I spent most of last week with a good friend who’s wife has worked 30 years for GM. She’s an hourly employee and a member of the UAW. She has been a good loyal employee. She passed up the last buyout because she wasn’t ready to pack it in and wanted to work a few more years. She is fourth generation GM. Last week GM gave her an early Christmas present. She will get 8 weeks off now. The normal two weeks at Christmas which is paid and an extra 6 weeks unpaid. Unemployment will pay some of that.
Last year, and I’m using hypothetical numbers, things looked good. Her 401K had over $800,000 and she was qualified to receive $2,500 a month in pension if she retired then. Health insurance was solid which is important since she has big bills for a required medicine. Now the 401K is down to $400,000. If GM files for bankruptcy she gets 60% of the pension guaranteed by the Federal Government.
She’s mad at GM for making a mess of their finances. She’s mad at the Feds for not bailing the company out. She’s mad at the UAW for not taking the deal that would have bailed them out. The UAW get most of the heat right now. The deal Senator Corker put together would have given the company a chance with minimum Government interference. When Nancy Pelosi says” I know more about what kinds of cars Americans want than GM”, that makes all GM people uncomfortable and it should make every American uncomfortable. Translated it means: I will decide what kinds of cars Americans should drive, and then I will force them to drive the kinds of cars I think is best for them. The car czar will be another attorney that has chits in Washington. For GM, it’s like selling your soul to the devil, quick benefits then years in hell.
We need to have compassion for all those workers like my friend’s wife. She didn’t make this problem. But, no compassion for the UAW. They had a lot to do with making the problem and refuse to make any concessions. They say they are giving up the jobs bank. My friend says they have already done that. So they will not throw anything in the pot to help their members. Hard ball at the wrong time.
Even members of the UAW feel they are not needed now. Laws protect most of the things the unions were designed to protect.
So even as GM sinks into the sunset and the UAW calmly watches our new president will take action to put the equivalent of the UAW everywhere with Card Check.
Makes you feel real good about our future, right?
Things just got worse, did you see the enviormental Nazi’s he appointed yesterday, this is sure to doom us.
Funny you should mention that Erv. That group has one goal in mind, to shut down all manufacturing in America. We can throw all the money in the country at manufacturing and that pile of idelists will make it imporssible for any manufacturing to suceed. When the line workers of this country are all out of work, they know who to throw shoes at. Obama and his little band of fools.
Bill