Indecent Proposal: A $1 Salary and some Good Old-Fashioned Union Busting

Alex W • Operation Itch Contributor   
see all posts by Alex 

The big three automakers have been telling a rather convoluted sob story for the past few weeks, spending an unknown amount of money on a campaign to convince the people and policymakers of the U.S. that they desperately need money or they will collapse, bringing down the economy and creating a ripple effect destroying the livelihood of countless people. Now that the UAW and Republicans in Congress have successfully broken the deal, perhaps their money would have been better spent elsewhere.

At the same time, they’ve been trying to convince their shareholders that they will bounce back, with or without the federal bailout, and that they’re going to return to profitability and that they are a sound investment.

Note that GM CEO Rick Wagoner says he’s looking forward to reading all comments to this YouTube video. Comments, however, are disabled.

The Gray Lady Bitchslaps Auto Workers

Allison Kilkenny    •   Operation Itch Contributor
The New York Times lead story is U.A.W. Makes Concessions to Help Automakers. The article is pretty aptly titled because the NYT chose to focus entirely on the evil UAW parasites that are sucking the poor, helpless automakers dry through ludicrous demands such as job security and pension/health care payments.

 The Big Three claim their industry is tanking not because of their refusal to change their big, heavy, gas-guzzling car designs, but because evil workers are demanding their contractually promised benefits. The Big Three are failing not because the rest of the world is building fuel-efficient cars, but because the UAW demands that CEOs pay their salaries between the time their jobs get shipped to Mexico, and they find new sources of employment.

You see, all the blame can (and should) be pinned on the workers. At least, that’s what the Big Three claim, and the NYT seems to agree, which explains why so many horrifying facts are splayed across the Gray Lady’s pages without examination, analysis, or comment from workers themselves.

Ford’s chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said in an interview Wednesday that Detroit needed the union’s help to speed its transformation, particularly in replacing current workers with entry-level employees who will be making $14 an hour in wages under the terms of the 2007 labor agreement.

That’s a pay cut of almost half for the Big Three. In addition, union members aren’t guaranteed their old job security or health benefits. Now that they’ve made concession after concession, there are still no strings attached to the automakers to stop them from closing their plants and shipping jobs to Mexico after everything has been said and done.