I got an e-mail this morning. In the e-mail was an awesome story about a car dealership in Dearborn and their anger over Senator Shelby's anti-autoworker and anti-Detroit comments. But, that anger caused action and that's the real story! From the Detroit Free Press:

The dealership is running TV and radio ads that feature clips of Shelby making anti-Detroit Three comments.

"We're wasting our time trying to keep them alive," he is shown saying in one ad.

Co-owner Paul Stanford strikes back, asking: "I wonder if the good senator would tell us how much Japanese car companies who make cars in his state gave to his campaign?"

It's politicized content that mainline advertisers usually avoid. Stanford acknowledges the ads might be a little over the top, but added: "We're being vocal because I'm tired of being slapped around by politicians. Sen. Shelby is saying, 'The hell with the Big Three.' I think that's tragic, I really do."

Stanford, who runs the Michigan Avenue dealership with his brother, Gary, said he can't believe America's public officials are willing to let the domestic auto industry die. Not only because of the jobs and the industry's history of helping win World War II, but also for the manufacturing might the companies could provide in case of another national emergency.

Even the ad agency that created the ads seems to have felt equally as angry at Shelby:

The ads are the work of the Sussman Sikes agency in Southfield. Owner Alan Sussman, who describes himself as "the last angry man in America," said in the 1940s and 1950s, Shelby's anti-Detroit rhetoric would have been considered treason.

"What's wrong with an autoworker making $100,000?" Sussman asked. "This is America."

Speaking of the Stanfords, Sussman said: "It's not easy to stand up like they did. It took real cojones."

Oh, and BTW, seems to actually be working, sales are up for the month of March. Way to go! And Mr. Sussman, I don't see anything wrong with $100k salaries for autoworkers, it's the right wingers who do. They seem to think that if you aren't college educated and work and assembly line, there's something wrong with you. My dad's a tool and die maker, I can't imagine any of the anti-union anti-worker a-holes doing what my dad does on a daily basis, and doing it at 65 no less!!

Thanks Dearborn and also the Stanford brothers. Took some real balls to do what you did, nice to see someone has a pair!!

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Over at Unbossed, they didn't:

Did you know that February 11 was White Shirt Day? And do you know its significance in Michigan history?

White Shirt Day was first celebrated on February 11, 1948, as a way of honoring the men and women who participated in the 1936-37 sit-down strike at Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint.

The strike began on December 30, 1936, when the night shift stopped the company from loading dies and shipping them to places where the labor movement wasn't as strong. The fledgling UAW, led by a young organizer by the name of Walter Reuther, urged the workers to sit down inside the plant and lock themselves in to keep GM from outsourcing their jobs. There's a good account of the sit-in and the events that led up to it in the Detroit News Michigan history archive.

I regret not wearing a white shirt that day.

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I got the news about Fox running an anti-UAW story about the union's purchase and running of a training facility called Black Lake. It really didn't rate high up on my radar because not only is it not news, it's really just a distraction at best. But you know how the right wing is, all a twitter with negativity when it comes to working folks and their unions. So, Nathan Newman wrote a DKos diary on it and damned if it didn't make me take a minute to take note:

Essentially, local union leaders and activists are asked to use a week of vacation to sit in union training sessions for a week; in exchange, the union covers lodging and food costs and keeps their kids entertained. The union, like every union, has an ongoing need to train its activists, most of whom are volunteers, and Black Lake is used as an attractive venue to provide that education and build that sense of solidarity among members. How many venues exist for training people in labor values while providing a day camp for their kids? The cost in the open market is no doubt many multiples of what the UAW has spent on Black Lake in the last few years.

This newest attack on the UAW is a basic attack on the idea that unions should be able to engage in the kind of staff training and community building that is common with every other institution in the world that holds conferences and retreats in this world. In fact, we have cities and states subsidizing the building of massive convention centers for business meetings around the country on top of the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on conventions. Yet the few million spent by the UAW on its training meetings is actually worth column space?

He's spot on, you really need to head over and read about Black Lake and get a feel for why it's important to provide these sorts of training sessions, it was a real education for me. You know, I think it actually made me care about the topic.

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Last night I watched Countdown with Keith Olberman, he was on vacation, so I listened and watched this brilliant woman say this:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

It's 51 seconds in when this brilliant woman starts talking about the CEO's of the
financial sector and their jets (yeah, multiple, 9 at Bank of America alone) and salaries and bonuses. And then she hits the nail on the head, here, let me transcribe:

What this says about the Bush Administration Bailout, priceless. Mr. Bush is not forcing any of them to give up their planes, but his auto bailout would force union workers make no more than those at non union shops like Toyota, arguing that high union wages hurt the car makers. Well yesterday we learned that Toyota has had it's first operating loss ever despite the fact that Toyota pays its workers exactly what it already does.

It's not a surprise that Bush and his Senate cronies hate working men and women and LOVE (with a big sweaty heart) the big money folks at Bank of America, Citi, AIG, etc... The goal for these amoral pinheads is to drive wages down, but how does this help communities? It doesn't.

So, I wanted to know what happened in 1980 with Lee Iacocca and the Chrysler bailout. That's when I found an interesting piece on the World Socialist Web Site referencing the Chrysler merger with Daimler

But why have the auto moguls allowed such conditions to develop? Any why should the workers suffer the consequences?

There are other questions that demand answers. What about the billions in company assets that have been squandered to pay Chrysler's top executives and boost the price of Chrysler shares for the benefit of wealthy investors on Wall Street? No small aspect of the current crisis is the fact that Chrysler's 30 top executives milked the company for $395.8 million in cash and stocks when the merger with Daimler Benz was completed. Chrysler Chairman Robert Eaton alone received a pay-out of $69.9 million, plus the option to cash in his 2.3 million shares of DaimlerChrysler stock.

The same executives negotiated, as a condition of the merger, $96.9 million in severance packages in the event they were fired or otherwise removed. Several of the executives took advantage of these “golden parachutes” and bolted from the company before the current crisis hit.

Moreover, in the first six months of 1997, the same year Chrysler workers were forced to wage a bitter 27-day strike for job security at the Mound Round Engine plant in Detroit—a facility now slated for closure—company officials were spending $997 million to buy back stock, under pressure from big stockholders such as billionaire speculator Kirk Kerkorian, who demanded that company assets be used to drive up the value of their personal portfolios. Vast sums of money which could have been reinvested for product development, improved health and safety, or other productive purposes were instead used to satisfy the greed of rich investors.

It was a bit eerie how they called it. Eerie.

That would be the moment that I got to read the Washington Post piece on the UAW push back on the Bush Administration Auto Bride Loan package (you know, the one where he micromanages UNION WORKER WAGES):

In agreeing to provide federal assistance to General Motors and Chrysler, the White House demanded the firms cut worker compensation to the levels paid at the U.S. divisions of Toyota, Nissan and Honda. But Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, said earlier this week that he would seek to remove the wage-reduction provision of the loan, calling it "an undue tax on the workers" who have already made "major" sacrifices for the benefit of the auto industry.

