Thursday, February 12, 2009
Politics / Woods Unions Rally Against Corker Outside State Capitol
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Why do you want the people in your state and country to live in poverty? You vote against raising the minimum wage. You are opposed to a national health care system, even though we are the only industrialized country that doesn't have one. Are you opposed to people in Tennessee having a live wage and a middle-class lifestyle? Tennessee the 16th poorest state in the country. Do you want us to be the poorest state? Please start voting for things that help us workers.
Sweet, isn't it? More than 4,000 such letters have been collected, and a noontime anti-Corker rally has attracted roughly 100 people to the Legislative Plaza today. They're waving signs reading, "Collective Bargaining. Not Collective Begging," "Prosperity. Not Politics," and "Bob Corker Makes more than $85/hour." Union leaders told the crowd that Corker's a douche bag for opposing the auto bailout and the stimulus bill, and they vowed to find someone to run against him in 2012. Harold Ford Jr., Corker's foe in 2006, apparently was invited to speak today. He was listed as the main attraction on a press release the unions are handing out. But he didn't show and we can't find anyone to explain why.
Tennessee AFL-CIO President Jerry Lee told the crowd, "Senator Corker has turned his back on his own constituents and is actively trying to undermine those hardworking Tennesseans who are the backbone of our economy. It's time to let him know that we won't stand for a senator who support Wall Street more than he does Main Street." Corker on why he's against the stimulus bill: "It's very clear the administration is going to be back for a lot more money into the future. That's what's so distressing. ... I am discouraged."
Comments (12)
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Congress has no problem telling union autoworkers what is a "fair" hourly wage for them to make, but try to cap Wall Street salaries when they're taking taxpayer money and all hell breaks loose.
I wonder what Sen. Corker thinks of the executive salary cap idea? Has anyone asked?
"Tennessee AFL-CIO President Jerry Lee told the crowd, "Senator Corker has turned his back on his own constituents and is actively trying to undermine those hardworking Tennesseans who are the backbone of our economy."
Nope - non-union workers are the backbone of the economy.
Lee and his ilk are merely union goons.
Bob Corker voted against a plan that is predicted to create 75,000 jobs in Tennessee.
Now tell me that he supports "family values" with a straight face.
@ morpheus120
Remind me again how job creation has anything to do with family values? Oh, that's right, it doesn't.
I also like your choice of words "predicted to create". Who predicts it? The people pushing the bill... I predict you will never read the bill you are so blindly supporting. Put on those short term blinders, buddy, they serve you well.
Job creation is the essence of family values. The first value of any family is to put food on the table and a roof over your head. You pretty much need a job to do it. Everything else rides coach.
@ Pete Kotz
Well I'll stop short of saying that you're incorrect in saying money or employment is a family value as family values is interrupted different from household to household.
I however would classify "food on the table" as a basic need, not a value. A value, as I understand it, would be a set of beliefs or ideals on which a family is founded on and abides by. It is easy to lose sight of meaning of a political buzzword when it is thrown carelessly about though.
Okay guys, here are the facts.
One, Harold had to decline the event over a week ago due to a scheduling conflict. He would have loved to have been there, but had a prior commitment.
Second, he came out weeks ago against Corker's stand against unions, so his views on this are well know (see op-ed below). Anyone who knows anything about him and his record knows that he is a very strong supporter of organized labor, as he was endorsed by them in the Senate race a couple years back.
Here is the op-ed:
http://haroldfordjr2006.blogspot.com/2008/12/ford-op-ed-innovation-not-union-bashing.html
Ford Op-ed: Innovation, not union-bashing, is road out of automakers' troubles
Innovation, not union-bashing, is road out of automakers' troubles
By Harold Ford Jr.
Intel's "strategic objective is tackling big problems and turning them
into big businesses," said former Intel Chairman Andy Grove, as he
urged the company's current leadership to begin manufacturing advanced
batteries for plug-in cars.
Grove believes the future of the U.S. auto industry is in electric
cars, and that America's battery production is limited. Thus, Grove
contends, Intel should diversify its business by manufacturing
advanced batteries for electric cars. Such a venture would create new
jobs and increase Intel's profitability. In short, Grove believes
Intel should innovate its way to future success.
