The Wrestling Match over the Auto Bailout
The press is reporting that a deal has been reached on the bridge loan to the automakers.
But that’s not right. What has been accomplished is the drafting of a bill that will proceed to get beat to a pulp in the Senate. It’s not yet clear whether it will survive that beating.
Here are the outstanding issues:
Busting the Unions or Busting our Economy
A number of Republican Senators still insist that it would be worth busting our economy for the opportunity to bust the UAW. Note that McConnell has officially joined those holding the auto industry hostage to busting the union–and he’s using the $73/hour lizard lie to do so.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the industry’s predicament came from "decades of complicity between management and labor" and that the draft failed to force necessary cuts.
"I will not support a bill that revives the patient with taxpayer dollars yet doesn’t secure a commitment that the patient will change its ways so future help isn’t needed," McConnell said.
"It’s delusional to expect a company that spends $71 per labor hour to compete with a company in a neighboring state that spends $49 per labor hour," he added.
McConnell’s criticisms mirrored those of Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who has said the automakers and the UAW need to commit to steep cuts in return for aid, namely immediately cutting UAW wages to those at foreign automakers’ plants and accepting half of the money for the retiree health care trust fund in stock.
[snip]
Corker has said he would vote against the bill as drafted so far, and a spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said he would place a hold on any rescue plan, which can be overcome with 60 votes.
Note on implication of this: if McConnell is going to insist on bringing the lizard-lie number in line with the Japanese manufacturers (that is, the hourly wage plus retiree benefits), it would require bringing the hourly pay of UAW employees below that of Toyota employees (since the Toyota employees’ wages don’t get advertised as including retiree benefits). In other words, McConnell isn’t just talking about bringing wages down, he’s talking about really busting the union.
Busting the Environment or Busting our Economy
In addition, there are a number of Republicans–including some at the White House–who prefer to bust our economy than agree to the assertion that our emissions need to be raised. The Administration–along with a slew of Republicans–won’t support the bill if it retains what I dubbed the Nancy Pelosi clause, requiring that manufacturers that get the loan withdraw from their suit against CA’s higher emission standards.
Democrats kept a provision, opposed by the White House, that would bar the car companies from pursuing lawsuits against California and other states trying to implement tougher tailpipe emissions standards. Republicans say the move would undercut the automakers’ profits, but Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said yesterday in a letter to Reid that GM and Ford have laid out business plans indicating that they intend to outperform the California fuel economy standards within a few years anyway.
The administration official predicted that if the prohibition is not removed, the bailout proposal will not be approved by Congress.
This is a key issue because, if it gets pulled, you’ll begin to lose Democratic support; if it remains in, you’ll lose potential Republican support. If I were GM and Chrysler, I’d announce now that they’re dropping the suits, to take this off the table.
No Free Ride for Dan Quayle and Friends
A bipartisan group of Senators are seeking a way to hold Cerberus–as opposed to just Chrysler–responsible for paying back the loans.
Democrats also included a provision that would permit the government to take warrants in Cerberus Capital Management, the private-equity firm that owns 80 percent of Chrysler, rather than Chrysler itself, according to a senior congressional aide. The White House balked at that idea, congressional aides said, but even some Republicans are troubled by the possibility that Cerberus could profit from the bailout.
Yesterday, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said taxpayers should not pour cash into Chrysler if Cerberus was unwilling to do so.
This one is getting fun–because we are closer to the point where BushCo admits it thinks their Republican cronies at Cerberus should have a free ride.
Veto Power Over $100 Million Expenditures
So from what I see, only a few things have been fixed in the latest drafts. One that has improved is raising the level of expenditure the Auto Czar would have to approve to $100 million. Given how many auto contracts would have exceeded the $25 million level that the bill had been set at, this is one improvement made since Monday.
The Votes in the Senate
So here’s how I think the votes will come out in the Senate, just based on gut:
We Hafta Dems: While most Democrats don’t love this idea, I think we’ll get about 42-45 of Senate Dems supporting the bill, though the prohibition against lawsuits is a big issue. (42-45)
Skeptical Dems: There are a few Dems who are on the fence–and they’re not just the Blue Dog conservatives. Tester, for example, remains skeptical (as has been clear from his questions in the Banking Committee). (4-7)
Absent or Non-Voting Senators: Kerry and Klobuchar are scheduled for an overseas trip at the end of the week. Kennedy’s presence always remains questionable. Hillary will vote, but it’s not clear whether Biden will do so. Coleman is not only still trying to get re-elected, but worrying about getting busted. (4-5)
US Auto Manufacturing Senators: Then there are at least 2 Republican Senators who will whip this bill–Kit Bond and George Voinovich.