Gettelfinger said that what is being asked of the autoworkers -- who agreed to concessions in 2003, 2005 and 2007 -- is "unrealistic." He has said he wants to work with President-elect Barack Obama to remove the wage provision.

UAW workers have been making sacrifices for years to keep the automakers successful. And they have been. What is happening right now, has nothing to do with what unionized workers make. It has to do with the financial crisis brought to us by an administration that doesn't want to regulate and hasn't regulated finance companies. If there's been real enforcement, real regulation, real investigations, perhaps we wouldn't be where we are now. And what's more, we wouldn't be hearing about Madoff and investors who are no killing themselves.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

So, I have to ask now, with Adults back in charge of our government, can we finally help the middle class? Can we enforce regulations, and monitor the financial sector? Can we rebuild our country from the inside out? I'm really just tired of all the bad news. Really, just too tired of all the bad news.

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I couldn't believe my ears. I just had to transcribe it:

other chick: ...He didn't like calling it a bailout cause that sounds like here's a pile of money

Kathie Lee: A three month loan

other chick: It's a loan and it's a 17-18 billion so

Kathie Lee: To get their act together within the next3 months

Other chick: And they have to restructure, and like here's the deal, it's not like, here's the money, and do what you will with that.

Kathie Lee: and good luck it's not good luck

other chick: and they have to restructure by march and play by March.

Kathie Lee (making no sense at all): But what else could they really do? You know? I've I I I don't understand quite yet the specifics of how it's going to affect the UAW, but it will be fascinating.

other chick: it will be interesting to see and he (meaning Bush) was saying about car companies going belly up, going bankrupt, is not an option

Kathie Lee: yeah,

other chic: especially, not now. and and people everywhere are conscious about it. people who do have money and who are shopping are

Kathie Lee: are embarrassed by it

other chick: right

Okay, let me get this straight, you've just equated 3 million American jobs to rich people shopping at Bergdorfs or Neiman Marcus and asking for "plain bags"?

Yeah, I don't get my news from her. I was just flipping channels and there I am and I get to hear all about the President's Plan for the Auto Industry. He wants to strip workers and retirees of their rights that were negotiated by their union for nearly a century now, strip them and replace it with, the Corker Plan of Destruction. From CBS News:

Purpose: The terms and conditions of the financing provided by the Treasury Department will facilitate restructuring of our domestic auto industry, prevent disorderly bankruptcies during a time of economic difficulty, and protect the taxpayer by ensuring that only financially viable firms receive financing.

Amount: Auto manufacturers will be provided with $13.4 B in short-term financing from the TARP, with an additional $4 B available in February, contingent upon drawing down the second tranche of TARP funds.

Viability Requirement: The firms must use these funds to become financially viable. Taxpayers will not be asked to provide financing for firms that do not become viable. If the firms have not attained viability by March 31, 2009, the loan will be called and all funds returned to the Treasury.

Wait, I'm not even done yet:

Reduce debts by 2/3 via a debt for equity exchange.
Make one-half of VEBA payments in the form of stock.
Eliminate the jobs bank.
Work rules that are competitive with transplant auto manufacturers by 12/31/09.
Wages that are competitive with those of transplant auto manufacturers by 12/31/09.

Let's set aside that the wages ARE competitive with transplants (That means FOREIGN companies of Nissan , Honda and Toyota). Work Rules that are competitive with foreign automakers? Elimination of the Jobs Bank? And still, NOTHING about the Dealerships?

Emptywheel gets what a slap in the face of American Workers this really is:

So what Bush is demanding is that the UAW lower wages plus pensions to the level of Japanese wages plus pension (though since they have very few retirees, their pension number is basically zero). Alternately, they could lower this number by basically picking the pocket of a bunch of seniors, by taking away pension money those seniors already earned while they were still working. But one or the other will have to happen.

This is the Bush plan of basically an orderly bankruptcy, one where the workers get screwed by their own government.

So, let's sum all this up:

Kathie Lee Gifford equates this slap in the face as a restructuring. She also thinks that destroying worker pay and seniors retirement packages that they worked for and negotiated with their employers to receive are the same as rich people asking for unmarked bags at Neiman Marcus.

And Bush, well, we know he doesn't think, he just reacts and he saw a fantastic opportunity to screw American workers and here I thought his Executive Order was his parting shot at workers, clearly, he was just getting started.

And just one more word on Kathie Lee Gifford, anyone who's been found to have loaned her name to a clothing line that ran sweatshops, not once, but twice in 4 years, isn't someone I care to listen to when it comes to workers, worker pay or unions. You're a pretty discredited source already.

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Unions keep wages high. They do it through negotiations and collective bargaining. When in the same labor pool, non-union shops have to compete at the same level and that means they have to offer comparable wages, benefits and whatever else the unions have been able to negotiate.

So, it's no surprise that Southern Senators who aren't fans of the concept of solidarity (or that companies only pay you what you force them to pay you). Since most were born with a silver foot in their mouth or other similar area, it's no surprise that they'd like to keep wages low, because they've never really had to work for a living, they've simply acquired their wealth or had it handed to them, which is why there's a double standard when it comes to manufacturing wages and financial sector wages, and I'm not talking about the teller at the window (which often carries a surcharge as well as that damn ATM). Bruce Raynor at the LA Times today had a nice op-ed about this double standard and he put in some numbers to boot!

When one compares how the auto industry and the financial sector are being treated by Congress, the double standard is staggering. In the financial sector, employee compensation makes up a huge percentage of costs. According to the New York state comptroller, it accounted for more than 60% of 2007 revenues for the seven largest financial firms in New York.

At Goldman Sachs, for example, employee compensation made up 71% of total operating expenses in 2007. In the auto industry, by contrast, autoworker compensation makes up less than 10% of the cost of manufacturing a car. Hundreds of billions were given to the financial-services industry with barely a question about compensation; the auto bailout, however, was sunk on this issue alone.

Bruce is president of UNITE-HERE and clearly, knows his stuff. What I especially liked about his info is this little ditty:

These concessions go some distance toward leveling the playing field (retiree costs are still a factor for the Big Three). But what the foreign car companies want is to level -- which is to say, wipe out -- the union. They currently discourage their workforce from organizing by paying wages comparable to the Big Three's UAW contracts. In fact, Toyota's per-hour wages are actually above UAW wages.

However, an internal Toyota report, leaked to the Detroit Free Press last year, reveals that the company wants to slash $300 million out of its rising labor costs by 2011. The report indicated that Toyota no longer wants to "tie [itself] so closely to the U.S. auto industry." Instead, the company intends to benchmark the prevailing manufacturing wage in the state in which a plant is located. The Free Press reported that in Kentucky, where the company is headquartered, this wage is $12.64 an hour, according to federal labor statistics, less than half Toyota's $30-an-hour wage.

If the companies, with the support of their senators, can wipe out or greatly weaken the UAW, they will be free to implement their plan.

