Last week the Bush administration approved up to $17.4 billion in loans for the ailing auto industry. And while union bashers on Capitol Hill and beyond did not succeed in forcing the Big Three into bankruptcy, potentially breaking the power of the UAW, the storm of anti-union ballyhooing from the bailout’s detractors sets the stage for steep concessions by auto workers as well as a knock down, drag out battle in the next Congressional session on facilitating the right of workers to form unions through the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).
Barack Obama also named Rep. Hilda Solis to head the labor department. A daughter of a shop steward for the Teamsters, Solis has been a strong advocate for unions, fair trade, immigrant workers' rights and green jobs. Today on GRITtv Jonathan Tasini, Mark Brenner, Lori Wallach, and Christina Vazquez discuss the auto loan and, looking ahead, Obama's labor policies.
UAW Busting, Southern Style. From the LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/news/op…..6838.story
The foreign nonunion auto companies located in the South have a plan to reduce wages and benefits at their factories in the United States. And to do it, they need to destroy the United Auto Workers.
By GRITtv on December 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 am