Still Waiting for the Bailout
By Susie Madrak Monday Dec 15, 2008 1:00pmSen. Bob Corker (R-Toyota) is of course urging the White House to leverage concessions from the UAW:
WASHINGTON -- The White House tossed out no lifeline for the teetering auto industry Sunday, although President George W. Bush reiterated that he was considering using money from the $700 billion financial bailout fund to provide loans to the carmakers.
"An abrupt bankruptcy for autos could be devastating for the economy," Bush told reporters Monday aboard Air Force One during an unannounced trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. "We're now in the process of working with the stakeholders on a way forward. We're not quite ready to announce that yet."
Bush wouldn't give a precise timetable but said, "This will not be a long process because of the economic fragility of the autos."
Because, you know, the autos go bad if they sit too long!
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Bush will probably give the auto industry some money and then kick that can down the street for Obama to deal with just the way he's doing everything else.
Bush could call this money "covering my legacy ass money" He wants to appear he is concerned about the US auto makers just enough to try to look good.
In fact, that would probably be the best thing that could happen. Giving them just enough money to make it through the next two months, and then let the new administration deal with this and other problems properly. I have absolutely no confidence in either this administration or this Congress to do ANYTHING right. Any bailout of the auto industry by Bush and the 110th Congress would probably be about as effective as their bailout of Wallstreet, with about the same amount of "oversight."
And all the working stiffs who are associated with the auto industry need to be thankful that Bush gives a rats ass about his "legacy" because that is the only reason he is for this. No one honestly thinks he cares one whit about a single auto or parts worker.
This bailout mess is givin me ulcers...
I mean...it seems that GM is acting alot like the GOP, blaming others for the absolute disaster they've created on others that have very little or NOTHING at all to do with the mess.
And the capper is, they don't seem to feel the SLIGHTEST bit obligated to do much or anything about it.
And THAT makes me not want to bail them out so much.
Ford and Dodge...haven't really heard nary a peep out of those two since this debacle started.
boosh has some many problems with timetables
He musta have driven his 3rd grade teacher crazy.
.
When ya need her?
PRICELESS!
(Well, not literally, of course. Since he was obviously bought by Toyota. But, you know...)
Bush fiddles, Rome burns.
Hey, don't insult Nero! At least the guy had MUSICAL talent. And I'll lay odds that even Nero knew how to avoid choking on a pretzel by chewing it BEFORE swallowing it.
But that's easy to remember when you're not drunk.
R-Toyota or R-Nissan
Krugman on Sunday called him the Senator from Nissan.
---is actually from Volkswagen, who plans to build a manufacturing facility in Corker's district, Chattanooga, TN. Howevah......TN also has Nissan and Japanese parts-manufacturing facilities, and is a right-to-work state, so they claim. Of course, all bets are off when they start laying off Americans and bringing in the illegals. That La-Z-Boy your hiney is sitting on, was manufactured by over thirty illegals, all of whom were working at the Dayton, TN plant with a single fake Social Security number. Someone in personnel had to know....including the computer, which generally kicks back duplicate SSN's.
I have been amazed listing and reading the responses to the "auto bailout". The right wing fascists in this country have done a fantastic job of demonizing the auto unions. Some how the story is the auto workers have been taking home long money and pricing the poor poor big 3 car companies right out of the market. I had no idea so many people had personal experiences with the thuggish and greedy unions. This has to stop people, unless of course you want the standard of living in the United States to fall for everyone but the super rich. People need to go back an read Naomi Kline's Shock Doctrine again and apply it to what is happening today.
That should read (R-Nissan.) Yet strangely enough, not (R-Saturn.)
(R-Uranus)
Our congressmen--America's only native criminal class, per Mark Twain-- are really giving our anuses a bad prison raping, are they not? Yeah, that's Tennessee Bob at the front of the conga line.
does anyone seriously think that GM will have put its house in order?
GM has valuable assets which (together with related jobs) will be snapped up by investors if the company goes bankrupt. Attempts at "restructuring" while leaving the same, hugely inefficient, management in place are doomed to failure. Breaking the company up into valuable pieces, discarding the unprofitable and eliminating a lot of upper and middle management (and union members too) is a necessary evil.