Now, how do I get my hands on that damn report? Cause I'd like to make a copy of it and the idiotic response of Shelby's staffers about American Axle (just scroll down and see the video yourself) and remind them of what kinds of jobs they SHOULD want in their states. BTW, it's the $30 an hour kind not the $12.64 kind. I know, math just isn't something that Corker or Shelby are really all that strong at, but keeping their heads in their asses seems to be.

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Damn Straight:

To recap: We're in the midst of a global financial crisis. The housing bubble has burst and prices have collapsed. The economy has been in recession for a year. Unemployment has risen to 6.7 percent, and if "marginally attached" workers are included -- those who have given up even looking for jobs -- along with those who want to work full time but are forced to accept fewer hours, the rate is 12.5 percent.


Even if the Big Three deserve to die, they shouldn't die now. Economic theory notwithstanding, it would be insanity to throw hundreds of thousands of auto company employees, and maybe a few million others in the supply and sales chains, out of work -- leaving them and their families at the mercy of an economy that has no replacement jobs for them. Public funds would end up supporting these people anyway, except that we would have lost our domestic auto industry -- which, despite its many failings, is the only domestic auto industry we've got.

What the auto companies need is something on the order of $14 billion to survive until the Obama administration takes office and is able to address the crisis in a more systematic way. That sounds like a lot of money, but it's a rounding error in the context of the ongoing financial meltdown. We've already agreed to spend up to $700 billion to bail out Wall Street.

And dude, I've been saying this for the last several weeks...where was the Senate Outrage on the Republican side of Wall Street Salaries, CEO salaries or Dealership sweetheart deals? There was none. Corker even took off the table one of the biggest pieces of the pie, dealerships. Not that I'd want to see service department staff and mechanics to go unemployed, but if the line worker's on the table for a compromis, so the fuck is the dealership, CEO pay and all those salaries on Wall Street and in the Banking industry, and more from Eugene Robinson's piece in the post:

Funny, I don't recall a cry from Senate Republicans for salary caps on the stockbrokers whose jobs were saved in the Wall Street bailout. Nor, to my knowledge, have they demanded that white-collar workers in the auto companies take pay cuts. I do recall lectures from some Republicans in the Senate about how inadvisable it is for government to meddle in the workings of the free market. In my book, renegotiating labor contracts qualifies as meddling.

Yeah, what he said.

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An American Axle family memebr sent me an e-mail this morning about the bridge loan that Seante Republicans decided not to allow to come to the floor for a vote. It reminded me of Katrina and how Bush and McCain celebrated McCain's birthday while New Orleans flooded. By deciding NOT to debate the bill, a bill with a Majority of Senators in favor of (more than even a simple majority) and only 35 voting against, it's a just a wonder how significant cuts in wages without ANY cuts in dealerships is an acceptable path to anything, anything except Bankruptcy. Oh, wait, that's what they want, for GM and Chrysler to go bankrupt, that way, the judge can lift the wait of the union's negotiated contracts. Oh, the bitter chains of worker rights.

So, anyway, after venting a little about the Shelby staffers not knowing a damn thing about the 11 week American Axle strike (88 days), or how it shut down more than 30 GM plants in the US, Canada and Mexico AND how GM had to step in and work out a deal with Dick E-boy Dauch, well, I'd had it. Had it up to HERE. That's when I got another e-mail about the White House trying to pull the same shit Corker and Shelby and McConnell just pulled in the Senate. Workers make concessions, but for some reason, GM and Chrysler are still going to be under the oppressive Dealership agreements they suffer with and that were taken off the table by Corker.

You see, they want to see the UAW agree to these concessions because they believe that doing so means that the Employee Free Choice Act will fail, from the Detroit Free News (which I can't believe I'm even linking to?!)

"We can see ample political logic (from the point of view of the Republican minority) for imposing strings along the lines of the Corker proposals. By including strings around union concessions, the Bush administration would be setting up a political challenge for the incoming Obama administration," he said. "If the new administration leaves the strings in place, they would risk union ire, upsetting a large constituency that was helpful in winning the White House and a larger Senate majority. On the other hand, if the new administration were to introduce new legislation to override the strings, it could create a political stage for Republicans to argue that a 'union giveaway' was in progress. Moreover, this would focus public attention on union demands, perhaps making it harder to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow union organization by way of signature cards as opposed to secret ballots."

Okay, so it's not like I didn't know this already, in fact, I said as much last night at the DCLabor council delegate's meeting. Drowning GM is the only way to exact the kind of political relevance they think they can get. Kind of like drowning New Orleans. Remember the pictures of "looters" and the talk about how "those" folks didn't get out of town before the storm? As if every one had the ability to leave or resources to stay elsewhere.

I suppose this is what Grover Norquist meant by saying:

"to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Is this really what they want?

Do you want to watch us drown? Is that it? Do want to see the last gurgle of economic air spit from our lips? If so, senators, know this: You’ll go down with us. America isn’t America without an auto industry. You can argue whether $14 billion would have saved it, but you surely tried to kill it.

Well, what happens if they actually get thier wish? What happens if in their pettiness, anger and ridiculous behavior they actually get their wish? Instead of just GM or Chrysler drowning, we all drown?

In the end, their actions taken were based on a political expedience, one that they hope will cause the Employee Free Choice Act to die before it's even brought to the floor. And this is what they really care about...ensuring that there is a permanant underclass, to hell with the middle class represented by workers in the auto industry.

Don't worry Shelby. McConnell and Corker, in a few more weeks, you'll head right back into utter obscurity, a place you belong.

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I mean, how often does an administration lead by a Congress controlled by Republicans for years (unitl 2006) allow deregulation of the financial industry, arguably causing issues like Madoff:

They join a list of more powerful investors that have come forward, all worried about the extent of their losses. The roster of names include former Philadelphia Eagles owner Norman Braman, New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon and J. Ezra Merkin, the chairman of GMAC Financial Services, among others.

So, in a climate of DEREGULATION, a well respected captain of financial markets gets to pull off the scam of all scams, including DEFRAUDING the likes of GM (GMAC is a subsidiary of GM and provides financial services, including mortgages). Now that GM is out BILLIONS (Madoff scammed at least $50 billion that we know of now), does it make it more likely that Republican Senators will be willing to assist the ailing auto industry? Afterall, helping GMAC is a financial services company and seemingly so much more Republican like, as opposed to dirty, hard working, loud, uneducated, unskilled autoworkers represented by a union.

Hmm, the only ones here I think of as dirty, uneducated and unskilled are Republicans in the Seante lead by the likes of Senators Corker and Shelby. Just writing their names makes me want to go take a shower. I feel so dirty.

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Mostly, watch and listen at 4:11.



The UAW worker speaking is from American Axle and the staffers at the table have never heard of American Axle. NEVER HEARD OF IT. Why is that important? An 11 week strike this past winter.

How can we expect the Republican Senators to be able to pull their heads out of their asses if their staffers can't even keep up on an 11 week strike that SHUT DOWN GM plants all over the country, in Mexico and also hit Canadian autoworkers? Are these rely the people who should be making policy about how and if money should be loaned to manufacturing in this country?

