American Autoworkers Deserve Help

When the captain runs the ship aground, who is to blame? And when the ship begins to sink, shouldn’t the captain have to throw a few suitcases of his cash over the side before he starts throwing over the crew overboard? The Big Three are sinking fast while Congress stands on the shore, arguing among themselves about who should jump in and save
them. They were quick to bail out millionaires on Wall Street, yet can’t seem to get behind American workers.

This country can’t afford to lose anymore manufacturing jobs. Look at what happened to
American steel or the textile industry here in the South when the government failed to act and come to the aid of the backbone of our manufacturing base. What has separated America and our way of life from those of other countries has been a strong middle class. What NAFTA and other trade agreements were supposed to do was lift workers from those
countries up, not drag us down to low wage jobs, with no healthcare coverage or stable retirement plans. When wages are good, society prospers. Poverty, crime and unemployment are low, while education and the standard of living are high. Does anybody seriously believe that the answer to jumpstarting our economy is lower wages for workers?

There was a time in this country when patriotism meant supporting American workers. When did it become acceptable to pay a football coach millions of dollars to produce a mediocre season or a baseball player 50 million dollars to put up lackluster stats, yet stand by while some of the last of our good paying American jobs vanish right before our eyes?

If wages need to be cut in order for the American auto industry get back on its feet, then I am all for it. And since CEO pay has grown nearly 300 to 1 over the average worker for the last 20 years, I say lets start cutting at the top. The Big Three are in trouble because aren’t selling cars, so lets put blame where blame is due. The fact is American automobile reliability meets or exceeds its foreign competition, so that argument doesn’t hold up. The decline of the auto industry in this country can be attributed more to lack of contemporary
styling, fuel economy standards below the Japanese, as well as redundant and multi layered cars lines as opposed to pensions or healthcare costs.nThis is a direct result from of lack of company vision and poor management, not “overpaid autoworkers”. How much of GM’s CEO Rick Wagoneer’s salary or the cost of their fleet of private jets is included in the sticker price of every Chevy truck? Wagoneer’s totalmcompensation in 2007 was approximately 14 million dollars, over $20,000.00 a day. That is enough to pay 10,000 autoworkers for a day.

Hard working Americans have enough of a burden to bare in these tough economic times. Autoworkers on Main Street shouldn’t lose benefitsmthey have fought for 70 years to gain because of poor decisions made by millionaires on Wall Street.