anotherlook

Rescue of the auto industry took an ugly turn yesterday as the negotiations broke down in the Senate after Republicans and some Democrats demanded that the United Auto Workers agree to steep wage cuts by 2009 to bring their pay into line with Japanese carmakers – we live in America not Japan.  This pay is outlined in the Union Agreement contract which does not expire until 2011. 

Contracts are what this country is built on basically.  You sign a contract for a home, a car, a job, for marriage, for just about everything you do, buy or engage in and now the Senate wants the Car Manufacturer’s to break their contract with their employees – somehow that does not seem fair for the workers. To make the workers suffer based on the failure of the owners to initiate the proper changes that would have allowed them to be more competitive in the car market.  Also, it would seem to encourage other unionized businesses to entertain the idea of breaking contracts in these tough times.

Either way, the working people suffer and who cares?  Would the Senate want their income cut by thousands of dollars per year?  How would they feel to have contracted for something and then have that contract voided without their approval and would they approve to such a cut if asked?   

The next alternative is to tap into the Wall Street Bailout fund to rescue the failing auto industry.  However, the Bush administration has repeatedly said the Wall Street bailout fund should not be used for emergency aid to the auto makers because it is designed to restore stability to the financial sector.  Is it not true that big business is linked to the financial sector?   

This decision by the Senate could cost American’s as many as 3 million jobs over time and at a time when this could hurt an already unstable economy.  I don’t understand the rationale behind this decision.  Logically speaking, we have been in a recession for over a year now thanks to George Bush and the decisions made by the Congress and Senate.  Luxury items such as cars are one of the things people stop buying when there are financially tight times so I can see how, to some extent, this would financially affect car dealers which would in turn affect car manufacturers. 

Bush pushed for this crazy war we are in, costing billions of dollars a day, and this war has a lot to do with the financial instability which has caused a trickle down effect in other areas of the economy.  It is amazing how the decisions of one man have caused so much damage to an established way of life for so many. 

The way I see it, they never intended to help the car manufacturers, this was just a ploy to pass some time, give the illusion that they were willing to help and watch the heads of those companies grovel for the money as punishment for allowing their companies to fail.  Never mind the fact that all of the banks they bailed out are now enriching themselves on tax payers’ money funded by government.  These financial institutions where not asked to grovel or show ways they planned to improve the way they do business. 

For some reason, I am disgusted by this decision and somewhere in the back of my mind I am wondering if this refusal to help has a lot to do with the fact that a lot of the people working in the car manufacturer business are black, or at least they were when I was living back there, and located in primarily black populated areas.  I hate to take it to that level but somehow, I always knew that this bailout was not going to happen.  I have been holding my breath and hoping for the best but deep down inside I knew what the real decision was going to be. 

Earlier in this week, the House approved a bill that would have allowed for a Bush-appointed overseer to dole out the money and decide if the carmakers had done enough by the spring of 2009 to restructure their industry.  This was a viable solution and everyone was in basic agreement then they stepped up the demands in an effort to find a way to nullify this agreement by asking the union to go back on their agreement with the workers.  Senate had to know this would be refused because it is not the American way.  Will Bush be able to step in and save face, to some degree,  from all of the other negative things that have transpired during his term in office by rescuing the auto Industry?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

And that’s the way I see it!!