In Union Lies the Strength

I continue scrutinizing Mitt Romney’s views on some of the issues on his page, anyone can find them on his website. The issue that caught my attention was his stand on Labor; particularly because we all know he is not a “job creator” rather he is more like a “job killer” so I was very interested in finding out what his “views” are on the subject.

Surprisingly, Mitt Romney’s opinion on the issue is too long. I will split my comments to make it easier on the reader and myself. This is the first of three posts on the issue of Labor.

It comes to no surprise that he is against unions. To mitigate his dislike for unions he elaborates on the past glories and accomplishments for the benefit of the American worker that unions have achieved in the past. But for Mitt Romney Unions are damaging businesses and they need to be eliminated or changed to be beneficial to corporations. For a man that has made a career increasing the wealth of Corporations at the expense of regular people and shows little or no remorse for the thousands of workers that lost their jobs while he filled the pockets of Bain Capital nothing but disdain towards Unions is to be expected.

On his site, if you read carefully, you will be able to understand what is what Mitt Romney wants to protect. He says on his page, and I quote, “But today, the effects of unionization have changed in ways that need to be recognized. Too often, unions drive up costs and introduce rigidities that harm competitiveness and frustrate innovation.” What he means by this is that Unions will not allow companies to abuse workers, to make them work in an unsafe environment and that unions demand that worker gets compensated fairly for the work they do. That is what companies have been striving for, pay less, offer less or no benefits and not be responsible for providing a safe environment where they have to spend money to secure the worker or provide them with the safety gear necessary to protect them, after all… that cost money and we all know corporations couldn’t care less for the workers, all it matters is the shareholders’ profits.

He goes on to blame Unions for manufacturing jobs disappearing from this country. As if outsourcing had nothing to do with it! He claims that most Americans believe that Unions in reality hurt the American worker. I hope this is not true. The only way the American worker can fight injustices, discrimination, unfairness and harassment in the workplace is through the Union. The only reason we have a 40-hour week, days off, vacations paid, health insurance and all the perks that we enjoy today and take for granted is thanks to the Unions. If we lose Unions in this country, and now that Corporations are “people” we will go back to the days when we had no rights, no one to defend us, or the money to pay for our legal representation. Slowly but surely the Right wants us to go back in time, a time when they had slaves but no responsibility. After all, even slave owners would take care of a sick slave – not out of the kindness of their heart, but as a protection for their investment; as a worker we will not even get that, we will be easily replaceable.

He has the audacity to accuse President Obama for “returning the favor” to Unions in exchange for the “several hundred million dollars” that Unions donated during his 2008 campaign. Taking him on his own word, who is making monetary donations in sums never heard of before during any other political campaign? We all know the answer, the Koch brothers and Citizens United. Never has a Union or a person donated $400 million dollars to a single candidate as they did during the Wisconsin recall elections. Does anyone truly believes that they are donating these fortunes so the working class can have jobs? Does anyone here is so naïve as to believe that Mitt Romney, the Koch brothers or Citizens United care at all for the middle class? Their long-time record says otherwise.

Romney talks with indignation about the American Automobile industry bailout. How dared President Obama bailed them out? Mitt Romney, once again does not care for the worker but the shareholders and creditors, in other words the 1% of this country. About the bailout he says: “Part of this entailed preferential treatment of the United Auto Workers [UAW], at the expense of other stakeholders and creditors – INCREDIBLY, the UAW was given a majority ownership stake in Chrysler.” We don’t hear the same indignation for bailing out the Bank industry and Wall Street after all they are NOT blue-collar workers and I am sure in Mitt Romney’s eyes they deserved to be saved, they deserved every penny. The bailout money received by the Automobile Industry, especially GM did give preferential treatment to their retired workers that were at risk of losing their pensions; second UAW though an agent independent from the Union had been paying for the GM workers’ health insurance since 2005, the workers in order to help save the company, were not getting vacation pay, holidays or overtime. I guess that any sacrifice a blue-collar worker did counts for nothing, blue-collar workers are nothing to Mitt Romney, only white-collar workers matters for him.

Mitt Romney closes the subject of the bailout saying that other companies are now worrying about the “caprice at the hands of government.” Those poor, suffering corporations are breaking Mitt Romney’s heart! The unemployed? They should do the same he suggested to students with little or no income: shop around and settle for less… I guess he believes that unless you are wealthy, you do not need money or a good and rewarding job, you must settle and be happy that at least you are lucky enough “to have a job.”

Interesting reading about Unions in the United States:


An Eclectic List of Events in U.S. Labor History

History.com - Labor Movement

America… start your engines!

It is hard to imagine that the Republican Party was against bailing out the American automotive industry; after all, we can take pride that the automobile is the result of American ingenuity and the creation of what is an indispensable way of transportation all over the world. Ronald Reagan, who by now is almost a demigod for the Republican Party, among the many slogans that were created under his administration, promoted to “Buy American” in an effort to save the American industries… But we all know that the GOP picks and chooses what they wish to remember, and this particular slogan they chose to forget.  Back in 2008 before Bush left the oval office the Democratic leaders in congress requested for $25 billion to be given to the automotive industry in an effort to save it from succumbing to the economic disaster that was imminent. Many Republican Senators were vehemently against it, some, like Republican Senator Shelby dared calling it a “dinosaur” not worth saving, particularly, not worth using the money to bailout Wall Street to bailout the American car industry. They didn’t object helping those responsible for creating the worst economic crisis in decades, but saving the American car industry? In their eyes it was not worth saving. Others, like Republican Senator Kyl, went further saying, “This bailout would only extend the inevitable demise of the industry.” Mitt Romney who is always claiming to be a corporate expert said, "If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.  It won't go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed."  All this was back in November 2008.

Then, Barack Obama became our 44th President and he had another vision, he wanted to save that which up to not long ago was our pride and joy all over the world. He wanted to restore the glory of the automotive industry, which as of lately, and due to foreign competition, had fallen behind in quality as well as revenue. The American automotive industry was doomed to disappear, but not without a fight and not before Obama would try to save it against all odds. Republicans at that time raised the same outcry that has been their ‘signature’ for anything and everything that Obama has tried to accomplish a rotund and solid NO. We must not forget that many of the most adamant Senators had other reasons for criticizing and opposing the automotive bailout: foreign car industries were blooming in their States, and these companies would benefit tremendously if their American competition was to disappear. These Senators didn’t care at all about preserving our industry, our name, or our legacy. All they cared about was the money these foreign companies were bringing to their own States and perhaps their own pockets. They couldn’t care less that it was our American car industry who, without fanfare, aided the States hit worse by Katrina, making donations up to half a million dollars even when their finances where hurting… that didn’t matter for these Senators, all Republicans and all from the States hit by Katrina, who benefited from these donations.

Actor Clint Eastwood – Republican – was too against this bailout, which makes the Chrysler commercial aired during the Super Bowl XLVI halftime the more valuable. Hearing from Mr. Eastwood’s own lips the importance of coming together at a time of crisis – something that has been said since day one by Obama and his supporters – makes this ad a treasure. 

I must say for those that don’t know it, that all the American automotive industries that received bailout money have paid back their debt to the American citizens. Our automotive industry still has a long way to go, I am sure, but we are bearing witness to its rebirth against all odds and against the Republican opposition. 

This is undoubtedly a great victory for Obama but most importantly, it is a great victory for America!