December 17, 2008

United Auto Workers

Whenever a proposed governmental action garners more than half of the American peoples' disapproval, politicians tend to work overtime to set the problem at someone's feet -- usually someone they don't like all that much.

And that's what's happening with the auto industry. Bailout fatigue leads easily to the blame game, especially when a bruised political party sees a way to get back at a group they disagree with on a fundamental level.

The Republican Party wants to use the financial crisis to inflict as much damage as possible upon one of their long-time enemies, labor. According to Manu Raju writing for Politico, a memo distributed this past weekend to GOP operatives across the nation urged them to "stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor" by opposing the auto bailout.

You heard that right: Politicians should oppose the bailout because it is an excellent opportunity to hurt the UAW. Not because CEOs at major American car companies have ridiculously large compensation packages and golden parachutes. Not because American designers make cars Americans don't want to drive. Not because these companies have been spending billions lobbying against changes in long-needed energy efficiency standards. Not because they willfully killed the electric car and other advances in transportation technology. Because of the workers.

The workers who had no choice but to make the cars mandated by the Big Three. They even agreed to concessions earlier this month to help the bailout of the auto industry go smoother, but that wasn't enough to convince Congress to pass the measure.

The auto workers are part of that very small contingent of Americans who actually still make something in this country. They fought hard for decent wages and benefits, but they didn't steal them. The car companies had just as much bargaining power, if not more, than the unions did, and they agreed to the current terms.

Last month, Andrew Ross Sorkin erroneously wrote in The New York Times that Big Three auto workers make $73 an hour. Keith Olbermann pointed out the fatal flaw in Sorkin's logic on his television show, Countdown, noting that Sorkin added up everything the automakers pay out, including benefits paid to retired workers and to spouses of dead workers, then divided that by the amount of workers actually still employed by the Big Three.

"It's a way to come up with a big, outlandish, sexy number and a way to blame only the workers and unions for the disaster in Detroit," Olbermann said. "It's mathematically and intellectually dishonest."

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told Congress that compensation for new hires who are union workers is about $14 an hour, with experienced assemblers ranging up to $28 an hour. In that same testimony, he also noted numerous compensation cuts and other sacrifices the union has agreed to in the past few years to help Detroit balance its books.

"We recognize that the current crisis may require all stakeholders, including the workers and retirees, to make further sacrifices to ensure the future viability of the companies. We are willing to do our part," Gettelfinger told the Senate Banking Committee. "But the UAW vigorously opposes any attempt to make workers and retirees the scapegoats and to make them shoulder the entire burden of any restructuring. Wages and benefits only make up 10 percent of the costs of the domestic auto companies."

So, for continuing to try and stand up for themselves in this tough economy and under an onslaught of political vitriol, we salute the workers at UAW.

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