President Obama has managed to do what no other leader has been able to accomplish. He has brought unionized auto workers and management together.
“It’s the age-old Wall Street vs. Main Street smackdown again,” said Brian Fredline, president of UAW Local 602 at a plant near Lansing. “You have all kinds of funding available to banks that are apparently too big to fail, but they’re also too big to be responsible.”
“But when it comes to auto manufacturing and middle-class jobs and people that don’t matter on Wall Street, there are certainly different standards that we have to meet — higher standards — than the financials. That is a double standard that exists and it’s unfair,” Fredline said.
Many workers — not generally known for their affection toward executives — even sympathized with Rick Wagoner, who was forced to step down as chief executive of General Motors Corp. He was by turns called a “sacrificial lamb,” “scapegoat” and “fall guy.”
I don’t know about these union workers now siding with the executives of the car companies now. Where were they when the companies needed their help before. I know the exs. make enormous salaries and get huge bonuses but the auto workers make damn good money too and their perks have been through the roof. I would probably have worked for just their benefits several times in my working life. I suppose life is more expensive up north. I worked in Chicago for a while though and food was a lot cheaper there than here in Alabama.
You are kidding right? The GM UAW has been fighting the cost cutting process the entire way. They are going to lose big when GM finally goes into bankruptcy.