Day: May 21, 2008

Obama And The American Axel Strike

McCain has called Obama, “a tool of organized labor”, he is delusional, McCain that is, Obama has offered little the show solidarity with the strikers.  He is NO tool of organized labor.

During a campaign speech in suburban Detroit Wednesday, Barack Obama, the leading Democratic candidate for the US presidential nomination, made several comments about the strike by 3,650 workers at American Axle & Manufacturing.

“Not too far from here, at American Axle, UAW members have gone on strike to fight for good wages and good benefits, and a decent standard of living,” he told the audience at a town hall meeting at Macomb County Community College. “These are things that all hardworking families should expect and that UAW members deserve, and we stand in solidarity with the folks on the picket lines, and the families impacted by this strike.”

He continued by saying that the strike at AAM was part of a broader struggle “to ensure that we have good manufacturing jobs so American workers can raise a family, have health care when they need it, put their children through college, and retire with dignity and security.”

These were the first public remarks by Obama about the strike, although workers have been walking the picket lines for nearly three months. The American Axle strike is one of the longest strikes in the auto industry in decades.

Obama did not propose any assistance to the strikers—many of whom are losing their homes and being forced to live on hand-outs from soup kitchens with nothing but $200 a week in strike benefits.

Nor did he condemn or propose anything to stop CEO Richard Dauch, who has threatened to close the plants and shift production to Mexico if strikers do not accept a 50 percent wage cut.

American Axle workers should take Obama’s pronouncement of support for what it is: a phony and insincere effort to fool them and maintain the illusion that the Democratic Party speaks for working people. Presuming he is the Democratic Party nominee, Obama will continue to posture as a candidate for working people, even as he defends the basic interests of the corporations and Wall Street.

Obama did not come to Michigan to support the struggles of American Axle workers and other auto workers. Rather his purpose was to strengthen his ties to the auto executives and the United Auto Workers bureaucracy in order to further his campaign for the Democratic nomination.

I suggest that the workers keep this in mind and use the information at general election time.  There will be a candidate out there that has their best interests at heart; find them and vote for them.

Americans Will Pay For Wall Street Crisis

The Federal Reserve Board, with the full backing of the Bush administration, Congress and both political parties, has carried out a massive and unprecedented intervention to avert an imminent collapse of the US banking system and bolster the major Wall Street finance houses.

The Fed’s decision in March to underwrite with $29 billion of its own funds the takeover of investment bank Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase, in order to prevent the collapse of Bear Stearns, and its even more extraordinary move to allow major investment banks to avoid a similar fate by borrowing directly from its coffers, was a signal that the US government would marshal whatever resources were necessary to rescue the banking system from the consequences of the speculative binge that had generated billions in salaries and bonuses for the Wall Street elite.

While the government bailout, ultimately to be financed from public funds, has seemingly averted an immediate banking collapse, it has done nothing to address the underlying crisis. Rather, the Fed and the US corporate-financial establishment hope that it has created the conditions for a more orderly “deleveraging” of the financial system, i.e., a liquidation of trillions in vastly inflated and unmarketable assets, in which the social and economic pain is borne overwhelmingly by working class and middle class families.

The voter should be looking at this type of bail out and demanding that it stop.  Taxpayers cannot afford to let the government help speculators and bad investment decisions by Wall Street.  Now ask, the money spent to help Wall Street, where could it be better spent?  Possibly on programs that help Americans?

Pelosi In Israel

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday that no option should be ruled out in order to stop Iran’s march toward nuclear weapons.

“Iran must be stopped. They are a threat to the neighborhood and a source of funding for Hamas and Hizbullah,”

While hoping there would be no need for a military strike, the House speaker stressed, “I do think we must not take anything off the table.”

Is this the same group that was anti-war to get elected?  they sound more like McBush than the Dems that went into Washington in 2007.  This just sounds like business as usual again.  Remind me why the Dems are in Washington.

American Axel UpDate #8

Looks like it is becoming a done deal–if so, the workers will keep their jobs but will give up their livelihood.  Enough of the give-backs!

All of the UAW locals that voted on the union’s tentative agreement with American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. appeared to have approved the deal, including those whose members face some of the agreement’s worst terms, such as plant closures and $10 an hour wages.

It was ratified in Three Rivers, said the local’s president, who declined to say by how much. That plant, with about 800 people, faces wages that would drop to as low as $10 an hour in order to keep the plant open.

