Rachel Maddow: GOP's Platform is Now to Reduce the Wages of American Workers
By Heather Friday Dec 12, 2008 11:00am
Rachel Maddow hits the nail on the head with this one. The GOP has now decided it is good for them politically to rail against unions and against Americans earning a living wage. I'd love to know just how low the wages of auto workers should go before it would satisfy these guys if someone is a union member, or if it just doesn't matter as long as the UAW is busted and their foreign interests in their states are satisfied.
It's a fine rant, kind of like an extended symphony, and she wraps it up by setting off the cannons behind Barack Obama's express concerns about the "devastating ripple effect throughout our economy" the collapse of the Big Three would have:
Maddow: That's what most Americans are worried about with this issue. What are the Republican Senators worried about who say they don't want to deal unless they can break the unions in this way? Besides their friends in Japan, I guess, who have state-subsidized plants in their home states, we can tell that Senator Corker's plan requires even further cuts from union workers and stakeholders in the companies than already have been offered. Blame the workers -- especially, blame the United Auto Workers. That's what we're hearing from Senate Republicans as our auto industry skids toward the brink of extinction. And they're saying if you do save the industry, they want to do it with conditions that break the unions while the industry is being saved.
It appears to me that Senate Republicans are on an ideologically driven union-busting adventure here, that happens to have the prospect of increasing the market share of the foreign-owned companies who work in their states. American-owned companies and the American economy as a whole be darned -- those foreign-owned companies that serve the individual states of these senators who are objecting to this bailout, they're the ones who are getting served.
Why aren't Democrats making them filibuster this -- making them stand up and defend this, if this is really what they want the country to know they're doing?
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Reduce wages while cutting taxes. I guess you come out even.
Raise taxes and increase wages. I guess you come out even.
The democrats are useless. Could Harry Reid possibly be anymore ineffectual? Honestly, what a joke that man is.
MAKE the evil bastards stand in front of the American people, and rail against middle class workers.
I turned it off and play my shoot 'em up game to let off some steam...
The fuckin spineless dems should have MADE them filibuster!!!!
Let the American people who are goin to be feelin this worse than any politician, know just what the motivating factors are!!!
God FUCKING DAMMIT!!!
When God has sex what does he cry out in passion?
ME! ME! ME! MEEEE!
Like a five year old under a Christmas tree
Or pundits talking about the issues.
at least not for about 2000 years or so...he's still getting blamed for the last time.
Everytime it snows it's just God whacking off.
thanks...
Does LBJ (Little Baby Jebus) cry when he does?
Or does an angel get it's wings? I can't remember...
... snow angels.
And snow cream...
I will never eat another snow cone.
And if the Dem congress hadn't been so friggin' stupid as to bail out Wall Street, when economists indicated the Wall Street bailout would fail, they would have had more sway to bail out the big 3.
Congratulations, Tepid Tea Reid. Now the GOP is going to play you like a harp. You'll help break up the UAW to get this passed, and will look like the craven fools you are.
Or you will allow the big 3 to fail, and look like the craven fools you are for supporting Wall Street.
get a bailout?
GM is in the worst shape (of the 3) because of high costs, indifferent product, overpaid and inefficient workers, overpaid and inefficient middle management, overpaid and inefficient upper management, poor strategic decisions, poor designs, hugh legacy costs, etc.
If GM were allowed to go bankrupt, investors would pick through GM's assets, buy the vehicles (and related maunfacturing, design and supply side management facilities) that still had market share or substantial marketability, insist on greater efficiency from EVERYONE working at/managing the facilities being purchased and let the unproductive and unsaleable assets fall away.
This sort of massive resturcturing is necessary to save some of at least 1 and possibly all three of the Big 3. Government is not in a good position to do this. You cannot really increase efficiency with government control and the government has no interest in triage - eliminating unprofitable vehicle lines and all associated management and workers.
But if Wall Street got a chance, so should our auto industry...
Let's give the money to the auto industry to buy them a few months. I'm just curious what the plan should be once the money is gone, the Car Czar (gag) is ineffectual and the Big 3 CEOs still have their hands out.
I don't care a whit about the big 3 as corporations. Their management has been grossly incompetent, and overpaid for that incompetence, so it's best to let the swamp be drained before attempting to refill it with clean water. Rather than letting the swamp fester on.
