Auto Industry "Bailout"

The UAW isn't happy it was shut out of the loan deal, but they shouldn't be shocked.

Automobile Industry "Bailout"

Bush did the right thing with his proposal to save the auto industry, according to this editorial.

And if our dictator's conditions are way harsh, Obama can change those conditions--we hope.

Automobile Industry Crisis

While Bush's plan is better than nothing, it isn't much, since workers have to make concessions.

This is horseshit:

He said the companies' workers should agree to wage and work rules that are competitive with foreign automakers by the end of next year.

And he called for elimination of a "jobs bank" program — negotiated by the United Auto Workers and the companies — under which laid-off workers receive unemployment benefits and supplemental pay from their companies for 48 weeks. If they remain laid off beyond that, they move to a jobs bank in which the company provides about 95% of their pay and benefits. Until the most recent contract, people could remain in the jobs bank for years. Early this month, the UAW agreed to suspend the program.

Why the fuck not demand foreign manufacturers to have wage and work rules competitive with American? Of course, THEY are subsidized.

Automobile Industry "Bailout"

Something MUST be done about these assholes who are trying to destroy the American auto industry and American unions. These people are TRAITORS.

Again from that one discussion board whereby the writer rightly says this crisis is inextricably tied to the credit meltdown:

Nobody's buying Hondas or Toyotas these days, either.

Yes, our automakers have some culpability for their current plight. But not totally, and PARTICULARLY not GM. GM tried to move the American auto industry into the 21st century back in the early '60s with some really innovative automobiles, led by the Corvair but also including the Nova and the Pontiac Tempest. Ralph Nader made his name killing off the most innovative of the bunch, the Corvair, a truly fine car, the best subcompact in the world at that time and one of the finest handling off-the-shelf cars ever available in the United States until just recently, and his efforts set back American compact car technology thirty years and allowed Japan to eat our automotive lunch.

A friend of mine had a Corvair and an early Toyota Corona. The Corvair, although five years older, was superior in every way except oil consumption, and when we had a choice we took the Corvair because it was so much more fun and more pleasant to drive. We didn't yet have the hang of aluminum block engines at that time, a problem that also doomed the Vega, an car that was inferior to the Corvair in many ways. The Corona, a '68, was absolutely HORRIBLE, particularly its handling, a problem Toyota didn't solve until 1974.

We also legislatively mandated emissions reduction before the technology existed to accomplish the goals set in the legislation. I do not argue that such legislation was not badly needed at the time, nor do I maintain that American automaker resistance to improvements was a factor in this, but anybody who bought a 1974 American car was left with a great reluctance ever to buy any similar car again. The onset of catalytic converters then made things right, but the public relations damage had been done. And still American technology lagged behind Japan's when it came to smaller cars.

But we also mandated a lot of very weird safety regulations, particularly impacting the design of automotive interiors and adversely affecting comfort. This chased a lot of automakers, particularly those from France and Italy, out of America, and made American cars a lot more dorky compared to their German and Japanese counterparts. Remember, Japanese cars have at their bases the reverse-engineering of German designs, just like Nikons were initially reverse-engineered Leicas. Honda aped BMW, even down to some design specifics like the dashboards. Mazda got its start with the German firm NSU. Toyotas began to negotiate curves when they copied Mercedes suspension designs.

But the rise of SUVs is a relatively recent phenomenon and has resulted largely from marketing. This marketing was augmented in recent years by particularly strange Bush administration policies offering HUGE tax breaks to the purchasers of the biggest and most inefficient SUVs, breaks that, unlike the credits for hybrid cars, are not capped and terminated after the sale of a certain number of units (which Honda and Toyota have already exceeded). It isn't that long ago that "jeeps," which is what we used to call SUVs similarly to the way we call all facial tissues "kleenex" no matter who actually made them, were uncommon and were generally bought only by people who had need for off-road capabilities. Nowadays I doubt that more than 10% of SUVs have ever even been on DIRT roads, much less off-road.

But again, as far as I know, the only automaker actually doing well right now is the AMG subsidiary of Mercedes Benz, because one thing about Great Depressions is that the rich not only still have theirs, they've got yours, too.

