American Axle strike tipping the nation closer to a recession

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080330/BUSINESS01/803300559

BY JEWEL GOPWANI • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • March 30, 2008

At the beginning of this year, it seemed like Detroit's great labor battles were over, after industry-changing deals at the Detroit automakers and the likes of parts giant Delphi Corp.

But now, as the UAW strike against American Axle & Manufacturing moves through its second month with no end in sight -- talks have been sparse with little progress made on key issues -- the auto industry's latest labor dispute has become about more than wage and benefit cuts for a few thousand workers.

The strike has idled dozens of factories at former owner and top customer General Motors Corp., as well as several other parts makers. Those companies are losing out on sales, while thousands of workers are missing their paychecks, and that may well be what pushes the nation into an official recession.

But perhaps more than that, this strike reflects the challenges that are central to the nature of labor in 21st-Century America: How many jobs can U.S. factories support and what kind of lifestyle will those jobs provide?

"We need to be able to keep work here in America, no matter how much it costs," said Adrian King, president of UAW Local 235, which represents about 1,900 of the striking workers at American Axle.

The company is trying to cut its costs to compete with newly reorganized Dana Corp. and automakers' in-house axle operations and others.

FULL story at link.

[Birthmark]

1. Yeah, the unions are causing the recession

It wasn't the greed, corruption, and irresponsibility on Wall Street. It was because employees at some freakin' axle company went on strike. I'm sure that that's exactly what will appear in history books. :sarcasm:

[cnk_clark]

2. Actually there is a domino effect.

GM will not be able to build cars using their axles. Then those lines using those axles will be shut down in a city who has already high unemployment. Then the dealers will not have cars to sell and have to layoff more workers.

Personally I would like to see GM go banko. I have a GMC truck and it is one of the worst trucks I have ever owned. Everything on it is constantly breaking. Just replaced a power window motor. Couldn't do it myself so I had it done and it cost $347 for a stinking window motor. My Subaru window motor went out a year ago and I got one at a junk yard for $20 and replaced it myself.

No love for GM here.

Last one leaving Michigan turn off the lights.

[Fovea]

4. absolutely

But this economic effect is not the fault of labor for demanding curbs on job exportation.
It is the fault of the golden parachute (more like goldengulfstream, actually) management.

It is the fault of the government, captive of corporate wealth, who have not acted all this while as the American economy turned from manufacture to speculation.

If you watch your local tv station, you may observe that in prime time, every third commercial involves a car, or things done while driving a car. Then there is the payday loan commercial, and the pay as you go phone company.

This ripple effect will move through the whole economy. From parts mfgs sidways into support services and the grocers who love them, the whole economy will feel the effect. But the deal is, we were already in a recession way before this happened.

I hope MI can be the manufacturing center for a new American high speed passenger rail system. We are going to not be able to afford to fly soon, and rail is the most efficient way to move lots of people.

We are on the edge of building a new America. It won't look like the old America, unless you mean the 19th century America before the superhighway destroyed it. We will have to build neighborhoods to survive the challenges rising in front of us. Work will be close. So will shopping. Food will be from nearby.

The old America will not fall apart in an elegant and retrievable way. The point in time when this could have been avoided was the Jimmy Carter years. After that, not so much. We are fighting a holy war to preserve the mini farm and the Ford dreadnaught, without which, as the Firesign Theater once said, none of this would have been necessary. We will be arguing for a long time in academic circles why the invisible hand of the market did not save us. Eventually, someone will suggest the unthinkable, that it was invisible because it was non-existant.

Regional character will become the in thing. And you will live in the same neighborhood as your grocer. Of course, you may be a farm worker along with whatever you do during harvest time...

And by the way, welcome to DU!

[Fovea]

3. You know Steve

I ache in my heart when I read Mr. King's comments, in light of where Labor is in the EU. Even WalMart in China is union, for gods' sake.

I know I am aggro by nature, but I am having trouble suppressing the urge to raise real hell over this craptastic headline.

Here we are again, just like the freakin 70s with the so-called elite whining that labor was causing inflation.

That's their god-damn answer every time their collective greed and lack of foresight fucks us all over, and I am so incredibly tired of hearing it.

[notesdev]

5. It's not fair

to blame the unions. Someone needs to stand up for the living standards of the US worker - who else is going to do that?

This recession can be placed firmly on the shoulders of a financial industry whose behavior is indistinguishable from piracy, and their enablers and co-conspirators in the government.