However, I am beginning to agree that it should not be an instant death, in order to allow competitors to get a chance to grow larger and take on the workers who would have been laid off.
I'm certainly open to argument about letting them die anyway, as I'm just barely on the side of the big 3 for the sake of preventing a depression.
As for overpaid workers, check out this article. It puts that myth to rest, with one concession - already retired workers (legacy costs) are the cause of most of the higher worker costs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/business/ec...
Weak-Kneed Reid ...
Didn't take long, huh ..? well, I guess it's back to writing my Senators!
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As it prepares to leave office, the Bush administration is moving to make it easier for U.S. farming companies to hire foreign field workers, which farmworker groups say will worsen wages and working conditions.
Farm groups said that changes to the H2A visa program, used by the agriculture industry to hire temporary farm workers, were posted on the Labor Department's Web site at midnight Tuesday but have since been taken down.
Labor Department spokesman Terry Shawn said whatever was posted wasn't the final version of the new rule, which Shawn said would be released Thursday and published in the Federal Register on Dec. 18.
but the farmworker groups shoulda been fighting illegal immigration too...and they sat on their hands for years
Being a marginally informed citizen of the United States these days is very much like watching a terrible car wreck in slow motion and there is nothing you can do but scream "watch out!". There is just to much mass involved to get it stopped before there are some very serious injuries and there are some insisting on stepping on the gas.
It's clear to me that those who voted against the loan to the big 3 (it's not a "bailout", people!) want the wages of auto workers to be reduced--I don't think that the southern senaters don't necessarily care to bust the unions, they just want the little guys and gals on the assembly lines to take home less money. Only problem is the disparity in the standards of living between Michigan and the cheaper southern states. Oops, forgot that one little point.
You can buy a house in Detroit for less than 10 grand. Since there is virtually no industry anymore in OH and MI, house prices are dropping to levels in southern states. You do have costs for heat and such, which you do not have as much of down south.
You're wrong in saying they only want the little guys and gals to take home less money. They HAVE to bust the unions to do that, because it will then trickle down to all workers in all industries.
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or nation. I would call being loyal to Japan and Germany over the USA would be covered under that definition.
Does the GOP platform come with a trapdoor?
"Platform to reduce wages of American workers" is a truly excellent tagline. It instantly knocks down the stupidity and hypocrisy of the Repub position. I would love to see more devastatingly effective 'framing' of big picture issues in the future.
Is it just me ? That picture behind her looks like the GOP if F*&king the car (industry)?
I've always known that the Republican Party was the party of big business, but at least they used to be the party of American big business. Trying to destroy the remnants of America's industrial base in order to get at the unions is nothing short of economic treason. GOP senators are still wrapping themselves in the flag, but it's not the American one.
American workers have had it far too easy for too long.
The trouble is, many have parents and grandparents who remember and brag about a time when America had the largest middle class in the world.
A large middle class is out of step with the new world order and downright dangerous. It only leads to picketing and mob rule.
Our modern global economy must have stability--with every worker in the world making the same wages according to their rank. Then no worker will be able to point to Americans and cry--"They're making more than me. It's not fair."
And it's NOT fair.
We must level the world pie by lowering American wages. Then and only then can we make the pie higher. A chicken in every pot from here to Hanoi. Peace and prosperity the world over.
But first American workers must sacrifice for a while. Give up your unions and your old tattered American Dream for a newer, shinier Global Dream.
The excuse corporations give for outsourcing work is it's more efficient, (less costly), and the reason why it's less costly, is because the workers are paid less, and the reason the workers are paid less, is that higher wages for only certain industries in foreign countries would be destabilising to the society...
So isn't it just as destabilising to expect workers in any industries to work for less pay in America?
(Macroeconomics as per Equus.)
take a look at the tech and customer service industry
can anyone tell me with a straight face that customer service is better now than it was before outsourcing?
and this has hurt the companies...but they dont care...cuz their ceo's still make gobs of money
Bush wants to make the pie higher.
Sorry ... History does not support your contention. A strong middle class is the result of strong democratic values coupled with shared sacrifice.
I cannot tell if you are a Utopian or a Machiavellian. But, the rise of corporate power (i.e. taxpayers giving billions to the banks and other corporate interests) has ALWAYS resulted in extreme poverty.
