Obama demands deeper cuts in auto workers’ jobs, wages, benefits

[dcsmart]

lets face it, until the unions are broken and auto workers and other workers are making minimum wage, the government, republicans, and many democrats will not be happy.....Wagoner will not have to rely on unemployment insurance http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7208201&page=1

nor will any other executive or politician. so, why should they care about losing a job. Who suffers in the long run: the same people who made it possible for wagnoer to walk away with 20M....and for executives to float safely away on their golden parachutes, the working people, the people who create the wealth.

Obama announced that his auto task force had rejected the turnaround plans submitted by the two Detroit automakers, saying "neither goes far enough" in slashing costs and restoring profitability. He demanded that the companies "fundamentally restructure" their operations, saying this would require, among other things, "workers who have already made painful concessions to make even more."

The administration is using the threat of bankruptcy to extort the maximum in concessions from auto workers. It has already moved to guarantee the auto companies' warrantees and shore up their suppliers in preparation for pushing GM and/or Chrysler into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, where a judge could tear up existing labor agreements and free the companies of their pension and retiree health care obligations.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/auto-m31.shtml


Obama declares war on auto workers

President Barack Obama's speech on the auto industry Monday was nothing less than a declaration of war against the working class. In a statement dripping with class arrogance and cynicism, he rejected the cost-cutting proposals of General Motors and Chrysler as insufficient and demanded more concessions from auto workers.
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FULL ARTICLE
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/mar2009/pers-m31.shtml


P.S. THIS IS NOT OBAMA BASHING...
some Duers do not like the negativity about Obama on this site. it is ,however, Obama policy bashing....

[closeupready]

1. DU is NOT the Barack Obama Fan Club. Healthy criticism is welcome, AFAIAC.

Many will disagree, but tough crap.

I think this stinks.

[geiger]

2. Oh, PLeeze....Don't start with a straw man argument ; that IS bashing

minimum wage? go take your meds.

[dcsmart]

4. i do take my meds

luckily my company insurance pays for most of the cost, unlike the many workers who do no have health insurance and will be losing their health insurance once they are layed off....

[geiger]

6. sorry, I shouldn't have written that. I'm just sick of all the hysteria and misinformation.

Take care.

[dcsmart]

8. hysterical i am

but i hope i am not going down the road of misinformation. sure the min wage was an exaggeration, but i'm from Michigan and i see what a terrible situation so many are in and will be in if the auto industries decline even further....i really worry for the people who retired and about their pensions and other benefits. anyway....no harm done...i'm a Socialist, i have a thick skin..but, hopefully, not a thick head

[geiger]

9. I'm on the brink of hysteria myself. I am from Ohio, lived for years in Lorain County

the auto industry of which gets nailed over and over again despite the work and efforts of the likes of Sherrod Brown. It's absolutely devastating.

[JDPriestly]

3. Obama is walking away from the Democratic Party

I think he is trying to start some kind of third party for the "center." The problem is that he is also walking away from working people and, even more so, from senior citizens. After all, Obama is not asking for wage concessions so much as he is telling retired workers (who are not well represented at the negotiating table) that they will lose their pension rights -- which are in fact, DEFERRED COMPENSATION that they earned years ago, and not negotiable.

Many older people -- like me -- will feel targeted, especially as we also hear that Obama and his turncoat so-called Democrats want "to restructure" Social Security. Yeah, now that we have paid into Social Security all our lives, we are to be told that our benefits are being reduced because of the greed of politicians and Wall Street bankers.

Thank you Wendy and Phil Gramm. Millions of senior citizens will remember you as they struggle for their last breaths without proper healthcare and the medications they need.

And, Obama, you need to do better. Fire Timothy Geithner and remember who put you in the oval office. It wasn't Wall Street.

[geiger]

7. That's bullshit; he's the only one willing to get out in front of all of this.

Get a grip. Where on earth did you get that Obama is "telling retired workers...that they will lose their pension rights...? The Rush Limbaugh Show? That's crazy.

[JDPriestly]

10. The "legacy costs" are about all that is left to be negotiated away

from the UAW at GM, and those costs are the obligations to retired GM workers. It's like taking money out of someone's paycheck to take those benefits away. They have been worked for and earned.

[geiger]

11. you're assuming they're going to be "negotiated away?" That's a big leap, my friend. eom.

[Double T]

5. wall street, corporate america and the wealthy put BO in office.

Pro wall street, Pro corporate america and Pro wealthy will keep him in the oval office. Hope and Change are beautiful things, they just don't happen in our government. And you thought the American worker was really going to matter.