But foreign governments ARE rescuing their auto industries, and providing other ongoing advantages to their carmakers as well, most notably their national health care systems that take away from their manufacturers that huge burden that our own industries are expected to bear. Health care alone adds an estimated $1,200 to the price of each American car.

You may have noticed that the chief players obstructing the bailout are from Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina, all home to recently opened assembly plants owned by foreign car companies including Mercedes Benz, Hyundai, BMW, Toyota, Honda and others, whose home countries are heavily subsidizing their carmakers and bailing them out of their current woes with huge infusions of cash. This, my friends, is the very essence of anti-competitive practice, and to have lawmakers from those states carrying out a vendetta against the UAW at the expense of literally MILLIONS of American jobs angers and sickens me.

They bandy about this "$74.00/hr." figure implying that it represents compensation to auto workers. Bullshit! That wildly-inflated figure includes retirement costs for CURRENT retirees no longer working, health care for current workers and retirees, and every other benefit negotiated between the carmakers and the unions. They compare this with a claim of "21.00/hr." average hourly rate for workers at foreign car assembly plants, conveniently ignoring the fact that the retiree population for a plant that only opened in the last decade is far smaller than for the century-old American automakers, and that the plants are largely involved in the mere assembly of foreign-manufactured parts, with far fewer of the higher-paid design and high-tech machine work required to initially make those parts. There are VERY few workers in the UAW earning $148K/yr., even when all their benefits are added into their wages. Furthermore, I doubt that most workers at the MB plant in Alabama are making less than $42K, even in salary alone. The compensation comparison made by Shelby, Corker and others is totally BOGUS.

If it were only car quality at issue, then Honda and Toyota would still be doing well. It is not. New automobile sales depend on the availability of credit, and that availability has largely been curtailed in recent months. American automakers were also hurt badly by $4.20/gal. gasoline last summer, but GM in particular is already deep into the process of retooling for greater fuel efficiency, led by the Volt (which will have an EPA rating over 100 mpg) but including many other models, including the world-class Chevy Malibu. They have also greatly improved their quality, now matching the best from Germany and Japan. It is unfair to blame current management for their plight, a plight shared by every automaker throughout the world.

Foreign carmakers, alas, do not have to deal with obstructionist Republican senators. It will be such a shame if we let these few small-minded, evil-intentioned men destroy the very industry that has played the greatest role to make America a world power. We must not send our automakers into bankruptcy, and we must not allow these rightwing jerks to destroy the UAW.

People should be protesting in the streets over these bastards' actions.

Do you think we are going to get anything passed with these bastards being able to filibuster? No, but they sure are going to make noise about "corruption in Illinois," the latest of which actually began as a Republican plot.

I thought I'd never live to see the day Bush would do something right  as  trying to save the American auto industry. And no doubt many of his advisers believe as Pat Buchanan does that if the GOP ruins the car industry in this country, their party is FINISHED.

Note asshole Corker is from Tennessee, which has foreign-owned auto plants. There is no doubt these bastards are after the unions.

These legislators' careers should be over.

The ongoing debate over the auto bailout has demonstrated the conspiracy of the automakers, the two big business parties and the UAW against the autoworkers. All insist that workers must pay for a crisis that they did not cause, in order to restore the auto companies to profitability so they can once again be a lucrative source of income for corporate executives and big investors who are responsible for the financial catastrophe.

Workers must reject this whole reactionary framework. The alternative to bankruptcy is not never-ending wage and benefit cuts, which do nothing to preserve jobs in any case. Rather, autoworkers must mobilize their independent strength based on an entirely new strategy. The auto companies and the banking system must be taken out of the hands of the wealthy and placed under the democratic control of working people themselves. This requires the building of a mass political party of the working class, based on a socialist and internationalist program, in order to fight for a workers’ government and genuine democratic control over all economic decisions.

American workers being what they are, and the economy being in such horrid shape, won't riot, but if there was ever a justification, this is it.

The UAW needs to nail these southern senators to the wall.The senators are all on the take from foreign automakers, and they are acting like assholes.

No, You Stupid Shit

Riots will happen if the GOP destroys the auto industry, not because of a loan.

What an ass DeMint is. Here is another one who needs to be targeted when he runs for re-election.

The Booming Economy

As the GOP tries its damnedest to steal a couple of seats in Illinois and distract people from REAL problems, Bank of America may shed as many 35,000 jobs in the next three years.