Idiots and asshats. Because of them, there's no money out there in the form of a LOAN for the auto industry!!

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I got this in an e-mail but had to go and read it for myself mostly because at the same time I got this, someone else sent me a link to what states receive the most in Federal aide and those states that utilize the least. And not surprisingly, Republican Senators who receive the most in federal funding are also the senators who voted against a BRIDGE LOAN for Chrysler and GM. Oh and of course the Republicans from Alaska, too (receiving loads, but clearly want to screw Michigan and the rest of the midwest).



Take what Mitt Romney said on Meet the Press this morning, blaming a $2k "disadvantage" on labor, labor benefits and labor legacy (retired workers). Governor Granholm hit the nail on the head when she made sure that everyone knew that this "disadvantage" is about how other countries provide for their citizens. Here, we have companies that must, as in the Detroit Free Press editorial

December 12, 2008

Hey, Southerners: Detroit 3 helped you to survive

BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana and Alabama on Aug. 29, 2005, the automobile companies of Detroit did not harrumph that the gulf coast should have been better prepared.

They didn't sit back and wait for New Orleans to submit a detailed plan for future repair of the ruptured levees.

General Motors Corp., on Aug. 30, donated $400,000 to the American Red Cross 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, pledged to match up to $250,000 more in employee contributions, and sent more than 150 vehicles to the stricken area for use in relief work.

Ford Motor Co. and the UAW quickly made a joint donation of $100,000 to the Red Cross. The Chrysler Group gave $150,000 to the Red Cross and $200,000 to local New Orleans charities. DaimlerChrysler Services chipped in $200,000 for the Red Cross and pledged to match employee donations up to $50,000.

The three Detroit auto companies together gave more than $18 million in cash and vehicles to the Katrina relief effort in the ensuing months. No strings attached.

The U.S. Senate's most adamant naysayers about whether Detroit deserves rescue loans should have thought about that before now. It might have made Thursday's futile wrangling over a compromise to get $14 billion in emergency rescue loans for GM and Chrysler a bit less tortuous.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., for one, might have dialed down his earlier rhetoric.

Vitter said Wednesday that he plans to vote against the rescue because, in his words, it is "ass-backwards" to give money to the distressed companies before Congress sees more detailed survival plans.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., should think about Hurricane Katrina, too. He has threatened a filibuster against the bill, calling it "a bridge loan to nowhere" and stating that Detroit's automakers should undergo a fundamental restructuring before they ask Congress for money.

None of the logical arguments made by, or on behalf of, Detroit's auto industry seem to resonate with certain congressional critics.

Not the fact that GM, Ford and Chrysler have slashed billions of dollars in costs. Not the fact that they have the nation's top-selling pickups and minivans. Not the fact that they have lots of high-mileage vehicles and more on the way. Not the fact an auto company bankruptcy would have a horrible ripple effect, wiping out scores of suppliers and making hundreds of thousands more U.S. workers jobless.

No, to the most adamant auto-rescue opponents in the Senate, Detroit doesn't make cars people want. It's a dinosaur not worth preserving.

Could the opinions of these senators be colored by the fact that the foreign-owned plants of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Nissan and Volkswagen -- which compete with the Detroit Three -- are located in their states?

Nah, let's not even go there.

Let's just say that since logic hasn't worked, we should fall back on a simple moral argument.

If you see a fellow American is drowning, gasping for air, do you quiz him for a while about whether he's drunk or why he never learned to swim better? Or do you throw him a life buoy and ask questions later?

That, it seems to me, is where we are with America's car companies.

You have done nothing and failed them, senators.

So now it's up to President George W. Bush and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to, hopefully, rush in with emergency aid from the $700-billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.

They could still hold the Detroit Three's feet to the fire afterward, empowering a strong auto czar to bring all stakeholders together to forge business models for these companies that can withstand future shocks.

Contact TOM WALSH at 313-223-4430 or twalsh@freepress.com.

Just one more time, Damn, Mitt Romney is an ass...ah, and a liar. Wow, glad he's not going to be president. Why are there always more Republicans on the Sunday talks than Democrats? Come on, the CEO of Wal-Mart? Please, focused on working people? Yeah, working them for as little as possible with the smallest wages as possible and then, with little or no benefits. Great model to compare to GM and Chrysler. Why would this joker even be on Meet the Press? Is this what we really want to expand as a model for growth or prosperity?

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And I don't say such things lightly.

But then I got to hear his bizarre anti-worker and anti-union rant on NPR and well, read this comment from another listener...pretty well sums it up:

Nellie
I was deeply disturbed at Sen. DeMint's comments about the Unions being the whole problem facing the auto industry. The Unions do not determine what vehicles are to be built or engineering of vehicles, management does. They assemble the vehicles they are directed to assemble. No one seems to think there is anything wrong with CEOs negotiating the best salary and benefits package they can, but somehow its wrong for the workers to do so. Remember, without the workers, the Union members, there would be no product to sell. Further, no one seems to remeber that Toyota, Honda and other foreign auto cos., got a free pass when they negotiated manufacturing their vehicles in the U.S. They were not required to deal with the Unions. Therefore, there is no level playing field. The NPR staff needs to educate itself about Unions and the roll of Unions in the history of this country so they can challenge such outrageous statements from the likes of Sen. DeMint. Unions were prominenet in the most prosperous times of our country. Because of Unions, there are weekends, laws requiring a safe workplace and other standards we all take for granted now. An attack on Unions is an attack on the common working woman and man of this country

And did anyone else notice that not only is this guy an idiot, he also had several moments where it seemed difficult for him to form his thoughts? Is he more than just an idiot, is he also a blithering idiot?

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I headed over to John Cole's Balloon Juice for some talk about Republican Union-Bashing and I found this nugget in the comments:

Exactly. But when it comes to union busting, there’s no lie too big. Romney said what he meant in that editorial, though:

The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end.

The only way, from an executive’s perspective, to make that enmity stop is to bust the union and give all the power to management. As a union member, I respond with "Fuck you very much."

This comment was based on the posting about Republican union-bashing and their disdain for working Americans represented by a union. From Cole:

this is union busting on a grand scale. There have been dozens of signs over the past week what they really want, starting with the Mitt Romney editiorial in the NY Times:

The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, “Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street.”

You don’t have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.

When Mitt Romney says a “new direction” for unions, the new direction means planned obsolescence. It is important to remember what Mitt Romney does to make his money, and when he gives advice to what should happen to the auto industry, you need to understand that his vision for America is more of the same- in his worldview, everyone is working for $8 dollars an hour at Wal-Mart, getting their health care from medicare/medicaid, and barely making it.

On Monday last week, Todd Harris picked up the ball and ran with it:

Harris: Republicans are going to be looking-as we talk about concessions on the management side, we’re going to be looking, when you talk about bailing out Detroit, looking at reopening some of those ridiculous union contracts that have been huge, massive giveaways.
***
No, I don’t-I don’t think that this is class warfare. I mean, you talk about a company like AIG or a company like Citigroup, and there was bipartisan consensus that they were simply too big to allow to fail.

