David Gregory Tries To Union Bust Auto Companies; GM CEO Refuses To Play Along
By Nicole Belle Sunday Apr 05, 2009 12:45pm
Unlike David Gregory, I have never held a job that benefited from union representation. And in some of those jobs (real estate development comes to mind), I've felt that lack of collective bargaining, when it became patently obvious that my employers had little regard for equal pay, fair work hours (one job I had felt it was okay to make me work seven days a week, as long as my total weekly hours totaled 40) and even job safety.
But David Gregory has presumably been a member of at least one union as a television "journalist" for the last ten+ years. Apparently, it's a "great for me, but not for thee" kind of thing for Gregory, because as he speaks to new GM CEO Fritz Henderson. Gregory wants desperately for Henderson to buy into the Media Establishment™ meme that the failure of the auto industry is all about those pesky unions. According to Stretch, the problem with the auto industy does not have to do with their reluctance to adapt to the changing marketplace and get more fuel-efficient cars to the market or being a forerunner (instead of following behind Honda and Toyota) in alternative fuel cars, but because of those stinkin', leechy unions demanding they live up to their contracts and provide pensions for retirees.
Luckily, Henderson ain't gonna play that. When Gregory tries to get Henderson to concede that there are union-mandated jobs in auto factories that have nothing to do with actually making cars, Henderson has to remind Gregory that safety officers are kinda important to industrial manufacturers.
GREGORY: Well, let's talk about how you can do more. How many union jobs are there in a typical factory for General Motors that have nothing to do with producing automobiles?
HENDERSON: Well, actually every job we have in the factory has something to do with producing an automobile. Whether it's obviously putting the actual car together or supplying materials to the line or maintaining the equipment that’s in the plant. So we have worked very hard and if you look at external surveys, for example, like a Harbor Report, we have closed the gap in terms of competiveness, in terms of the manpower. We have within our operation. We need to do more. Every person in the plant has something to do with putting together a car or truck.
GREGORY: But in some factories, you have a shop steward who's responsible for appointing--whether it's a civil rights chief or an education person, these are all union jobs that don’t have anything to do with producing the cars.
HENDERSON: Well, we have -- the union has key jobs, as you identified, but let's take an example. Let’s take health and safety-- we work together with the union health and safety in our plants. We have the safest plants in the United States, in fact, around the globe. And I think providing, for example, a safe work place is very much in the best interests of the company as well as the union.
Oops...don't you hate it when facts get in the way of a nice little union-busting rant, David? And of course, you miss the forest for the trees on the healthcare costs of pensioners. If the US actually had single-payer health care coverage for its citizens--like every other western country--then the auto industry could actually be relieved of those expenses.
But David, it would make FAR too much sense to propagandize FOR something that benefits the country instead of propagandizing AGAINST unions, wouldn't it?
Transcripts below the fold
GREGORY:…The legacy costs, meaning all of the costs associated with union employees, part of the United Auto Workers, is just a huge issue for General Motors. The government report indicates that in order to pay those retired autoworkers, gm has to produce an extra 900,000 cars every year. What is the message to the union now? Doesn’t it have to be those days are over?
HENDERSON: I think the message to all the constituents that play a part in our future we need to pull together. We need to sacrifice as a group, whether it's our people, our unions, our salaried employees, our dealers or suppliers, we need to pull together to do what's necessary to make General Motors viable going forward. We have been doing that. We’ve gotten enormous support from that up to this point. We need to do more.
GREGORY: Well, let's talk about how you can do more. How many union jobs are there in a typical factory for General Motors that have nothing to do with producing automobiles?
HENDERSON: Well, actually every job we have in the factory has something to do with producing an automobile. Whether it's obviously putting the actual car together or supplying materials to the line or maintaining the equipment that’s in the plant. So we have worked very hard and if you look at external surveys, for example, like a Harbor Report, we have closed the gap in terms of competiveness, in terms of the manpower. We have within our operation. We need to do more. Every person in the plant has something to do with putting together a car or truck.
GREGORY: But in some factories, you have a shop steward who's responsible for appointing--whether it's a civil rights chief or an education person, these are all union jobs that don’t have anything to do with producing the cars.