And the assholes also known as Senate Republicans continue their insane desire to destroy the American auto industry and possibly their own corrupt party.

Oh, I'm sorry, the Republicans are the party of anti-corruption.

Auto Industry "Bailout"

The GOP, as expected, are trying to kill the bill, although there are some of them with a tiny bit of sense and realize their own jobs are on the line.

If that asshole Shelby gets his way and kills the auto industry, he and his other colleagues who started this should be thrown out of office. These assholes are willing to help Wall Street to the tune of $700 billion, but they refuse to help out a major industry and millions of workers for a fraction of that.

Assholes, total assholes.

I Have Been Asking This Question

all along, and that's why it is the workers, the rank-and-file, have to always be forced into concessions, yet the robber barons practically get away with murder?

It's because economic policies don't favor the huge majority of people; those in power want to retain that power and enrich themselves further at the vast majority's expense. But if anybody DARE raise the obvious problems, they are accused of waging "class warfare," or they are "envious."

The Booming Economy [Updated]

Some 533,000 jobs were slashed in November.
_____

GM--2,000 jobs to be cut.
_____

Now that the latest jobless figures have shocked some sense into Congress, it appears an agreement is nearing regarding the auto industry crisis.
_____

This article exposes the LIES about the U.S. auto industry which continue to be peddled, especially by so-called liberals.
_____

Automobile Industry Bailout

Harry Reid says right now the auto assistance doesn't have the votes to pass.

Workers will still get the shaft regardless.

I doubt Congress will allow the industry to die, though.

Auto Industry "Bailout"

This poll shows an astounding amount of ignorance:

The bailout faces a skeptical public. Sixty-one percent oppose providing the auto companies with billions in federal assistance, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll released Wednesday. Fifty-three percent said it would not help the economy.

Few saw any quick impact if the U.S. auto industry were to go bankrupt - only one in three said it would affect them immediately or in a year. Most of the rest said they thought it would affect them eventually, though nearly one-quarter said they would never feel its impact.

First of all, it's a loan, not a "bailout." That accounts for the skepticism. If the media told the truth, there wouldn't be. Furthermore, there would be a chain reaction were the auto industry to go under, and the entire economy would plunge into a depression.

People are ill-informed.

A Question

Are auto workers about to get the shaft--again?

It would appear so.

Automobile Industry "Bailout"

It sounds like only UAW is the one going to have to make the concessions.

I can't believe the whole goddamned thing.

Automobile Industry "Bailout"

Be wary of any "plan" coming down the pikes, as it is obvious some parties in this matter want to destroy the UAW and thus ruin the standard of living of many workers.

Options are being considered. The industry can NOT be allowed to go under; it's inconceivable.

I, too, get too angry for words when I listen to asshole Republicans who clearly have a death wish for their party in claiming GM and the other auto companies should die:

The idea that they would let GM go down is so outrageous it has me screaming at my TV set whenever I see Richard Shelby or Lindsey Graham talking about how GM brought this all on themselves. Look, the Hummers and the Suburbans (and Expeditions and Rams) were absurd vehicles, sure, but how they got here isn't as important as what will happen if they fall. And remember, the government had some culpability in this, exempting SUVs and light trucks from CAFE standards and cutting CAFE standards up into weight classes, and offering BIG tax credits to the purchasers of the biggest and heaviest SUVs.

But Shelby and Graham are acting particularly nasty and hypocritical here. Shelby represents Alabama, home of the BMW plant that builds its R, GL and M class vehicles -- the big, heavy ones. Graham represents South Carolina, where BMW makes its X-class SUVs and the Z4. If our Big Three go down, their states will benefit from the disappearance of major competitors. I am sure that Graham and Shelby are wholly in favor of the EU's and Germany's bailouts of their auto industries.

And of course, Republicans have long lusted for the death of the UAW.

And how ridiculous is it, all this contrived hand-wringing over the CEOs of the Big Three flying to their hastily-scheduled congressional testimony in corporate jets? What did these congressmen expect, that these CEOs would fly into BWI using coach tickets on Southwest, and somehow that would ease GM's, Ford's and Chrysler's financial woes? Jeesh!

The only trouble with this is people can't afford Mercedes Benzes and BMWs. It's stupid on its face, but par for the course for Republicans.

