness.
And like wolves in the forest.
They smelled death.
And they pounced.
And they found that we had no factories to build the tools to defend ourselves.
They found that our towns, counties, states and country had turned on their own people and taken away the weapons that they could use to defend their homes.
They found our citizens defenseless, while our lands were abundant with the resources that our leaders would not let us use because it would harm the landscape.
And they rounded us up.
And forced us to live in camps that would make the holocaust that they denied ever happen look like a picnic grounds.
And they took our money that we had sent to them and built our factories back up.
And they forced our people to work in those factories.
And they forced our people to adhere to their religion.
A religion that went against everything that we had ever believed in.
An our atheists that had done everything to undo our beliefs in our religion began praying.
They began praying to our gods for salvation.
They began praying for the guns that they had forced us to destroy.
So that they could once again live their lives as free men.
Free men and women where they could openly voice their opinions.
Opinions that our young had fought in nations far, far away and gave their very lives for.
Only to come home and find out that these people that they had fought for would spit in their face.
Because they had the freedom to do so.
A freedom that our young had given their lives for.
Only to be told that they were to young to drink and smoke and make their own decisions.
These young people knew.
They knew what the price was for the people who weren’t willing to do their share to have their freedom.
They knew what evil lurked in the hearts of their adversaries.
They knew that many of their own country men did not support them.
Yet they fought, and they died and some were horribly maimed.
But they did their share.
Only to see the Ivory Tower elite throw it away.
And they wanted justice.
And they wanted the freedom that they had fought for.
Only they no longer had the weapons that they needed to defend themselves.
So under cover of darkness, after a day of work in the fields, working for people who would kill them at a moments notice, they consipired.
And gradually they began to accumulate the tools.
Many of which were only sticks and stones and an occasional nail here and there.
And they began to believe in Freedom once again.
And they gradually built weapons of defense against an army that was well manned and well equipped.
Some of these weapons were but mere pieces of sticks and stones.
But they had freedom in their blood.
And one by one they overtook their captors.
And one day they realized once again that they were free men because their captors were no more.
And once again they adopted the ten commandments and the Constitution.
And they swore from that point on.
That any person that violated either of those two documents would be declared a traitor.
And banned forever from our great nation.
And gradually there became the life that their forefathers had only believed was possible.
And America once again stood sound and strong.
And the eagle had a smile in his eyes.
We have to face certain realities if we even have a chance of
saving the country.
The dire economic conditions that we have today are the result of ideology — chosen policies clearly intended for the benefit of the very wealthiest. We’ve had over 30 years of these policies, during which we have increasingly become a feudal state. These policies must be reversed — and soon!
We have to look at that tangle of anti-poor policies that, in fact, has been central to the dissolution of power and representation by the working class. These policies have been central to the creation of the new workfare workforce, which can be paid subminimum wages and has no real workers’ protections, and which has steadily been used as a permanent replacement workforce for laid-off workers. This has proved to be a powerful tool for supressing/crushing unions, and without unions, workers have no voice and no way to fight back.
We have got to look at how all government policies are inter-related to understand how we got to this point, and to understand what we must do to restore the nation we once had.
Labor can put its tail between its legs and accept whatever crumbs are thrown our way, or we can demand justice!
What’ll it be fellow workers? Remember, united we stand, divided we crawl.
Workers in key industries, i.e., aerospace, auto, and transport of commerce, account for several million potential activists. Leaders of those unions need to tell Congress that injustice will result in massive economic action! If led, workers will fight for justice. C’mon labor leaders….lead!
Two-bit, bribed-and-paid lawmakers would back down. They wouldn’t have any choice.
Retreat is not an option! Every retreat over the past fifty years has weakened the labor movement. It is time to live up to our heritage, “to help any worker in distress, and “to organize the unorganized”.
Economic justice is a right of all workers! The way things are set up in our nation, the filthy-rich will always be filthy-rich. Our job is to make sure that their riches are not derived from jackboot governance!
