I work with a guy who used to drive trucks for a living. He says he would deliver at least once or twice a week to the GM plant in our town. There were two people assigned to work the loading dock, a man operating the forklift and a woman checking in all the deliveries.

Over the two years he worked for the trucking company every time he delivered he says the woman was asleep at a table in the corner of the dock. The male co-worker would unload and then check everything in. This not only reduced his efficiency, but kept the trucker standing around for twice as long as necessary.

That went on for two years straight!

My neighbor used to brag about being “on call” at the Ford plant every weekend. She’d drive there, punch in and drive home. When her shift was up she’d drive back and punch out. This was on a weekend, so of course she’s getting time and a half for this “work”.

Ford closed the plant a few years ago and they had to sell their house, their boat and the restaurant her husband had started. You think she accepts some of the blame for the plant closure? Nah, she blames Bush, because he supposedly “wrecked” the economy.

No shame.
No ambition (aside from naked greed and selfishness).
No accountability.
No intelligence.

No place for people like this in the modern workplace.

I understand from comments I’ve read elsewhere that these concessions only apply to new hires within the last two years. They don’t affect the majority of workers nor do they affect existing pensioners. So, assuming they’re correct, I’m not overly impressed by their flexibility.

Now, here’s the thing: what MIGHT make sense is to use the $25 billion AS debtor-in-possession financing- basically have the government handle the financing of bankruptcy reorganization in lieu of the private markets.

Exactly. That’s what I’m talking about using the $25 billion for.

The solution probably means shuffling off some medical and pension costs to Uncle Sam. Yes, I know. To which I respond “this is like the Midas repair commercial- you can pay now or pay later. Not paying is not an option”. Those UAW retirees are going to be Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security/PGBC hits ANYWAY. Might as well see if we can minimize the pain.

The PGBC has a maximum benefit cutoff, so killing the existing pension plan in favor of a PGBC substitute is better than just assuming the pension plan costs in place. And besides, the PBGC is at least theoretically self-financed, so hopefully the taxpayer wouldn’t be on the hook too much.

so the idea that the problem with the US automaking industry is “OMG NOT CAPITALIST ENOUGH, GOVERNMENT BAD, FREE MARKET GOOD” doesn’t quite fly.

Well, no — that’s why I spread the blame out to more than just the union and more than just the government.

The days of Andrew Mellon saying “Liquidate labour, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down… enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people” are long, long gone (plus it’s easy for a multimillionaire to tell the peasants to go eat cake). My hope is that they are sensible about it.

But isn’t that what we’re talking about? “Liquidate the bad, recycle it to the good” is the very essence of a laissez faire free market, and barring turning them into some sort of horrible zombie state-owned enterprise it’s what’s going to happen anyway. We’re just trying to figure out what the minimum, appropriate level of government intervention would be to alleviate the total amount of pain.

I’d like to see the Big Three survive as stripped-down profitable companies that can compete on an equal basis with the foreign companies. At this point, that pretty much requires screwing the union and requiring the workers to actually work for a reasonable, uninflated wage.

Here’s the problem: Chapter 11 requires debtor-in-possession financing.

You might have heard about this financial crisis we’re in where banks aren’t making loans, and credit markets are frozen. Care to guess one of the things companies have a problem getting right now?

There’s also the problem that throwing a big chunk of Michigan (and lots of other chunks elsewhere) out of work is probably not the greatest idea during a recession. The auto industry collapsing might be worth 2-3% of unemployment JUST BY ITSELF. Add that to what’s going to happen over the next few months, and things could get very miserable, on a scale you and I haven’t seen in our lifetimes (I remember the early 80′s, and yes, this could be worse).

Oh, and FWIW, slagging the unions is popular in your branch of the political spectrum, but they HAVE done givebacks in UAW contracts recently. They aren’t stupid. I won’t say they’ve done everything right, nor should they be exempt from further ones… but it DOES take two parties to agree to a contract.

Also:

If we take the “legacy costs” (i.e. outrageous pensions) off their hands

Google “Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation”. Guess what? Taxpayers ARE on the hook for pensions from GM, et. al. if things go really south (the short version is the PGBC is the pension fund version of the FDIC). Ruh-roh, Raggy.

Now, here’s the thing: what MIGHT make sense is to use the $25 billion AS debtor-in-possession financing- basically have the government handle the financing of bankruptcy reorganization in lieu of the private markets. That may make sense, since it might be more cost-effective than blowing the whole thing up, or writing GM blank checks, or even checks with 2454624 different conditions. I am a liberal, but I’m pretty skeptical that the US government should be deeply in the business of industrial planning (A Five Year Plan to Revive GM just gives me hives), and the history of no-condition bailouts in, say, the airline industry isn’t very encouraging- most airlines are still horribly run, and the ones that aren’t are, surprise surprise, the ones that were never bailed out through US government money + bankruptcy.

The solution probably means shuffling off some medical and pension costs to Uncle Sam. Yes, I know. To which I respond “this is like the Midas repair commercial- you can pay now or pay later. Not paying is not an option”. Those UAW retirees are going to be Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security/PGBC hits ANYWAY. Might as well see if we can minimize the pain.

Also, I might point out that the Germans and Japanese have universal health care, pensions, extensive government involvement in industrial policy, AND cars that don’t suck, plus THEIR automaking firms aren’t about to implode- so the idea that the problem with the US automaking industry is “OMG NOT CAPITALIST ENOUGH, GOVERNMENT BAD, FREE MARKET GOOD” doesn’t quite fly.

Well, to sum up, I think we’re going to have the government do SOMETHING, because it’s just not reasonable to implode a huge employment center in the United States, any more than it was reasonable to let the financial system collapse because of mindless free-market boosterism. The days of Andrew Mellon saying “Liquidate labour, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down… enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people” are long, long gone (plus it’s easy for a multimillionaire to tell the peasants to go eat cake). My hope is that they are sensible about it.