We Hafta Republicans: This is the key group–those Republicans who may hate this, but would vote for cloture. I’d imagine it might include: Snowe, Collins, Specter, Coleman (if he votes), Murkowski, Smith (if he votes), Bennett, Martinez, Grassley. McConnell is a big question mark, but he seems to be leaning toward supporting a filibuster. (3-10)
Bust the Union Senators: Then there are the Senators who will try to stage a filibuster: Shelby, Sessions, Bunning, Corker, Kyl, Ensign, DeMint, Vitter, Coburn. I don’t think they know whether they have numbers to stop this yet–but they’re definitely winning the PR war. (35-44)
Add in one more factor: Reid has, thus far at least, signaled that he will make Republicans actually filibuster this one.
Mr. Reid said he would urge lawmakers in both parties to be available to vote on the auto rescue package. “I would suggest it’s not a very good vote to miss,” he said. “Maybe multiple votes.”
Multiple procedural votes seemed increasingly likely given the Republican displeasure with the way the legislation has been handled.
Given Reid’s past history–and just as importantly, the number of Dems who may be absent or not voting, that is subject to change. But one of the most likely ways to get those Hafta Dems (and wavering Dems like Tester) to cave is to require them to stick around DC through the weekend and into the holiday season.
Thanks ew.
digg
Some big lay-offs start by this Friday in spin of sectors affected by the Big 2.5.
Winning the PR war? A reverse PR war has to happen…McConell is quite wrong. He will have a ton of unemployed once Ohio and Indiana are affected. Not to mention, what it will do to his own state’s employers. Funny, there was another war that was heavily influence by foreign investment and issues of rights. Guess we were it “timeout” and it never ended…
YOu all ready know Ohio comes in just after Michigan for loss of jobs. I was just in Dayton and GM plants empty all over the place. Folks are being beat down forced into working at McDonalds, Wal Mart, etc. The choices are limited
At our last visit to Taco Bell, my wife noted that the person who took our order was actually competent. Then we thought about it a little bit and realized that’s all that’s left for competent people seeking jobs.
Did an Oxdown a few weeks ago about that very issue as an open letter to Boehner. Did county by county calculations.
Oh my. McConnell came out of the closet on this one, so to speak; he must have gotten a shove from Toyota.
I figured he’d stay quiet through this debacle, given in 2007, Toyota workers in Kentucky plant made more than UAW members.
But Toyota is looking ahead; if they don’t kill off the UAW at the Big Three, unionization will be chewing on them more so than it already has been. They’ve been trying to push it off, but it will rebound hard as backlash.
Oh, my! Good catch, Rayne!
I hate these union-busting bastards. They have run the American working class into a war with itself.
If Voinovich votes no how would this effect the next Republican running for his seat?
Do the Toyota plants in the U.S. provide health care and pensions? Is it true that in Japan the government provides health care and pensions?
I just don’t know how these Reps can get away voting yes for the Wall Street fat cats and no for the auto industry.
Agree on Reid’s best strategy. Make them filibuster for real. Make them stay nights, weekends and into the holidays if necessary. It’s amazing (and disgusting) how well that works.
They will make a huge deal out of having to stay late. It’s such a hardship for them. Meanwhile, people can’t afford food, are losing their houses and can’t sleep at night for fear of what’s going to happen to them.
Once again, we’re depending on Reid.
I think that things are really boiling below the surface in this country. I’m not happy with the auto companies either, and I think more is required like management changes, commitment to build a specific number of hybrids and electrics within a specific period, dropping law suits, requiring Cerberus to buck up, etc. And more. I think further bailout loans require nothing short of transformation, and that we should probably nationalize GM for some period of time.
But it has become clear that this is the real deal. They are really trying to bust the UAW. And with majorities in both Houses, this can’t stand. It’s time for a real battle. Real hardball. Does Harry Reid have what it takes? Does the Senate realize how serious the situation is. I think there is serious anger boiling in this country, and I don’t know which issue or event is going to trigger a big reaction. But after the 700B disaster, this one could be it. I’m also wondering if GM can somehow hang in there until Jan. 20th.
Lastly, every Dem senator (with the exception of Kennedy) should be there for these votes. Biden isn’t VP yet. And overseas trips shouldn’t trump the welfare of citizens.
