Ford Says UAW Not to Blame
(via John Cole). Ford Chairman Bill Ford was on Larry King last night and had this to say:
KING: What about the UAW in all of this?
FORD: Well, the UAW obviously has been our partner through all of this. Have they made mistakes and have we made mistakes? Of course. The UAW has come a long way. I think their leader, Ron Gettelfinger, is an excellent leader and he really understands our business. In this last contract, he gave up a lot. He’s also indicated they’re willing to come to the table to do more. And so for anybody to blame the UAW as the sole reason for this is frankly wrong.
One other thing is, when I look at the people who work in our plants, I don’t think of them as UAW. I think of them as Ford employees, Ford employees who take tremendous pride in building quality and safety into our products. If you ask someone in our plant, where do they work, they say I work at Ford. To me, everybody who works in our plant is part of our extended family.
I’ve been struck by the fact that after the Congress did not pass the bailout bridge loans that the only people exercised about the UAW in this business are republicans. You’d think that the Big 3 would be howling from the rooftops if they thought that the UAW scuttled the deal or were being the least bit recalcitrant. So here we are about a week or after the vote and the Chairman of Ford says the UAW is a good partner.
Ans while we are at it — Toyota has indefinitely delayed production at its highly subsidized Alabama plant. Apparently a highly subsidized Volkswagen plant is also delayed. Any bets as to whether the Governors of these states really, really wish they did not have their taxpayer funds and credit facilities tied up in plants that won’t open now?
Oh my god! you mean the republicans got something to do with economics compleatly upside down again, what a shock.
The foreign auto plants are subsidized by the state governments by huge tax breaks and in their home countries they are not responsible for the healthcare costs of their workers. They’ve also been operating for a shorter time in the states, so they don’t have a lot of retirees.
Chrysler on a 30 day lay off… Unstable you got it absolutely right. There is only one way to pull us out of this crap….single payer health care. Anything else is tinkering incrementalism that will never work. Just like the European countries broke as hell after WW2…
Barney Frank killed the US auto industry. And, oh yeah…Clinton got a blow job.
And how would single-payer make a difference?
Even if we instituted it, we’ll still have to pay for it. The government is not about to throw that huge a tax increase on individuals directly, so they’ll try to hide it by putting as much of it on corporations as they can. Because they won’t want to burden small business so much, they’ll try to put more of it on larger corporations.
Single-payer would have the benefit of making people who aren’t paying anything now pay into the system, but it won’t make things any easier on people currently paying in.
LOL JASON!
LOL JASON!
Dana
We are the only Nation of power who doesn’t have Universal health care for it’s citizens. Our motto seems to be if you get sick you are on your own. the repuks have money for everything except things that will benefit our citizens. Once again i must keep repeating this over and over those countries that have Universal health care including Cuba LIVE LONGER THAN WE DO. When are some of you folks going to get the idea that they are better off than us.
A note on Universal Health Care, the new Democrat President opposes single payer and does not have a plan to have universal care. Don’t blame the Republicans, look in the mirror.
Single payer is not free and the motto in America is not if you get sick you are on your own, that comment is incredibly silly. I agree we deliver health care in a dysfunctional way but let’s be honest.
Now back to the original post, the UAW. I wrote in the News Journal last Saturday how the UAW will have to be part of a solution and Bill Ford knows that is a fact. Mr Ford stands to lose the most because so much of Ford stock is family owned and bankruptcy would flatten that family fortune.
“We are the only Nation of power who doesn’t have Universal health care for it’s citizens.”
This is an unacceptable argument. Single-payer does NOT work. Europe has it and the folks are broke – their tax rate is between 50-80% depending on the country. Try living on that.
The only way to bring costs down is a consumer-based system. When consumers stop being a consumer of health care, prices will drop.
Ah yes, a favorite Republican talking point, the hellhole that is living in Europe. I hear it’s just terrible. That’s why so many people vacation there.
Yes Europe is a hell hole that’s why the English drive Bentley’s the Germans drive BMW’s and the Italian’s eat and drink well they do all these things while living longer than us and i almost forgot the Cubans are still driving 1950’s Fords
You are missing my point. Single-Payer healthcare or nationalized health care will driving up our individual tax burden. That is what has happened to Europe.
Nationalized health care in Europe also has another unfortunate by-product – a waiting list to see the doctor. Traditional wait times to see a doctor is several weeks to up to six months.
We all agree that the health care system in this country is broken. Singley payer or national health care not the answer. Health care needs to be put back into the hands of the consumer, not some wasteful government agency.
Jason O
This waiting is a urbam myth not for serious stuff just another lie made up by the insurance folks
O’neill,
Just for fun, why don’t you go right now and make an appointment to see your dentist or orthopedic MD or for a physical with your primary. Just curious to see what the wait time would be.
I always get in same day. Sometime within an hour or two.
I call bullshit. If you call right now and ask for a physical, you’ll get an appointment in March. If you call and say, “I’m vomiting and have a fever.” yes, you’ll get in today.
To a large extent, this is how it is in Europe.
The joke is that when it comes to big pharma, we basically subsidize the rest of the world.
That is pretty hard to believe. You must have bad Doctors no one wants to have diagnose them. I’ve worked in the field for twenty years, and your case is the exception rather than the rule.
I’ve never gotten in on the same day unless there was a cancellation. I’ve even had trouble with same day when I was sick, and had to go to an urgent care place.
once again, I love the arguement that what is wrong with those other countries is what America would do.
I love the thought of us adopting something and not fixing the problems. Such a childish arguement and it annoys me
Why can’t we have health care like they have in Brazil? Or North Dakota, I forget.
because the UAW has ruined it for everyone
and Pipefitters…don’t forget the Pipefitters
I’ve never gotten into a doctor on the same day unless I had an emergency. And had to wait three months for a spot for elective surgery.
The whole Union jihad by the repubs has to do with a few things:
1. Weakening a longstanding Democratic ally — one that has money and boots on the ground to deploy for candidates and issues;
2. Making sure that the employment scales are balanced in favor of employers. Because benefits, days off, safe workplaces and fair pay is not in the interests of shareholders;
3. Younger workers. Young people are way less bigoted about gay people and their rights and what repubs know is that their jihad against them is going to be short-lived. Similarly, young people have a different attitude to work and are abit more savvy about their value in the workplace. They are very interested in spending time with their friends and family, and drawing a pretty bright line at what an employer can ask for. Since they watched their parents do this, they also understand how employers arbitrarily reduce pay and benefits by regularly asking for more than 40 hours of work per week. Younger people — even professional cubicle dwellers — are definitely interested in ways to codify relationships with employers that ensure that they are not doing what their parents did and that is an opening for unions. Andy Stern is pretty savvy on this.
But basically after largely demolishing the American economy, repubs are hell-bent on creating an entire workforce of “jobs that Americans won’t do” — very low paid, no safety measures, no benefits and no ability to call bullshit on employers.
The GOP is REEEEEAAALLLY trying to make a run at complete political irrelevance, aren’t they?
Piss off the American Worker too much and they’ll forget to hate fags, Mexicans, and godless liberals come next election cycle….
Maybe this myth about long waits in Europe and elsewhere if proven to be true which i doubt and anyone who has spent time in these countries knows that this is just a lie made to help our insurance companies to continue to rip us off. but for the sake of the argument lets say it is true that they have to wait THEY STILL LIVE LONGER THAN US