HENDERSON: Well, we have -- the union has key jobs, as you identified, but let's take an example. Let’s take health and safety-- we work together with the union health and safety in our plants. We have the safest plants in the United States, in fact, around the globe. And I think providing, for example, a safe work place is very much in the best interests of the company as well as the union.
GREGORY: You have told health care managers and executives over 65 they no longer get health care benefits. They have to revert at that point to Medicare. Is it time for union workers to accept that same limit?
HENDERSON: David, the provision of health care to our hourly employees will basically vest to the responsibility of a Viva trust, effective January 1st, 2010. The Viva Trust will be responsible for determining the level of benefits. I can't really forecast, if you will, what decisions they're going to make.
GREGORY: Do you think that's the kind of cut that the union should have to accept?
HENDERSON: Not for me to say, David. I think in the end, the trustees in the Viva are going to have to make those decisions.
GREGORY: Do you really expect this president, given how strongly supported he is by the unions, do you really expect him to take a step that would hurt the unions?
HENDERSON: I think President Obama -- let me put it in a positive -- basically said we want to work together to make sure this company is viable, successful and part of the automotive industry in the next 100 years. And basically, he asked all the parties to come back together and make sure we do exactly that. So I don't think it's about hurting some constituency or another. It’s about what do we have to do to win in the future.
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[Thanks, ron. I passed it along to the proper authorities. Site Monitor]
has made it, he says screw the unions...typical Tush Lumpboil routine
the idea of a liberal media is laughable. could he show his bias any more clearly?!? i dont think so. pretty much every position on issues he takes with his clearly slanted questions, is what the GOP has taken as a position.
I have some right wing acquittances who still complain about how biased the media is for the liberal angle of things. I had to endure a "lecture" from a coworker on how unfairly Palin was treated by the media with respect to Obama. And how most TeeVee news is liberal...
I no longer have patience for stupidity of that caliber. I am done with conservatives, there is no longer any reasoning. They make up their own reality.
They should all start watching The Cartoon Network.
have purged. I have kicked friends and family out of my life because I will no longer put up with their stupidity.
career first, party second, america last.
I didn't always agree with Russert but at least he wasn' a complete toadie.
Russert wasn't ANY different. He was always available to lob softballs to the Republicans, and eager to use their talking points against Democrats.
Russert's hype is just that. He was a tool too.
GLENN GREENWALD: Yeah, but, you know, I'm actually, I consider that to be a good thing. I mean, I found it almost oxymoronic. That Tim Russert was constantly held up as the symbol of what an adversarial journalist would be. That he was supposedly this great thorn in the side of power. And yet, his celebrity was so great that when he died it was almost treated as though it was a death of Princess Diana, and everyone rushed forward in order to from the highest political elites to media stars to treat him as what he, in fact, was. Which was a celebrity. And if you look at what Tim Russert actually did there were a couple of actually interesting episodes where not his image, but the reality of what he did was unmasked, during the Lewis Libby trial, in particular. The trial of Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff for obstruction of justice. That involved a lot of journalists, because they were participants in the effort to unmask Valerie Plame Wilson and to smear Joe Wilson. And what he said during that trial, under oath, was they asked him, well, when you have a conversation with one of your sources, with the government official, when is it that you decide that it's confidential. And when is it that you can report it? And what he said was, well, actually, when I have a conversation with the government official, I consider that conversation presumptively confidential. And I will disclose it only if they authorize me to do so. And it was it was an extraordinary revelation, because if you talk to government officials, and you only disclose to the public things that you know, when they allow you or give you permission to do so, what you're really describing is the role of a propagandist, not of a journalist. And yet, that was what you know, Tim Russert in many ways was. That's what his celebrity was based in.
I never understood the "canonization" of Mr. Russert. I mean the guy was this close to give Cheney a full body massage the few times he was at MTP during his tenure.
I mean, Russert basically built a career off examining Clinton's zipper in the 90s, only to suddenly think that an illegal war was small potatoes. I don't think Russert knew what hard hitting journalism was if it bite him squarely in his fat pompous ass. And after seeing the adulation Mr. Russert has received since his dismissal by god, I am starting to think that neither do the majority of Americans.
that Russert seemed often biased towards Republicans, but Gregary is much worse.