The bank bailout has been a disaster. A pure corporate giveaway. The irony is the "AutoBillBailout" could have benefited from the "BankBailotFraud" and required the funds go directly to the worker thereby going into theeconomy.
But, there are those nim-rods on the right that feel - GOD FORBID! an autoworker earn a median income! Protestant work ethic be damned!
Before any union accepts a paycut demand from Congress, we should all demand this quid pro quo: Paycuts for Congress!
Think about it. Wouldn't most Americans cheer for such a cut?
After all, corporate management and Congressional failure at oversight got this country into this economic meltdown. So now it's time average citizens demand that they put up or shut up.
Because we're damn mad that they're still putting partisanship, regionalism and anti-labor ideology way ahead of our nation.
Call them today: Congress, cut your pay!
Make them PAY for their own HealthCare too.
Sure, let's really make sure only the rich can rule us!
why not force the repugs to do a real fillibuster?
would that make you late for your prayer meeting?
reid must go
but the dems are all wusses...so he stays
as for unions being uneccesary in today's economic climate...take a look at the story of agriprocessors and other now non union meat packing plants
Read THIS ARTICLE, pay close attention to the last paragraph.
This is how people of many other countries see the USA. What the people of the USA don't see is the dangers that lie in the last paragraph.
Bob...that's quite the interesting article...it seems as if the author, while learning quite a bit about how this country is...missed something...that last paragraph seems to me, a rose-colored glassed view of this country, that I sure as hell don't see.
It's shocking, for lack of a better word, that someone from India has more faith in our country than I do right now.
The only reason I can think of that Reid isn't forcing the Republicans to actually filibuster this is that he's on board with breaking the unions, too.
I don't belive for a second that Reid is a wimp. You don't push and shove your way through our political system if you're a wimp. I just don't think he's actually on our side. If he remains in the leadership position, I expect to see countless replays of this type of thing over the next four years.
Here is a list of things the GOP has opposed that would have benefitted the average worker in this country.
The GOP opposed:
1) Agricultural subsidies
tennesse valley authrity
2) Rural Electrification
3) Fair labor standards which gave us the 8hr work day and overtime pay
4) National Labor Relations Act which allows collective bargaining
5) US entry into World Wwar II
6) GI bill of rights
7) Marshall Plan
8) creation of interstate highways
9) medicare
10) clean air and clean water act
11) National health insurance
12) Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1965
12) equal rights amendment for women
Source: *conceptual guerilla
And the GOP doesn't want to destroy the unions? The GOP thinks American workers are overpaid not underpaid.
I keep reading that this is about living wages or union busting or political posturing. What I don't hear about is whether or not the US auto industry as it stands is viable in the global economy.
If the US automakers can't make a profit, regardless of the reason, then why should the taxpayers fund an unprofitable business? With the same money we could fund a profitable, innovative business or fund more education or find a cure for (insert name of disease).
And please don't say that it's because people will lose jobs because millions of people lose jobs every year. Millions of people also get new jobs every year. It's the way things work.
Peace
why?
well first, they make affordable fuel efficient cars that sell
second, health care is paid by the government
unions are strong in europe and workers get paid well, and have pretty good benefit packages (state mandated)
the american car manufacturers were allowed for years to make shit cars....cuz they were subsidized to do so
think there was a need for the suv???? hell no...but the repugs shoved in tax incentives to businesses to buy those pos...as payback to the oil companies
should NOT fund unprofitable businesses. Unless the government wants to prop the Big 3 up with taxpayers' money solely to provide employment. If that's the reason, why not nationalize the Big 3? They can continue to lose money at ever increasing rates and be propped up by government spending. It's a form of social welfare (though an extremely inefficient one).
Of course, if you want the Big 3 to actually be able to compete successfully, then each of them needs to be restructured. Just about everyone involved, whether management or union, is overpaid and underemployed.
"US taxpayers should NOT fund unprofitable businesses. Unless the government wants to prop the Big 3 up with taxpayers' money solely to provide employment. If that's the reason, why not nationalize the Big 3? They can continue to lose money at ever increasing rates and be propped up by government spending. It's a form of social welfare (though an extremely inefficient one)."
US taxpayers shouldn't pay for a lot of things, including policing the world and for wars of aggression, but these clownish senators voted for those costs without a qualm. Practically every industrialized nation in the world protects its industrial base through tariffs and, when need be, through subsidies. These subsidies include government aid to R&D, monetary policy which artificially keeps their costs low (just for example...)
http://www.autoyensubsidy.org/
...and in carrying the cost of healthcare.
