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RedditWhen President George Bush announced $17.4 billion for General Motors and Chrysler, it wasn't so much of a bridge loan, it was more like bully tactics. The Bush bucks come with all sorts of ties, most of them around the UAW's neck.
The loan's split into $13.4 billion now and another $4 billion later. GM and Chrysler will get the second installment in February only if they succeed in forcing workers to agree to accept slashed wages and work rules and auto retirees agree to sink half of their retiree health care fund into company stock.
Meanwhile, for the banks that have received handouts from the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, there's no bullying. There's not even oversight. Asked by ABC News last week, how or if they'd spent the money they've received sixteen banks pulled a Palin. They simply refused to answer the question. How much have they spent on staff bonuses? The Government Accountability Office dug for an answer to that and found that "the standard agreement between Treasury and the participating institutions does not require that these institutions track or report how they plan to use, or do use, their capital investments."
As someone who recently returned from a boat trip (thank you Nation cruisers!) I can tell you, there's no bailing out going on around here. Some ships are being floated, and some are being torpedoed.
Now we're hearing that Vice President Joe Biden has been tasked with protecting the interests of Middle Class and working Americans in the new administration. It kind of makes you wonder what the President will be doing.
Biden or no Biden, when it comes to raising middle class and working wages and working conditions, there's no substitute for independent, organized labor unions. And it's just that ship that bully Bush's torpedo loan is set on sinking.
Laura Flanders is the host of RadioNation and GRITtv. Watch GRITtv on Free Speech TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415) on cable (8 pm ET on Channel 67 in Manhattan) or online at GRITtv.org.
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" GM and Chrysler will get the second installment in February only if they succeed in forcing workers to agree to accept slashed wages and work rules and auto retirees agree to sink half of their retiree health care fund into company stock."
Bush's last hurrah?
Gather up your old shoes everyone.
Posted by jackwells at 12/22/2008 @ 2:28pm
How amazing that the workers yet again have to pay the price and have their wages slashed....boy, Bush is still the caring President he ever was....not!!! How come the CEO's of those failed banks never had to "pay" for anything but sit back and watch the money roll in for them by the government!!! It just proves over and over that Bush has never been for the working class, yet another great thing for him to add to his legacy...rub salt in the wounds of those already struggling, that sounds about right.
Posted by Caj at 12/22/2008 @ 3:49pm
Posted by lvliberty1 at 12/22/2008 @ 2:55pm
Ouch.
That's gonna leave a mark.
What are you trying to do, make FZ pop a vein?
Posted by Benchrest at 12/22/2008 @ 3:56pm
I really like the Far Right-Wing comments some people make here. They keep needling the great recently wakened giant of labor and making fun of the people who have worked the hardest for the least reward.
Without Labor there would be no instant gratification of seeing one's petty, selfish opinion posted for the World to see and the gloating of a few miscreants with nothing to do!
What they fail to realize is their opinions are not even relevant anymore, nor will their points get the desired effect. While Bush & Cheney are still ripping off the people and waxing nostalgic for the days when Americans swallowed their lies, the people are waking up and will vote en masse to protect their interests.
If they had any brains at all, the miscreants gloating over the destruction of wealth, liberty, and civil rights would be cautioning the Bushies to slow down and stop making huge grabs of wealth. Instead of continuing to throw cheap gas on the fires. Burn Baby, Burn!
Posted by squidboy6 at 12/22/2008 @ 5:17pm
Anybody here work for $73/hour? Well, you just paid somebody else to work at $73/hour, like those rates? They were all set to deep six these pieces of crap as they should have and who comes along to save the day? Why the same schlemeil that killed 4000 American service people in Iraq over the last five years for nothing, proudly tortured hundreds of prisoners of war over the same period, snooped on you illegally and did everything in his power to make the present economic crisis possible. Bush hasn't bailed out the Big Three - they're going to be going under anyway in a few months - he's seen to it that the American taxpayer provides $15 billion in severance to these egregiously overcompensated shakedown artists. I'd have beem sympathetic if UAW compensation packages were anything close to those received by workers at Honda and Toyota but they're not. Together with an iresponsible and self-serving management, these guys have managed over the last 30 years or so to kill the goose that laid the golden egg. And now you and I are being asked to shoulder the burden. Have the crooks that own the system bailed you out lately?
Posted by john lowell at 12/22/2008 @ 7:01pm
Posted by john lowell at 12/22/2008 @ 7:01pm | ignore this person | warn this person
.
Actually, you are misinformed. Autoworkers in the US DON'T make $73 an hour. That's just nonsense.
The $73 an hour comes from US manufacturers including the cost of retirement and benefits for retirees. The typical auto worker maxes out at about $28 an hour.
In terms of hourly wage, they are compensated at almost the exact same rate as Japanese autoworkers. German autoworkers actually make more.
