A Race to the Bottom

[chefmike]

A Race to the Bottom
Bob Herbert

Toward the end of an important speech in Washington last month, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, said to her audience:

“Think of a teacher who is staying up past midnight to prepare her lesson plan... Think of a teacher who is paying for equipment out of his own pocket so his students can conduct science experiments that they otherwise couldn’t do... Think of a teacher who takes her students to a ‘We, the People’ debating competition over the weekend, instead of spending time with her own family.”

Ms. Weingarten was raising a cry against the demonizing of teachers and the widespread, uninformed tendency to cast wholesale blame on teachers for the myriad problems with American public schools. It reminded me of the way autoworkers have been vilified and blamed by so many for the problems plaguing the Big Three automakers.

But Ms. Weingarten’s defense of her members was not the most important part of the speech. The key point was her assertion that with schools in trouble and the economy in a state of near-collapse, she was willing to consider reforms that until now have been anathema to the union, including the way in which tenure is awarded, the manner in which teachers are assigned and merit pay.

It’s time we refocused our lens on American workers and tried to see them in a fairer, more appreciative light.

Working men and women are not getting the credit they deserve for the jobs they do without squawking every day, for the hardships they are enduring in this downturn and for the collective effort they are willing to make to get through the worst economic crisis in the U.S. in decades.

In testimony before the U.S. Senate this month, the president of the United Auto Workers, Ron Gettelfinger, listed some of the sacrifices his members have already made to try and keep the American auto industry viable.

Last year, before the economy went into free fall and before any talk of a government rescue, the autoworkers agreed to a 50 percent cut in wages for new workers at the Big Three, reducing starting pay to a little more than $14 an hour.

That is a development that the society should mourn. The U.A.W. had traditionally been a union through which workers could march into the middle class. Now the march is in the other direction.

Mr. Gettelfinger noted that his members “have not received any base wage increase since 2005 at G.M. and Ford, and since 2006 at Chrysler.”

Some 150,000 jobs at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have vanished outright through downsizing over the past five years. And like the members of Ms. Weingarten’s union (and other workers across the country, whether unionized or not), the autoworkers are prepared to make further sacrifices as required, as long as they are reasonably fair and part of a shared effort with other sectors of the society.

We need some perspective here. It is becoming an article of faith in the discussions over an auto industry rescue, that unionized autoworkers should be taken off of their high horses and shoved into a deal in which they would not make significantly more in wages and benefits than comparable workers at Japanese carmakers like Toyota.

That’s fine if it’s agreed to by the autoworkers themselves in the context of an industry bailout at a time when the country is in the midst of a financial emergency. But it stinks to high heaven as something we should be aspiring to.

The economic downturn, however severe, should not be used as an excuse to send American workers on a race to the bottom, where previously middle-class occupations take a sweatshop’s approach to pay and benefits.

The U.A.W. has been criticized because its retired workers have had generous pensions and health coverage. There’s a horror! I suppose it would have been better if, after 30 or 35 years on the assembly line, those retirees had been considerate enough to die prematurely in poverty, unable to pay for the medical services that could have saved them.

Randi Weingarten and Ron Gettelfinger know the country is going through a terrible period. Their workers, like most Americans, are already getting clobbered and worse is to come.

But there is no downturn so treacherous that it is worth sacrificing the long-term interests — or, equally important — the dignity of their members.

Teachers and autoworkers are two very different cornerstones of American society, but they are cornerstones nonetheless. Our attitudes toward them are a reflection of our attitudes toward working people in general. If we see teachers and autoworkers as our enemies, we are in serious need of an attitude adjustment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/op...=1&ref=opinion

[El Nino]

You want the straight dope? Here ya go: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=9824

[hippifried]

Yup. It's them thar illuminatis all right. Get the "Raid".

[El Nino]

Yup. It's them thar illuminatis all right. Get the "Raid".

Article out in the NY Post recently as well. http://www.nypost.com/seven/12042008...iti_142511.htm

They dance around the crux however

[SarahG]

Economic crisis only makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer. The worse the crisis, the stronger this relationship is seen.

This is fundamental, economic crisis makes expansion extremely cheap; lots of job applicants (and few jobs) so employers can really put effort into picking the best labor for the cheapest price, real estate is cheaper, and it is easier to buy out the competition as businesses fail. Only the wealthy in such times have the means to make such expansionist movements.... and for the first time in our nation's history we're using tax payer money to fund these depression expansions (at least, $700,000,000,000 of it anyway).

The panic of 1893 caused the steel industry to morph into the giant it is remembered for, Carnegie was not richer than god in the 1870's... and that was without a big hefty bail out to help cover the costs & risks.

It confuses me that we refuse to give the auto manufacturers a mere $40 billion dollar loan when we had no problem giving away a $700 billion dollar gift (not loan) to the banking industry. In the eyes of that giant donation to our richest citizens, a $40B loan is mere pocket change... and small pocket change at that.

And the record shows that bailing out an auto maker with a loan has worked out in the long run... Chrysler was rescued with a loan once, and with that loan the company not only salvaged itself, paid the loan off (early I might add) but compiled a big nest egg of assets & profit that contributed to the company's downfall. Diamler didn't buy chrysler for the company, they bought it for the big nest egg... and once they had looted and pillaged everything that was worth its existence in the company, they sold it and ran like it was a diseased $5 crack whore.

The company would probably not be in perfect shape today, but it wouldn't be on the verge of failure as we see it now... and none of that was the fault or byproduct of UAW involvement. It wasn't UAW that decided to kill off plymouth (the company's line of entry level eco cars), it wasn't UAW that wrestled away the company's nest egg, it wasn't the UAW that decided to keep designing trucks & muscle car remakes after the energy crisis started.

If it is true that American cars aren't as good, then there is certainly blame to go around. The engineers, not UAW, have been making the low quality, faulty designs that the company is infamous for. It was the EPA, not the UAW, that forced the big three to use primers that couldn't stick to metal in the 90s (causing the peeling paint problems that cheated car owners out of their investment) while allowing imports to use whatever they wanted... and it is the consumer report magazines, not UAW that talks of American cars as if they're always gas hogs when some import vehicles are as bad or worse (and yes, more than the big three make gas guzzling trucks). I say this as someone who hates unions.

[addicted]

tin foil hat?

[chefmike]

tin foil hat?

Did you lose yours, adipshit?

You're a troll and a moron.

I'll ignore you in the future like everyone else does. You follow me around with your juvenile BS because it has your panties in a twist that I helped get you banned when you posted as worthy2. You'll eventually get so desperate for attention that your moronic and offensive drivel will probably get you banned again. But nobody will really care because you're just another insignificant troll. You're not even interesting enough to qualify for village idiot status, despite the fact that you have proven yourself to be an total idiot. Attaboy, addicted. Why don't you just call yourself adipshit? I don't doubt that you're an addict, airplane glue most likely. Probably shoplifted. But adipshit fits you even better. I'll let you get back to your airplane glue now, adipshit.

[q1a2z3]

Sounds like the a nerve was hit in the chef. lol!

You need a tinfoil suit. Moonbats are so much fun to watch in action.

[chefmike]

Moonbats

Doesn't Rush ever get any new material?

Get lost on the way to the gloryhole, dittohead?

Don't let your any of your bigoted brethren catch you here, francis...and you'd best stay away from airport men's rooms also...just look how your fellow hypocrites threw Larry Craig to the wolves...to name but one of your fellow closeted right-wing sheep...megadittoes, dipshit.

[thx1138]

I thought Bob Herbert worked for Alex Jones. I Mike is quoting him I guess I'm wrong.