Wave goodbye to Kodak
http://www.marketwatch.com/new…..aspx?guid={F5958CA6-6575-4095-803C-219109A26347}&siteid=yahoomy
Old industries replaced by better technologies and/or more nimble, forward-looking competitors, fail. Think buggy whip.
http://www.marketwatch.com/new…..aspx?guid={F5958CA6-6575-4095-803C-219109A26347}&siteid=yahoomy">kodak link is here
Old American industries are being passed by. Intelligent CEOs cannibalize their own business models before others do.
Denial of digital photography did not make it go away. It made Kodak go away.
Another thing… why are all of these talks and negotiations done behind closed doors?
IMHO, there’s something really wrong with this:
All the discussion is done behind closed doors, and the American people can’t tell which representatives have which positions, don’t know what the reasoning is for different things in the bills, etc.
Then they magically appear in the chambers with the legislation, and pose for their theatrical debate and pre-arranged vote.
Yup.
Bu$hCo and their remaining adherents (all Republicans, plus 95% of the Dems) still believe that markets reach imaginary points of equilibrium. This dangerous fiction makes them prey to the predations of Cerberus.
Cerberus understands one thing: markets are fundamentally asymmetrical, and they are to markets what guerillas are to warfare.
The Republicans need to pull their heads out of the sand and recognize that oil and the dollar are not the world’s dominant currencies. In this new era, few things are more important than helping the car companies shift to an economic system based neither on oil, nor on petrodollars.
I sincerely hope — from the bottom of my heart — that Harry Reid plays out every millimeter of rope, line, and dental floss that these Republicans may require to sink themselves utterly and forever.
It is not possible to transition from an oil-based economy to new energy without a manufacturing sector. It simply can’t happen. If these same Republicans who bash the UAW actually believed that the market could drive behavior, then they’d realize that government can’t bring new electric vehicles to market — the car companies have to, with the help of the UAW.
Honestly, think about the Cerberus aspect. How many people does Cerberus employ? A few hundred, perhaps? They’re a few hundred people who throw equity around, thereby making already asymmetrical markets even more lopsided.
And the Republicans can’t figure out that 150,000+ UAW workers, plus engineers in Detroit, have a ‘leveling and stabillizing’ effect on the economy, in contrast to the karate chops that Cerberus dishes out to the economy?
I’m sure that Cerberus flatters itself that it’s the Special Forces of economic actors, but they’re basically financial guerillas.
Cerberus appears to be a phenomenally destabilizing force for a more sustainable economy. If I’m incorrect, please feel free to clarify. But the UAW and Ford don’t make their money trading currencies and going after other firms to take them down and sell the parts off; whereas that is Cerberus’s modus operandi.
I’m increasingly convinced that if Harry Reid, Durbin, and even Schumer play this out right, it could be a powerful ‘teaching moment’ that exposes the Republican logic by which Cerberus is more influential and more protected than millions of American workers. I think if the Dem leadership can play their cards right, we’re close to that kind of ‘teaching moment’.
The solution is obvious.
The Big Three declare they are now banks, you make a small deposit, take out a loan and get a free car.
Perfect. Then they don’t have to go through Congress, just Paulson.
Vitter just spoke on Senate floor, stating he will use every means possible to delay this bill or to defeat it in its present form. This despite the fact there is a GM plant in La.
Could he be bribed with whores?
Sorry about the failed link to the Kodak article above – not sure why it won’t take. It’s on Marketwatch – and does not bode well for their future. Some of the following comments serve to explain how the auto industry failed as well:
Kodak Story comments:
jetmyke said:
Bigal333 said:
smilingzebra said:
The Kodak story is a superb example of disruptive innovation, and the incumbent market dominator’s response to it, as described about ten years ago in Clayton Christensen’s classic The Innovator’s Dilema.
Precisely. Cannibalize your own business model, or someone else will.
Just goes to show how completely ignorant management at these dinosaur corporations were. They created their own echo chamber, and Wall Street was complicit in supporting it. GM made its revenue estimates every quarter, until they held a gun to taxpayers heads and demanded a bailout.
Burying electric and alternative fuel technologies for decades, at the behest of the oily banksters, has led us to this end. I predicted this about twenty years ago. It’s been totally obvious the entire time.