"Of course, if you want the Big 3 to actually be able to compete successfully, then each of them needs to be restructured. Just about everyone involved, whether management or union, is overpaid and underemployed."
How about offering National Healthcare (a cost US car manufacturers have to carry, but is born by the government elsewhere). You will not hear rightwing Senators like those mentioned in this story discuss this aspect of why US auto manufacturers have a hard time competing. No, it's all the fault of those lazy, overpaid union folk.
Yes, by all means let's restructure where it makes sense, but the political right is hell bent on using this situation to at long last destroy collective bargaining in this country.
The Republicans have raped Americans with two wars (they won't finish off)They've socilaized a foreign insurance company (AIG) using Yankee dollars. They've robbed America of billions giving the money to the same Saudi Arabians that attacked on 911. They've crashed Wall Street. They're moving to Dubai(Cheney and Haliburton). And the Republicans have outsourced American jobs. Now they want to dismantle our last, remaining weapons manufacturing plant (GM,FORD,Chrysler) so America is totally bankrupt and disarmed.....ARREST ALL REPUBLICAN LEADERS FOR TREASON! START WITH THOSE TREASONOUS REBELS IN THE SOUTH. FLUSH THEM!
Signed,
Yankee Doodle Dandy!
the platform to reduce wages is championed by the GOP, no doubt. but it is much bigger than the GOP.
and it is not new.
which is why support of 'Employee Free Choice Act' is all the more important. the real power is with the people. too bad no one has reminded the people of this fact.
i wish issues like these weren't viewed thru a partisan lens. they are class issues, not party issues.
I couldn't help but think that if these Southern legislators get their way and the American automakers collapse, they believe they'll step up a rung on the industrial ladder, even if it has to be with foreign automakers. At least, they don't have any unions. Don't forget that the South was once the leader in the American textile industry. Apparently South Carolina is counting on a come-back:
I really believe the South thinks it is positioning itself to become a strong economic force in America, even if it means union-busting and destroying American automakers. [The South will rise again, anybody?]
Unfortunately, somebody in Congress is delusional. They act and speak as if they don't know the economy is collapsing around their feet. They ignore the chaos and assume that "their kind" would run the plants and mills, while the workers would be drawn from the countryside and paid low wages, just like in the good ole days. Many Southern "gentry" despise the principle of "worker-rights" even today -- that makes everybody too equal and gives the "undeserving" more power than they deserve.
It seems as if they are reveling in watching/taking part in, the economies and industries crumbling in the north...
And having grown up in the south, and worked there many a year, I noticed quite a few people migrating from the north and midwest to come to NC and SC looking for work...that's been goin on for many years now.
Yes, that was what I was aiming to say, that it's quite likely those Southern legislators are reveling in what's happening in the north.
But I also believe as I said above, they're pretty clueless if they think the destruction of the economy in the North won't affect them in the South. It's not likely to affect those who are pretty low on the economic ladder, since the jobs they hold are locally-focused and don't depend a lot on supplies from other places. But there are plenty of businesses and industries that will go under, maybe a little later than those in the northern part of America.
One thing will help keep the economy somewhat afloat in the South, and that's the sheer number of military bases and installations, often partnered geographically with their contractors. That is, unless those contractors are dependent for their supplies anywhere but locally. And of course, it's difficult for a layman to predict the outcome of an economic collapse. There are undoubtedly many factors that are invisible to most of us.
What U.S. Automakers Might Do to Curb Costs
The $70 hourly figure for autoworkers includes the cost of health care and pension, both of which are astronomically high for businesses to shoulder.
The Caterpillar Company is featured in this report with a discussion of what they've done to cut costs. From the report:
the legacy of cost of retirees' pensions...
meh, let's just agree that the $70/hour figure is pure bullshit posing as progaganda posing as information. it only serves those attempting to place the big3's woes on the backs of the workers. again, bullshit.
I agree. The autoworkers' actual hourly salary is not $70 hourly, though the benefits are great. Most companies used to provide them but had to gradually cut costs by cutting out those benefits. The automakers on the other hand, rode along, charging consumers huge amounts of money for their 2nd rate cars and reaping tidy profits on top of what they provided for their employees. Actually, I suspect it's less costly now to pay employees higher hourly salaries and NO benefits.