When it came to Republicans Russert always held their feet to the pedicure pedestal.
Kudos!
Timmy's elevation to sainthood by the NBC corporate family has
clouded the reality of Timmy's GOP affection and adulation which is why someone as
"small" minded as Gregory was given Timmy's show. He is willing to follow
the Russert Tradition.
This toady has his corporatist script memorized. What an utterly useless tool.
David Gregory ought to stop trying to be a serious journalist as he has no aptitude for it and stick to simply dancing to teeny bop hip hop which, wait, he has no talent... well hell, he ought not to exist... period
he works for the Corporate State. He's just another hologram for public consumption.
Did Gregory seriously ask negative questions about unions the whole time? Is he for real?!?
This a$$hole needs to be off the air or on Fox news where he belongs...
Fox, etc
Damn, he tried his best to get a union bashing response.
will not do or say a single thing today, tomorrow or the next day that he has not been generally indoctrinated and deeply conditioned to do that you can always count on.
to parse this Evet.
I give up. What does "to do that you can always count on." actually mean?
watched long enough to hear Gregory almost get on his knees and beg Henderson to put all of the blame for GM's problems on the union! It ain't the union that's to blame you cocksucking asshole(Gregory)It's GM's for building LOUSY VEHICLES! David, you are the worst replacement for Tim Russert! Who the fuck did you suck off, in order to take over for Tim?You make me FUCKING SICK, You sorry mutha fucker!
I couldn't have said it better myself. Actually, it sounds like something I would have and could have said.
WTG!! :-)
As a CAW member, I applaud you!
TO BLAME THE VICTIMS!!!!!
I honestly fail to be surprised that this right wing toadie is doing just that. It is in their nature... they operate by instinct. In fact there is a case to be made in order to question wether or not some of these types belong to the normal human species genum. Since most "normal" humans display a significantly larger number of learned behaviors than instinctive.
The sooner we accept that, the better off we all will be....
It'd be one thing if he was playing devil's advocate in order to strengthen the position. That is a noble and successful tactic.
Too bad he is no better than those of Faux.
Since the death of Tim Russert, I have only been able to force myself to watch MTP very few times. The naming of Gregory to the position has made it nearly impossible to watch, so this segment today was the first full segment I watched. I am glad to see this posted on C&L becasue I was thinking the same things as iI heard gregory work this interview.
Does anyone know how far the rating have dropped from the Russert days. Surely the program has suffered a considerable loss of viewers as well as credibility.
And poor Gregory hasn't been the same since he lost his brass set after the "nice tie" Bush Comment and the "dancing with Rove" affair.
Please, he is the same old GOP toady he has ever been. If you think this has been a "change" in his behavior, you were not around the literal hand jobs he was giving the Bush administration all the way since the inauguration of Bush's 1st term. In fact I remember this asshole going off defending Bush on the 2000 campaign trail because people were abusing a nice guy with a bad case of a speech impediment (it seems for Mr. Gregory opening your mouth and saying something incredibly stupid is not a sign of mental weakness but just a speech impediment).
Meet the Press my ass. On taking that job, Gregory has become a tool of the corporations. These guys don't even try to hide their bias anymore. Tapper, Henry, Todd, they're all one and the same.
they thought about changing the name of the program to Meet the Right Wing Tool. In the interest of truth, it would have been appropriate but the marketing department was against it.
that's what the financial elites and corporations want. they HATE labor especially labor empowered with the ability to BARGAIN. corporations want to compete on the terms of 2nd and 3rd world countries. they want "cheap labor". they want people to BORROW to get into the middleclass NOT bargain. automaker unions have made concessions. the legacy cost have a lot to do with sharp increase in healthCare cost. the autoworkers from a generation ago have many aches and pains. there was less automation in the factory.
one of the bigger problems in this country is the ever widening gap between the wealthy and NOT so wealthy. the ability to BARGAIN can reduce that gap. it use to be that one could live a respectable life in the trades BUT now with "cheap labor" to undercut and less union strength you can't make a living.
