Working People and Good Jobs are the Foundation of Our Economy, Not the Problem

Get ready for corporate America's favorite game: blame the victim. As pundits address the various reasons for the American auto industry's problems a frequent target won't be bloated CEO salaries, a lack of executive accountability or a flawed business plan. The target will be the men and women who go to work every day doing the best job they can.

Just last week, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman gratuitously blamed the United Auto Workers union for the auto industry's current state three times in his column without a hint of evidence behind his allegations. As the bailout debate continues, there will be many more examples to come.

This blame the victim concept is inaccurate and goes against the basic foundation of the American Dream.

First, critics of autoworkers - or construction workers, public service workers or any number of other employees who have sometimes managed to join together and win decent wages and benefits - fail to mention that workers have been taking it on the chin and making sacrifices for years. At the Big Three automakers, workers have already taken significant wage and benefit cuts in their last two contracts negotiated in 2005 and 2007. By the end of the current contract, the gap in labor costs between union and non-union U.S. auto companies will be nearly eliminated. At the same time, studies continue to show that union represented workers, both in the auto industry and in general, are more productive, more efficient and have superior health and safety records.

But even more disturbing than the inaccuracy of the attacks against working people is the premise on which they are based - that in order to survive, workers in Detroit and everywhere must match their wages and benefits to workers who make less and labor under worse conditions.

The American Dream is about upward mobility through middle class jobs, not an economic race to the bottom. Middle class jobs built our country by allowing one generation to work hard, support a family and give their kids opportunities they never had themselves. And those jobs were based on good wages and benefits that improved over time to meet the demands and costs of a modern society.

We are told huge corporate salaries and multi-million dollar bonuses are necessary because these lofty incentives drive the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit behind a free-market economy. But when that same free market economy allows workers to negotiate for wages and benefits that match their skills and production, they ludicrously get the blame for ruining an entire industry.

As the union representing the men and women who build America, we hear the same thing in the construction industry. Anti-union groups complain about prevailing wage jobs that pay the workers responsible for building our roads, bridges, mass-transit and energy systems in the highest skilled positions as much as $40 an hour. That's a good, family-supporting job. But it's less than what a typical corporate CEO literally makes in 10 seconds - despite being in part responsible for our current economic crisis and now lining up for billion-dollar handouts.

Everyone will have to make sacrifices before our economy turns around. Working people have already made more sacrifices than most. But we cannot go backwards, lowering standards and degrading the foundation of the American Dream. Working people and good jobs built our economy and they are the key to our economic recovery.

Comments

[nomoredead]

I heard a few years ago that one of the big 3 spent $900 per car on advertising.

[Michale32086]

According to the UAW, Labor Costs tack on about $2400 to each car...

Michale.....

[toypiano]

Great article. Well said. I believe all union protections should stay in place, or even strengthened, post-bailout. Wages for other workers should be raised to match those levels if we are to have a middle class again. Expecting workers to live on low wages is unconscionable and we have to start reining in CEO salaries and closing enormous pay gaps.

There is an obvious double standard at play in these bailout dramas, and that is that the banks and insurance giants are not being asked to fork over detailed plans for changing their ways, they just get their handouts and leave. It's clear the conservatives are trying to break the unions by requiring a separate and unequal set of demands from the car companies -- for far less money. The unions are being targeted and I hope they stand strong against the onslaught of attacks from corporate apologists.

[Articulator]

I agree. There is too much bashing of the American worker. It seems like there are so many people with pitchforks and torches in hand just itching to set aflame the US auto industry and watch it burn to the ground. Wow.

[William1950]

Mr. O'Sullivan, you are so right... Union is the new bogyman in the right wing lexicon..
Retirees get a pension that was contributed to during their working lives, put into a fund and then invested and its sole purpose is to fund retirement..... all negotiated and agreed to by the relevant parties.

[DRaymond]

Yes the big 3 have a lot of retirement benefits costs and when you divide those costs among the current workforce you get a large net cost per hour because there are so many retirees and so few remaining workers...Why? Because they closed so many of the plants! Are they also spreading out the per-hour cost to the plants in Mexico and South America and China where all those jobs were shipped away to? Basic actuarial tables would have told the auto companies how much to put aside in the pension fund to cover those workers' retirement costs back when they were working. If they are having to pull from current revenues then it is a failure of management once again.