Now, you haven’t heard-at least I’m not aware of any Republicans saying, no, you have got to protect the AIG management, or you have got to protect the Citigroup management. If they need to be hung out to dry, then let them hang them out to dry. But, when you talk about some of these union contracts that are really crippling the Big Three, it’s not just that they made bad cars or that they made cars that used a lot of gas. They certainly did, although their cars are a lot better now. But, if you’re going to address fundamental reform in Detroit, you have got to have the union issue on the table.

And just so you are completely clear on what the real agenda is for the Republicans, the WSJ brings it home this morning:

Consider labor costs. Take-home wages at the U.S. car makers average $28.42 an hour, according to the Center for Automotive Research. That’s on par with $26 at Toyota, $24 at Honda and $21 at Hyundai. But include benefits, and the picture changes. Hourly labor costs are $44.20 on average for the non-Detroit producers, in line with most manufacturing jobs, but are $73.21 for Detroit.

This $29 cost gap reflects the way Big Three management and unions have conspired to make themselves uncompetitive—increasingly so as their market share has collapsed (see the nearby chart). Over the decades the United Auto Workers won pension and health-care benefits far more generous than in almost any other American industry. As a result, for every UAW member working at a U.S. car maker today, three retirees collect benefits; at GM, the ratio is 4.6 to one.

Highly recommend heading over and participating in the conversation if you get a chance. Don't want anyone missing comments like this:

Let’s see…professional athletes have strong labor unions, but the leagues are doing well. Service workers like janitors have unions but I don’t see the hospitality industry dying. And there were no unions in finance industries that were run into the ground. But it’s the unions’ fault. Always is.

It's nice to see folks willing to say what needs to be said, that Unions aren't at fault in the current mess. This mess if far more complex and it starts with the letter R, Recession. Funnily enough, that's also the letter that starts the party name that brought us this Recession. Amazing how that works.

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I've been struggling with what to say about the incestuous bias in the media against the UAW through the media's repetition of Right Wing lies, distortions and avarice. Problem is that I didn't really know how to sum it up. To boil it down to what I really wanted to say or maybe it was how I wanted to say it.

Until today.

I was over at Dailykos and noticed a comment in a diary on the Bridge loan to automakers:

The lazy, overpaid autoworker stereotype is outdated and tiresome. Just like any other industry, we have our share of slackers, but the overwhelming majority of our workforce "bring it" every day.

You say the UAW needs to accept concessions to help solve this crisis. Apparently you haven't been paying attention for the last 20 years or so. The companies have been asking for and receiving concessions for the last several contracts. The most recent contract allows for a nearly 50% lower wage for the next generation of workers, while also removing health care costs from the company books.

Apparently that's not enough. You want to see us all out of work.

The bottom line is that while the UAW and management have played a part in the past mistakes, both have been working to ensure a solid future for the industry for years.

Over that same time the government has done nothing to help regarding affordable health care, balanced trade and tax incentives that reward companies for keeping jobs here instead of outsourcing. The middle class (led by the unions) tried to sound the alarm years ago. Unfortunately, nobody listened because of their anti-union prejudices.

The comment comes from a 29 year veteran of an assembly line, a UAW member, in the Detroit Free Press.

There is so much anti-union blather out there in the ether that it’s hard to cut threw it and make sense of anything sometimes. Here, on Uniongal, we try to do that. We try to find a way to remind each reader that there is something bigger than the ether, than the anti-union comments you read or the blatant anti-worker bias in the media. There’s something so much bigger out there, it’s solidarity.

This weekend, I read a similar thread on .UnionReview and commented:

We do fight back. Everyday you remember that there are brothers and sisters in your union, you beat folks like National Review. Everytime you talk to some random person about what it means to be in a union, what it means to have brothers and sisters in the stuggle are always victories against these jack asses.
Solidarity means that we come together and everytime we do, they are afraid and when they are afraid, they will take a brush and with broad strokes, they will paint us with the actions they themselves take.
So, when you read their comments and they make their statements, say what you have to, clearly, loudly and with the strength and honesty of those who have come before all of us. From the women at the Triangle Shirt Factory to Wesley Everest and to the current struggles for representation so many are fired for trying to obtain.
And when you do speak, know that you're not alone. We're all with you.
In Solidarity
Uniongal

It was something small. Nothing I haven’t felt or meant to say in the past. It’s just that I don’t think I’ve really thought about it. About what it really means to fight for workers, I just do it. It’s a part of who I am.

Fighting for my brothers and sisters in labor is just something I do, naturally. I have never stopped to think about it and I’m sure many of you haven’t either. I don’t care about the infighting, the dirty laundry, the poaching from one union to another union; it just doesn’t matter as long as workers can bargain, collectively.

Then I met someone who made me actually stop and think about it. I’ve thought about the why and this came about not through the Big 3 or through the constant anti-union sentiments about the UAW or IAM (from the Boeing strike) or how Andrea Mitchell and Tom Brokaw shill for the anti Employee Free Choice Act every chance they get. I started to think about it on Saturday.

You see, I went out with a new friend on Saturday. He's really an absolutely amazing person, just being near him makes me feel this unbelievable electrical jolt, you know, that feeling, when you remember why you do what you do? That jolt from the passion that is taking on the system, or fighting the good fight?

He’d shared some stuff on being a firefighter and me, well, I’ve never been much of a fan of IAFF. On a scale from one to 10 and 10 being my love for my former union (you all know I was a Teamster, right?) and 1 being my feelings toward Right Wingers, IAFF was about a 3, okay, maybe a 4.

But this guy out of the blue had me thinking about stuff. I’m not a retrospective girl. I like things to be clear, kind of orderly and since I’d made up my mind on IAFF, I really just didn’t think of them in the same way that I did IBEW, UFCW, UFW, UNITE-HERE and many others, I just didn’t.

So, he’s read my blog and he and I have had a couple of side conversations about the IAFF. He's told me about the The Secret List.
and how he's seen too many firefighters injured due to new construction issues. He’s talked about how industry standards are so low now, that during a fire, you can’t always head into a building because the materials used in new construction are so flimsy that you fall threw floors or ceilings collapse and roofs as well. Just yesterday, a Firefighter on Staten Island lost his life while battling a blaze when the roof collapsed.


But this weekend for me was different. It started out like any other weekend, busy and then, he sent me an e-mail about solidarity.

Solidarity.

IAFF is as much a brother in the struggle as the 29 year veteran of GM.

Today, I’m reminded of what it is I fight, for my brothers and sisters and there’s no rest on the horizon for any of us and yeah, I also mean you right wingers who idolize the likes of Rick Berman. Be prepared to fight, because I am.

I am now, more than ever, clear that what we need is just a little concept called solidarity.

To my brothers and sisters in Labor, Uniongal Salutes you. And yep, I mean you all in IAFF, too. You’re now a 10 in my book.

