When Will Obama, Clinton and GM Finally Address American Axle?

Well, looks like GM may finally enter the Fray on American Axle and Dick Dauch’s resolve not to negotiate, from CBS channel 3 News in Michigan:

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) - It looks like striking American Axle workers will stay on those picket lines a little longer.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says the company didn't do much negotiating with the union over the weekend.

He says he's not sure when they'll actually reach an agreement.

I think they might have gotten this information from the AP or perhaps the Detroit News. There’s also the Ft Wayne Paper…

Gettelfinger told reporters before speaking to a Detroit-area Democratic Party dinner that American Axle isn't negotiating much.

>snip<

"I would hope we could resolve Axle, but we cannot negotiate an agreement with ourselves," he said before a speech to Livingston County Democrats. "It seems like it's all give on our side."

>snip<

Gettelfinger said in his speech that American Axle Chairman and CEO Richard Dauch made $258 million from 1997 through 2007 but wants workers to work for nothing.
"They use the word competitive until they wear it out, but are they competitive with their own salaries?" he asked.

What is interesting in all of this is that GM still isn’t putting public pressure on Dauch to bargain in good faith, of course, I do hope they are putting the screws to him behind closed doors, but that’s probably a pipe dream . With more than 30 GM factories affected by the strike, I have to wonder when they will. I suppose Fort Wayne Indiana is also thinking about it.

The unemployment rate for the Fort Wayne metropolitan area shot up to 6.4 percent in March, 1.5 percentage points higher than the 4.9 percent rate from March 2007, a state unemployment report showed Friday.

>snip<

The strike at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. was cited as one of the factors. The strike, which began in late February, has caused several shutdowns and layoffs in the auto manufacturing industry.

“Unfortunately, the effects of the American Axle strike are being felt here and have had an impact on our unemployment numbers,” Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, said in the report.

American Axle is a key supplier to General Motors Corp., which has a truck assembly plant in southwest Allen County. Production at the plant was shut down between Feb. 29 and April 7 because of a lack of parts, affecting 2,500 hourly workers. Currently, the Allen County plant is back to normal production on a temporary basis.

With the American Axle strike now affecting employment rates in other states, over 30 GM plants, and the workers at American Axle as well, perhaps it’s finally time for the candidates to address this issue and take a stab at understanding what it really means to HAVE to WALK A PICKET LINE and how important this strike is for US workers. Of course, it's also time for GM to get its head out of the sand and publicly address Dauch and his cronies on this. Of course, it's been time for the candidates and GM to answer this call. Wonder when they finally will.