[jeffinseattle]

How in the hell CAN ANYONE exist on $5 minimum wage??Wages for the average worker have not kept pace for the past 30 years. Since 1973, wages for the average worker have precipitously
declined ( adjusted for inflation). While Corporations subcontract and outsource jobs overseas, the average worker takes the brunt of this...on top of the rise in cost of living. Corporations and business' continue to bite-the-hands that feed them. Workers=Consumers=your bottom-line. Without us, you
have no business ( pun not intended).

[Hiphopcrates]

Eat the Rich!

[Pearlswan]

Who Killed The Electric Car in the 1970s? GM Management, not workers, that's who. Now they are paying the price for their bad decision and their greed while their workers become nothing more than collateral damage to them. They would be competitive in today's market with an electric car like the one they already had but destroyed. Big 3 management wants us to believe their legacy of faulty management decisions and their unyielding focus on short term profit over long term sustainability had nothing to do with the auto industry's downfall. Instead, they expect us to believe its the workers who were paid too well and the corrupt unions that got them their benefits. These corrupt managers add insult to injury as they make off safely with their golden parachutes while their workers, who created the wealth that bought the parachutes with their productivity and safety record, become collateral damage and lose their jobs, health care, and homes. Management makes the decisions, not labor. Management is accountable, not labor. Get real.

[SeriousBlack]

"But we cannot go backwards, lowering standards and degrading the foundation of the American Dream."

Hellooooo. That's what's BEEN happening big time for the last 30 years, with only a brief pause during the Clinton administration.

[WorkingClass]

There was never a pause. Clinton = NAFTA

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

Anyone who thinks that the road to the future should be paved with lower paying jobs with fewer benefits is a damn fool who'se been drinking neocon cool-aid. We should follow the examble of the Scandinavian countries and insure that tdhe pay rate of all jobs are pegged to the union wage.

[toypiano]

Yes! True that.

[Erdgeist]

What New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman doesn't grasp, who in my humble opinion is a megaphone for corporatisim, is that a race to the bottom, in terms of wages, is a race to Third World status for the U.S. worker.

Blamming the unions, like the UAW, for wanting fair wages fails to explain how reducing wages for workers is supposed to boost the demand side of the economy without which the supply-side would almost cease to exist.

What we have seen, thus far, in the last 30 years are corporations increasing their profits by waging war on the wages of the middle and lower class through such scheme as "globalization" and "free-trade" both of which don't actually work (Paul A. Samuelson, the dean of free-trade, now questions the basic tenets of free-trade theory...that David Ricardo's economic analysis doesn't work for the 21st century).

Compared to the wages today, I made far more as a common laborer back in the 1960s than most make now. And most of us who went to college in the 1960s didn't need to take out loans -- nor can I remember any of my friends needing credit cards to make ends meet. I want to see those days return for the young people.

[Cyano]

Each corporation only wants its own workers to be paid 3rd world wages, so what me worry? Obviously, there won't be any customers for their products left in this country pretty soon, but they can just re-export their products to China, right?

[nomoredead]

This was brought up on one of the sunday talk shows about the US economy and the question was will China continue to lend us money and Thomas Friedman said they have to so we can continue to buy their 'widgets' and the other quest who seemed to have a lot of knowledge of China countered that China is considering keeping their money and directing it to increased wages so the Chinese workers can buy their own ' widgets' and keep their money in their own country. That would be devastating for america and shut Friedman up. Game over.

[Cogitoe]

The brutal fact is Big 3 labor costs are still not competitive with that of their global competition. It is very sad that many fine UAW members will lose their middle class jobs, but it is senseless to try to protect uncompetive companies and industries with tax payer dollars. These workers need to be refocused on new industries and skills that will allow them to continue to earn $40 - $75/hour.

[LeftRight]

However, part of the REASON that they aren't competitive are the so called "free trade" agreements. The fact of the matter is that EVERYONE has a lot of tariffs in place protecting their national economy, EXCEPT the USA!

[texastrixie]

What other jobs do you think pay $40-$75 an hour? These are autoworkers. If they wanted to be brain surgeons, they would have gone to college. It is a fallacy that everyone in this country is capable, or even wants to be either a doctor, lawyer, registered nurse, etc. Many people in this country are suitable to make things or fix things - period. And I don't mean mass spectrometers either. Freezers, irons, ironing boards, dish washer detergent, etc. The idea that we are going to take everyone over the age of 35 and magically transform them into a computer geek or health care worker is ridiculous. And just wait until those green technologies catch on. They might pay $30 an hour at first, but by the time the jobs are shipped overseas to China, it will be just another $5 a day job, like everything else in China. The only way for Americans to be competitive with global competiton is to drastically alter our standard of living such that the majority of people will never own a home, nor send their kids to college. If we don't have national health care, we won't have any health care for most people. I remember growing up we had major medical, period. We never saw a doctor, dentist, etc. If i hadn't been almost blind, I probably neve would have seen an eye doctor. Why everyone is so driven to send us all back to the bleak existence is beyond me.