When was the last time upper and middle management suffered as a result of a corporate raid, followed by a sell off of the valuable components? ...
*crickets*
Golden parachute clauses in contracts usually guarantee the top executives will get paid the full value of their contract whether the company goes bankrupt or not. It's only the labor contracts, and founder agreements that get ripped up in Chapter 11 city.
You're partially right, though. GM will NOT restructure if all Congress does is give them a handout in the form of a "loan," with few or no conditions attached. They WILL restructure, however, if they're FORCED to. That would take a lot of meddling by the government, and also a lot of time in working out the details. I have no confidence in this lame-ass duck president and Congress to put together a structured bail out in a MONTH. Just give them enough money to make it through to March, and let the new administration do it properly. Don't commit to any big bailout plans in a panic. That just leads to an even bigger disaster.
In my opinion, however, the best thing the government could do is just take that money and BUY GM! The shares are currently selling for...what.?...about $5? We could buy GM for a few billion dollars, restructure it any way we want as the controlling interest, then sell the shares when the value goes back up. Everybody wins. The only problem is that, Congress agreeing to buy a controling interest in GM would drive up the price of the shares, making it more expensive to buy. Which is why it would be better to buy it on the quiet, in small increments. I'm secretly hoping that that's what Paulson did with some of that money that he refuses to disclose the whereabouts of. But that's just being foolishly optimistic on my part, I think.
Can't even run government efficiently. Do you really think they could run an auto manufacturing business?
I'd argue that government is only run as a giant clusterf-ck by people who HATE government. (ie-conservatives) People who are actually committed to making it work do a better job.
(Besides, ANYTHING would be an improvement.)
don't recall seeing governments that aren't bloated with waste, and operating at a deficit....isn't that what the Big 3 have already? Not much of a change.
waste and operating at a deficit?
How many balanced budgets, and budget surpluses has the Canadian government brought in in the last 10 years? (I think the last ten have all been budget surplus'.) In fact, pick any country in the G8 (besides Russia) and you'll see that in countries where the people think government is actually USEFUL, they don't do a half bad job.
(You might still argue that the Canadian government, for example, is wasteful and/or bloated. But believe me, compared to private corporations, there isn't really that much waste. The assertion that private companies are more efficient and less redundant that public entities is an urban myth. The reason public institutions appear bloated to US is because they are so transparent that you can SEE all the waste, and because WE are the shareholders in public institutions, we make it our business to see all the examples of inefficiency, and feel them more acutely. But in my experience, most large companies are much more bloated and inefficient than most government agencies.)
has been running at a deficit since being selected PM...the only time Canada had a budget surplus was when the Liberals were STEALING the Unemployment funds and putting them under general revenues.
Harper is the first Prime Minister to run a budget deficit in 10 years. Harper is also a Conservative. I rest my case. ;)
Conservatives do not hate government. They propagandize to get US to hate government, and then conservatives and their relatives get those high-paid government workers' union jobs, with the same great medical insurance and retirement benefits they deride when auto workers are making them.
secretly buy GM. Anyone purchasing more than (5% or is it 10%) is subject to disclosure laws. The government could only purchase by making a takeover bid to all shareholders at a significant premium. In addition to the political fallout of such a bid, there might also be litigation. Given how soon GM needs the money, I don't think this is a viable solution. Even if it works, you then have a massive, government owned busiess which needs a massive uphaul and when much of the government will obtstuct any effective change (either for political or ideological reasons).
Instead, the Goverment should let the market (interested investors) carry most of the weight of restructuring. Everyone on GM's side has a vested interest in the status quo. New investors, purchasing as part of the bankruptcy process, do not.
If you want to protect retired GM worker's pensions, the government could acquire the existing pension fund and take over that obligation. If you want to protect suppliers, the government could guarantee a line of credit to be used ONLY to pay suppliers. These are fairly minimal government steps much MUCH less complicated than trying to restructure GM from the top down (or the bottom up).