It sounds to me like Gregory has no idea how a union works. Stewards WORK and act as shop steward at the same time. I've never seen a union employee just sitting around getting paid just because they are in a union.
What would anyone expect from this servile, corporate toady?
Why are all these idiots against everyone having health insurance? Do they think only the wealthy are entitled? Why can't they see that one-payer insurance in other countries works very well. I'm on several sites from other countries and they can't understand how we can be the only major western country that doesn't have universal health care. To me it's horrible that the people in the government get paid health care for their families and them even when they are out of government. No wonder they don't care about the rest of us.
is a "privilege" and not a "right."
Yes, they believe only the wealthy are entitled to decent health care. In fact, f*cking A, if you observe every major GOP (and to a lesser extent Dem) policy regarding health care, it is obvious that has been their position since day one, for the better part of a century.
The sooner we are "surprised" by those facts, the quicker we will be able to get on with the duty of fixing this mess.
No other country has the equivalent of Medicare. Which, if you believe righties, is a "socialistic program" just like those cradle to gave programs in all the other countries. So, the good news (if there is any) is that if indeed union workers have reduced health benefits, they should be able to join Medicare (I assume they're paying into the program while working). Of course, conservatives will holler in protest if it means that this retirement health money won't be going to line the profits of some private insurance company.
I'll tell you what DICKFACE (Gregory) - I'm a union worker - I'll take your salary and you take mine - since you think I get paid too much.
Fucking asshole.
surely isn't what landed him this job. I'll bet he has calluses on them knees. And lips....:p
what kind of car does this asscrack drive? I'll bet a week of my neighbor's wages that he drives a Lexus, Beemer or Mercedes. This anti-union shitbird couldn't carry my lunch, let alone do my (union) job for a week.
I don't know whether guys like David Gregory and Tim Russert actively review and promote management's position on things like this, but I suspect it's more casual than that.
I suspect that Gregory never would've been handed that job if he didn't already see things from the Wall Street/corporate/big money perspective. He probably doesn't even realize he's a right-wing prick. He probably just thinks he's using "common sense".
I mean how many of us have had jobs where we were treated like slaves?! While BIG union has some BIG problems, the idea of having the ability to collectively bargain is still a damn good one.
Peace.
Rick Beagle
the weekend, the 40hr work week, retirement, vacation, safe work conditions, collective bargaining, etc...
I will keep on ignoring anything a corporate toady like himself have to say about Unions.
explain what "big problems" big unions have.
More and more, as he shows himself to be a republican shill, I feel that david gregory deserves les and less of my attention. What a "little" man he really is!
he was a complete republican shill from day one. Hard to improve on perfection ;-)
Yes, I just watched the replay of Meet the Press. I was appalled but not surprised that Mr. Gregory did his usual GE dance and once again blamed unions.
Nicole, unions are also being blamed for the woes at the Boston Globe as well. The NYT is threatening to shut down the Boston Globe unless its unions make many concessions, etc. The same goes with state employee unions across the country, including the state of CT where I am from. In my opinion, unions have faithfully been making concessions over and over again to "save their jobs" and "help their companies," and yet continually are the scapegoats.
Long Live Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels!!!!!!!!!!
Thank God for the continued lives of Antonio Negri, David Harvey, Immanuel Wallerstein, Samir Amin, Noam Chomsky, James Petras, Peter Morici, Michael Hudson, Michael Parenti, Mike Davis, and Gore Vidal!
...the union has key jobs, as you identified, but let's take an example. Let’s take health and safety...
I can't speak for the UAW, but I belong to SEIU, and where I work, the Health and Safety people are ordinary workers who volunteer for the position, and do it in addition to their regular jobs. So you see, they aren't layabouts taking bread out of Gregory's mouth...they're responsible people doing something for their colleagues above and beyond the call, and not getting anything extra for it.
and they won't have to worry about unions. There won't be any. They'll all be layed off. Those that aren't are going to be hard pressed to get worker support, when the only contracts they'll be able to get will be for less money and benefits.
Say, aren't these talking dittohead faux journalists union members?
If available, we need you to host Meet The Press.
I would watch MTP again if Shuster took over. (I quit watching when gregery replaced Tim Russert.)
"or an education person, these are all union jobs that don’t have anything to do with producing the cars."
