Day: May 13, 2008

GM Strike Causes Supplier Layoffs

The week-long strike at GM’s Fairfax Plant is now having a ripple affect on suppliers.

There’s now word that Penske Logistics in Kansas City, Kansas has had to lay off 92 workers, at least until the strike involving 2,400 GM workers ends.

Penske receives and delivers automotive components to GM and without the Fairfax Plant in operation, there’s not much for them to do.

There have been all-day negotiations taking place since the strike began. And, on Monday, GM strikers held a rally to support their cause.

GM can ill afford to delay production of it’s Chevy Malibu which is made at the Fairfax Plant. It’s been one of GM’s best sellers at a time when auto sales are slumping during a weak economy.

The sticking points are how Gm is allowed to deal with outsourcing and seniority, two issues very dear to the UAW union.

“In this facility, you have a right to bid on a job, they wanna do away with that, that process, and there’s not one person out here today, one person in any organized labor that would not want to use their seniority to bid to a job that they would prefer to do,” said Jeff Manning, UAW Representative.

The strike is having its effect, but now it will be up to the UAW leadership to keep the pressure up and make the automaker deal.

The New GI Bill

I was fortunate enough after Vietnam to use the GI Bill to help pay for my education and I think that the new bill offered by Sen. Webb of Virginia has lots of merit and something that needs the American peoples support.  we owe a debt of gratitude to all the troops that do their duty.

— Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb has introduced legislation that would expand the GI Bill.

Webb’s proposal would cover the costs of tuition at any public college in the veteran’s state, as well as pay a monthly stipend equal to area housing costs.

— U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Chumuckla, is the co-sponsor of a companion House bill, which is expected to be voted on this week.

— President Bush has threatened to veto the legislation, if passed, because he says it is too expensive. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the proposal would cost

$51.8 billion over 10 years.

— U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, also opposes Webb’s bill, saying that such benefits could harm military retention efforts by coercing military members to leave the service so they can use their benefits.

— McCain has introduced his own GI Bill plan, which he said would encourage troops to stay in the military by offering increased benefits for serving 12 years or more. McCain’s proposal would allow benefits to be passed on to family members

Read this carefully and see if those opposed to this bill are worthy enough to be called “patriots”.  I say NO!  They are not!

The Limits Of Good Taste

I have questioned the sanity of the entertainment media with Reality TV, UFC, etc.  But now I think that the American viewing public is just pathetic and sick.

Cable network Spike TV will soon be showing a program entitled, “1000 Ways To Die”, now the promos say that it is all about the ways people die, like hit by a car, attacked by an animal and such and all caught on tape.  Since the “Faces Of Death” series was so imporant to the movie rental business I guess Spike wanted to cash in on the insanity of the American people.

Is American society is sick that watching someone die is entertainment?  But I guess good taste is not an option when trying for ratings.  What could possibly be the next “big” deal in entertainment?  Maybe I should not have asked that question–the possibilities should scare you.

Where Are The Yellow Ribbons?

I realize that few here will remember the yellow ribbons and such from 1979, when the Iranians took 52 American hostages and held them for 444 days.  I was all the news and every tree had a yellow ribbon wrapped around it.

I guess that trends went down the toilet with the advent of those irritating car magnets.  You are probably wondering where I am going with this, right?

OK i will get to the point……ever hear of Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell?  Probably not!  These three Americans are the longest held hostages  But there are no ribbons for them.  These Americans have been held by the Colombian rebel group–FARC–for over 5 years.

Granted there are only 3 of them, but they are Americans and as such deserve the same respect and concern of all Americans.

A Possible Credit Crunch

Americans are having a problem with the payment of mortgages, credit cards, etc……it is a credit crunch.  But there is a bigger problem looming on the horizon.  This does not mean that a person’s problems are not important just that the other could be diasterous to ALL Americans.

we all know about the war, right?  This is the first time since the Revolutionary War that the US has financed totally on credit.  At the beginning of the war the US was already operating in a deficit and basically had to borrow money to wage its war.

From the beginning the US had to borrow monies but from where?  Here is the “good” news–40% of the funds for the war were loaned to the US by China.  This will not happen, but what if that marker is called in?  What will it do to the US?  This is not the way to run a country!

