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Unions and the Collapse
Matthew Yglesias —
As this nifty video compilation shows, conservatives have been all over the idea that labor unions are to blame for Detroit’s woes:
My colleague Satyam Khanna observes in response that “unions have repeatedly made concessions to auto executives over recent years . . . AIG, Merrill Lynch, and Bear Stearns did not have unionized workers but still suffered economic collapses.”
I would add that it’s hardly as if German carmakers are ...
打っ掛ける
Brilliant at Breakfast —
... According to Republican Senators Kyl, DeMint and Gov. Schwarzenegger, it's the UAW that's at fault for paying their people so lushly with their cruelly hard bargains. However, as Think Progress pointed out, the toothless UAW has been making so many concessions to big auto executives that many workers would rather work in Japanese plants that have no union than for UAW shops because the pay and benefits are better. ...
Autoworker wages
Political Animal —
AUTOWORKER WAGES.... To help explain the crisis facing the U.S. automotive industry, a growing number of conservatives have begun blaming the Big Three's workers for the companies' financial difficulties. Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), for example, recently argued on Fox News, "For years [the companies have] been sick. They have a bad business model. They have contracts negotiated with the United Auto Workers that impose huge costs. The average hourly cost per worker in this country is about $28.48. For these auto makers, it's $73." ...
About Those Auto Worker Wages...
Daily Kos —
... A couple of days ago Think Progress had a sampling of conservative opposition to an auto bailout based on the BS premise that the problem is the United Auto Workers union and its contracts with the American auto companies: ...
More Stupid Than Corrupt
The Mahablog —
... not allow them to retool, as it were, and grow back.
On the whole, the Right still is in denial about what their cockamamie economic theories hath wrought. Grover Norquist claims the economy is failing because Democrats took control of Congress in 2006. The only solutions being offered by the Right are the same solutions they always offer — tax cuts, especially capital gains tax cuts (although whose got capital gains these days?), and of course blaming labor.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