Who is waiting to buy these cars they want to continue to make? Most people right now aren't in the market for a new car...maybe a used one, but not a new one. Plus from what I'm hearing car loans are difficult to get right now with the clamp down on lending. Also dealers are sitting idle with lots full of new cars and no customers.
I don't want to see anyone lose their job, but I don't see the market demand for what they are producing right now. Like Susie said, maybe cars do go bad after they sit too long. If that's the case, cars are going bad all over the country even as we speak.
Please tell me what the American Auto Industry will do with the money?
Will they retool and build a new 21st Century Car and Truck of the future? NO.
Will it save the UAW? For awhile.
Will it save the Auto Industry? NO.
What can save the Auto Industry?
New products, new production standards, a new marketing program, a complete reinvention of how transportation works in the USA, something that because of the Republicans, Democrats and BIG BUSINESS and it's tools the MAINSTREAM MEDIA is 30 years too late.
Will that happen? NOTHING. Unless progressives lead the way.
It's purpose should be to keep the industry afloat until the newly elected government takes power.
All of this about the need to make long-term evaluations now is just an excuse to give the lame ducks power they should not have.
....or a bridge to another loan?
And then another? And what will the newly elected government do?
Hmmmm, let me guess....uh more loans!!!
They can't build the cars we need. It simply is impossible for them.
We need new companies with 21st century vision to take over and make these.
Detroit can't.
A horse can birth a donkey but a donkey can't birth a horse.
I want one o' them!!!
Do they come in OD#5 though?
But GM and Detroit has already made THESE, twelve years ago, and they were a resounding success. And they built them, not because the public asked for them, but because the government of California made a law that said they HAD to. Then, once they complied with the rule and built them, people actually discovered that they WANTED them. BADLY!
The people who were leased the EV1 BEGGED GM to let them buy them, but they refused, and then colluded with the oil companies to overthrow the California government, reverse the air standards rulings, and take the indursty in the opposite direction of giant, gas-guzzling monsters.
The point is that a little regulation from government can go a long way, as long as they can resist the predictable push-back from the auto and oil industries and their lobbyists.
The reason the unions are part of the problem is that they demand not only high wages but a host of benefits that most industries don't provide. You can say that the workers deserve high wages, etc. but if the company can't compete then those high wages go out the window. As a taxpayer, I don't want to subsidize the pay of an auto worker or anyone else.
Now you can cry heresy but this is not a democrat vs. GOP issue. It's an issue of competing in the global economy. The carmakers mainly produce gas guzzlers because Americans want them in part and also because they CAN make money from SUVs.
In Europe you can buy diesel engine cars that get better mileage and have lower CO emissions than their gas counterparts. The performance is just as good. You don't see that here because diesel is more expensive than premium gasoline despite the fact that it is cheaper to refine. Diesel used to be the cheapest gas.
It's all a scam to benefit the auto companies here rather than allow them to compete (and probably fail).
we went through the diesel faze and tiny car faze americans didn't want them
They didn't want them when gasoline was 0.99 per gallon. Who would? When gasoline is $2-$4 per gallon, they do. (In fact, some people factor the cost to taxpayers of defending the stupid Persian Gulf in to the price of gasoline, and when you do that, it's more like $10 per gallon. But since that cost is "hidden," people don't think of it that way.)
The reason small cars work in europe and asia, and always have, is because gasoline was NEVER cheap in those places.
That's quite apart from the fact that the small cars the American companies built were utter sh!t. Nobody would drive a 2000 cc Chevy (at least not without putting a bag over their head), but people were still clamoring to get their hands on 2000 cc Fiats, Jaguars, Hondas, as long as they were sporty, high performance, and mechanically sound. The American tiny cars usually started to rattle and fall apart as soon as you drove them off the lot.
fiat parts were prolly cheap and easy to find.
The finest car I ever owned was a Fiat 850 Spyder. 30 miles to the gallon, back in the days when nobody cared about milage. I'd KILL to get my hands on one of those again! :)
I used to be an auto-body mechanic and the very worst car I ever worked on was a Fiat. A bucket of rust waiting to happen! Fiat even used clear plastic phillips head screw to afix the tailight lenses which upon trying to remove broke immediately on the first turn of the screwdriver. Worst car that I ever worked on. They rolled off the showroom floor as brand new shiny junk
I'm not going to argue the rust issue. It was a real problem with most european cars.
