It appears now that the U.S. Senate’s rejection of the The Great Auto Bailout last night came down to the UAW’s refusal to accept wage concessions.
What a shame. One union brings down the whole deal. At least that’s what Republican senators are saying. Evidence again that unions are determined to “get theirs” no matter what.
At some point in this bailout debate I concluded reluctantly that our auto industry didn’t deserve a bailout to rescue them from their own poor decisions. The greedy UAW is a part of that problem (although only a 10% part, according to some sources).
I can appreciate that union workers, like everyone else, are ill-prepared to take a sudden cut in their incomes. But it certainly beats losing their income altogether.
At this point the Bush administration is considering the re-allocation of TARP funds, directing some of them to the automakers. It’s hard to argue against that move, considering Hank Paulson has been dishing that money out willy nilly and it has not been achieving the intended purpose.
While all this has been going on in Washington for what seems like forever, I’ve been weighing the following: my lifelong dislike of unions; the fact that my 15-year-old Japanese-branded Mazda was actually built in a Ford plant in Michigan; the unlikelihood that I’ll outgrow my preference for Japanese cars and the certainty that I wouldn’t buy from a company in bankruptcy; Paulson’s apparent incompetence in administering the TARP funds as intended; Congress’s inability to write and pass finance bills that include important details like rules and conditions on how the money is spent; my opposition to bailing out homeowners who can’t afford their mortgages and the subprime lenders who enabled them; how an economy that absolutely had to be rescued in the waning weeks of the election (or it would collapse within days) is still afloat despite all the debates and hand-wringing in Washington.
Maybe a few more months of hand-wringing and inaction is exactly what the doctor ordered.
The handling of whole bailout scenario has to be one of the saddest events in US history. Pesonally I’m hoping for a 9.7 on the Ricter Scale centered under DC.
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Now that you mention it, that would solve a whole lot of problems.
Awesome comment by sandysays1! LOL! So, basically, the union was ‘effn the workers back then, and now they are still doing it? My huz hit a crossroad in his job about 2 years ago- he decided to jump ship (and took approx $5- less per hour) after working for the same complany for nearly 20 years. It was take a pay cut, or not have a job? Um….. hm….. that’s a no brainer to most.
Even though it was a hard move, we are so grateful he is still working. And yes, maybe since we are all still alive and breathing; we should just keep on doing nothing. I was under the impression that the world was coming to an end if that bailout didn’t go fast!
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After two months of hearing the world is going to end tomorrow if we don’t do something … I’m just getting really tired of hearing about it. Are they just crying wolf? I don’t know what to think anymore.
Hey 30 – I’m with you on that. There is some famous quote by some famous writer about how it’s good when Congress is out of session because that means they aren’t spending our money. I think if Congress just sat out, I don’t know, say a year??? so we could all recover from the ‘economy’ woes, that’d be nice, wouldn’t it? And have you ever noticed that no matter how bad the economy seems to be that Congress votes itself a raise every single year? Ain’t that sweet? Nice work if you can get it, I guess. 🙂
Annie
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Voting themselves a pay raise. That’s never seemed right to me. Why don’t we, the voters, get to vote their pay raise, or not, on Election Day? They work for us (supposedly). Controlling their pay raises (“pay for performance”?) would make them a lot more responsive to our wishes, I’ll bet.
Over the years, there have been many great American statesmen (& statewomen). I am convinced, now more than ever, that President Bush and Speaker Pelosi are two of the worst in recent times. What a shame!
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Nope, no one can ever accuse either of them of being statesmanlike (or stateswomanlike? statespersonlike?)