Yep, it all depends on Reid. And he showed the nation just how much spine he has during the last 2 years. Every damn time the rethugs shouted filibuster, he caved. Did not force a vote, did not force the rethugs to actually filibuster. Now, lets just keep the rethugs feet to the fire. Make them declare their filibuster, keep them in session until the 5th of jan if that is what it takes. DO NOT CAVE TO THE RETHUGS again. Force them into a 24/7 filibuster, make sure everyone knows who is out to destroy the american economy-and who will continue to to so every time that Obama attempts to do something. Show the entire damn world what the rethugs are. Obstructionists on everything that Obama attempts to do. They care only for power and will do anything to regain that power. So instead of being the doormat of the past-fat chance-Reid needs to come out and actually stand up and be counted.
I do so wish he had the balls. He is in far too deep with the corporate overseers to listen to the people however
.
Actually, Give Em Hell Harry refused to allow the Senate to go out of session last Thanksgiving, and also last Christmas season. You seem to forget images of VA Sen Jim Webb showing up to gavel the Senate open, then close it. Reid would not allow the Senate to go out of session because Bush had gone back on his promise not to make ‘recess appointments’ in July 2007, and Reid — having given Bush the chance to honor his word — has been very quiet and non-confrontational about the methods that he’s used in order to ensure that Bush couldn’t appoint any more judges, et cet.
You may not like Reid, but don’t mistake his tone and manner for wimpiness. Watch what he DOES, not the way he talks.
Nope.
What he DID was to cram an absolutely unacceptable FISA revision down our throats and refuse to punish Lieberman. Totally worthless, even with blocking the Bush recess appointments.
It’s kinda sad how fast the Dems and their supporters forget… remember the “nuclear option”?
As repulsive as they are, the repugs know how to play the game. Do we have the guts? Reid hasn’t shown anywhere near the balls.
You make a really good point, JohnJ. Particularly this part:
Time to suck it up and find some.
Like I said, the Nissan 370Z comes out next month, and that’s where my money’s going. This talk about dropping the suits against California would probably raise fuel economy standards so high that the Corvette, Camaro and Mustang would have no chance in hell of surviving. The fix is in against fun-to-drive cars.
And for the last time, no, I’m not interested in the Tesla. Not my thing, sorry, and I can’t afford this classic case of Silicon Valley overpromising and underdelivering.
Great article, as usual, EW.
Here is a video link sent to me by a friend who is trying (as am I) to better understand this issue. It is an interesting look at a Ford plant in Brazil, but the message at the end is startling–the UAW stands in the way of such plants being built in the US.
http://info.detnews.com/video/index.cfm?id=1189
Is this true? If so, why the opposition? Thnx.
Re: the union busting over wages.
There was no discussion about wages when it came to giving TARP loans to the big banks. Granted: some CEOs will not receive bonuses. Big deal. There are hundreds of thousands of very highly paid people at those banks.
There was also no oversight provision in the TARP loans. NOBODY knows what the banks are doing with the money because oversight is not a requirement. Paying back the loans is required, but the non-voting preferred shares are just that: non-voting.
Since Obama has resigned the Senate what is the actual balance in the Senate? If Reid were to employ the Nuclear option, what would be the result?
Without Obama he doesn’t have the votes for the nuclear option.
Today’s GOP-Japan first!
-G
Sen. Vitter has an advantage when it comes to endless filibusters. Diapers!
Coburn is an idiot. One of the Big Two plus midget (I think it’s GM) has a huge assembly plant in OKC.
Oh, and like every industrialized nation except ours, Japan’s health care finance system is sane. That is, universal coverage paid through a combination of taxes and premiums. All residents are required to be covered. Toyota and the other manufacturers almost certainly pay on the so-called ’social insurance’ side of the ledger.
Because Japan has a rational health care finance system, the costs to Toyota/Nissan/Subaru etc are lower than what the Big Two and the midget are paying.
We can win this match!
Just look at the bench on Bush’s side – only his Most Compromised Goon Wrestlers are draped over it!
Shelby? Running scared. Vitter biting the hand that feeds? McConnell? He’ll say anything he’s told to say.
Bush needs to muster 41 Votes for his Ideological Victory to Trump an Economic Disaster – to shoot the Unions and kill the Economy – for his Beliefs to Over-Rule Our eyes and ears and disappearing Jobs.
What Bush is insisting on is another patented Bush Phyrric Victory – so costly that it takes down the Empire.
But, Bush isn’t planning on becoming ‘reasonable’ before he leaves office. He came in an Ideologue, and he has every intention of going out an Ideologue, too.
