Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero Defends Working Class On Fox News (VIDEO)

Here's something I've noticed: you suggest that a bunch of Wall Street titans who screwed themselves and took the economy into the tank with them should agree to compensation caps, and people start wondering if you've lost your mind. On the other hand, you suggest that a guy who works on an assembly line should do the same, suddenly your point of view gets traction. Well, yesterday, Fox News hosted Virg Bernero, the mayor of Lansing, and asked for his reaction to the latter premise. As you might suspect, he sort of rejected it!

BERNERO: "I gotta tell you I am so sick and tired of the double standard. One standard for Washington and Wall Street and another standard for working people in this country. It's always, it always comes down to, 'Hey, to be more competitive we gotta take it out of the hide of the working person' ... cut their pay, cut their benefits. How much is enough? ... What does Wall Street given up? What is Washington doing ... have they given up on their own their workers and thrown them out ... under the bus?...The auto industry will step up. And we'll take our lumps. But I guess there's no reciprocity in this country."

I'm not at all sure what Fox News expected, asking for Bernero's reaction, because the next thing his interlocutor did was act all offended and then drop a big, fat GOP talking point into the conversation:

"Okay, Mr. Bernero, that wasn't my question, and I'm sorry that you were offended by it, but now that you bring it up, here's today's editorial in the New York Post: 'The overall per worker burden for the Big Three is upwards of seventy dollars per hour compared to 27 dollars an hour. Burned by the average private sector worker in the upper midwestern states as a result, General Motors loses $2000 dollars per car sold. That is unsustainable.' Wouldn't you agree that UAW workers need to swallow some pay cuts ... a substantial one?"

Much has been written about how these Michigan auto workers are making $70 an hour, and what monsters they are. Here's Glenn Greenwald, for edification:

As Eric Boehlert, among others, has documented, the claim that automakers earn $70/hour is pure myth. At the very best, that figure encompasses total labor costs, which include health care and all other benefits (and even then, it's misleading). Nonetheless, note how the Fox "journalist" asked the Mayor about this $70/hour figure -- which indisputably includes health care costs -- and then excoriated him for defending worker health care benefits on the ground that health care benefits are irrelevant to the $70/hour issue. It's just not possible to overstate the stupidity both of our political discourse and of the TV actors who lead that discourse as they play the role of journalists.

Bernero had his own way of countering:

BERNERO: "Greg, I don't know about you, but I have good health benefits here in the city of Lansing; my guess is that FOX provides you with some good health benefits. So now General Motors and the other members of the Big Three are to be penalized for providing perks, for doing social good and stepping up to deploy and provide health benefits for their workers? Give me a break! You know what? Wall Street got billions of dollars, no strings attached, they haven't suffered one iota! And all we can talk about is how much more we can get out of the working person?

[WATCH.]

Comments

[ccsammy]

As i said oftwen Faux new is tainted to no return fair and balance isnt a trade mark anmore JERK Oreilly screwed that up and lost law case to Franken our new senator form mn.

[Rockerbabe]

Go Mayor Bernero, GO! Give those idiots on FOX a piece of your mind. I'm not sure if they would know what to do with it, but couldn't hurt a bit! Your points are well-spoken. I wish we had someone here in Georgia who would stand up for the hard-pressed workers, but, alas, all they want is your money. . .nothing else, including your pov is required. I hope your political career in Lansing, MI is full of a great many successes.

[marcylauren]

I agree with this Mayor completely. I hate Fox news - they are always twisting facts around! We need to keep jobs in this country!

[Tim303]

What an absolute fraud the anchor is. He pretends that the mayor (hooray) hasn't answered the question, when he has. Fire him now.

[levibatgirl]

Faux continues to lie about the pay received from UA workers.

They do not make 70 bucks an hour even if you include benefits.

I love this Mayor! And the faux idjit is a condescending P O S!

[kyletertzag]

Tell the world the truth Mayor! Way to go!

[Calmcdonald]

lol. I love double standards. They make sense, right?

[Marcospinelli]

Why does anybody watch Fox? Seriously. Why?

[swo68]

Because they're not scared of opposing views.

[ropadopa]

Thrash talking is not opposing views, repeating talking points and making facts up does not constitute opposing view points. We watch Fox for two reasons, one to see how much more absurd they can become and hopefully that we will witness one of their heads explode when they feign anger about talking points they created.

[hyjanks]

Fox Snooze is better than Ambian CR. Try it the next time you have trouble falling asleep after counting all of your money.

[loki]

since when is deception and propaganda, Opposing views?

[BCubedReg]

A lie is not an opposing view. If I said the sky was pink, that would not be an opposing view, that would be a lie.