I am sure someone here..or someone's...know where to pull the campaign contributions for the Gang of 18 to find out how much money they have received in lobbying from the foreign automakers. Then how much money in incentives each of their states have given these same automakers. Then we take that number and slam the gang of 18 to the freaking wall that THEY ARE THE UNAMERICANS they complain about...
The GOP have proven over and over they are not that smart lately...they have left a trail....all we have to do is work it thru, add it up, and hold their feet to the fire with it.
there might be a better site, but start here:
http://www.opensecrets.org/
Every few weeks I have to ratchet up my hate index.
The GOP is DEAD. It's now just a ZOMBIE; slumping aimlessly, moaning and eating flesh...
Can Obama request or influence a new choice of majority leader in the Senate? It seems like it might be in his interest to do so if he wants this congress to get anything done.
I'm so tired of this $70.00 an hour lie. I can't remember where I heard the truth, it may have been on this site but...The Rush Limbaugh lie was explained. What these pieces of shit are doing is they are adding up all the wages, healthcare and pensions of all auto workers and the retired receiving benefits. Here's the trick, when they do the division they only count the current workers.
10 current workers receive $10 and 10 retired workers receive $10. Simple math would say $200/20=$10 each. But with the conservative math it's $200/10(current employees and leaving out the retired)=$20 each.
The Limbots buy it every time.
this is a "perfect storm" if you will. everybody is pointing fingers. the BIG 3 automakers did NOT adapt and/or hedge on the BIG vehicle strategy. like many americans they wait until their backs are against the wall then blame it on workers. dealerships finance money to put vehicles on the lot. consumers are unable to get a loan even with good credit scores. the banks are holding on to their money. look at credit cards interest rates are going up and limits are going down. the credit industry is taking their losses hard and passing as much of it as they can onto the consumer. i believe truth be told they want to produce vehicles in different countries.
cheap or cheaper labor,less regulation and incentives...a Darwinian capitalist wet dream.foreign autos hurting also because of the regionaland global economy. i feel the culprit is much to do about credit default swaps...bailout.....fear....unemployment...foreclosure.... rinse and repeat vicious cycle.
I first encountered this insight here:
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/55
Peace!
I'm anxious to hear the answer to that. In the first 6 years under Bush it was "we don't have a majority to do anything".
In 2006, once the majority was Dem it became "we need a veto proof majority" and " we need to get a Dem in the WhiteHouse..."
So, let's hear it! Why are the Dems so fucking pathetic, this time?
we (the voters) were duped BIGTIME in 06.
/shame on Pelosi, Reid, and Rahm.
If the GOP is trying to bust the unions, it's not entirely their fault. THE UAW agreed to cut wages and benefits - by 2011! The Republicans want the cuts the UAW agreed to enforced in 2009. I didn't see Rachael, CNN today or any other talking head mention this fact. I guess it's up to you to decide whether these proposed cuts in 2011 or 2009 qualify as "union-busting." I, for one, don't think so. How about you?
Yet another reason why Rachel Maddow should be hosting "Meet The Press" instead of suck-ass David Gregory.
I'd love to see Rachel get Shelby, Corker and all the rest of these union-busting Southern Repukes in her sights. She'd destroy them in detail.
The GOP: The Party of Low Wages. I like the sound of that. It sounds to me like -- a catchphrase for '09.
what kind of pay cuts are the rescued bankers being asked to take??
Finally some one in the CORPORATE CONTROLED MEDIA that has the working people and UNIONS BACK, Rachel Maddow. We need more but I will take just one for now. I hope she starts holding the WEAK Democratic Partys Leadership to the FIRE maby Pelosi and REID will find a BACK BONE. Or maby NOT.
The reichwing wants to destroy the middle class leaving only low-paid and uneducated chattel with a wealthy elite owning and running everything.
Why were homes so overpriced and only bad loans offered to buy them? To end private ownership of property except by the wealthy, to leave the majority as tenants in serfdom to the aristocracy.
For more than a decade I have said (though I can't prove it here and now) that a return to feudalism has always been the goal. Remember the line about "communism was the 20th century experiment that failed"? There wasn't just one experiment - the middle class is the other, and it is actively being destroyed.
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