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I tend to read the stupidity of folks like Gerson because, it's important to know who stupid and inane they are, makes for nice entertainment and laughter. Well, entertainment until I read today's slop:

The coming bailout will be a major challenge for Obama. If he caves in to the auto unions that helped elect him and merely shores up a failing industry, he will start his presidency on a note of weakness. If he insists on a serious restructuring that creates sustainable companies -- including large pay and benefit cuts, and massive downsizing -- he could gain a reputation for toughness similar to Ronald Reagan's after his early firing of striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

Okay, so I highlighted what I think you should see. This is the right wing talking point of folks like Brokaw and Mitchell and here Gerson does it, too. He's blaming the union.

Unions are not monolithic creatures.

Unions do not provide the work.

Unions are not out to kill industry.

Unions ARE made up of their membership: WORKERS.

Unions ARE responsive to their membership.

The UAW IS NOT THE VILLAIN.

In the case of the auto industry, these workers have given up things that someone at Wal-Mart has never had the option to ever have and things that Gerson can't begin to think about going without; from pension cut backs to two tiered hiring to health care. They've given up a lot including cutting hours, retraining to leave the big 3 or other routes to make it easier for the big 3 to survive and not only survive, but to prosper.

Consumerism wasn't fueled by GM and certainly not by the UAW. There is a major issue right now in the financial markets and it's meant a lot of people are out of work, fuel prices caused a lot of people to cut back, me included. GM has been doing cutting edge research that they have funded in terms of fuel cells (unfortunately would mean a retooling and supply of the energy industry and we aren't there yet even if GM were able to produce the fuel cell cars now enmasse) and I'm looking forward to the Chevy Volt in 2010 even with a possible $40k price tag.

Blaming workers and their union representation for the problems caused by Wall Street is not only ridiculous, it's dangerous.

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Blaming the union and its membership (um, I mean WORKERS here) is absolutely ridiculous.

Emptywheel has an excellent post up right now on this that deserves a closer look:

What the AP Left Out about the UAWBy: emptywheel Saturday November 15, 2008 1:42 pm

21diggs digg it

The AP has an article reporting that Ron Gettelfinger, head of the UAW, says the union will not make any more concessions to keep the Big Three in business. I guess the editor cut a big chunk--because the article obviously falls short of explaining why the UAW is taking this stand. Here's what the AP left in:

''The focus has to be on the economy as a whole as opposed to a UAW contract,'' Gettelfinger told reporters on a conference call, noting the labor costs now make up 8 percent to 10 percent of the cost of a vehicle.

''We have made dramatic, dramatic changes and the UAW was applauded for that,'' he said.

Instead, Gettelfinger blamed the problems the auto industry is suffering from on things beyond its control -- the housing slump, the credit crunch that has made financing a vehicle tough and the 1.2 million jobs that have been lost in the past year.
''We're here not because of what the auto industry has done,'' he said. ''We're here because of what has happened to the economy.''

And here's what the AP didn't report (I'm sure it was just an oversight, really).

In its contract last year, the UAW made painful concessions, adopting a two-tier wage structure, such that new employees make just $12 to $15 an hour. The move is projected to bring the American manufacturers in line with their Japanese rivals' non-union labor costs in the near future.

In addition, the union has taken responsibility for providing retiree healthcare, thereby eliminating one of the last remaining competitive disadvantages for the American manufacturers' unionized workforce as compared to their Japanese rivals.

With these agreements, the UAW has managed to save jobs, while still providing the superior labor force that leads most segments (big PDF, see page 10-11) in terms of the most efficient plants measured in hours per vehicle.

The UAW's workers have made deep concessions to ensure American-owned auto industry remains competitive with its foreign competitors. Now that the American-owned manufacturers have eliminated some of the structural disadvantages that gave foreign competitors a market advantage, it would be a terrible waste for its country not to do what's necessary to sustain American manufacturing though this tough financial period.

There. Now it tells a more complete story.

I actually discussed the Media's anti-union bias yesterday after watching Andrea Mitchell and Tom Brokaw shilling for the right wing on Meet the Press. Here's what I had to say yesterday:

I don't normally watch the Sunday talk shows, they just end up being so damn insulting to my intelligence. But for some odd reason I started watching it this morning and no, I wasn't disappointed, it completely insulted my intelligence and that of everyone else who happened to have the misfortune of listening.

Andrea Mitchell decided on a whim to bring up the Employee Free Choice Act, but of course, she used the Right Wing Talking Points, only to be re-enforced in those wingnut talk points.

Mitchell: ...The labor unions will be asked to make some kind of concessions, and what the uaw leaders said in an unusual press conference only yesterday was we’ve made enough concessions. So, as you point out there is the clash, the ability to organize, card check is the short term for it.

Brokaw: Without a secret ballot

Mitchell: without a secret ballot, is a BIG concession to labor. and that is gonna be one of the the early fights in this congress. And Barack Obama is going to have to make a choice on all these things as to whether he can find ways around it. And can answer the economists question as to why Toyota is successful, which is producing American jobs it’s just that their not union jobs.

Okay, I can answer that for you Andrea and let me put it into a way that your little mind can understand:

Toyota competes with GM and Ford for labor, assembly line work and precision assembly workers. Because they compete in the same market as GM and Ford and Chrysler, they have to pay the same wages. However, their benefits are not as good as those of GM, Ford and Chrysler. In fact, Toyota doesn’t provide a pension, health care to retirees and a number of other incentives that the unions which you hate have secured for their membership over YEARS and YEARS of work. But if you want to toss that out the window and ask why doesn't GM just declare Bankruptcy and gut all of their retirees pensions, health care and agreements with their employees, then Andrea, you also need to ask yourself what happens to all of those people? What happens to the pensioner who has no income or health care?

Toyota and Honda do not play on equal footing with GM and Chrysler and Andrea and Brokaw should know that. See, I think they do, they just don't really care. It's not like the economy is hurting them or that NBC is just going to turn off their spigot.

And Tom, let me also explain something else to you, something that you obviously don’t understand.

The Employee Free Choice Act makes it possible for EMPLOYEES to CHOOSE an election or CHOOSE to sign their card and leave it to that. Right now, it’s up to the BOSS and NOT the EMPLOYEE. And there is no SECRECY in today’s standards because the Boss gets to know who the employees are that have signed their cards and want a union.

But what you and Andrea also ignored as a concept is that organizing a union isn’t nearly as important as having a way to get employers to the table to negotiate. The Employee Free Choice Act provides for stiff penalties for employers who ignore the bargaining rights of their employees. I think this is what really is the heart in this fight. It's not that employees can organize, it's that the employers who screw with the results face actual penalties. There are penalties now, but it takes forever and the results of the penalties take YEARS to be realized if ever.