Due to its past history of unreliable cars, Fiat has become the butt of many common jokes. In English-speaking countries, the acronym has been said by some to mean Fix It Again, Tony. In German-speaking countries, it has become Fehler In Allen Teilen ("defects in every part") or Für Italien Ausreichende Technik ("sufficient technology for Italy"). This opinion has remained even though the quality of Fiat cars has been improving, and is shared also among Italian people. In Italy itself, the Fiat Duna is the target of most mockery: La Fiat di cazzate ne ha fatte più Duna (A pun meaning "Fiat blew it more than once").
Italian satyrical site about the Fiat Duna.
I have never had a lot a problems with the Buicks I buy but some people think they are junk. My wife drives Honda civics and beside a bumpy ride they have never had a problem other than rusty exhausts. To each his own
I agree it's an issue of competing in the global economy, and the main reason American car manufacturers are at a disadvantage is because the U.S. is the only industrealized country that doesn't have universal health care. American automakers have to provide health care for both their current and retired employees, which is a huge burden. ($2000 per car?)
The other problem is that the average American CEO makes about 475 times what the average factory floor woker makes. The average Japanese CEO makes only 11 times as much, the average British, French and German CEO makes 20 times as much. American companies are top heavy with bloated executives who produce very little, if their ability to compete is any indication.
Aside from those two factors (health care expenses and executive pay) the labor cost of American cars vs. Japanese cars, for example, is not THAT different.
The pay level of American auto workers is NOT the main problem with the competitiveness of American car manufacturers. It might appear like it is because of the health care situation that I mentioned. Paying for the health care of both current and retired employees. At face value that looks like a huge burden, but there are TWO ways to solve it.
1. Go in to Chapter 11, and rip up the company's obligation to pay for the health care of retired employees, or...
2. Bring in universal health care like every OTHER civilized country.
IMHO is that not only do our CEOs make outrageously more than the workers, but none of our CEOs came up from within the companies. The Japanese CEOs came from within and could tell good cars v. bad cars.
You bring in a business person to run a business they know nothing about and all they can rely on is their knowledge that all that matters is the bottom line...not what it takes to get to a solid bottom line while offering good products.
But that's exactly the Business School Model of Business that has been dominant in this country for at least a couple of decades.
"All businesses are esentially alike, so you dont need any experience in a particular business to be its CEO."
And that's obviously bullshit, just like the notion that the US can succeed as a "service-based economy."
But it's what is taught in the business schools and accepted by the very Boards of Directors who select the CEOs from amongst themselves.
the need for new thinking. I don't know what kind of services we can offer to offset the millions of manufacturing jobs.
I think they (the Have's) want us to get to the point where people here are happy for whatever job we can get, and if that means making what the people in China make, so be it.
More money for them.
wouldnt they have to sell all their assets.
If they went 7 they would. Chap 11 would wipe out all contacts, including retirees, workers and vendors. They could choose to not pay certain vendors (I think) and offer pennies on the dollar to keep others (if those companies accepted them - I think that is how it works).
Mainly, it would screw over workers and retirees. Imagine Enron for the 70 year old set.
build the quality and assure the customers that they will last with few repairs. And Americans will buy them even if they cost a little more.
Quality sells, that's the ticket to a rebirth of the U S auto industry. If you have the best product and sell it at a fair price, the customers will come back.
A story now to demonstrate how GM ripped off customers in the past and probably do now. I owned a Caddy, shortly after I bought the car I slid into a curb on a road covered in black ice and I bent the rim. Wobbled wheel and all I made it to my office about 500 yards from where I impacted the curb and called my dealer and told him I was sending someone over to pick up a new rim and asked the price, $85 dollars I was told. I gave $85. to my company driver and waited for him to return with the rim so our company mechanic could install it. When he returned he told me he dropped the rim in the shop and handed me $40. I asked what the money was and he said he told them he wanted a Chevy wheel not a Caddy wheel.......they are the same wheel only the Caddy customers get charged more.
