Let Detroit Go On Strike

The  members of the United Auto Workers union are on strike against all of the big three Detroit automakers - General Motors, Ford and the brand group formerly known as Chrysler - in a few factories and possibly more later on, demanding a 40 percent pay raise that the companies' CEOs refuse to pay because it would cut deeply into theirs profit and prevent them for giving . . . themselves a raise!  This is the first time autoworkers have gone on strike against all three companies at once. 

Personally, I'm for the workers, of course, though part of the reason I want to see the automakers suffer is because of all the pain they've caused with their business practices - buying and dismantling the streetcars in American cities, polluting the waterways in Michigan, outsourcing jobs to Mexico and China, planned obsolescence to make us buy more expensive cars with features we don't want, bland engineering that gave us lousy rides,  and - to top it all off - convincing four out of five Americans with TV commercials showing rugged mountains and dense forests to buy sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks to bring a gallon of milk home in and then getting rid of the small, cheap cars that provide basic, simple transportation.  Ford's CEO, Jim Farley, who is the late comedian Chris Farley's cousin, said that if Ford had to pay workers as much money as he pays himself and as much as his shareholders make, Ford would go out of business.

Somehow, I think Jim Farley missed his calling.  He should have been a comedian himself; he's funnier than Chris ever was!

Oh, well, it Ford does go out of business, I'll be happy to see the F-150 go out of existence.

It's really incredible to see workers finally rise up on the watch of President Joe Biden, the best friend union members have had in the White House in decades.  Some of the more recent Democratic Presidents haven't been completely in with rank-and-file workers, mainly because they've learned the wrong lesson about unions since Walter Mondale, the last of the lunch-pail Democrats, ran for President in 1984 and won the District of Columbia and all but 49 states.  Indeed, a Democratic would-be President helped lay the groundwork for that party's growing appeal with the managerial and administrative classes.  I need only bring up Gary Hart, the cartoon-Kennedy icon that my generation actually found inspiring. They likely found Hart inspiring because he said he had new ideas, but they somehow seemed to miss (as did I back then) the fact that he felt that blue-collar jobs should be allowed to wither away and that folks should be trained for more technology-oriented fields that, quite frankly, offered few opportunities for unionization.  Hart also scoffed at increased government spending on domestic programs, calling instead for "strategic investments" - i.e., investing in industries that open up new markets that benefit the employers but not necessarily the employees.  Hart even signed on supply-side economist Arthur Laffer, who justified tax cuts for the rich, as an advisor to his second (and short-lived) 1988 presidential campaign.

An Americans thought Hart's biggest drawback was that he had a young blonde in his townhouse?  (You can't spell "Great American Phony" without "Gary Hart.")

Alas, this "New Democrat" mentality took hold of the Democratic Party and gave us Bill Clinton and his triangulation as well as Barack Obama and his conciliatory efforts toward Republicans.   

Let Detroit go on strike.  Let the actors and screenwriters stay on strike.  Let more people go on strike, as is happening in other occupational fields, such as nursing.  After forty years of an economic system benefitting the rich and taxing work over wealth, it's time that people rise up and get their share.

Just like Tracy Chapman said would happen . . . in 1988.

Fallen Pentastar

Chrysler declared bankruptcy today. This is the biggest blow to the American auto industry since Tuesday.

The nation's third-largest (read smallest) major automaker almost avoided this fate. Chrysler managed to negotiate respectable deals with its banks and with the American and Canadian autoworkers' unions to stay in business, but a consortium of forty hedge funds refused to renegotiate their loans with the company and so Chrysler entered Chapter 11. What David Riccardo, Dieter Zetsche, Cerebrus, products like the Dodge Daytona and the Chrysler LeBaron GTS, the Eagle brand, and a series of other missteps and disasters over the past thirty years couldn't do, a bunch of greedy investors managed to do in one fell swoop.

Needless to say, President Obama was not happy with the hedge fund investors. But he does hope to help shepherd Chrysler through the even more difficult period it's now entering. Bankruptcy does not mean going out if business; rather, it means a restructuring of operations, a reworking of debts, and a fresh start once it's through. And with Fiat guaranteed a 35 percent stake in the company, along with the workers owning 50 percent, the federal government will take an eight percent share (with the Canadian federal government getting the remaining two percent) with $8 billion of aid from Washington. And of course, there will be new product, like the upcoming new Jeep Grand Cherokee, as well as small cars from the Fiat connection.

But who will by cars from a bankrupt company? The Chrysler reorganization sounds promising, but will consumers have any faith in it?

Chrysler already has new product creating a buzz, like the newly revived Dodge Challenger, but that may not be enough. After all, Studebaker impressed everyone with the Avanti in 1963 and was gone in five years.