Archive for December 12th, 2008
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Power Surge
December 12th, 2008
Auto Bailout Dies in Senate
December 12th, 2008
Now that the election is over and many Republican senators have nothing to lose anymore, the bailout package for the auto industry died Thursday night.
As a former union officer I always feel bad when a person loses his or her job or faces that prospect, but the American people are fed up with these bailouts. All that was being discussed was $14 billion of the $25 billion the auto companies said they needed to make it to the end of the year. I say all as though $14 billion is not much money, and with the sums of money being bandied about Washington these past couple of months it does seem small.
Lawmakers planned to move ahead with a procedural vote on a Democratic-sponsored bill negotiated with the White House that Reid admitted would not succeed.
“There is too much difference” between negotiators to reach an agreement,” the Nevada Democrat said.
The late night development followed intense discussions on a possible compromise that participants said fell apart over proposed wage concessions by the powerful United Auto Workers.
“We were three words away from a deal,” said Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who proposed the alternative and led the talks.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said the main issue of disagreement was the date to require the Detroit autoworkers’ pay parity with foreign auto manufacturers.
The union may have negotiated itself out of business along with the companies that employ its members.
The companies need someone who can produce cars Americans want to buy. They need to create a need for their product, and so far they have just done the same old things, like when every Chevy looked like a block of cheese back in the late eighties and early nineties.
Because the union is so strong in Detroit they have been able to drive a hard bargain by taking people from one company out on strike while the other companies work. After the negotiations with the targeted company were completed they used the agreement as a template for contracts with the other companies or they would strike those companies.
Along with the mismanagement of the companies the unions and the workers need to be agreeable to some cut backs. Lord knows I hate the idea, but I hate people losing their jobs even more.
Maybe now the companies will consider Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which means they get a second chance to come up with a business plan, renegotiate union contracts, and hold off their creditors until a plan approved by the bankruptcy court and trustee are formulated.
It needs to be iron-clad in order to make the plan viable, but to also protect the workers as much as possible.
Yes, it’s nice if you get laid off to be able to collect up to 80% of your wages for a few months at a time, but it’s money that is being used for unproductive purposes.
As in any other business the workers need to save to be prepared for lay-offs and for strikes.
The management teams need to be replaced with real business people with common sense and new ideas.
This will trickle down to other businesses until the trickle becomes a broken dam.
People say no one would buy from a bankrupt company because buyers would be afraid the company would go out of business and they couldn’t get their warranty work done.
If a car company files Chapter 11 bankruptcy and I were in the market for a new car I would seriously consider buying from them. They are just reorganizing and not going out of business.
May God help America during these times and always. May a reasonable solution to a huge problem be found. Strikes and office shut-downs are no fun. I’ve been through both. Closing the entire business is even worse.
The federal government needs to stop giving away our money to save these companies when the unions won’t cooperate and give a little to save their jobs. It’s easy for the union presidents and other officers who work full-time for the union to be confident because they get their pay even if the members are out on strike or lay-off.
Except for workplace harassment the unions have become too big for their own good and the good of the workers they are supposed to represent.
There is no painless solution I can foresee.