Shelby, Graham, and any other asshole who proposes death to an industry which would result in a great depression should be targeted for defeat when they come up for re-election.

Automobile Industry Bailout

Actually, the $700 billion is the best solution to the auto problem, for it would be a LOAN and would not cost taxpayers a single extra dime.

But I am telling readers, if Congress doesn't do shit and the auto industry goes under or does something to hurt or destroy the UAW, there will be HELL to pay.

One-tenth of the labor force directly affected, plus millions more indirectly affected, will NOT sit quietly and take it.

Political Commentary

Pat Buchanan of all people hits the nail right on the head that if the GOP destroys the auto industry, it's probably the end of the party.

After all, ALL of the "rust belt" states, including previously red states such as Indiana and Ohio, and others hard hit by the economic downturn such as North Carolina and Virginia, went Democratic, and the GOP can just about forget it if they are going to shit all over a major industry which directly and indirectly involves literally millions and millions of jobs.

It can't be allowed to happen--EVER.

Remember this, and tattoo it on your forehead:

When workers, execs, engineers, dealers, salesmen and suppliers are all factored in, the Big Three employ 3 million people who contribute $21 billion a year to Social Security and Medicare, and $25 billion in federal income taxes. Add in all the businesses that depend on the auto industry, and we are talking about one-tenth of the U.S. labor force.

As columnist Tom Piatak of Chronicles and Takimag.com writes, 850,000 retirees, and their families, depend for pensions and health care on the Big Three. If they go under, the burden falls on us.

And to let the auto industry die is to write America out of much of the economic future of the planet.

Add to that millions and millions of other workers employed by other industries and businesses dependent on cities where auto manufacturing is a primary employer. Not to mention state and local governments and school districts dependent on the tax base of these workers. It's the domino effect, and it would kill our country.

It would plunge the country into another Great Depression.

Automobile Industry "Bailout"

Mitt Romney, who may be a presidential candidate in 2012, isn't as big an idiot as Richard Shelby and DOESN'T say at all the auto industry in this country should die; what he thinks should happen is the industry go through "managed bankruptcy."

That sounds better at first, but then realize the goal is to kill the UAW. Not good.

The WSWS is concerned about that very thing.

Automobile Industry Bailout

Congress is so fucking stupid to worry about procedures, they don't give a SHIT if their inaction causes another Great Depression:

Automakers have warned that millions of jobs depend on quick federal aid to the manufacturers of iconic brands including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and Jeep, and have taken out web and newspaper ads warning of the dire consequences of the industry's demise.

Wagoner has warned GM needs an infusion of cash in the coming weeks to prevent a devastating bankruptcy at the nation's largest automaker and cannot wait until president-elect Barack Obama -- who has promised to bail out the sector -- is sworn in on January 20.

Tell the GOP to get its head out of its ass; after all, workers are also voters.

And WSWS notes:

Meanwhile, auto parts companies have joined Detroit’s Big Three automakers—General Motors, Ford and Chrysler—in seeking a portion of the $700 billion government bailout. Economists predict that if one or more of the automakers were to fail, some three million jobs could be wiped out throughout the economy. Congress is holding discussions on the bailout under conditions of a growing consensus—reiterated by President-Elect Barack Obama in his “60 Minutes” interview Sunday—that any government aid package would be contingent on auto workers accepting sweeping wage and benefit concessions.

The economic downturn is already taking a massive social toll. The number of personal bankruptcy filings jumped almost 8 percent in October over the previous month—after increasing sharply over the last two years—according to Mike Bickford, president of the Automated Access to Court Electronic Records, a bankruptcy data and management company.

It's the domino effect. Auto industry job losses equal auto parts job losses, equal gas station job losses, equal local business job losses, equal local government and school job loses, and it eventually goes national.

Tell that to shithead Shelby. He can't count.

The Automobile Industry Bailout

I thought this was good and will post this in its entirety, as it explains why it is important the U.S. automakers NEED help and why the assholes like Shelby of Alabama want them to die:

I just listened to Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) on two of the three network Sunday morning talking head programs. Y'know, Richard Shelby brings to mind how we Democrats can hardly have our views better validated than we do whenever we look at those who have abandoned our party for the Republicans because our party was a bad fit. They include such luminaries as Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, Lester Maddox, Pat Robertson, David Dukes, Frank Rizzo, and, of course, Richard Shelby. He's a turncoat and good riddance, I say.