Despite what the rightwing says or lies about in terms of workers and unions, it is still the policy of the United States of America to ENCOURAGE UNIONIZATION:

National Labor Relations Act

The denial by some employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal by some employers to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to strikes and other forms of industrial strife or unrest, which have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce by (a) impairing the efficiency, safety, or operation of the instrumentalities of commerce; (b) occurring in the current of commerce; (c) materially affecting, restraining, or controlling the flow of raw materials or manufactured or processed goods from or into the channels of commerce, or the prices of such materials or goods in commerce; or (d) causing diminution of employment and wages in such volume as substantially to impair or disrupt the market for goods flowing from or into the channels of commerce.

The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the flow of commerce, and tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners in industry and by preventing the stabilization of competitive wage rates and working conditions within and between industries.

Experience has proved that protection by law of the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively safeguards commerce from injury, impairment, or interruption, and promotes the flow of commerce by removing certain recognized sources of industrial strife and unrest, by encouraging practices fundamental to the friendly adjustment of industrial disputes arising out of differences as to wages, hours, or other working conditions, and by restoring equality of bargaining power between employers and employees.

Experience has further demonstrated that certain practices by some labor organizations, their officers, and members have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce by preventing the free flow of goods in such commerce through strikes and other forms of industrial unrest or through concerted activities which impair the interest of the public in the free flow of such commerce. The elimination of such practices is a necessary condition to the assurance of the rights herein guaranteed.

It is declared to be the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce and to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when they have occurred by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.

So, Andrea and Tom, please understand that not only are you two shills for the anti-union anti-worker establishment fronted by the likes of Hannity, Limbaugh and McCain, but you two also don't seem to know your asses from a hole in the ground.

Employee Free Choice is Good For The Economy BECAUSE it is good for workers, unless of course you don't think workers are part of the economy or deserve to be represented by a union, a union of their own choosing.

Why does the Media hate workers so much? And worse, why are union production crews and writers continuing to spill out this garabage when in the end, they know it's garbage? If you're producing CBS, NBC, ABC or any other cable or network news and YOU are a union member, can you just think a minute before you write for a teleprompter anything that's anti-union and anti-worker garbage? Your brothers and sisters of the UAW would appreciate it.

Hell, I'd appreciate it.

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Labourstart has a story up from the Chicago Tribune. The story is about how the Democratic nominee for governor isn't getting the kind of support from unions that she should at this point due to in fighting. I get it. SEIU backed her (Thompson) and the UAW backed her opponent...Thompson won. Either support her or get the kind of crap you've gotten out of Daniels, like the loss of collective bargaining rights for public sector employees in Indiana.

After reading the article and feeling that the UAW and the local AFL-CIO just don't get it, I found this little ditty tucked into the end of the story:

Daniels, meanwhile, has garnered some union support of his own, including individual leaders in various building trades, the Professional Firefighters Union of Indiana and the Indiana Fraternal Order of Police.

Cam Savage, spokesman for Daniels' campaign, said the biggest reason behind their union success is that people see Daniels is creating jobs.

"There is plenty of room in this movement for anyone who wants Indiana to get on track and succeed," Savage said.

The unions that would get the most out of collective bargaining, Police and Firefighters are supporting a Republican, again. Reminds me of the fight in 2006 to get Sherrod Brown elected to the Senate in Ohio. The locals and firefighters all over the state were supporting Sherrod, campaigning for him, holding fundraisers, and just getting out and getting the vote out. But the national leadership who'd cultivated a "relationship" with DeWine wanted IAFF to support DeWine, so they did, despite what their membership wanted.

So, I'm curious, are firefighters and police supporting Daniels in this race, or is it their leadership? And if that answer is leadership, then isn't it time to change the leadership? I'm just saying, maybe first responders should take a look at who the union's been supporting lately and think about how that works for and against them.

Oh, and UAW, grow up. Support Thompson now. Pissing contests with SEIU serve no one's agenda, except maybe people like Daniels.

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Okay, the Greedy Ass part is mine, but it fits, I think.

I was noticing that I'd gottena couple of hits off alternet and didn't know why...so I looked, and wouldn't you know it, they've linked to a post I had up on that piece of shit Dauch. Highly recommend you head over and read it yourself, but as a teaser:

Smart societies understand this dynamic and work, through tax laws and cultural norms, to keep rewards within reason. Here in the United States, we used to have many such laws and norms. We no longer do. We have swept away the restraints that once kept our society's rewards relatively reasonable.

And now we're paying the price. Our smart and talented today regularly do dumb things -- and cause great damage.

Our latest exhibit A: the career of Richard E. Dauch, Corporate America's latest superstar executive turned scourge of the late great American middle class.

Dauch currently serves as the CEO of American Axle and Manufacturing, an auto parts giant carved out of General Motors 14 years ago. Late this past May, after threatening to outsource "all of our business to other locations around the world," Dauch forced 3,600 striking workers at his company's five original American plants to accept a contract that cuts wages from $28 an hour down to as low as $14.35 and slices the company's U.S. workforce by half.

One month later, in June, Dauch pocketed his reward: a $8.5 million bonus from the American Axle board of directors for his "leadership role" in "the structural transformation achieved under our new labor agreements."

Dauch has now collected, over the last decade, over $258 million in compensation from American Axle -- and, in the process, tossed thousands of U.S. worker families out of the middle class.

Auto workers, ironically, once symbolized that middle class, and for good reason. Precedent-setting union contracts at GM and other U.S. automakers after World War II helped give birth to the first mass middle class in world history.

And the executives who signed those contracts? They did well, too, but not too well. In 1950, for instance, General Motors president Charlie Wilson pulled in $586,100 in income, a bit over $5 million in current dollars. Today, someone at that $5 million level will usually clear, after taxes, around $4 million. Wilson cleared the equivalent of only $1.25 million. He paid nearly three-quarters of his income in taxes.

They've linked to my posting on Dick E Dauch's entitlement mentality. Right now, I'd rather the strike had been more successful for the AAM workers. I'd much rather that than a link on alternet.

All in all, there's little more to say about Dick E Dauch except he's a greedy bastard. Yep, that about sums it up.

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Union members from all over the country are descending on Atlantic City on the 21st to rally support for a UAW contract for casino workers.

DC will be sending buses with at least 5,000 DC area union activists for this effort:

…Last year in Atlantic City nearly 5,000 table game dealers and slot machine technicians organized at six casinos and the overwhelming majority at four of the casinos voted for the United Auto Workers. One year later these workers are still without a contract. The Atlantic City casino workers voted in the union “because, like so many workers, they have had their healthcare taken away, their wages have been steadily eroding, and their working conditions have deteriorated,” says UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. “Meanwhile, the casinos continue to reap huge profits and their executives have seen their compensation rise. The workers know that only a union contract will win them the respect and dignity on the job that they so richly deserve.” Click here for more details and to reserve your space on the bus

Let me know if your area is sending buses as well and I’ll post the busing info.

