Thursday, May 28, 2009

More Chicago politics writ large...

The UAW delivers the votes; the UAW gets the spoils...
GM is widely expected to file for bankruptcy before the end of this month. If this were a typical bankruptcy, the company would be allowed by law to tear up its UAW collective bargaining agreement and negotiate for drastically reduced wages and benefits. That's not going happen. Phrased another way: The government won't let that happen.
Although they also got a whole bunch of GM stock certificates, which are about as worthless a medium of exchange as Confederate money these days. (Although they'll probably be as collectible in the future, and for the same reason.)


(H/T to Sebastian.)

9 comments:

milton f said...

Did you see how the Obamanation will be hosing the Indiana holdings in Chrysler? Rule of Law- - -HAH!

http://www.intheagora.com/archives/2009/05/the_end_of_capitalism_as_we_know_it/

Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...

Obama was never a fan of rule of law. He's more a fan of rule of Obama, AKA The Chicago Way.

TJP said...

Oh well, they can't run on tax revenue, because that has run out as well. The UAW is firing dues-paying members and slaughtering cash cows. Pretty soon there won't be enough voting members to get angry at the political fiction in union newsletters, but that won't matter since there won't be enough money to print the newsletters.

There's no need to further argue about the effect of unrestrained union "bargaining", because the immutable laws of economics eventually make it so there is no one left to argue the other side--on account of the fact that they're too busy looking for new jobs.

So Tam...are you glad you held onto the Beemwah instead of buying a Chrysler?

Tam said...

Heh. Ask me next winter. :D

The Freeholder said...

The best thing to do is...shrug. if you need to buy a new car, take a pass on Chrysler or GM. The next time they hit bankruptcy, maybe they'll just go away.

Anonymous said...

As a former UAW worker I can only say that it is just a matter of time before it all implodes. With the feds running GM and the unions with their hands in the operation, how can you have the classic "we got to strike against the man" when the union is the man?

Basically the UAW screwed the golden goose and I think some are starting to realize they are going to take a dive with it.

Now the entertainment begins. Watching the union and the feds fleece GM any residual value before it completely tanks.

Ed Foster said...

I hope somebody buys the name and intellectual property of GM, and does what the Japanese did.

Did you think it was an accident they built all their plants in lilly-white Appalachian counties that resided in Right To Work states?

I could care less about the racial bit (although it's a big part of the Japanese mindset). I suspect southern Blacks would work harder and smarter than most northern liberals. Make that virtually all northern liberals.

But only the elimination of the United Auto Workers makes the production of Hondas, Toyotas, Nissans, etc. possible. Parenthetically, do they use the initials UAW to avoid the frighteningly Marxist United...Workers meme?

GM makes a good car, equal in all respects to the Japanese named American vehicles that often, as in the case of Toyota, are made in the same plants by the same people. Google up NUMMI, the joint production process Toyota and GM have used since the '80's.

What Toyota doesn't have is the extra $1,600 added to the price tag that is used to fatten the parasites over at the union hall.

Roger Penske seems to be interested in buying Saturn, a damned fine vehicle. One of them saved my life a year and a half past, and I know just how well they're designed and put together. I wonder if he's thinking of moving a county or two over?

Ed Foster said...

A further thought: What would happen if some Republican politician actually said the above, that "It's the unions that are destroying the American economy", along with their links to self serving bankers (Geithner and his ilk) and the hard left, welfare and bureaucratic jobs peddling Democrats?

It's probably about 70% true, and doesn't include the ugly truth that most of us bear some guilt, simply for being a tad lazy and in need of instant gratification.

I picture Broderick Crawford up there on the podium, hammering on the railing and bitching out the "suckers".

Keeping it simple and redundant, hitting again and again on welfare, both individual and corporate, elitist contempt for "Joe Six-Pack", reckless spending to gain power, regardless of the consequences only months or a few years down the road.

"Do YOU want Social Security when you retire"? "Benefits start to drop in 2017, YOU SUCKERS!".

"If we eliminate only the new Federal programs mandated in the last few years, we could DO AWAY WITH THE INCOME TAX!" "Chew on that, SUCKERS!". That one's true by the way, but it glosses over the fact that tax on business is a hidden tax on all of us. Still, it has a certain cache.

"The Boxers and Feinsteins want you disarmed, but they have hired guns with them wherever they go!".

"Obama never saw a terrorist he couldn't negotiate with". "Or surrender to".

The litany goes on and on. And any Republican who, after nomination, repudiates his party and goes on that kind of rampage will win.

Although, without the moderating effect of middle-of-the-roaders, we might swing too far. I can hear the New York Times asking "Do we want a bunch of Scotch-Irish Cracker Storm Troopers running our country?".

Being a Scottish/Irish Swamp Yankee (Cracker, northern variant), I find the thought of it hilarious. We might end up doing something we'd regret later, but we would still have a country.

Sadly, it seems the only viable answer to a pendulum swing to the left is a matching one to the right. Myself, I'd be happier it it stuck about 2 or three clicks right of center.

But attacking the unions, big government, and the MSM would be hugely successful, if carried out loudly, with a sense of outrage (We're mad as hell....).

Skekis said...

The U.S. auto manufacturers have been collapsing for decades now. It's quite tiresome.

I just want the Japanese and South Koreans to finish them off quickly and bury the body behind the woodshed.