December
13, 2008
Republicans Help Stop UAW Bailout
Ron
Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), blamed Republican senators
for blocking the bailout of his union. Actually, democrats hold a majority of
seats in both the senate and the house. Maybe Gettelfinger's anger should really
be directed at the democrat senators that his union members' dues paid to elect
them.
The fact is that the American auto industry does not need a bailout. What
it needs is to get rid of the UAW. After all, the American-based foreign car factories
are doing fine. Some UAW members are making more money in retirement than they
did on the job.
Gettelfinger and his union thugs like to say that the American
auto workers get paid less than their foreign counterparts. If you just look at
their cash compensation, yes, the is a couple of dollars difference. However,
the UAW members make more than twice their counterparts, if you include their
benefits package.
The UAW members also get paid for almost a year, if they are
laid off, while they do absolutely nothing. The UAW says it's making concessions
in closing that job bank. However, that had already been negotiated to be phased
out. So, that's not a concession.
Maybe if the American automakers turned out
a high-quality product, we could have some sympathy for them. Yet, they are less
productive and less skilled than the workers at American-based foreign auto factories;
and both employ American workers.
The problem is that the UAW is nothing more
than a giant welfare program. Now, that their product can no longer pay for their
growing numbers of non-producing members, they want the American taxpayer to subsidize
their socialist lifestyle. Well, the majority of the Republicans in the senate
said no as did a good number of democrat senators. By the way, the majority of
the American public is against the bailout.
If the automakers went into bankruptcy,
they could renegotiate their contracts with the UAW. If the UAW doesn't like it,
they can take a hike. There are plenty of Americans looking for jobs.
Gettelfinger
and his lazy members need not worry. The democrats will come through for them.
They won't bite the hand that feeds them and Bush doesn't want the industry to
fail on his watch.
Obama might want to rethink his plan to bankrupt the nation's
coal industry. Coal provides far more than 50% of the energy used to produce electricity.
If he and the democrats keep forcing unrealistic fuel economy standards that cause
the auto industry to make cars that no one wants and they switch to electric cars,
there will be no energy in America left to produce the electricity for them.
Better
to let the market decide which cars they want regardless of fuel economy and regardless
of the implications to the UAW and its greedy members.
TLG