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crossposted on Dailykos and Joe's Union Review

Obama made his first public comments about the American Axle strike last Thursday in Macomb and then, suddenly, there’s an agreement. I highly recommend seeing the video and listening to what he says about American Manufacturing jobs:


Let's take a look at the “agreement” Mlive has the skinny:

DETAILS OF THE DEAL
Details of the tentative agreement between the United Auto Workers and American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc.:

WAGES: Varies by factory location. Production workers in Detroit would see pay cuts from $28 per hour to $18.50, up from $17 the company was offering. Factory support workers would make $14.35 in Detroit and $10 per hour in Three Rivers.

BUYOUTS: Workers with less than 10 years of seniority could get $85,000 to leave the company. Those with 10 or more years could get $140,000.

PLANT CLOSINGS: Company will close forges in Detroit and Tonawanda, N.Y. No date was revealed for the closures.

EARLY RETIREMENT: Workers who are 60 or above with 10 or more years of service could get $55,000 to retire.

BUYDOWNS: Workers would get three annual payments to make the transition to lower wages. The maximum amount would total $105,000.

BONUS: Workers would get a $5,000 signing bonus.

THE VOTE: Starts Monday at some UAW locals. A large local in Detroit votes Thursday.

The “deal” is pretty darn disappointing especially in light of American Axle’s profitability, rare in the GM spin-off companies. So, let’s take a look at the striker’s reactions from the AP to step up their coverage of the American Axle strike:

After the meeting, Adrian King, outgoing president of UAW Local 235 in Detroit, said the session didn't go well. Workers were angry about the deal, and their frustration was compounded by a malfunctioning public address system that hampered questions from the crowd.
"We had a lot of angry brothers and sisters," he said. "It's definitely a hard-looking contract, very tough pill to swallow for the membership."

>snip<

Most workers leaving the meeting Sunday predicted the vote will be close. One worker tossed pages of the summary into the air as he walked out.

"There will be a lot of unhappy people," Reed said as he carried a picket sign outside the school. "But I think it's going to be accepted."

Today, American Axle workers are voting on this “deal”. From Mlive for some, it’s good news like:

Jeff Claussen, 58, of Three Rivers, said he is prepared to take a buyout and will retire after 28 years at the Three Rivers plant. His 59-year-old wife, Ruth, retired last year.

"If you prepared for retirement, and we have for the past 20 years, then I guess you're all set," Claussen said.

For some, it’s really bad news (from AP)

I'm voting no. It's totally unacceptable," said Gary Reed, 52, of Warren, who criticized American Axle Chairman and CEO Richard Dauch for making millions while asking production workers to take a pay cut from $28 per hour to $18.50.

"It's a slap in our face," Reed said. "We've been watching this guy making millions and millions of dollars even while we've been on strike, and were going to accept a stab in the back and just walk away with a smile on our face?"

And for others, it’s a mixed bag, from Freep

"I feel like I'm done, but I have no choice," said Tod Rippe, 43, of Dearborn. He said he plans to accept a buyout and may move out of Michigan. "It's a nightmare. It really is."

Mike Ulicne, 39, of Trenton said the contract would be tough to accept.

"I'm relieved, but not happy or satisfied," Ulicne said.

>snip<

Terasiena Cunningham, 36, of West Bloomfield started a similar chant for workers gathered outside the school.
Cunningham said she feels workers gained little, if anything, by going on strike.

"We can get better than this," she said. Cunningham also said she wished the two sides had extended the contract that expired Feb. 26, allowing workers to stay at their jobs as negotiations continued.

Former Local 235 UAW Vice President Erik Webb, 39, of Detroit said a much calmer meeting was held Sunday afternoon at the Local 235's union hall in Hamtramck, and predicted the contract would pass.

"Everybody who has been out on the picket line has been frustrated. People are ready to go back to work," Webb said. "We didn't really get what we wanted to get, but something is better than nothing."

>snip<

"Most of us are at a point where, financially, we are so ruined that this contract beats being homeless," said Michael Dudun, 46, of St. Clair Shores.

Workers at American Axle are hurting and some are willing to vote for anything. After 11 weeks (Wednesday marks 12 weeks out), it’s understandable. Again, from Mlive

Local workers have been living on $200 a week in strike pay. Many workers who said they were unhappy with the settlement said they would vote for it anyway.

"It's just a nasty situation," said Curtis McCall, 45, an American Axle worker who attended an informational meeting Sunday in Detroit. "You almost have no choice. If you vote no, then really you're out in the cold."

Workers will see their wages slashed under the deal.

A 54-year-old worker from Lockport Township, who declined to give his name, said he will see his pay drop from $27 an hour to $14.50. The 15-year employee said Sunday he hadn't decided how he would vote.

"We're putting one of our trucks up for sale, I've sold some scuba equipment on eBay -- but I just don't think we can adjust to such a drastic rate in pay," the worker said.

The summary of the contract distributed by the union said there will be buyouts of $85,000 for someone with less than 10 years with the company and $140,000 for a worker with more than 10 years. An offer of a $55,000 early retirement bonus also was included in the proposed contract.

Workers would get a wage "buydown" of up to $105,000 paid over three years to help ease the transition to lower hourly pay. The size of the buydown would vary with the size of a worker's pay reduction.

It’s even tougher to swallow a contract like this when you know that Dick Dauch will be shelling out nice bonuses to himself again next year.

But then again, what can we expect in this day and age? The haves like Dauch can reap $10 plus millions dollar compensation packages while the working stiff gets a whopping $14 to $17 an hour. Seems an awful lot like the times of the Robber Barons and I for one don’t want to return to the days of ole and the likes of Carnegie and Rockefeller.

I don’t know how I’d manage with a 50% reduction in income even with the 3 year buy down. I suppose, like many others, I’d be looking at a new line of work or a new job, just like Jerd0708:

I have been on the hunt for a new employer. Going well. I think I am going to take the buy out either way. I had a real nice interview with a forging / machining company out in Wayne. My pastors brother in law works there and loves it. They have been looking for CNC experienced guys to start up a new machining building. They can only handle about 20% of there work there right now so they are building a huge new building with all new equipment to bring all the work back in-house. Good money and they just got a huge contract with a wind mill company making rings for the shafts and generators. They are 100% non automotive. Quarterly bonuses to the workers and great benefits.

Another company I have been dealing with is in South Carolina. Had two phone interviews and now they are flying me down for a plant tour and sit down on Tue the 13th. I really like this company too. They are a German firm that make Engines and Crankshafts. Huge in Germany. They have a lot of new equipment. They are offering me a shift leader position. Money will be close to what I was making Pre-Strike. All Benefits and a lot of time off. Wife really wants to stay here but is cool with leaving too.

Voting on the contract is taking place today, so we should know tonight if the contract has been ratified. I’m very happy that they might be going back to work this week, but I still have to say that this is a really awful pill to swallow. For those choosing to go down the path that Jerd0708 has now chosen, there are profitable forges in the States doing good precision work with owners who aren’t trying to reap for themselves on the backs of their workers. Unfortunately, AAM isn’t one of these companies and Dick Dauch isn’t one of these owners. For me, it really all comes down to Dick’s entitlement mentality; he’s entitled to all of it and hell with his workers.

So, would you vote for this contract?

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