UAW

Posted at 8:07am on May 23, 2008 Gas prices affect Michigan employment... so why do House Democrats want to raise them?

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Those out there advocating a brand-spanking new gas tax hike, whether it's today, tomorrow or during the lame duck legislative session after the November general election should consider themselves officially on notice this morning that their actions have consequences as news outlets report some awfully serious automotive related news that's been and will be directly affected by the price at the pump.  The stories are a part of a news cycle chock full of stories about cars, car makers, the people who drive them and the people who pick on the people who drive on them.

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Posted at 9:39am on May 7, 2008 If you MUST run with scissors pointed up...

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

(The relevance of this particular graphic is coming... promise...)

Most days you don't have to look far in Michigan news to find a ridiculous headline or a story about behavior that defies logic and common sense.  And that's not a dig on the mainstream media.  Sure, they're responsible for a laughable or frustrating choice of words from time to time but you work with what you're given, you know?  They can only report on what's happening out there (in theory) and it's usually our fair State and the good folks running it who create the ridiculous situations they cover.  

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Posted at 8:26am on May 1, 2008 Presidential politics return to Michigan (GOOD!) while another few thousand jobs leave (BAD!)

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

He was here just over a month ago, touring a Ford plant back on February 21st.  And now he's coming back.  Who?  I'll give you a few hints... he's a guy.  He's running for President.  He's actually invested in Michigan this campaign season with staff, mail, radio, TV and all sorts of assorted political chum purchased from local vendors.  He talks about Michigan issues and has taken an active interest in the domestic auto industry.  If you do the math on February 21st it's only been sixty-nine days since he last visited even though our election was held long ago... and he didn't even win it!

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Posted at 8:46am on Apr. 25, 2008 Funny, I didn't realize there was a Toledo anywhere in China

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

"I can't compete with China. I personally can't compete with Mexico."

That was the word, according to the Associated Press, from Steve Conner, an American Axle employee for the past fourteen years.  And that just about says everything you need to know about Big Labor's talking points and their hold over many rank and file members striking the struggling auto-parts supplier.

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Posted at 8:47am on Mar. 7, 2008 Another day in Libtopia (read: Michigan): Barack claims he won MI while UAW puts nearly 30,000 out of work

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

Great examples of what happens when you've got lefties running the show splashed all over the news this morning.  Ironic great.  Not awesome great.  Actually, the opposite of awesome since we're talking about violations of the law, discrediting of the law and tens of thousands of workers out of a job by Monday.

In other words, just another day in Michigan.

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Posted at 9:37am on Mar. 4, 2008 Since it's awards season...

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

I didn't watch the Oscars this year.  I mean, I rarely watch the Oscars but I have in the past.  There just wasn't anything there for me this time.  No rooting interest.  I'd seen a few of the movies being discussed but the whole thing was anti-climactic.  Javier Bardem was going to win best supporting actor and "No Country for Old Men" was a lock to take home a couple more little golden statues.  Probably deserved them too.  It's the sort of creepy movie that gets under your skin for a few days.  And I'm not too proud to admit that when I got home from the theatre the first thing I did was check my deadbolts to make sure they hadn't been knocked out of place.

The movie wasn't a dark horse and it did what it was expected to do.  It won it all.

Same situation with the Wolverine State and "States and Governing" magazine.  You may recall that back during the 2006 gubernatorial election Michigan was actually rated the best managed State in the entire Union.  And let's be honest... this particular publication is written about state governments.  You think they're going to have any sort of smaller-government editorial policy?  Heavens no.  It's a periodical for bureaucrats by bureaucrats.  Bigger and more obtrusive equals better in that world.  It's really almost a shock that we fell all the way to third!

But it did wake me up in a sense.  It'd be unfair if we let this time of year go by without unsealing envelopes and naming winners of our own.  Since it's awards season and in honor of Michigan's shocking third place finish in the magazine's management rankings I figured there's no time like the present to keep red carpet unfurled.  And hey, we'll start small.  Instead of looking back over the whole year let's just take a look at today's news and hand out some little statuettes.  (Readers lacking a sense of humor please note: I am not actually going to give anyone any physical statuettes.  I'll simply distribute them in spirit.)

So without further ado, I'd like to present the first annual, or monthly, or weekly... or, well, today's... LEFTY Awards!

Best Use of a Bribe To Get Favors from Corrupt Michigan Democrats:: Fifth / Third Bank and Christine Beatty

The Detroit News reports this morning that Kwame Kilpatrick's girlfriend and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty seems to have received a massive grant to purchase a second home.  The tricky part is, when she received the cash the grant program hadn't been created yet.  And she got more than they ever awarded after they did create it.  And internal memos indicate the payoff was designed to influence the mayor and his administration.  And Kwame and company fought tooth and nail to keep those memos from ever seeing the light of day.  But it's all above the board.  They promise.


...A federal judge did not order Fifth Third Bank to create that "economic empowerment program" until May 19, 2004 -- two weeks after Beatty received her mortgage, federal court records show.