What does he have to do with producing news? Reading rightwing talking points to other republicans day-in and day-out? It's not like he researches or writes the stuff.
I can't believe he's as bad as poor, poor pumpkin-head.
that means salaried management worker who is required to possess a degree.
The journalist is hammering the union workers and the CEO is defending them? Who woulda thought?
The irony wasn't lost on me, I assure you!
Wagoner has gone on the record that he's satisfied with the concessions made by CAW GM workers and won't be asking for more. How fucking often does THAT happen?
The CEO was clearly having none of it which seemed remarkable to me. But then again he actually has to have the trust and goodwill of the union if he wants to pull GM out of the toilet so he can't just vilify them like that knob Gregory.
You hear a lot about how media and news corporations are suffering these days. If it weren't for the Journalists Union these chair moisteners with hair cuts wouldn't be able to keep sucking the lifeblood out of the poor media conglomerates.
for corporate interests. Russert was, too! I'm finding it harder and harder to watch MTP.
BAC
First - GM should start acting like a company that is bankrupt, because as it turns out, they're bankrupt. Maybe they should visit some bankrupt companies to see how one behaves. MBA's just love benchmark studies (because the burden of original thinking is lifted)! MBAs hate thinking.
Second - Dick Gregory should invest in a more convincing rug.
Last - Dick Gregory looks like the offspring of Alfred E Neuman and Andy Warhol. His face gives me nightmares. He looks like he's made of plastic. He has an ugly nose and you can sorta tell that w/o the rug, he'd be even homelier. I'm not convinced by Meet the Press' creators that he's an actual human being.
I used to watch Meet the Press every Sunday. Every fucking Sunday. After about three weeks with David Gregory not any more!! I thought that David Gregory would be a good fit but he has turned out to be no different than Chris Wallace. I swear to god. You would think he worked for the RNC with the way he runs the show. It is really too bad he is running the show into the ground. Now George Stephon... Steponof... George Stevenopo... ABC Sunday Morning or whatever they call themselves, is the best Sunday show on TV. Even with with George Will it is better than David Gregory.
Stephanopoulos, that's it.
Step-On-All-Of-Us
with his milestones of careers segment and that little diddly at the end about those 20 somethings with uniforms.
I assume the only reason anybody here would care about Meet the Press is because there are still a lot of people who rely upon television and still do believe the mainstream media. But we're discussing the sociology of propaganda, right? Not whether David Gregory is a serious journalist.
who pees sitting down.
Gregory has taken the show that he basically inherited because Russert Died
and turned into a Joke. I say this because His very connection with the show will
always take away any Credibility that the show ever had. Gregory=HACK.
greggory is for russert. I wasn't so happy with russert from time to time, as he hacked on the side of the administration; but this guy is absolutely weak and flimbsy. What a shill.
Time to look for a replacement. How about looking for someone WITHOUT a hidden agenda this time??
David sure has back bone when confronting GM CEO on negatives of unions. Where was David during his White House days ? hose hard pointed questions of the Bush Adm?
He would be in Podunk doing the three am farm report.
gettin' funky with Heir Rove is like watchin' pigs wallow in the mud!
Corporate propagandists that are no more jounalists as the man in the moon.
Helen Thomas has more journalistic credential in one breath than this shill inhis whole life.
His anti-labor bile was disgusting, I'm done with anything he shows up on!
Might as well have a disclaimer at the start of the show.
"David Gregory is a paid spokesman for GE."
Somehow I am still amazed when these little human beings are willing to go on air day after day and spew the corporate elites propaganda ... they sell over and over the version of who we are to us and many people actually swallow it. What I don't get it how these slivering trails of bile can go home each night and face their families ... it's madness.
Bad enough when they had Russert lobbing the softballs to his Beltway cocktail party buds. Gregory is worse, a totally worthless douchebag, not very bright or intellectually sophisticated. I cannot watch him without needing to scream at my TV for an hour. Who needs it?