People familiar with the votes said the deal passed at UAW Local 262, which represents a Detroit forging plant that is scheduled to close by Nov. 30.

The agreement also passed at two open plants and one closed plant in western New York by 81%, according to the Associated Press. If this contract passes, two of that region’s three plants would close. The plants that approved the deal represent about 1,650 workers.

But ultimately, the deal’s fate may be decided in Detroit.

Voting is to take place Thursday at UAW Local 235, the company’s largest local at 2,000 strong.

The votes in favor of the contract came as Wall Street punished American Axle’s stock. On Tuesday alone, American Axle’s stock dropped 7.5% to close at $19.82.

American Axle aims to cut its UAW workforce covered by the tentative contract by 2,000 by the end of the year through attrition programs and even layoffs, said people who were briefed on the talks. Workers were told that 900 of those would come from the remaining Detroit plant.

Additional concessions that go beyond wages and benefits would give workers five fewer holidays over the course of the 4-year contract, a smaller holiday bonus, shorter breaks and smaller shift premiums.

The workers are losing on all fronts…this is just another worker unfriendly contract.  It is time for the workers to decide that the time has come to stop giving back to a company that makes millions off their toll.

GM/UAW Reach Tenative Agreement

General Motors Corp. could be producing its hot-selling Chevrolet Malibu in full force again by the end of the week, following the news late Tuesday night that the automaker had reached a tentative agreement with the UAW local in Kansas City, Kan.

Separately, GM told UAW members nationally that they would get less pay when they can’t work because their factory has been idled — prompting some workers to retire rather than wait for work.

Both GM and UAW l Local 31 in Kansas, which went on strike May 5, confirmed the deal late Tuesday. The local labor contract must be ratified by a vote of the local’s approximately 2,500 or so members to take effect.

“GM and UAW Local 31 have reached a tentative agreement on a new local labor contract,” said GM S spokesman Dan Flores said. “We’re pleased that we’ve reached this.”
Some analysts had speculated that the UAW locals led their members out on strike to put pressure on GM to force a deal between supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. and the UAW. The UAW has been on strike against the supplier for three months. It reached a tentative agreement late last week and is holding ratification votes through Thursday. GM has provided more than $200 million to facilitate that deal.

UAW leaders and members have said the strikes were purely about local issues.
UAW Local 31 President Jeff Manning has said the Kansas City strike was primarily about seniority rights for workers in that plant.

McCain On Cuba

First of all that this speech was so uninspiring that I was underwhelmed.  It was blatant pandering.

He keeps pushing the “Obama will meet with out enemies” thingy, to the point it is pretty tiring and time to find a new hook.  But then McCain says if he was president he would push for the release of all political prisoners………..(thinking)……and how would this be accomplished without a meeting or two?

He then says that a free Cuba is in America’s best interests—–what does that actually mean?–it means to open the island up to batista-esque rape.  He is talking about business interests, not democratic interests.

He went on to criticize Obama further even calling him “a tool of organized labor”…….(thinking again)….does that mean that Obama is a worker for labor rights?  If so, where is that a bad thing?  Does that mean the business will not run rough shod over the population?  If so, wherfe is that a bad thing?

McCain needs help!  His policies are Bush policies and the voters have pretty decided that those policies are wrong.  I believe all those jerking off at the thought of a maverick nominee are now cringing every time this guy opens his mouth.  If he somehow is elected, then look for 4 more years of Bush style policies.

To me, no matter which candidate is elected in November, it will be a conservative in the White House.  Just that Obama may be a bit less conservative than any of the others.

Don’t worry–Be happy!

Another Divisive Comment

First it was the word “bitter”—and the pundits turned that into a 2 week diatribe of total BS. Now he has said the word “sweetie” directed at a female reporter. Thinking back I use the word sometimes and use it as a term of endearment and not a sexist thing…but then if one is looking for some overtone in it then yes I guess it could be seen as a sexist term. But I think if he had called her a broad or a chick, then these pundits would have a case.

My point is a mis-speak may happen to anyone, it is not the sole domain of a Clinton. To turn this
into a political statement of some sort is just LOW CLASS and damn silly!

Ferraro, a person I respected when she was a VP candidate, has lost all of my respect. She has jumped on the damn silly feminist bandwagon by calling Obama a sexist. I find that a bit much for a Democrat calling another Democrat a name because you are pissed that she is losing her ass in the nomination race. That also is just LOW CLASS!

But then politicians are the sorriest and lwest form of humanity!