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Obama's War on Labor  Voters expecting change keep getting rude reminders of what kind, none they can believe in reiterated again on March 30 in Obama's remarks to the auto giants. While stating "We cannot....must not (and) will not let (this) industry vanish," he laid down a clear marker. Labor, not business, is targeted. More on that below. "We (won't) excuse poor decisions," he said. "We cannot make the survival of our auto industry dependent on an unending flow of taxpayer dollars." In rejecting their aid request, he added: "These companies - and this industry - must ultimately stand on their own, not as wards of the state....What we are asking is difficult. It will require hard choices by the companies. (Their plan doesn't go) far enough to warrant the substantial new investments these companies are requesting." Imagine the hypocrisy - open-checkbook trillions for Wall Street criminals v. a thinly disguised war on organized labor by scolding the auto giants for not forcing their workers to make greater sacrifices. They're needed, said Obama. Their "best chance for success" is a "surgical" bankruptcy lasting for as little as 30 days - meaning workers will lose everything while CEOs get seven-figure compensation for betraying them. A March 31 New York Times Michael de la Merced/Johathan Glater article suggested that Washington may seek a "controlled" bankruptcy - somewhere between "prepackaged (and) court chaos by persuading creditors to agree" to divide GM in two pieces, sort of like a good and bad bank to create a healthier company, free of its troubled assets and liabilities. Under the plan, GM would declare a prearranged bankruptcy. Then, the bankruptcy code's Section 363 would authorize selling off desirable assets to a new government-financed company. Details are being discussed so it looks like a done deal, either prepackaged or through a bankruptcy court, either way very worker-adverse with UAW bosses pressured to go along, take it or leave it. The administration also decided Chrysler can't survive alone. It was given 30 days to ally with Fiat SpA or with another automaker if that fails, even though such a deal may combine two dogs into a bigger one with even greater problems than going it on their own. Obama drew a line in the sand for "workers who have already made painful concessions to make even more" through additional restructuring sacrifices, including: -- permanent job losses;
-- lower wages;
-- gutted work rules, including health and safety protection on the job;
-- forfeited security through lost benefits and pensions, including for retirees, on top of everything given up in fall 2007 negotiations when the UAW leadership surrendered to management, then muscled the rank and file to go along; and
-- more sacrifices the Bush $25 billion bailout demanded, unreported in the mainstream: banned GM and Chrysler strikes, meaning effectively on the big three; more wage and benefits cuts; ending the UAW's "jobs bank" that provided help to furloughed workers and more. Replacing them was a two-tiered wage and benefit package with new skilled hires getting little more half the previous arrangement and for a new non-core category even less. Much more was lost as well: -- plant closures resulting in permanent job losses; for GM alone it meant 85% fewer production jobs than in 1990 over a period when high-paying manufacturing ones disappeared, offshored, or were replaced by machines;
-- for new hires, an ill-conceived 401k arrangement replacing employer-paid pensions with one dollar invested in company stock for each hour worked that turned out to be worthless two years later as the companies head for bankruptcy;
-- major health care concessions under a union-run VEBA (voluntary employee beneficiary association) putting UAW bosses in the healthcare business for potential big profits at the expense reduced worker benefits and companies relieved of their obligations after putting up an initially-funded amount;
-- employee buyouts, early retirements and other downsizing efforts to replace high-wage workers with cheaper new ones; and
-- Chrysler workers getting even less overall than their GM and Ford counterparts. If GM and/or Chrysler go down either way, prearrangers or the court will do the honors. The current union contract will be replaced by new demands, meaning 60 years of gains will be lost with the stroke of a pen, and no negotiations can mitigate them. It gets worse. Whatever's decided will be a model for all industry. The idea isn't to end unions, just neutralize them, then leave workers out in the cold with poor wages, few if any benefits, self-funded only retirement plans if any, and other management-demanded concessions in a new dark age for labor heading it back to its earliest days when all gains gotten were hard won and few achieved until the mid-1930s under the Wagner Act. Labor always struggled and learned the hard way that winning meant organizing, pressing their demands, taking to the streets, going on strike, holding boycotts, battling police and National Guard forces supporting management, and paying with their blood and lives to get results. They were impressive - an eight-hour day, a living wage, generous increases, good benefits, and pensions because strong unions went head-to-head with management and won. It's world's different today with government in bed with business, Democrats as bad as Republicans, weak unions under corrupted bosses, millions of high-paying jobs already lost, and a global economic crisis stripping workers of all bargaining power and heading them for sweatshop serfdom under a leader even more anti-labor than his predecessor. He appointed an auto task force (headed by Tim Geithner and Larry Summers) to be judge, jury and executioner, then let them (quietly) or a bankruptcy judge pull the switch to absolve him of responsibility, be able to declare victory, and apply the same terms across industry as every sector struggles to survive, the result of a Washington/Wall Street-created crisis. Their scheme is to: -- crush world economies;
-- recapitalize the IMF to entrap developing ones in perpetual debt bondage, neo-feudalism, a virtual dystopia;
-- structurally adjust their populations to a living hell - impoverishment through "shock therapy" loss of employment, essential benefits, and democratic freedoms;
-- tank financial markets;
-- destroy competitors;
-- use trillions of taxpayer dollars to consolidate the FIRE sector (finance, insurance and real estate);
-- buy other assets on the cheap;
-- toxic ones from each other, mostly with public money paying the cost and assuming the risk;
-- declare war on labor; and
-- force companies to downsize, then strip workers of their rights and futures. Promised Hope from the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) EFCA legislation was first introduced on November 21, 2003 in the 108th Congress as S. 1925 (with 37 co-sponsors) to: "amend the 1935 National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act to establish an efficient system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts, and for other purposes." It was referred to the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee but never passed. It was reintroduced on April 19, 2005 in the 109th Congress as HR 1696 (with 215 co-sponsors) for the same purpose. It got as far as the Employer-Employee Relations Subcommittee but not passed. It was again introduced on March 1, 2007 in the 110th Congress as HR 800 for the same purpose. It easily passed in the House (241 - 185), then was blocked in the Senate when supporters couldn't get the required 60 votes to end debate and bring it to a vote. On March 10, the 111th Congress revived it for the fourth time as S. 560 (with 39 co-sponsors), again for the same purpose. It's been read twice and referred to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee where it's pending.
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