Not only was Beatty the first Detroiter to receive a grant under the program, the $12,000 the bank gave her was more than anyone else in the program received, Fifth Third senior vice president Jack Riley confirmed. Four months after Beatty received her grant, Fifth Third set a $2,500 cap on individual grants, an amount that later was increased to $5,000, Riley said.

The Detroit News previously reported the bank gave Beatty the money after a loan officer wrote a memo that Fifth Third should approve a $237,000 mortgage for Beatty, despite her poor credit rating, because she was "a personal referral from the mayor" and the bank was working on a deal with the city for collection of taxes.

"This could go a long way with 5/3 Bank's efforts in the City of Detroit and the Mayor would think very favorable of our bank," bank official Keith Anderson wrote in the April 14, 2004, internal bank memo.

Yep, nothing shady about that at all.  Democrats are perfect and noble and good and wonderful and smell like clean linen and shine like the face of Moses after he walked down from the mountain.  No graft.  No corruption.  No bribes.  No personal favors.  No purchasing of influence.  No need to resign.  No affair.  No romantic trysts.  No standards.  No ethics.  No accountability.  No integrity.  No... oh, wait... nevermind.  Next category.

Best Use of Greed to Kill Jobs: The United Auto Workers

The Associated Press reports that the number of plants now shuttered because of the UAW's greed-fueled strike of American Axle has reached five.  Nearly twenty-thousand moms and dads are officially out of work this morning as the union refuses to talk.  According to reports last week American Axle has been waiting at the table for days but is entirely absent a negotiating partner.

You'll remember that the union bosses called the strike when the company sought a bit of wage parity.  Their competitors in the United States currently pay between $20 and $30 an hour all-in per employee.  American Axle currently pays their UAW workers $73 an hour all-in.  


The closures bring to five the total of factories GM has closed due to a lack of parts made by American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., affecting more than 13,000 GM hourly workers. The laid-off workers will get most of their pay under their union's contract with GM.

About 3,600 workers represented by the United Auto Workers at five American Axle plants in Michigan and New York went on strike last week in a contract dispute.

American Axle and the UAW haven't returned to the bargaining table since talks broke off on Feb. 25, although both sides have said they're ready to resume negotiations at any time.

American Axle spokeswoman Renee Rogers said Monday afternoon that no talks have been scheduled...

If you listen to the fat-cat union bosses at the UAW halls you'd think this was about NAFTA, CAFTA, the SHAFTA and Mexico.  The three amigos plus one.  If you listen to the competition here in the United States and to common sense you realize this is about survival.  But hey, you can't make an omelet if you don't break a few eggs.  What are 3,600 Michigan jobs in the long run?  Small price to pay to maintain a tough-guy-on-the-block image and forced dues money for the UAW.  Big deal if thousands of moms and dads find themselves out of a job.  

Best Example of How Living Up to Expectations Isn't Always a Good Thing: The Big 3

Sales are down.  Way down.  Again.  As predicted.  And now it's costing folks their jobs.The Ivory Tower reports:


Two months into the year, this much is clear: The dreary auto sales market predicted for the first half of 2008 is living down to those lousy expectations...

In all, Detroit's automakers posted a combined decline of 11%. Sales were off 14% at Chrysler LLC, 12.9% at General Motors Corp. and 6.6% at Ford Motor Co. That led GM and Ford to announce North American production cuts of 5% and 10%, respectively, for the second quarter.

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Posted at 10:22am on Mar. 3, 2008 Still working on that "cutting to the bone" thing while Lansing talks new taxes (again)

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

It's no secret that Lansing democrats are hoping to raise our taxes again.  It was only weeks ago that Speaker of the House Andy Dillon told the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association that a lame-duck vote to spike the gas tax was "probable."  The man took a lot of heat for that accidental confession so you know he's enjoyed the thaw these last couple of days, the damage it's caused to the roads and the corresponding action at the State Capitol.

While drivers across the State try and often times fail to dodge some of the biggest pot-holes in recent memory (near record setting snowfall and cold will do that to roads, Al Gore) a group is meeting in Lansing to discuss the future of State funding for roads.  There's no time like the present to find a handful of angry motorists who are willing to charge themselves an extra nine cents a gallon if it means charging every other Michigander hundreds of millions of dollars.  At least that's the way the thinking goes.  

After all, there's still an entire political party full of activists, bloggers, political hacks, elected officials and taxpayer funded public employees who didn't mind the last $2.4 billion tax hike, don't mind the thought of a new $8 billion tax hike on natural gas and electricity and wouldn't mind at all if we chalked up another hundred million here or there to protect their pet political projects and government waste.  

What they constantly hope taxpayers will forget is that money is fungible.  It can be spent on anything.  Similarly, it can be saved from anywhere.  It can be applied, reapplied or, as is often the case under the Capitol dome, misapplied.  

The Lansing State Journal reports:


The state estimates it needs to come up with an extra $320 million a year in order to maintain state-managed roads at their current level. That doesn't take into account the thousands of local roads...