In the mid sixties I started driving imports and in the last forty years or so I've been happier with them than my friends and family have been with American made cars, and they've lasted longer and cost much less in the long run.
also has national healthcare for all of its citizens in the respective countries and offer by far and away better benefits than what we continue to fight for.
How many weeks per year does a European get for vacation? Compare that to US.
There is no reason that the big 3 cannot make good cars, they just haven't HERE because they sold us on wanting SUV's. They make smaller cars elsewhere but they are not as profitable. So we had a mass marketing campaign over years and years about bigger and bigger (I will refrain from penis envy jokes) because of our collective cowboy mentality.
You are comparing apples to oranges.
They could make other cars here...they just chose not to. And that is not the fault of the people who manufacture the cars.
Why? They're APT! Most of the American cowboy mentality is based on a deep-rooted sense of insecurity and inferiority.
As soon as we start to actually DO things that we can be proud of again, all of that will disappear. And I'm not talking about the beligerant, FAUX pride that most chest-beating rednecks display. Pride in ACTUAL acomplishments. The kind America USED to be famous for. Like being the first to invent the airplane, first to mass produce the automobile, first to develop nuclear energy, first to land on the moon, first to develop and market the microcomputer. These days our economy isn't based on creating things. Not unless you count "creating" new and clever ways to sell mortgages to poor people who can't afford them. These days our CASINO CAPITALISM economy is based on speculation, and not inovation. That's got to change, or the country is finished.
As Carlin said, we can't build a decent car, or a vcr, but we can sure bomb the fuck out you.
I don't have the statistics with me here, but you can look them up on the CIA Factsbook website, courtesy of the CIA. Americans have fewer vacation days than EVERYBODY in the G8 and G20. Even the Japanese have more days off than the average American. I think the highest was the French at 3 months per year (which is probably why Americans hate the French so much. Envy.), and the lowest was the American worker, at 5 vacation days per year. I think even the Japanese were getting a week and a half.
What's worse is that, in spite of all that sacrifice on the part of workers, America has the lowest GDP growth rate of the G8, and is the ONLY country in the G8 to show a NEGATIVE industrial growth rate!
The other shocking statistic is that the United States spends almost twice as much per capita on healthcare than any of the other G8 countries (all of which have universal health care), and still manages to leave 1/3 of its citizens uninsured. Moving to universal health care is actually CHEAPER on a per capita basis, and everybody is covered. Where does the savings come from? From NOT having HMO companies that refuse to pay claims, and NOT having armies of lawyers that fight over whether the claims should be paid or not.
Last time I looked:
Americans work 2000 hours per year
French work 1600 hours per year
But the really big significance of the MUCH longer vacations Europeans enjoy is that each nation has its long vacation together.
It's an opportunity for the people to mingle among themselves. Talk. Think. Relax. Celebrate.
And by and large the European vacation can be quite inexpensive, unlike its rushed American counterpart.
Yes, it's VERY important Americans be taught to revile the French, otherwise we'll start wanting what they have!
Game, set, match.
and you Americans have a historic advantage in universal health care. You are the last industrial nation that does not have it and the advantage to you is that all the errors and problems we in The Great White North and the Europeans made when inventing our respective systems are lessons the Americans can profit by not making the same mistakes we all made. You guys should be able to have the best system on the planet and in a relatively short time because you can learn what not to do and do it right the first time. I would like to warn you though, your medical record keeping system is 50 years out of date (I feel that is on purpose so as to make it harder to institute a universal system.)That is the first thing that has to be addressed on the road to health care in the States.
Since the Big Three have not gotten us into the global meltdown of all financial institutions, why would the occupied WH reward them. It's only the incompetents that took the money, and stayed, that get the big bucks.
This year instead of IO!Saturnalia! we get IOU
see http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/
Maybe if you threw a couple of shoes at them...
http://ship-of-fools.com/gadgets/witnessing/0...
I just read this article from 2002 about the Hummer. The attitudes the buyers had are interesting.