Health Care, Unions And Washington

Passing universal health care will be the #1 priority of 
Senate Labor Committee Chairman Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) next year, 
regardless of who wins the White House this fall, the senator promised.
In a rousing speech Feb. 6 to the United Auto Workers’ legislative-political 
conference, Kennedy said “you’ve sacrificed wages and benefits to get health 
care. U.S. senators and federal employees get 200 options for their health 
care,” as does GOP President George W. Bush, he noted. And taxpayers pick up 73% 
of the cost.
“If that’s good enough for the president and the Republicans” who denounce 
universal health care “as socialism” but take advantage of it if they’re in 
Congress or the executive branch, “it’s good enough for the UAW” and workers, 
Kennedy declared.
“I’m going to assure you that no matter who wins the presidency, health care 
will be #1 on my agenda,” he concluded, to prolonged applause.
Health care was also a top topic on the agenda of the 1,000 conference delegates, who took time 
out from their meetings to lobby their lawmakers.
“We can’t do this by ourselves,” Gettelfinger said after his Feb. 4 keynote 
address to the delegates, referring to U.S. auto workers’ and companies’ 
handicaps in competition with foreign automakers. “How can we compete when South 
Korea brings in 700,000 vehicles a year to the U.S. and we have a closed market 
(of) 7,000 vehicles to them, and Japan has a closed market? And we’ve got to do 
something about health care, if we are to fix our problems” in the auto 
industry.
The UAW strongly backs government-run single-payer health care, based on 
Medicare and eliminating the insurance companies, their high co-pays and 
deductibles and denial of care. But the sole presidential hopeful who backed 
single-payer health care, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) is now out of the race. 
Rising numbers of union locals and state federations back single-payer, however.
Other topics on the UAW delegates’ roster included campaigning against future ‘free trade’
 treaties, notably the one 
Gettelfinger cited with South Korea, as well as the one with Colombia, where 
Right Wing “paramilitaries” have murdered 2,000 unionists. 
While Kennedy said health care would be his top topic regardless of who is in 
the White House, Gettelfinger made it clear in the interview that for the UAW, 
the White House favorite will be a Democrat and not be Sen. John McCain 
(R-Ariz.). “We can’t live with him,” Gettelfinger said, adding only current 
anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush is worse. He said no GOPer polled above 
single digits in UAW surveys.

The Economy will be the number 1 issue in the upcoming general election.  Just how 
to stop the hemorrhaging of money, the next important issue will be health care and 
it looks like the UAW and Sen. Kennedy will turn it into the major issue, it should
be. We will see if the new president is as serious as he/she was on the campaign trail.

Trade Unionists Picket McCain Fundraiser

This is a piece that I received in my inbox and wanted to pass it along to my readers.

WASHINGTON (PAI)--Chanting, singing, handing out flyers and waving signs
comparing GOP presidential nominee-designate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to
anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush, some 50 unionists demonstrated at the
site of an April 8 McCain fundraiser in downtown Washington. It looked like a
picket line.
But their expected nose-to-nose face-off against the Arizonan before he entered
the $1,000-a-plate bash in the historic Willard Hotel didn’t occur. The Senate
worked late, listening to top officials discuss Bush’s Iraq War, and by the time
the senator showed, the demonstrators had had to leave.
The demonstration, led by Metropolitan Washington AFL-CIO President Jocelyn
Williams, is part of the federation’s nationwide campaign to define McCain
before he positively defines himself. The fed’s campaign concentrates on
exposing McCain’s record on workers’ issues, from his votes for job-destroying
“free trade” treaties, to support of the war, to opposition to raising the minimum
 wage to standing against workers’ rights.
That campaign includes protests at other McCain rallies and invitations, which
McCain has ignored so far, to talk about the economy--his weak point--with
workers.
And the marchers certainly were colorful about letting everyone know their
views.
For example, in a variation on the old union song “Everywhere We Go, People Want
To Know” about unions, the marchers sang: ”Everywhere we go, people want to
know, why he’s running, why he’s running. So we’ll tell them: Billionaire tax
cuts, union-busting, 100 years of war. We can’t take it any more.”
And turning their fire on the lobbyists arriving at the Willard’s entrance--who
walked through the demonstration to enter the hotel--the marchers chanted “Hey,
McCain, what’s to hide? Corporate lobbyists are inside.”
A third chant summed up their view of the senator: “McSame as Bush.”
 “We are here today to say that you can run but you can’t hide from working men
and women. Wherever you (McCain) go, we’ll be there to tell the American people what you stand for: Against overtime pay,
for mortgage foreclosures, against health care for all and for the Colombia Free
Trade Agreement, which is designed to take American people off of good jobs,”
Williams said in a short talk at the end of the protest.
“We will tell McBush, trading as John McCain, that we will not have more of the
same. We’ll save America from George Bush, Dick Cheney and John McCain. They’re
all of the same stripe,” he concluded.

Divisions In The Democratic Party

Clinton is still pushing the fact that she can still win the nomination of the party. But she and here entourage are about the only ones that see that possibility. She is not helping party by some of her actions and statements. I regret that, she still appears desperate to me. She is still bad mouthing her opponent, but it is a bit more subdued than before. She is hammering that wedge between her supporters and those of Obama, to the point that it could make a difference in the general election.

Recent the toss of the racial crap into the mix again, is not helping. Personally, the latest racial “slur” was in very poor taste. We are talking about a supposed leader of the Democratic Party, using race as an issue against a fellow Democrat. That right there should be unforgiving.

All the goodwill the Clintons had gained in the Black community is quickly being eroded away and if could very well effect the outcome of the election in November.