Now the UAW Thinks We Should Save The Auto Industry

© ignoranceorapathy.com 11/16/2008
This one falls under the category of You Have To Be Freaking Kidding Me!

In a story run on the CNBC website UAW Pres Warns of Big 3 Chapter 7 Liquidation

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said it is critical the Big 3 receive a financial aid package from Congress to avoid one or more of Detroit's auto makers from sliding into a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Chapter 7 bankruptcy would mean a liquidation, or going out of business for an auto maker.
"We are in a crisis," Gettelfinger said. "We need a package approved by this lame duck session of Congress. If we don't get it, I'm not sure some of these auto makers will make it to mid-January when Barack Obama becomes president."

Follow up:

You have to be kidding, oh no wait, the UAW has no sense of humor so they must be serious. Scary thought, wasn’t the UAW in Obama’s pocket during the election cycle?
If the UAW is so worried about their golden geese (the auto manufacturers) why are they not the first in line to provide some relief? Why did they support a socialist democrat controlled government that is bent on strangling American business?

It is a fact our American auto brands are in serious if not terminal trouble. There are three parties to blame for that. The UAW is first and foremost in line; the auto companies come in second but not by much and then the government.

The union has not paid one bit of attention to the plight of the American auto industry since the mid sixties. There have been several near misses over the past forty years. Chrysler had to be bailed out once and now we are talking about doing it again and look, Chrysler is in line with their hand out too. How many times has the auto workers union in the last forty years volunteered to aid the car companies? How many times has the union voiced concerns about the health of their industry?

How many times has the UAW either threatened to strike or actually walked out to get higher wages and better long-term benefits, while the industry itself was suffering downturns? They do however try to blame the bad fortunes of the car companies of foreign imports. Are they really trying to tell us that the world’s largest manufacturing corporation (General Motors) cannot compete with some Japanese or German company?

Case in point, Saturn was the best selling brand under the GM umbrella. Saturn had the highest quality, best sales and service and the best service records system in the GM family. Why? Saturn was not so much part of GM as it was owned by GM. All Saturn vehicles were built in Spring Hill, Tennessee, a Right To Work state. i.e. you could not be forced to join the union. Therefore workers had a solid incentive to work hard and be conscientious of their performance. Workers knew that everyone would pull their own weight and no one had to cover for the slacker next to them who was only keeping their job because of the union (like teachers and government employees, they don’t have to work or show performance because the unions keep them from getting fired). Now GM has folded Saturn into the family and moved assembly to other plants, UAW controlled union shops. Now Saturn is suffering the same fate as all the rest of the GM line and rapidly losing it’s faithful (myself included).

The Big Three Car Companies share the blame.
None of the big three have opposed the union’s outrageous demands.
None of the big three have spent the past 35 years researching and developing vastly improved vehicles. All of the big three suffer from the same bloated, inefficient mid and upper level management bureaucracy that stiffels innovation.
Remember the 70’s? Remember the oil crisis? Remember the introduction of the Japanese small car? GM, Ford and Chrysler don’t. They all have become so bogged down in their own self-importance that they forgot the golden rule of capitalism.

If you want them to beat a path to your door, first you have to build a better mousetrap.

You are going to have a hard time convincing me that for 35 years the best and brightest at GM and Ford could not have cooked up at least three types of automobiles that either get 50 miles a gallon or use no gasoline at all. The 70’s taught all Americans how vulnerable we all are to foreign despots shutting off our oil and gas supplies. Well all Americans except the far left of the Democratic Party, all of congress and the automakers.
The big 3 automakers brought the current financial crisis on themselves by not innovating, by not streamlining, and well by not doing the things that every other business in the world has to do everyday, stay competitive.

The Federal Government gets to share in the blame as well. Two ways the feds and congress have aided and abetted the current big 3 car companies problems; elected politicians have been in the pocket of the union and concerted effort to regulate and tax the auto industry out of the country. When if ever have you heard that the UAW was supporting a candidate for office that was pro-capitalism?

The UAW and most unions support socialist democratic candidates that will enact legislation to make it easier for the unions to enslave new members. The latest is the unions backing of Obama in order to remove the secret ballot from union elections. No longer would your decision to bring a union into your work place be protected by secret ballot, you will have to say Yes or No in full view of the union thugs, how intimidating is that vote going to be?

Government lead by the far left environmentalists has diligently worked to punish car companies for not meeting political goals and standards.

News Flash, we did not go to the moon before 1970 because Kennedy insisted we tax or fine all aviation companies for not getting us there.
The Wright brothers did not take the first flight because they were threatened with tighter bicycle regulations and higher tariffs.
These things were done by incentive, the goal and the reward were clear.

If the government wishes to be in the automobile innovation business (which I will argue they have no constitutional authority to be there) they should propose an incentive plan.

First, a tax incentive the to the first American automaker that can mass produce a vehicle that meets these criteria:
Must carry no less than 4 passengers.
Must be built entirely inside the United States. (Including all parts and accessories)
Must get a verifiable 50 miles per gallon of gasoline or better.
Extra benefit if the vehicle uses no fuel at all.
Must have an MSRP sticker price of $25,000.00 or less.

Then offer a tax credit to any American who buys this vehicle.

No taxpayer money would be involved in the development, American jobs would be saved and new ones created, the environment would be helped and the American consumer would have great new vehicle.

I have witnessed all my life the destructive force both the federal government and the union have had on the auto industry. I have also seen just how self-destructive the manufacturers are to themselves. All my life I have been simultaneously the Son, Nephew and Cousin of autoworkers.

So it astounds me that after the UAW actively supported Obama for president, argueably the most radical, far left socialist candidate ever to run for president, the union is now somehow concerned the auto makers wont survive. They probably wont survive an Obama administration, if they do survive the higher taxes and even stricter environmental standards, it will probably be due to nationalization. They may only survive because the government has taken them over.

Like any good competitive industry, once the unions start calling the shots and the upper management gets complacent, the game is over. Look at the state of public education in our country. No real reforms can take place as the teachers union blocks them. Look at the utter disgrace the federal bureaucracy has become, because of the union it is almost impossible to fire useless bureaucrats or to reward productive ones.

I stand by my position; no taxpayer-funded employee should be entitled to be shielded by a union. If the taxpayers are providing the funds for the salary then those employees should not be able to hide behind a union. They should be responsible to the taxpayers for their job performance.

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