Here's one little thing I noticed about the Hummer: "Because of its classification as a medium-duty truck, it is subject to even less stringent air pollution standards than other large SUVs and is entirely exempt from the federal gas-guzzler tax."
General Motors gave us this beast.
Oops, I forgot to link to the article. Here it is.
because of its weight classification, it was considered farm equipment which gave tax breaks to those who bought them.
My favorite reading some years ago was the major dissatisfaction of Hummer owners was its gas mileage.
Well, gee...NO SHIT! You couldn't read that GIANT "MPG" number on the sticker yet you could spend 50 large?
Abrams tank was displayed on National Geographic channel last night and it gets 1 gallon per 2.2 Kilometers. Now THAT is fuel economy!!
received wisdom here on this site that the unions and their retirees should give up nothing. I am not against helping the auto industry but here in Ontario where they're expecting several billions in bailout money (trust me universal health care is no protection) the CAW has stated likewise they will make no concessions. I would like someone to explain why I should pay taxes to support relatively lavish benefits and pensions beyond what most of my fellow Canadians could dream of. Sounds like another form of trickle down and I've been trickled on enough.
Pittsburgh Glass in Owen Sound Ontario is closing it's doors early, driving the remaining 120 employees onto the unemployment lines. The union representing them is the CAW. What did it get them? Nothing really. No job.
Tough one there. i was CAW for thirty years at a couple of companies. There are good and bad in every organization. We were bought and closed by Ingersoll Rand in 2002 in spite of being most profitable and best quality in the chain. CAW was able to get us double the lawful severance ,health benefits for a year and all our pension monies. Would still rather have my job but we got off better than lots of other companies that went down in my city. Canada does have better laws protecting workers from scumbag employers. Cant make them stay but they cant fuck over the help and move out under cover of darkness. My Dad is a pensioner from Ford too. He earned that with 35 years of hard work. You want some of his benefits back ? Take them out of some overpaid suit that does sweet dick but take power lunches. A deal is still a deal where i come from.
But I wasn't part of the deal so why should I pay for it. I run a small business and the only pension I have is whatever is left when I retire. Are you going to supply me with a pension? If the auto workers aren't willing to give up anything why should we?
You choose to be in business for yourself, and I would guess that you make a little more than $30 an hour (over the years) which allows you to do things people who work for others cannot. They have to rely on someone else. When that someone else wants to cut their wages to $14 USD an hour, while that person still has to pay healthcare (which you do not) and will likely not have retirement to fall back on (which you do), there is power in collective bargaining.
They have given concessions over the years while the companies continue to make bad decisions.
Why do the workers always have to give the concessions while the people at the top get more and more?
to give the
Because they work for someone else. If you want a job so you can eat, sometimes you have to. If there is no employer, it doesn't matter what the suits made. Both are going to have to make major concessions, or neither will have a job. Unfortunately, the suit that makes millions, will still have money, while the employee will be left trying to figure out how to pay his mortgage. That is the difference. It isn't anti-union. It's realism. Their businesses are bankrupt, or almost. If they want jobs, they have to restructure, which means job losses.
with collective bargaining. I don't think union wages are out of sync with the productivity. I have no problem with management salaries being trimmed severely especially the bonuses that never seem to reflect actual production. I don't have any problem with financial assistance for the big three if it's used to improve productivity and research towards better vehicles and most importantly addressing the liquidity crisis that is killing the supply chain of which I am a member. For the record I just cashed five salary checks which I could not do until a chunk of my receivables came in. Seventy-five days late I might add. If you own a small business you are always the last person to be paid. I most strenuously object to financial aid used to cover the massive unfunded pension liabilities. That's no more equitable than the public paying for executive bonuses.
I most strenuously object to financial aid used to cover the massive unfunded pension liabilities.
This is not the fault of the people who worked for these companies for 20, 30 or more years. They entered into contracts with the companies involved for retirement benefits which include (probably) defined type of benefits programs and healthcare.
How can you want to deny pensions for retirees? I can see concessions of current workers, but pensioners??
Peter, that seems rather heartless to me. I am surprised you have that view.
Worth reading, even if it does make you want to throw shoes!