And, by golly, he’s charging his Most Knuckle-Dragging Stooges – the ones with the Most Severely-Sloped Foreheads and Over-Hanging Brows – with Making-it-So in the Auto Bailout Wrestling Match.
This time, however, they’re Weak! This time, We can Pin-them with the Job’s Cradle, and Save the Day for Common Sense, at the same time!
Now, everybody better make their weight, and come to this thing Ready to Go!
Thanks for this very informative article.
I am so torn by this issue though. On the one hand,my first labor demo back in the late 70s was supporting UAW workers in Western Mass, and today nearly all of my progressive work takes place within the union (UTLA), and I am actively building connections between my union and other national and itnl trade and educational unions.
On the other hand I am a very aware environmentalist who has been active in direct actions for protection of the planetary biosphere and ‘Detroit’ has consistently produced lousy products, fouled the environment with toxics in the production and manufacturing stage, destroyed the joy of driving by overproducing those godawful SUVs and Hummers (union-made), and paved over so many acres of paradise.
I know these issues are not the unions fault. I know corrupt self-serving politicos of both parties, neo-liberal trade policies, and gutless greedy plutocrats like Cerberus are to blame even moreso. I know the union must be protected from the republican suicide squad.
But UAW needs to step up here and do something significant, perhaps regarding environmentally reform-based leadership on the factory floor!
Trying to track down just where in the hell the TARP billions went, Rep. Mel Watt justed BLASTED Paulson’s “Mini Me” on C-SPAN – asking:
What a stupid question…Goldman Sachs and the rest of Wall street. Paulson was the hit man on the inside
Well, let’s see.
Bushie’s on his Farewell tour. He’s not running the country.
Congress is lucky if it can figure out where Capitol Hill is.
Sounds to me like the answer’s Goldman-Sachs.
Do you know if there is a video up of Mel Watt blasting Paulson? I’d love to see it. Thnx.
Sorry, if a bit off-topic. But the future price of gas is a puzzler for me. I guess it likely to return to $4.00 a gallon in the not to distant future, but the folks, a few months ago, who said it was going to stay there forever were wrong. And last week 60 Minutes has a story about Saudi Arabia developing 2 new large fields that are coming online soon. And I have to agree with the WSJ article today about hybrids if oil prices stay low. That strategic plan that is being written may not be worth much. Will consumers do the right thing and avoid gas guzzlers if the price of gas stays low?
http://online.wsj.com/article/…..93341.html
EW did a great post last Thurs. that showed Nov. Sales leaders. Of the top 16 leaders 4 were pickups including # 1 & 2. However these are generally work vehicles. Other than that they appear to be more efficient.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake……-they-are/
I am sure that there are market forces behind the current gas prices ($1.679 last night locally), but I can’t help thinking about the ’70s and how successful the industry was in killing alternative research.
Some of the technologies that were really making headway are only now being resurrected, 30 years later, only to have any chance of vulture capital dried up by cheap gas again.
I suspect, even in these difficult times, that the oil industry is playing us again.
One question from a economic moron; who took the losses on the >$100 a barrel oil to the current gas price and is that an indication of how much these people are willing to invest in perpetuating our oil consumption?
Sorry for continuing OT, but no one is talking about gas prices any more (an indication of their success)?
Those of you who feel torn between your support for autoworkers and UAW and your concerns about the U.S. automakers’ environmental records may want to consider a few points.
1. It’s true Detroit 3 were late to hybrids, but GM and Ford have several hybrids in market today, and more slated for launch in the next 2-3 years. Current hybrids include: Saturn Vue 2-Mode hybrid and Ford Escape hybrid (both compact crossovers); Ford Fusion hybrid; Chevy Malibu BAS hybrid (a mild hybrid); and GM’s 2-mode hybrid pickup trucks and full-size SUVs – don’t sneer, a 2-mode Chevy Tahoe gets better city mpg than a Cooper Mini or 4-cyl Camry.
2. The Chevy Cobalt XFE, made in good old Ohio, gets better EPA highway mpg rating than Honda Fit. By the way, GM’s Lordstown, Ohio, plant, which builds Cobalt, will produce the new Chevy Cruze, a small sedan that will get around 40 mpg – it’ll be match or surpass Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla et al in mpg, design, build quality, technology.
