UAW - Give 'em a Break

Folks in Detroit have been giving one another lots of concessions ... but the biggest hit in the last ten years has been on the UAW - the gals and guys who actually build the cars we drive.

White collars have felt it, too - plenty of downsizing and cutbacks all over the place ...

But what I hear these days reflects a wretched bias against unions - that if only the unions would go away, we could have labor nirvana ... and business, of course, "will take care of its workers."

Bullshit, if I may say so.

We easily forget the hideous history between labor and management, and we forget that labor money is trickle down money - the working folks buy the homes, the TVs, the golf clubs and everything else that drives America's middle class economy.

But the moneyed buy $27,000 bathtubs (yup, saw it advertised the other day) or $25,ooo wrist watches - that doesn't trickle down very well.

Without the unions, there'd be no middle class.

When the Great Liar (Mr. Reagan) busted the Flight Controllers Union, he added another brutal, selfish, chapter to the American story and it's prejudice against the working class. Even a lot of the working class bought the story for a long time - everyone wanted to be rich, so many of the working class felt that if they gave up their union, Mama would take care of them.

But what we see with Wall Street and the latest from the auto execs, when they actually get out in public - they don't give a damn about the folks working for them. They care deeply about themselves, sustaining their preposterous lifestyles, and keeping up appearances for the sake of their investors.

I think we ought to bail 'em out and then buy 'em up! The working millions need our support, and it's time for Uncle Sam to set the pace!

Michael Moore has it right - we need a World War 2 approach - the government has to tell them what to build - not only hybrids and hyper efficient cars, but mass transit - to rebuuld the nation's infrastructure. We've done it before, and we can do it again.

UAW

Having lived in Detroit from 1990 - 2006, I know something about the unions and the companies which have labored long and hard to eradicate them.

Without the unions, there would never have been a middle class.

And in the last 15 years, the UAW has surrendered millions of dollars in wages and benefits to the selfish demands of management who've taken increasingly larger and larger chunks of the pie, while ignoring the public cry for better cars and pandering to the sickness of the Street (Wall, that is, not Main).

The upper levels of auto management, along with their fellow crooks at Wall Street, have plundered their companies while padding their own pockets, all under the blessing of Reaganomics, one of the greatest lies ever created, and one of the most tragic turns in the American story.

The Unions strove for wages and benefits appropriate to the profits being made, and when profits began their plunge, the Unions reduced where they could, but not management, as we see with their corporate jets and perks so carefully created and hidden from public view.

The blame for the present debacle must be laid at the feet of an arrogant leadership contemptuous of America, forcing more and more relinquishments from their workers, and forcing 3rd and 4th tier suppliers to outsource their work, putting millions out of work ten years ago.

Take a look at Flint, Michigan to see how GM pillaged a once-viable community, while deflecting the blame to the workers, pocketing the profits, enjoying their benefits on the backs of millions of middle class Americans.

Michael Moore has it right - we need a World War 2 approach - the government has to tell them what to build - not only hybrids and hyper efficient cars, but mass transit. We've done it before, and we can do it again.

But only when we all awaken to the reality: We are our brother's keeper!