The governor this past month launched a task force designed to figure out how to pay for what needs fixing. And this Wednesday, the County Road Association of Michigan will host its annual meeting in Delta Township, drawing an audience of road experts from every county.

The overall theme is money and how much more must be spent if road maintenance is to keep ahead of decay, according to the association.

Liberals and conservatives, these days, read that last paragraph in two very distinct ways.  The left asks "how much more money" and "how will we raise it?"  Conservatives ask, among other questions, "how much more money" and "where can we save it?"  

They may also ask, "why do Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow continually fail to bring Michigan out of donor status in Washington DC?"  The state with, arguably, the most consistently weather-beaten roads in the nation still only receives about ninety-two cents for every road tax dollar we send to the federal government.  If there's one state that should be above the dollar threshold it's Michigan.  But alas, Senator Levin is apparently too busy readjusting his glasses.  But that's neither here nor there.

The roads are a mess, Democrats want to raise our taxes (again), `probably' plan to hold a vote in November on a gas tax hike, according to Andy Dillon, and Jennifer Granholm is creating task forces and commissions to "study" the problem and release likely-pre-drafted reports telling residents just how bleak the future looks without more "revenues."  She's... ahem... paving the way for another tax increase.  (Ba-dum-CHING!)

While the tax-hike drum beats start again it is important to remember that it isn't a gas-tax-or-nothing proposition.  If the State really does require extra money for road construction and repairs there is an opportunity to find it elsewhere in government through the elimination of wasteful spending.  

As long as Lansing continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on items like a fancy new Michigan State Police Headquarters that even MSP said they didn't need and didn't want, on full-time staff for an Office of the First Gentleman, on lifetime welfare benefits for able bodied adults... the list can go on and on... they'll have a hard time convincing anyone that Lansing has a "revenue" problem.  For the love of pete, they just swiped an extra $1.5 BILLION last year alone and that still isn't enough.  

Instead of another taxpayer funded blue ribbon panel on ways to gorge working moms and dads how about Lansing simply examine some of our local units of government who, it turns out, are finding interesting ways to save a little cash themselves.  The Detroit News reports this morning that places like Inkster have saved $10,000 by eliminating nice but unnecessary programs (and they're not the only ones).


So sorry, Santa. Inkster gave you the ax over the holidays. Mayor Hilliard Hampton tapped the Downtown Development Authority to pay for decorations, ending a long tradition of the city footing the bill.

"We made a commitment every season to purchase (the displays), but we haven't been able to do that," Hampton said. "It demonstrates that cities are forced to deal with core responsibilities. Everything else is on the chopping block...

Elected in November, Mayor Jim Fouts nixed a chauffeur who had escorted his predecessor, deploying the driver and shifting the duties to create a mobile mini police station. "It serves as an effective deterrent," Fouts said. "We're making it easier for people to report things to the police and making it more flexible and mobile. It's allowing residents to become familiar with the police."

Savings: $30,000 in overtime cuts.

Imagine how much cash a city like Detroit could save by scaling back the mayoral chauffeur service... or refusing to pay for losses in multi-million dollar lawsuits that find the mayor responsible for illegal firings, perjury and who knows what else.

Would it be nice to pay Kwame's legal bills?  Sure.  Would it be nice to pay for a driver for Jim Fouts?  Of course.  And everyone loves Santa.  It'd be nice if the city could pay for those decorations instead finding others to sponsor the displays.  It'd also be nice if we could buy iPods for every school kid and put a pony in every little girls backyard.  But alas, this is reality.  We just plain can't afford it.  

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Posted at 12:41pm on Feb. 29, 2008 Here's hoping the ghost of Juan-Gone doesn't haunt striking American Axle workers

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

While fifty Michigan families in the Grand Rapids area adjust to the news this morning that Fifth Third Bank is killing their jobs the news continues to be just as bleak on the east side of the State.  American Axle is shuttered for the third day while workers continue marching the picket lines "backed" by their well paid union bosses at the UAW.  The strike has affected more than just AA, leading to a shutdown of one automobile production facility thus far and threatening more auto jobs as time passes without a deal.

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Posted at 1:43pm on Jan. 9, 2008 John McCain as the UAW

And the Democrats as the ever-caving GM and Ford

By Neil Stevens

I listened in to part of Senator John McCain's Blogger Call this morning, briefly taking on the role of the amateur reporter with the personal goal of searching for a reason to be content with the possibility that McCain could be the Republican nominee this year.

I intended to ask a question, actually, but he effectively answered me before I got a chance to ask. In discussing issues related to Michigan (as he was coming to us from Grand Rapids, making a run through the state before going next to South Carolina), he brought up an agreement the UAW recently made to cover long-term medical costs for its members. This is relevant because he said that in Washington, he intends to work with Democrats in the way the UAW and auto workers worked to solve that problem.

That's a deep answer, and is worth unpacking.

Read On...

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