His position regarding the financial woes of the American automobile industry, and that of most Republicans, is basically like that old New York Post headline during NYC's fiscal crisis of the 1970s when Gerald Ford vetoed Federal assistance: "Ford to City: Drop Dead!" He maintains that the auto companies brought this on themselves, and therefore deserve to go bankrupt. He vows to filibuster any aid package for GM, Ford, and/or Chrysler, and let them die.

I know that the Republicans have long dreamed of destroying the UAW, and a declaration of bankruptcy will accomplish that goal, rendering union contracts void. They don't care that this will cost literally MILLIONS of hard-working Americans and their families their jobs, their health care, their pensions, and throw them out onto the streets when jobs are the harder to find than at any time since the Great Depression. If they can lay the UAW low, they couldn't care less about the pain of the workers, since they don't actually feel any of it themselves.

But understand, GM is looking for $25 billion as a LOAN, not a bailout. And this is what Shelby vows to filibuster. Assuming GM survives (a strong assumption if they can only survive until the new administration and new congress comes online), the cost to the taxpayer will be literally NOTHING. It would come out of the ridiculous $700 billion already appropriated for the fatcat robber barons in the financial industry, the real culprits in this current crisis where the automakers are mere victims.

Of course, European and Asian automakers will certainly be bailed out by their governments. It's only our guys who have a government so unbelievably irresponsible that they will let their largest and most important manufacturing sector fail.

For Shelby, of course, something else is at work. The state he represents, Alabama, is the site of an automaker, too. Mercedes-Benz builds its big SUVs, its M-Class and its GL-class, and its crossover R-class, in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. Of course, Germany and the EU will NOT let Daimler AG fail, so maybe Shelby also wants to cut off the competition before they can metamorphose into companies that build truly competitive cars.

Of course, Republicans also do the bidding of the oil companies, and those little darlings might be growing alarmed, particularly at GM, at some of the cars the American automakers plan to release in the almost immediate future. The Chevrolet Volt is estimated at this time to achieve a gas mileage of somewhere between 100 and 150 mpg. Well, they can't have THAT!

If our automakers declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy, there is no reorganization that will solve their problems. Credit has dried up anyhow, and nobody wants to buy a new car from a company in a dicey reorganization because they're afraid that they won't be able to get parts and service. Chapter 11 will almost immediately become Chapter 7, and all those people, real people with real families who have worked hard all their lives, will be thrown out of work, out of health care, and soon out of their homes.

This can't be allowed to happen. It is just inconceivable. This kind of obstructionism on the part of Republicans is a preview of what we will see in the years to come, with less and less sense to it -- just opposition for opposition's sake. We will need to deal with it, and we will need to deal with this. Something must be done so that the automakers can survive the three months they must endure before we get a more responsible government in place, or we will be in a new Greater Depression, with the automakers leading the way down the pit.

I don't care if it takes $25 billion, $100 billion, or $500 billion. Our automobile industry is WORTH saving.

And make sure Republicans like Shelby are tossed out on their worthless asses.

You know, I don't give a damn WHERE the money comes from; the situation is DIRE, not only for the auto industry, but for the economy.

Congress and the White House dither while the country burns.

This:

The debate in Washington comes as the financial situation for General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F) and Chrysler LLC grows more difficult.

"There's a high degree of urgency" for federal action if GM is going to stave off a financial crisis, Rick Wagoner, GM chairman and chief executive, said Sunday in a joint appearance with United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger on WDIV-TV in Detroit.

In her statement Monday, Perino said, "The auto industry is an important part of our manufacturing base, and we want the industry to succeed and compete in the global economy." But she also said that media reports have erroneously depicted the administration as taking too harsh a stand on financial relief.

"We believe this assistance should come from the program created by Congress that was specifically designed to assist the automakers - from the $25 billion Department of Energy loan program," Perino said.

Get the goddamned money to them, you stupid jerks.

The Booming Economy

Congress has passed $25 billion to help out the auto industry, which actually helps keep people employed in this country, but there is certainly something wrong with this picture when Wall Street is likely to get a far bigger bailout.