Of course, the Japanese and Germans have medical care paid by the government. US auto manufacturers have to pay that benefit to their workers.
Posted by Lillian at 12/22/2008 @ 7:49pm
Posted by john lowell at 12/22/2008 @ 7:01pm | ignore this person | warn this person
John, I suggest you stop getting your information from poorly informed republican senators from the former confederacy. There used to be a time when supporting American companies was considered patriotic in this conutry. I see that your ilk would rather support foriegn corporate interests. I humbly suggest you consider making a move to one of those countries. I hear China is real nice! Happy Holidays.
Posted by Rightaintbright at 12/22/2008 @ 8:03pm
Personally, I don't see anything hypocritical with hardworking journalists who day in and out sincerely and effectively push issues relevant to the middle class having taking a tony cruise. I also don't begrudge Bill Gates helping the poor, diseased, etc. But hate radio losers like OReilly are sickening in their propaganda claim of caring for the middle class. Has as much insight and empathy as -
Barbara Bush & Katrina!!
Posted by winyahn at 12/22/2008 @ 8:23pm
Support for higher wages pushes up the wages of others. If we hadn't exported our technology (jobs) overseas, then we wouldn't be having this discussion. Higher wages means better living and less crime, better health, and much more!
Globalism doesn't raise the standard of living for people on Earth, it raises it temporarily for a few in certain places and lowers it in others, like here, and now. And in China as well, where billions want what we had and what they tasted.
The wages-issue is a red herring and now the Real Estate industry is asking for a bailout...
Most Americans had to get totally screwed before they realized this, but how are we gonna get it back? Pay little attention to the people still jealous and unable to see that we stand together as working people and help each other (just keep a wary eye on them), or we knife each other in the back. I prefer to help and wear chain mail since there are still a lot back-stabbers around....
Posted by squidboy6 at 12/22/2008 @ 9:02pm
Posted by Rightaintbright at 12/22/2008 @ 8:03pm
"John, I suggest you stop getting your information from poorly informed republican senators from the former confederacy."
The source of my information: National Public Radio, leftaintheft. Now you, you wouldn't appear to have any source at all, would you?
"There used to be a time when supporting American companies was considered patriotic in this conutry. I see that your ilk would rather support foriegn corporate interests."
You really are a most stupidly presumptuous touchhole, aren't you? I happen to oppose NAFTA and here and elsewhere have consistently criticised the outsourcing of American jobs overseas. But, unlike a schmuck like you, I'm discerning enough to sense when some poseur is draping himself in the flag out of self-interest the way the GM and the UAW have. We have tons of that kind of ca-ca around here, a GM dealer who's forever on the air telling us he's "American and proud of it". These assertions have nothing whatsoever to do with his business interests, of course. That why he paid for the commercials.
The patriots I've known DO patriotism, they don't just talk or post on blogs about it, putz. Typically its others that point to their patriotism, not themselves. So here's a suggestion for you, putz: Take your phoney moralizing and stick it where the moon don't shine.
Posted by john lowell at 12/23/2008 @ 01:28am
Posted by john lowell at 12/22/2008 @ 7:01pm | ignore this person | warn this person
Gee, John. It seems like my comments struck a raw nerve. If you got your facts from NPR you did not listen very hard. Lillian's comment is a far more accurate analysis. Now, as far as your put-downs,creative use of yiddish words, and thoughts of anally inserting my statements as falsely moral, try to keep it civil it is the holidays after all.
Perhaps the solutions to these problems would be Americans coming together and solving our problems together, not placing the blame on the workers. Anyway since I heard Sens. Shelby and Corker spout that quasi-fact I've been a bit piqued. Sorry if I took that out on you. Peace.
Posted by Rightaintbright at 12/23/2008 @ 06:56am
how much do japanese auto workers make in Japan?
about the same as UAW workers make here. far more than americans working in japanese owned factories here.
Posted by emile duBois at 12/23/2008 @ 09:02am
Ahhhh, the joys of the simple life. Those darn CEOs and their extravagances should be ashamed!
The United Autoworkers Union, which had a total net worth of $1.2 billion in 2007, owns a $27 million resort and conference center that features a $6 million upscale golf course, according to financial statements on file with the U.S. Department of Labor. ...
....Accommodations at the resort cost $92 a night for a single room and $106 a night for a double. Full-service condos are available costing $180 for a two-bedroom and $275 for a three-bedroom unit. Posted by comanchenation
What a joke. $27 million? $92 per night? No Wall St. CEO would even stay at such pedestrian accomodations. Why should they be ashamed at owning a $27 million property? As far as Hotel costs, this is not extravagant.
Also, The golf course is open to the public. I'm sure Wall St. CEOs play on publlic courses all the time.
Posted by koroviev at 12/24/2008 @ 12:57am