Conservative ‘No-Bailout Alternative’ For Automakers Amounts To Union-Busting
Conservative ‘No-Bailout Alternative’ For Automakers Amounts To Union-Busting
Last night, the House of Representatives approved an “emergency plan to rescue the nation’s domestic automobile industry” that would extend General Motors and Chrysler $14 billion in loans. However, the measure currently lacks the votes to pass in the Senate, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has threatened to kill the bill.
And conservatives are not stopping there. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), and others have put forth their own “no-bailout alternative” to the loan.
The “alternative” is all of two pages, one of which is spent criticizing the proposal passed by the House. With the remaining page, conservatives reveal that their plan for helping “the Big Three to become competitive again” amounts to busting their union. After stating that United Auto Workers hold “to concessions already made” conservatives demand that the union:
Concedes the elimination of Supplemental Unemployment Benefits; Concedes elimination of the Jobs Bank Program; Agrees to either reduce company retiree health care obligations or otherwise convert a portion of such obligations into equity; and Agrees to reduce wages and benefits to the levels paid by non-Big Three manufacturers.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) said yesterday on NPR that, in regards to an auto loan, “we’re not going to do it with the barnacles of unionism wrapped around their necks.”
First, it is worth pointing out that the UAW has already agreed to suspend the Jobs Bank, and delay automaker payments to a retiree health care fund. Furthermore, the union has implemented a plan to permanently shift retiree health costs into a UAW trust fund in 2010. Therefore, the second and third “concessions” that conservatives are demanding have, for all intents and purposes, already happened.
The other two “concessions,” however, are where the trouble really begins. The last one implies that Big Three workers are paid substantially more than their non-Big Three, non-unionized counterparts. However, as the New York Times and the New Republic pointed out, UAW workers don’t earn significantly more in hourly wages. The first, meanwhile, calls for cutting unemployment benefits at a time when economists and lawmakers are advocating extended benefits as an important response to the financial crisis.
Ultimately, these union-busting demands are counterproductive. As David Madland and Harley Shaiken note, “unions help foster a competitive high-wage, high-productivity economic strategy“:
Unionization and high worker productivity often go hand-in-hand. Fairness on the job and wages that reflect marketplace success contribute to more motivated workers. Given the pressures of globalization and competitiveness today, unions have been responsive to increasing productivity and embracing new innovations.
The UAW has already conceded to help the Big 3 manage their financial troubles. New innovations — not a lower-paid, uncared for workforce — will help Detroit get back on its feet.
We're going to have riots. There are already people rioting because they're losing their jobs when somebody else is being bailed out. The fairness of it becomes more and more evident as we go along.
Sort Comments By: Top Rated | Date
5 Responses to “Conservative ‘No-Bailout Alternative’ For Automakers Amounts To Union-Busting”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Wonk RoomContact Us
Donate
Michael Moore would be a good automobile industry oversight official if he would promise to put half his effort into competing with the Volkswagen Golf TwinDrive plug-in hybrid.
December 11th, 2008 at 8:10 pmFriking politicians… what a wasted opportunity. You know, there really is a way to save the auto industry and the economy without a bailout or bankruptcy: eliminate all taxes on green, ultra-high mileage, low-emission vehicles. No taxes on sales, manufacturing inputs, income, or capital gains (in proportion to revenue from green vehicles). No tax on the interest on loans to finance purchase or production of such vehicles. That would be a massive supply and demand side stimulus for the auto industry that would supercharge investment in high efficiency vehicles. The industry would simultaneously shift green to avoid taxes. Once the shift is accomplished and the industry is back on its feet, the tax cuts can be gradually scaled back.
In a major policy shift, Europe is now on track to adopt just such green tax cuts as of just last week. A significant story missed by all the major media and most of the blogosphere for that matter.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:20 pmMay I add, Conservative Republicans should love the idea of a green vehicle tax cut. Sure, let ‘em scoff at global warming, laugh at the risks of oil dependence. Who cares? It’s a TAX CUT. If enacted, a broad-based green energy, green vehicle, green infrastructure tax cut will be the biggest tax cut we will see for at least four years. And it would have twice the economic benefits of any ordinary tax cut since it is focused on reducing energy costs. And it is better for the economy than most of the other proposals on the table. If the Republicans had any brains, they would see an opportunity to save Detroit, the environment and capitalism all at the same time.
December 11th, 2008 at 11:40 pmJust more evidence of how repulsive and vindictive the Repugs are. They lost the election and want to make the working public suffer for it. Nothing new about union-busting. We older folks well remember the infamous Taft-Hartley act that the Repugs passed a half century ago. Their goal has always been to reduce the working public to servitude while they cheerfully give away billions to their criminal friends on Wall Street. If this isn’t anti-American, what does it take to wake people up to who they really are-fascists?!The term conservative is indicative of wishing to maintain the status quo. There are those at high levels who revel in our country’s misery and are reaping a windfall profit because of it. It has never been racial, or ideological-it has always been about money-the rich against the rest of mankind. Study history and learn-unlike our “decider” who has been the main instrument of this crisis.
December 12th, 2008 at 2:55 pmThere can be no doubt that Eric I. Cantor is a putz of the first magnitude… a lap dog who can’t wait to join the most conservative and ridiculous extremist portion of his party - those who put their personal agenda before the welfare of the American public. Let’s just consider Cantor an egg among the dinosaurs. These pols are so out of touch with the will of the electorate and the needs of America as it enters the 21st century. Too bad the people of Virginia can’t do better. Until we get rid of these idiots and replace them with forward thinking and truly compassionate people, the Republican party will remain outdated obstructionists.
December 12th, 2008 at 6:38 pm