So Who are they? Why give them cover? Post their names - Republicans and Democrats! Let us know who voted NO and Who did not vote. Not voting is the same as voting NO. Expose them to scrutiny!
We need to get the messege out that we have taken concessions for many years so that companies in the ag industry could florish ,We have a two teer wage system and have taken concessions on pension benefits for new hires , The ivory tower crowd such as the news media and opponants of labor fail to mention this when they talk about labor.
The big problem is that the majority of the voters invariably vote
against their own self interests. The vast majority swept a Conservative, Reagan into office. What happened when the air traffic controllers went on strike? Reagan destroyed the union, then he busted the budget with his military build-up big enough to fight the War of the Worlds, topped off with his moneygrabbing Starwars that still doesn’t work after all those billions wasted. Then came the Iran-Contra affair. Our classified missiles were sold to a country that held our diplomats in captivity for 444 days, nobody knows how it happened and no one served any length of time. Then another Conservative that had trouble telling the truth, jacked the budget higher and caused more deregulation. Then we finally went to a Democrat that put people back to work and went a long way towards paying off our debt. Then this clown
of the past eight years that took away most of our freedoms and turned the country into a dictatorship with him the dictator, started
an ongoing war based on lies, made kidnapping, abduction and torture allowable practice, made the proud name America a dirty word around the world and caused a depression that the jury is still out on if it equals or surrpasses the big one of 1929 under another republican president.
Those people did not vote themselves into office nor took over the
country. The Democratic Party is far larger than the Conservative
and Republican Parties combined and I didn’t even start on the motherlode of first class crooks, The U.S. Congress!
The unions never forget the faithful. I have picketed, been laid off, been on strikes, never crossed the picket lines and at times have worked non union. Now in my senior years, I get retirement checks from the union, nothing from non union people.
You gotta wonder what the Union leadership is up to when they put up with some of the Dems. Perfect exampe: Bill Clinton would never have seen the inside of the White House without massive union support, but once there, he pushed for NAFTA, had an OSHA record worse than Reagan’s, and otherwise acted only marginally better than George HW Bush. Methinks our union chiefs sell us out. How is it possible that so much union cash and labor goes to Dem campaigns and we consistently get such wimpy Dems?
Let’s see what Obama does, but I’m not holding my breath.
Congress voted themselves a raise for next year. Now they want the working middle class to take a pay cut.
Then the Republicnas put out this spin about the $70/hr fictional worker and the UAW is to take a pay cut. The UAW did not cause the bridge loan collapse. It was the greed and protection of foriegn manufactures plus the dislike of unions by the Republicans that caused the collapse.
Does anyone know off the top who of these Republicans are up for election in 2010?
Yes, let us see the names of the anti labor members of congress/senate! Bush is making all out ditch to clean us out on his way out of office! He lined the pockets of Wall Street, and just as he duped us, (well our elected officials that is) about Iraq, he duped us again for his wall street buddies! Remember, they are being bailed out, The automakers are asking for loans NOT a bailout!
I am a member of the operating engineers, and at our meetings I see more time spent complaining about other unions stealing our jobs than discussing tactics we can use to beat the strong anti union movement! Brothers, stop petty bickering and UNITE!
The depression we are now in is no different than the great depression of 1929, we had republican presidents that were so anti union and anti labor that they caused the stock markets that grew on poor speculation to tumble, and we now have benefits FAUGHT FOR BY OUR UNION BROTHERS AND SISTERS, Minimum wage, Unemployment compensation, Social Security, Occupational Safety and Health administration and more. STILL we are at all time employment lows, My Employer once remarked, well we are not in a depression as the soup kitchens are not here… An example of the silver spooned blind wealth!
I choked when I heard Bush apologize for losing so many jobs, as he continues to rob us more! He was not ready for such a war! when I post this comment I am going to go to Barbara Boxers page to see who voted for us and who voted against us!
And Please, if you consider yourself a union member or a union sympathizer, stay the hell out of any WALMART or SAMS Club store! Stop sending our wealth to CHINA!