[robco]

There's plenty of finger pointing to go around. To be fair, some of the CEOs haven't been on the job for very long. It also took a bit to woo Mullally from Boeing to Ford. I don't think people want to see unions completely broken, but some of the benefits (job bank) are too high. Many professionals don't get that level of benefits. Unfortunately the unions are often as corrupt as the corporations they fight. Once they won basic protections for workers, they had to add pork to justify their existence (and union dues).

The auto industry needs to shrink. GM has far too many brands - they need to kill off Pontiac, Buick and GMC. Ford should axe Mercury. We get many different versions of essentially the same vehicle. There are also far too many dealerships.

State and local governments play a role as well. Michigan should have been looking for other industries to supplement automotive. This also underscores the problems arising from our lack of investment in education. The jobs of the future require more than a high school diploma. Many companies are asking the Feds to raise the H1-B visa cap because they can't find enough qualified workers in the US. But the green and tech jobs of the future will require a lot more than a high school education.

And labor and management need to work more collaboratively. This adversarial crap needs to stop.

[Michale32086]

So, if I understand the arguments correctly, Union costs are not so high because you can't figure in retiree benefits in the overall wage figure...

Ignoring for the moment that it all comes under LABOR COSTS and SHOULD be figured in, consider this.

Wasn't it the UAW that fought for and forced those retiree benefits???

So, even if you DON'T figure in the retiree benefits in the UAW-fought-for employee wages, it's STILL undeniable that the retiree benefits are ALSO UAW-fought-for..

So, in effect, the UAW is at fault for the high employee wages AND the retiree benefits..

Whatever column you want to place the retiree benefits into, the simple fact is, they are there because of the UAW along with the $55-$60 p/hour wages. And all those high expenses are PART of the reason why the company is failing....

Again, simple logic..

Michale......

[Pearlswan]

And management is responsible for not retooling their factories and building better vehicles. Management had no vision. Workers deserve their benefits and management had the job of earning profit. CEO salaries exceed retiree benefits by a long shot. What about wages in the tens of thousands of dollars per hour and a golden parachute to go with it? How many CEOs got those wages in the last 30 years? Too many, I'm sure. Do some math then come back and complain about the worker's wages, please.

[proudem]

Right on! You rock Pearlswan!

[LeftRight]

Michale, it's STILL not labor costs.

Think of it this way. I have three cars with car payments. Shouldn't I be able to count my insurance as a car payment???? But I cannot, because then the insurance (which I am obligated to pay) will not be present! It's a completely different kind of cost, and neither you nor GM should be counting it as part of labor!

The ONLY reason that they are counting it as a labor cost is that they are trying to keep their own big salaries after the bailout, which would mean cutting the EMPLOYEES wages!

[Lorifromky]

I checked out rushlimbaugh.com - a site that I deplore as much as the host - just to see what "the other side" is saying about the issues at hand. Limbaugh believes that GM is paying too muchy for people to be non-productive; they are paying people who are retired. He says that everyone should be like him - he is setting himself to not be beholden to anyone when he retires. His viewpoint is to work and save for your own retirement, or simply not retire. This is easy, of course, for someone with a multi-million dollar contract. The rest of us can eat cake and never retire. Limbaugh says we all make choices - his choice is to be as compensated as he possibly can. Those of us who can't match his living should blame ourselves, of course. Apparently, Rush is completely self-sufficient: he built the radio towers that transmit his program, he plants, sows and harvests his own food, he makes his own clothes, he builds his own home, planes, and cars. He still finds time to make the appliances that make his life easier - things like hot water heaters, refridgerators, stoves, washing machines, etc. Yes, to live in the bubble of self-reliance - free of interdependence on anyone: the giant myth of the Republican Party. He could not be who he is without others, and moreover, society would survive just fine without radio "personalities", but society would not survive without people who do real work

[Cyano]

Right! Guys who get control of corporations and take huge salaries and stock options really earn their money and bring millions of dollars of value to the business... on paper at least, for awhile at least. It's all nonsense, but it apparently has convinced a lot of people. And radio celebrities... their lives are SO relevant to their listeners (not!)