Last night the United Auto Worker's Union, which was bailed out by American taxpayers two short years ago, announced they were endorsing the Obama administration's NAFTA-style free trade agreement with South Korea and would act as liberal "postage stamp" for the deal.
UAW President Bob King decided to endorse trade pact despite strong opposition from his staff.
The UAW then joined with Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, Tom Donahue of the US Chamber of Commerce and John Engler of the National Association of Manufacturer in congratulating Obama on reaching the deal with South Korea.
Earlier in the day, the White House invited interested parties to a briefing where they announced the NAFTA-style trade pact. They embargoed the story until 7pm, however, so that it could be released in the dark of night.
According to sources close to the discussions, King was on a plane from Europe all day and when he landed, the first one who got him was Obama. King told UAW staff that he supports the deal because he trusts the president, and is confident that it will be a good deal for auto workers because Ford has endorsed it.
Ford, however, manufactures in China -- and Thailand, and the Phillippines -- so what is good for Ford is not automatically good for the UAW. But by choosing to endorse this agreement, which includes many of the provisions that have led to massive manufacturing job losses under NAFTA and CAFTA, King once again demonstrates that the UAW has become a Chinese-style union: much closer to the interests of management and the government than those of its line workers.
What does the UAW get for selling out American workers? A total of 55,000 additional cars, or about 800 jobs.
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the Korea Free Trade deal (KORUS) will cost 159,000 American jobs over the next five years.
Sander Levin, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, worked the phones aggressively to whip support for the bill. Heavy pressure is being brought to bear on United Steelworker President Leo Gerard, in an attempt to keep the AFL-CIO on the sidelines. Getting a rather cheap "give" from the Koreans to the auto industry to buy off the UAW was actually quite clever -- because the steelworkers are also being told that with all the cars that will be sold to Korea, there will be US steel used to make them.
Of course, that's a crock. Korea would still face a lower tariff (2%) in the US than the US will face in Korea (4%).
The deal will devastate the building trade unions, also part of the AFL-CIO, who have been the hardest hit by NAFTA-style trade agreements. Much of their work has been building factories in the midwest, and as those factories get shipped overseas, their jobs have disappeared. In splitting the member unions, the administration hopes to sideline the powerful resources of the AFL-CIO which would otherwise organize to protect the building trades.
It's a deviously brilliant plan, which makes me suspect it didn't originate at the White House. Unsurprisingly, the Chamber of Commerce has come out in support of the deal, and are already organizing online to pass it.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has also been on the phone, pressuring labor presidents into supporting the trade deal. As someone who raised money for her and supported her when she was in congress, she can officially kiss my ass in Macy's window.
The White House had recently told the building trade unions that they had no intention of dealing with Korea Free Trade for another year. They used the same tactic with the Social Security groups -- telling them they would not be taking up the issue for another year, knowing all the while they would spring the deficit commission on them imminently.
In June of this year, Obama said he wanted to submit the George W. Bush negotiated Korea Free Trade Agreement to a vote in Congress. That bill contains many provisions which are in violation of the pledges he made on the campaign trail, and there has been no signal from the White House or anyone else involved that any fixes have been made other than sweetheart deal for autos and beef.
Earlier this month, Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips launched a broadside attack against NAFTA-style free trade agreements. It will be an interesting first test for the freshmen Republican members of Congress -- will they stick with the Tea Party activists who carried them into office, and who largely oppose such deals -- or will they be captivated by Republican leaders like John Boehner, who (like Freedomworks head Dick Armey) strongly supported NAFTA?
Republican representatives Dave Camp, Allyson Schwartz and Kevin Brady also cheered Obama for reaching the deal, thumbing their nose at the same Tea Party members they courted less than a month ago when the election was at stake.
It remains to be seen whether USW Leo Gerard will join with the UAW and help the White House undermine the building trade unions and ship more American jobs overseas. I hope not. The UAW are a bunch of selfish pigs and I have no problem joining hands in a transpartisan alliance against them, but I don't want to wind up fighting Leo Gerard and the Steelworkers on this.
But we will fight them. Because this is a terrible, terrible deal for America, at a time when unemployment is soaring and the White House has zero plans for creating jobs -- unless you're in the international bank looting business. Everyone involved should be deeply, deeply ashamed of their participation in this, and we will do everything in our power to organize against its passage.
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Korean auto companies have a pact with Korean auto suppliers. If you're an
American based company, too bad, you either have to joint venture with a Korean
company or not do business with them at all. The UAW can crumble for all care.
Next time your jobs are on the line, don't whine to me.
Hold tight to those you love because it's going to turn into a tornado when it's full blown.
I see no reason for unions at this stage of the game of life. If you truely can find a nich doin something you truely love doin rather then taking a job that you think will make you happy because your giving 4-5 dollars in union fee's per hour to earn what you think would be more without them. When in fact one of the biggest to keys to any type of sucess is doin something you actually like doin. It is then you earn the top wages because work no longer becomes 8-10 hours in front of a machine it becomes a way of life. Stop giving these deadbeats your hard earned money.
I a purely economic sense, unions are the result of oppressive treatment of greedy capitalists whose philosophy is to exploit every component of the manufacturing process, including workers. Unions came about when they realized a capitalistic principle; by organizing, they became a component that could control their quantity, thereby extracting concessions from the robber barrons and improving their lot in life as a result. One fact is indisputable, if it wasn't for organized labor, we would all have a standard of living close to what the chinese have with annual earnings of closer to $8,000. And "Free Trade" is trying to drive us all down to that level.
People forget too easily how it used to be when their grandparents were forging this country and making profits for their employers who didn't give a crap.
I've been saying there's no real difference between the two political parties for years, and having labor leadership stand side by side with financial leaders I think proves my point.
The people are being screwed by both public and private leadership who, in their continuing and growing collusion to reunify private wealth and political power, are attempting to circumnavigate American ideology.
Again, what use are civil rights against a government if the private authority who employs you is not required to also respect those individual rights?
If the shack you live in, the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the vehicle you drive and the place you work are all private property provided directly by your employer, and the government no longer has regulatory authority over said employer, then you have no civil rights.
And in case you're wondering, there is such a thing as over-regulation; but there is also a big difference between regulating to ensure a fair day's wages for a fair day's labor in safe working conditions and simply not allowing companies to make every penny they can by cutting every corner possible.
Balance. The mainstay of people work to earn a living; which doesn't mean those who desire wealth shouldn't be allowed to do so.
In American, however, self-sacrifice for self-advancement means exactly that.
"No question now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
- George Orwell, Animal Farm, Ch. 10
What can you do to protect yourself during the shakeout? Learn rare and valuable skills. What can we do for the worker who can't or doesn't? Elect people who care.
The problem with civil rights is they don't much matter when you're homeless.
Do you think DADT would be such a sticking point for the left if it weren't such a good jab in the ribs to the right?
The problem is we are born of the far right, and royal subjugation is about as far right as it gets. So that gives conservatives the "home field" advantage while liberals must fight against the current on every attempt to erase exclusivities/share privileges.
At this rate in 5-10 years 5 bucks per hour will be a fortune.
And please remember there is a difference between liberal concerns and liberal political agendas.
People may vary in their beliefs, but politicians are always politicians.
But when it comes to trade, we have to take whatever they offer and even embarrased Obama previously by not reaching an agreement with him during the Asia tour...
They should be bending over backwards to keep the US happy yet like most nations and unlike the US lately they negotiate to their advantage.
If this is the US position with a nation that depends on them for survival, imagine when it comes to china...
Is Obama paying attention? He could learn something about the art of negotiating (or the art of war) from them...