Washington Post (via MSNBC) Views on auto aid fall on North-South divide
The Southern workers love their high-paying jobs with benefits at the foreign owned plants, and don't want to pay union dues or take orders from Yankee union bosses.
But the only reason their jobs pay so well and have benefits is because the foreign owned plants don't want their workers to unionize.
So .. the Southern workers are paid so well, with benefits, BECAUSE OF gains made by the unions in the North.
DUH!!
Both Dems and Reps want the distraction of union bashing. It makes everyone blame someone else. Bottom line. Union or no union, if you have no sales, you have no job. Giving the auto companies money now will do nothing to help them. Auto sales in Jan, Feb and March are always low, low, low. Without sales, no jobs.
Too many Southerners have seen CWA workers "laid off" and never re-employed while their customer service jobs go overseas.
Two of my favorite street venders, one now deceased, were Teamsters who were getting no work from their locals. One was laid off two weeks after his wife developed kidney disease which required permanent dialysis. He had to get an attorney, while out of work, just to sue to keep his union insurance.
My great-uncle was UAW, a disfigured man who made the lowest wages in the plant for purely cosmetic reasons. Whites got choice spots, blacks got leftovers, he was pushing broom.
If Chrysler goes bankrupt, I will celebrate.
Yes, we need new union activity, but not the old sexist, racist, corrupt unions of the past and present.
Working on an assembly line morning noon and night is so much fun I cant understand why people dont do it for free. Plus if anything happens and you lose your job you are trained to work on other assembly lines. Who needs health care Joe the plumber doesnt have it. Who needs retirement I am sure they can prop you up some how at 89 so you can still assemble.Plus why didnt these UAW workers just have rich parents so they could have gone to college even if your as dumb as Bush or McCain.
The Automobile-And-Airplane solution to America's transportation needs was born in the 1950's when Eisenhower signed the InterState HighWay Act. It was a boon for the auto & airplane manufacturers, their suppliers, and all the realestate agents and greasy fingered politicians. Consider the magnitude of the economics involved.
Here's a picture of Senator Prescott Bush drooling and rolling his hands together as he watches his Boy Ike sign the Interstate Highway Act:
Prescott & Ike
Before the 1950's the US had an excellent rail system, but it was systematically dismantled after the passage of the Interstate Highway Act.
What we need now is as radical a re-think and re-structuring of America's transportation system as the InterState Highway Act, this time with the needs of the 21st Century in mind.
Hello, I want a multi-billion dollar loan. I've mis-managed my company for years with low MPG cars and trucks to make the oil companys happy. My personal wealth is off the scale high tho. SIR...WHAT'S SO FUNNY!!!!.
perhaps my little conspiracy theory can add some fuel to the fire...
http://harbingerofdoomblog.blogspot.com/
...miles long in his home state I hope the voters remember all that Corker did to keep the unions down.
Corker is actually trying to rally the large Repulican base in TN who blame unions for just about everything. He will turn the unemployment issue into a 'blame the unions up north' for taken your jobs. TN is a 'right to work' state, meaning the burden of proof for wrongful termination is on the employee, not the employer.
What's Corker's problem with unions? He should have problems with CEOs that stack their boards with fellow CEOs and loot our corporations. The union is simply workers' answer to that stacked board to ensure there are some safety rules, decent pay and benefits going to the people who build the cars. The Repubs should be made aware that it's going to be hard to win elections when they only appeal to the religious right and CEOs.
FYI - we do not have a Toyota plant in TN! What we do have is the first Saturn plant, in Columbia TN. It was the pride of GM & TN in the late '80's. We also have a couple of Nissan plants, as well as, the recently relocated Nissan HQ just south of Nashville in Brentwood, TN.
More importantly is what auto plant is about to be built just outside of the former mayor of Chattanooga's hometown - VOLKSWAGEN.
Begging your pardon, but the Saturn plant is in Spring Hill. I thought the Nissan HQ was in Franklin, but the Brentwood-Franklin line is so erratic, you could be right. :)
House Vote On Passage: H.R. 1424: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote...
Senate Vote On Passage: H.R. 1424: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote...
Related Bill: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill...
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