Union Bashing

Now that the auto industry is looking for a bailout, we get to deal with a fresh batch of the oldest arguments around.

Obviously, the reason why the auto industry is in a bad way has nothing to do with costly oil, a credit crunch or a global economy that puts first world manufacturers at a serious disadvantage.

Nope, it's the workers that are to blame. The greedy workers that asked for (and received) decent compensation for their labour. Tsk. Tsk.

I love hearing people calling in to news shows outraged that those lazy union workers make more than teachers or some other group of workers. The suggestion is we should solve this problem by cutting back the wages and benefits of the auto workers.

Am I the only one to think this is a short sighted, ridiculous notion? Who does this serve? Definitely not the teachers and other workers. Will they really feel better knowing that the auto workers are now making the same low wage that they are? What a victory. Rather than suggesting that teachers and other workers should make more, we'll just let the auto workers make less. Yay.

When the bank bailout was put together, people didn't attack the bank tellers and accountants for making a living. Now that it's the auto industry's turn, let's lay the blame where it deserves to be laid. . . In the boardroom.