There are Folks Who Want to Destroy the Middle Class, Obama Isn't Among Them

There are Folks Who Want to Destroy the Middle Class, Obama Isn't Among Them

by Muskegon Critic

Man...All's I know is for most of a decade manufacturing plants were closing down without mercy or sign of slowing around here. Every day in the papers for years. And for years and years it was another plant closing down, moving out, downsizing. Brunswick. The century old paper mill. 100 jobs lost here, 300 jobs lost there. Constantly. All the time. ALL THE TIME...By early 2010 the U3 unemployment rate here was 15.6% with the U6 unemployment well into the high 20s.

By late 2010 unemployment actually started to DROP, in part because of a re-emergence of the US auto industry. Car plants were actually OPENING in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana as a DIRECT RESULT of this administration's policies. Not one but TWO advanced battery manufacturing plants opened in West Michigan in the Holland area as a direct result of Federal investment, with a third West Michigan plant planned for Musekgon, Michigan.

<...>

One of the best and fastest ways to shatter unions in America would have been to let the Domestic auto industries shrivel up and die. You can bet our Conservative pals in Washington and the talking heads were all a-drool with vulturous glee at the very notion of GM and Chrysler going belly up in early 2009, hacking a massive notch out of the UAW along with it.

<...>

Fortunately, our president didn't let that happen, and instead the UAW became large shareholders of the companies with a majority ownership of Chrysler and a commanding stake in General Motors. Make no mistake, these are now companies with huge levels of union ownership .


more

Mark Gaston Pearce was named Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board by President Obama on August 27, 2011. He was sworn in as a Board Member on April 07, 2010, following his recess appointment, and was confirmed by the Senate on June 22, 2010 to a term ending on August 27, 2013.

Craig Becker was sworn in as a Board Member on April 05, 2010, following his recess appointment by President Obama.

This reminds me of, and is on a par with,
this stunning poll headline from October that was celebrated here, too:

Most Americans not scared of Obama's re-election
http://dailyme.com/story/2011102900001420

Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to praise...

"The cuts devastated many working families, but provoked few, if any, serious responses from UAW leadership, who wound up holding large amounts of the company’s stock.

UAW leadership then unilaterally signed away their members’ job bank program (a badly needed safety net for fired UAW members) and future cost of living adjustments without so much as a courtesy vote. The right to strike for the next several years was likewise surrendered, leaving the fate of abused workers entirely in the hands of the company.

Worst of all, in the eyes of many UAW workers, was the creation of the “two tier” wage system, in which two people working the same job are paid unequally, forcing some workers to take as much as a 50% pay cut."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/23/1019637/-Competition,-Bankruptcy,-and-the-Decline-of-the-United-Auto-Workers

"For instance, the union represents about 250 employees of a Johnson Controls auto supplier plant in Northwood, who agreed to lower starting wages several years ago to win a contract to make vehicle seats. The work was nearly outsourced later to a plant in India, but local Johnson Controls workers implemented productivity improvements that allowed the Toledo-area facility to keep the work.

"Globalization has had a huge impact on the downward spiral of wages because we're competing with companies that are paying $1.50 to $4.50 an hour between Asia and Mexico," Mr. Baumhower said.

Many employers, he said, have tried to shoulder a portion of skyrocketing health insurance costs in the last decade, a cost that he believes has made it difficult for some companies to increase pay.


Ms. Hanauer said a two-tier wage system at automotive and supplier plants in the state, under which new employees are making $14 or $15 an hour -- about half of what veteran employees receive -- could make it a challenge for Ohio wages to increase during the next decade."

http://www.toledoblade.com/Economy/2011/09/07/Report-says-Ohio-led-U-S-in-pay-drops-in-past-decade.html