The Intel model — past and future — is a good one for Detroit and
Washington to follow. I watched and listened closely to the
auto-bailout debate in Washington earlier this month, and the outcome
revealed the stunning lack of creativity and innovation in saving the
American automobile industry. Senate Republicans, led by the "Southern
resistance" of Sens. Bob Corker, Mitch McConnell and Richard Shelby,
implored that bloated and outdated labor agreements between unions and
management were the cause of the industry's problems. They argued
that, simply by undoing these labor agreements, the car companies
could be put back on the path toward profitability again.
The Republican effort to put labor unions out of the car business may
serve their political agenda, but it's narrow-minded and certainly no
substitute for a long-term growth and innovation strategy to
rehabilitate American carmakers. What is missing from the
Corker-McConnell-Shelby argument is an equal zeal for incentivizing
and rewarding innovation in Detroit.
American carmakers, aided by shortsighted allies in the White House
and Congress, over the past two decades have repeatedly resisted
making smaller and more fuel-efficient cars, while their Japanese and
Korean counterparts manufactured and sold these cars to more and more
Americans.
Senate GOP exacerbated market
In addition, the Corker-McConnell-Shelby effort in the Senate caused
the auto bailout to fail, adding more stress to an already depressed
U.S. job market, with the end result being that thousands of
Tennesseans could lose their jobs right after the new year.
Tennesseans should be relieved that President Bush defied Corker,
McConnell and Shelby to keep the carmakers alive. This is the only way
that middle-class Americans will hold on to their jobs while
President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress draft a serious auto
restructuring plan.
The new plan will create an auto czar with the authority to rework
labor and legacy cost agreements, bring in new management at GM and
Chrysler, compel big and continued investments in new battery and
hydrogen fuel technologies, and enact a set of tax credits to
encourage Americans to buy these newly designed cars. It is true that
Detroit's failures must be corrected for them to thrive going forward.
But, Washington owes Detroit a more creative option than to destroy
the labor unions or allow the carmakers to file Chapter 11.
A collapse of the American automobile industry could also cause great
economic upheaval around the world. American carmakers have been very
successful in selling cars in Russia, China, India and Brazil. They
dominate many of these markets. Any disruption of the American auto
industry could cause hundreds of thousands of jobs to be lost in these
emerging countries, fueling a worse global recession.
The U.S. car industry's birth was predicated on vision, energy, hard
work and innovation. Detroit's success over the decades has created
millions of jobs around the country and contributed greatly to our
national security. We are too great a country to permit this great
industry to become a memory.
The 21st century will rise or fall on the innovation that America and
the world can bring to the global marketplace. If the American
automobile industry follows the lead of Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve
Jobs of Apple, Fred Smith of FedEx, and, yes, Andy Grove of Intel, it
will once again retain its leadership in the manufacturing of cars.
So, Washington and Detroit, get to work. There's not a moment to lose.
Harold Ford Jr. is chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council.
It's pretty easy for the union folks to fiddle while Rome burns, since many of their bretheren collect 80% of benefits after five years of leisure!
Corker has it right! Everybody has to take a haircut, if this thing is to have a good outcome. He did not single out unions - they happened to be the one obstacle impeding a painful but necessary solution!
"Job creation is the essence of family values. The first value of any family is to put food on the table and a roof over your head. You pretty much need a job to do it. Everything else rides coach."
If you choose to have a family it is your responsibilty and yours alone to take care of them.
It isn't the responsibility of anyone else to subidize your existence at any time for any reason under any circumstance.
"I also like your choice of words "predicted to create". Who predicts it? The people pushing the bill... "
That's right - "predicted".
They are all pushing Keynesian Kool Aid economics which no one on earth has ever proven to be a success.
Government never "creates" anything. All it does is redistribute wealth that has already been created by somebody else.
Government has no resources to give to anyone or spend on anything except that which it has first taken away from somebody else.
There are only 3 ways government can obtain resources. It can tax them away from somebody, it can borrow them from somebody or it can print money, devalue the currency and create inflation that is essentially a stealth tax on everybody. All three of those ways extracts wealth from the private sector.
Every dollar the government takes to spend or "invest" is one less dollar that is being spent or invested by whoever had it before the government grabbed it.
There has never been any proof that government transferring wealth from private sector spending or investing to public sector spending or investing has ever created any Keynesian "multiplier effect" that it's disciples keep yammering about.