[gladiator777]

Bankruptcy is the best option for these guys, why is it that many other car makers around the world do not need bail out money? Its because they are managed well, and they are much better at cutting costs, whereas the big 3 are terrible at cutting costs. They said they wouldn't need any more money, they'll be back again in a few months begging for more, even though they'll say the same thing again. Same old crap as usual, if you can't remain competitive, go bankrupt restructure and get competitive. That will be the end result though, the gov't won't keep giving them hand outs.

[Rober]

They don`t need your bailout dollars because most of them are already getting money from their own governments.

Toyota just posted it first loss in many many years. Try and understand, the world is in the midst of a major recession. Demand for cars is down, significantly down. Regardless of how poorly or well a manufacturer is at this point, jobs are going to be lost. Lots of jobs. The only question is just how many. Idi***c, superficial analysis like yours seems to prefer double digit unemployment.

[Irmanator]

Did you listen to the mayor? He is right about the trade policy that allows China, South Korea, Europe and others to set trade barriers against American goods but we are supposed to allow their goods into America without tariffs or barriers. Jobs that pay well enough that you can pay a mortgage, send your kids to college and maybe retire without living hand-to-mouth.
Why are there so few barriers on imports, unlike other countries? So Wall Street can ship the good manufacturing jobs overseas to places with cheaper labour and lax environmental standards and then import those goods to America without having to pay any duty or tariff.
America needs to implement a VAT tax that effectively raises a trade barrier against offshore goods and allows American companies to compete on a level playing field.
As the mayor says, the conditions now are a race to the bottom for workers. The end result is that American jobs will just be retail or light repair or service sector. We have a recent example of how much we can rely on the financial service sector for employment.
You appear to have been brainwashed by the "free trade" minions of the WTO.

[Soundofthunder]

See the Republican disconnect, folks? The Fox-bot couldn't care less about what Bernero had to say. He was more interested in putting a couple of torpedoes amidships into the idea of fair compensating for the working class than having a discussion about the future of this nation. And again with that debunked $70/hour number. Nobody working currently for GM gets $70/hour in benefits. Stop insulting my intelligence with demonstrably false math. I've surpassed mere fatigue from listening to Fox empty suits tell me I should be outraged that working people don't have to work till they die. The mayor is right. It's a race to the bottom. Corporate America is hoping we, the serfs, attain the living standards of a 3rd world country, not the other way around. But, as I have heard put forth before, as long as everyone has a TV set, the standard of living MUST be great, since minimal conveniences are the bar by which we judge a society as a whole, as opposed to something like how many of us live in the streets or don't have health care.

SOT

[hyjanks]

Now I understand why you came up with that moniker! Full speed ahead, and damn those torpedoes!

[blueskybigstar]

Wow, I really like that guy.

[Irmanator]

If I lived in Lansing, I would vote for him.

[human2008]

Logical or not - this is how one needs to stick it to faux noise..

[klinker1]

It's about time that these public figures start talking backing to these people in the media whenever they try blowing smoke up our collective behinds. Where were all these financial experts that I have been hearing lakely? Where were they when we were heading towards the predicament we find ourselves in?These people( the media) are supposed to be our first line of defense and they have utterly failed us

[blueskybigstar]

The whole statistic they used from the Washington Post owned by Murdoch were really skewed to make it look one way more than the other. The understanding of economics was grade school, incorrect, and meant purely to misinform. Can we, please, start taking Fox to court when they misinform? They do it too much for it not to be on purpose.

[Longbaugh]

This guy needs to run for governor or Senate. DAMN!

[MarsAmbassador]

I love how any help for the common man is demonized by the Republican as socialization or a handout, yet trillions handed over to the Wall Street millionaires and billionaires who got us IN this mess is deemed acceptable to them. And how the Republicans get food stamp trailer trash supporting their initiatives, when they are the ones getting screwed over the hardest, is beyond me. Gotta keep taxes low just in case one of them fulfills their dream of winning the scratch lottery. Nevermind how they've convinced these same people that lose their house and go bankrupt every time they end up in the hospital that any other system would be a BAD thing and that being taken care of and not having to worry about health care from cradle to grave is a BAD thing. Republican ideology is a boot on the neck of the downtrodden Everyman, yet their so-called 'base' consists of so many of the same. I will never figure that out.

[vidian6]

I'm a forty something year old African American man, who was raised primarily in the inner city. So I'm not moved to tears easily. But Mayor Bernero's comments moved me to tears. It makes me so happy to see someone make the statements that he made. I like him am very tired of hearing the bull that the news media - who support these corporations - continue to spout. Tell me where I contribute to his campaign because I would like to see more of him in the political arena.

[blueskybigstar]

I started to tear up too.