3. GM has invested billions of dollars in R & D on hybrids, electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell technology. The company is publicly committed to bringing the Chevy Volt extended range electric vehicle to market by late 2010. And they’ve been far more open in the development and testing of Volt than is usual for any automaker. Folks like Chris Paine, who produced “Who Killed the Electric Car?,” has been very favorable to/supportive of Volt, as has activist-actor Ed Begley Jr. Also, GM is currently testing 100 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in California and New York, using ordinary people who volunteered (no cost to the drivers).
4. GM is a leader among manufacturers globally in greener manufacturing plants; many of GM’s plants have been certified as zero-landfill waste. Also, thanks to the hard work of the UAW, GM/Ford/Chrysler plants are the industry leaders in safe, healthy work environments. Also, GM and Ford follow high safety and environmental standards globally, rather than taking advantage of weak standards in, say, Mexico.
5. Contrary to what some think, the Detroit Three aren’t the only automakers producing big trucks and SUVs (by the way, an awful lot of ranchers, farmers, construction workers, plumbers, etc. need these vehicles). Toyota’s newest U.S. plant, in San Antonio, was built for the new Tundra, Toyota’s biggest, most powerful pickup truck ever – it gets lower mpg than comparable GM and Ford trucks. In fact, Toyota (including Lexus) has more models of SUVs than General Motors. Think a LandCruiser gets better mpg than a Hummer? Think again.
Not saying the Detroit-based automakers are perfect – far from it. But the notion that they’re all bad all the time, while Toyota, Honda et al are green angels is simply bunk. The fact is, all the automakers – U.S. and foreign – are doing some really good stuff on advanced technology vehicles; and, of course, all of them need to do more.
There are a lot of good points here. It’s always useful to keep in mind, or be reminded, that the issues at work here aren’t so easy to generalize, the fact that the media likes digestible chunks (as does Congress) notwithstanding.
On the other hand, the attempts by the Big 3 at union busting is pretty upsetting.
I have been telling everyone that this is about Union Busting and it is. Texas is a right to work state and employees are treated horrible here, in Texas, where I live.
When I go to the Obama Change meeting this weekend I will be looking for a committee to join that will help bring Unions to Texas. I think Rick Perry will have to become “disappeared” before that happens.
Grumpspaniel: I agree with you!
I just want to see more reform come from the shopfloor upwards!
I support the bailout, and most certainly the union.
I just really despise what the corporate behemoths have done to our environment…and we need to do more.
The next car I buy (I currently have an environmentally unfriendly Mazda 3) I hope will be a greener American union made vehicle that drives well and will last.
And isn’t that what this all comes down to: Who will make our next car? Union labor or non-union labor?
From Mary at The Left Coaster =
http://www.laobserved.com/arch…..ue_zel.php
Times Reporters Sue Zell.
Good! This action should catch on.
Harry Reid suggest that the US Automotive & Manufacturing Resources Restructuring Project (the “bail-out” to the word-challenged MSM) is so important he’ll demand that the GOP filibuster it, instead of mildly threaten to do so, which normally works with today’s Dems?
Consider the source. This man has been in George Bush’s Washington the last eight years. He has witnessed the Patriot [sic] Act, the MCA, the Detainee Treatment Act, and White House condoned torture, domestic spying, and lying us into wars. But he reserves his hyperbolic criticism for a corrupt Midwestern state official and a Democrat:
The man is blind and deaf, a house cat caught in a back alley with his more feral mates, whose meows are barely heard and rarely paid attention to.
h/t Crooks and Liars
Right to Work = Right to Fire
The phrase “right to work”, as used to describe state “worker” legislation, is a lie and an oxymoron. Such laws strip employees of employment protection and allow an employer can fire them at will, with or without cause, and incur no liability.
The only thing laughable about it is when managers from these states attempt to “manage” their European operations, where employees have rights relating to performance evaluations and job retention, notice of plant changes and closures, personal and family leaves, and workplace safety (including ergonomic standards Antonin Scalia’s son personally skewered in America).
The bad press and worker relations, the liability and the financial chaos that results is a reminder that the only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history.
Nice:
http://www.boycottalabamanow.com/
ew
What’s this about accepting funds from stock for health care? Is that “preferred stock” or “common stock”? According to Crammer it sounds like the preferred stock is still paying out dividends and has some value and he thinks the common stock might be disolved (like in bankruptcy?). I don’t know much about stock but Crammer was saying their “preferred stock” had some value and they were waiting to see how it was structured if their keeping the common stock. It sounds like they may not have any stock but preferred soon.
http://www.thestreet.com/_yaho…..;cm_ite=NA