Just look at his fucking head and tell me he isn't a used corporate BUTT PLUG .. and why is it that this BUTT PLUG can sit there and splutter all the corporate propaganda and MAKE TWO MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR and, yet , the TEACHER OF OUR KIDS AVERAGE ABOUT $30,000 AND YEAR ? And there sits the corporate butt plug blaming middle class Americans for the failings of the Corporation called GM ? fucking sick .. just fucking sick
Because as much as I like teachers ANYONE can become a teacher. But it takes a special person to become a well-paid corporate butt plug. Think about it. No matter which side of the isle you sit on - you have to go to a prestigious school, be friends with other butt plugs, and probably have a law degree. All of those things cost serious money and heritage. So - that butt plug gets 2 mil a year and you make 30K. Don't like it?!! Get mad! Stop buying stuff you don't need from people who don't deserve your money. Work to change your position in life so you can be the corporate butt plug and make the cash. Nothing is keeping you where you are today but yourself and your aversion to risk. Bigger government will only insure that we all make 30K and ONLY butt plugs will have the ability to change their position in life. Is that what you want for your kids? A bicycle helmet, a 30K/year job, and government mandated front-seat airbags to keep them either safe in life or kill them if they are under 5' and 110lbs?
"Because as much as I like teachers ANYONE can become a teacher. But it takes a special person to become a well-paid corporate butt plug."
The meaning to life in 25 words or less. Certainly, if you had kids, that's exactly what you'd want to pass on to them!
all the talk about "toady" and "shill", I haven't heard anyone bring up then fact that despite all the Go Union rhetoric that Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and the others are still whoopin' USA unions arse by sales numbers alone.
And what is the major culprit to competitiveness cited by each US auto corporate industrialist?... Union wages and benefits when compared to Japan and the others, that's what.
It's not that they're against health care, it's that it costs too dam much to compete on retail/lease price-point with off-shore manufacturing.
Then there's the price of steel that no one's given a parentheses to in order to provide summation to the bottom line.
Where is the Volt? Where did the millions to GM hydrogen go to?
Why can't the EV-1 be re-inroduced until the technology for battery weight and range improvements be realized?
Why does Chrysler make such nice cars for the showroom that turn into clunky hulks out on the street?
Why do Jeeps price out at equivalent of a foreign hybrid?
You guys aren't asking the questions that Gregory can't!
I suspect if the unions get busted out of the business that US makers would be motivated to equal union pay, retirement, benefits and safety if the makers are still in the business to manage by then. That would be revolutionary and unlikely.
Gee. 'Far left, liberal' NBC seems to have an anti-union agenda. How could this be?
on blaming labor for the woes of the auto industry. He is not bothering to cite all of the wrong decisions that have been made by the chief executives of that industry over the course of the last several decades that have led us to this point where now their companies are collapsing. Gregory's focus is so narrow that he can't see any other possibility other than that it's the fault of the Unions and of Labor. In his view, Unions seem to be at fault in causing the collapse of the auto industry and he sees President Obama as being on a mission to somehow sabotage the auto industry because of a perceived preference for labor and that he is somehow against business. If this were so, why would President Obama be at all concerned about the auto industry and try to do all that he can to make sure that it survives and that hopefully it will thrive in the future as he has been doing? David Gregory's mind is just too tiny to get around the idea that there may be something other than the very black or white picture that he sees and that this might be a vision of change that would salvage the auto industry and modify it to produce cars and trucks that people actually might want to buy and that there is a way to do this that involves labor and business working together to make the industry viable again and to keep it that way. David Gregory is not an open-minded thinker. He is mired in a narrow ideological focus that paints Labor and the Unions as the bad guys vs the good guys, who are the business and corporate leaders. He is relentlessly critical of Labor and Unions and absolutely unable to be critical of business leaders and the decisions they make. How can such an "analyst" be given such important public forums? Oh yeah, he is employed by business leaders who have those as their core beliefs too. Gee, no wonder "the media" is so fair and balanced. And it aint just faux news I'm talkin about here.
David Gregory is such a wus. He is colossal BORE. I miss Russ. Meet the Press is irrelevant now. Unfortunately, none of the other Sunday pundit programs are on until thirty minutes later and the "fill" on the other networks in my Bible Belt town is Christer bla bla bla. I no longer watch Meet the Press. Gregory has ruined it. He is totally clueless and a real pain to listen to.
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