The Automaker Bailout: A Line Worker's Prospective
by Cosmo
8 December 2008
Dear America,
I know a lot of you are anti-bailout. And I can understand why— those are my tax dollars, too. But as a line worker at GM, I’ll be the first to feel the effects of my company’s collapse. So please, hear me out on why I want to keep my job at General Motors:
I want to keep working for a company that turned my labor into expensive, impractical, environmentally-destructive vehicles. I need that paycheck, because, thanks to deceptive financing, buying those vehicles has put me deeply in debt to my company’s insolvent financial arm, GMAC.
I want to keep working for a company that created, then buried the first modern production model electric car —a car that could have saved me thousands of dollars this summer when gas prices peaked above four dollars a gallon, as well cut back on greenhouse emissions, along with ozone, smog, and noise pollution in my neighborhood
I want to keep working for a company whose CEO who makes 250 times what I do. I want to keep working for a Vice Chairman of Global Product Development who called global warming a ‘total crock of shit’ and took pride in producing a hybrid that somehow gets less than 22 miles a gallon. I want them to keep their private jets.
I want to keep working for a company that funneled millions into lobbying against higher fuel economy standards, instead of pushing for the same universal health coverage that allegedly makes competition with foreign manufacturers ‘unfair’. Without that coverage, I’m pretty much forced to keep working here.
I want to keep working for a company that raked in record profits less than a decade ago, and turned the new income into innovative vehicles, like an SUV that converts into a pick-up truck, and FlexFuel systems that get equally poor mileage running on gasoline or even-less-carbon-friendly corn ethanol.
I want to keep working for a company that helped buy out and all but destroy the extensive public transportation infrastructure that existed in America in the 1930s. I might get stuck in traffic on the way to work, but at least I do it in my own car.
I want to keep working for a company that admitted in a full-page ad that it’s been ignoring the needs of the American consumer for years, but still expects us to buy their vehicles because…well, I’m not sure why.
And I especially want to keep working for a company that, over the past four decades, has dismantled the American auto industry piece by piece, outsourcing jobs, closing factories, and bringing unprecedented economic blight to what was one of America’s most promising Midwestern cities.
So please, America, write your congressman. Tell them to support the company I work for with an infusion of your tax money. Because clearly, if my loyalty to GM is indicative of anything, it’s that I’m too stupid to work anywhere else.
Sincerely,
GM Auto Workers.
Dec 9, 02:33 PM
Bravo! Well said, sir.
Please, publish this someplace where it will get wider coverage.
Dec 10, 02:01 PM
Look, Cosmo, my friend. I was with you (mostly) right up until the end. I mean, people can quibble about the specifics, but it’s fairly obvious that the american auto companies have been atrociously managed.
But quite frankly, I draw the line at sneering contempt directed at lower/middle income employees. They want to keep their job, which is perfectly understandable. They do NOT have some moral obligation to support the destruction of their own livelihood simply because the company they work for is a pile of crap. Indeed, I think it is astoundingly arrogant of you to imply otherwise. (And I say it that strongly because we know each other well enough that I feel comfortable being blunt with you.)
So no; do not publish this somewhere else where it will get more coverage. Instead I recommend that you either edit it or take it down, because I refuse to believe that you are really this cruel.
I mean, really? Too stupid to work somewhere else? Sarcasm and biting wit are one thing, Cosmo, but that type of crap is just beneath you.
(I worded this comment fairly strongly, which is always a danger on the inter-webs. But I felt strongly enough about this post to throw caution to the wind…)
Dec 11, 02:02 PM
The point of this letter is to challenge the “won’t someone please think of the workers” crowd. Why on earth would you want to continue to contribute your efforts to a company with a long history of lousy management, that has shown in the past it sees its workforce as expendable?
Continuing to work at GM is either a knock on a worker’s intelligence, or a tacit admission that they’re currently overpaid, and couldn’t warrant a similar salary anywhere else. And I like to think that American labor earns its paycheck.
As for my “sneering contempt directed at lower/middle income employees,” you need to do some research. The average UAW worker makes $27/hour plus benefits, which is a far sight better than I’ve ever been paid. Don’t make this into a class or wage issue; it’s not.
I’ve quit jobs in the past because I’ve felt misused or underutilized. I will continue to do so in the future, and fail to see why anyone else would want to do otherwise.
Dec 11, 03:17 PM
You admit that, relative to the other jobs available to a typical Big 3 auto worker, they have it pretty good: good pay and great benefits.
Why is it a sign of stupidity for someone to prefer working at this job, where they will likely earn more money and get better benefits? Isn’t that normal? Cynical, maybe, but not stupid. And certainly not unusual.
I didn’t mean to imply that you were some super-rich guy looking down on the poor plebians, but I’m going to stand by my characterization of auto workers are generally middle class (i.e. not extraordinarily well off):
27 * 40 * 52 = 56,160
which is pre tax and very much a middle class salary. (But again, I will stipulate that their health/pension benefits are well above average.)
And, in general, middle class manual laborers with limited education will have fewer options for employment than people (like us) with a prestigious liberal arts degree (or beyond). That means that when they find a job that pays well and has good benefits, they will likely be loath to give it up, because their skill set is inherently less flexible than ours. So even though you (and I) haven’t come close to earning $27/hr, we are still relatively “privileged” in the sense that our educational background tends to open doors to a lot of different types of employment that are typically closed to your average HS graduate.
And why, exactly, would a Big 3 worker feel misused/underutilized? Their education level will largely be at the HS or associates degree level. As you admitted, they are paid pretty well, with good benefits. The UAW has extracted a host of (fairly absurd) work rules that makes their job more enjoyable. How does that in any way constitute misuse/underutilization of the workers’ skills?
(My understanding is that job retraining programs are notoriously ineffective; and anyway, if you are retraining yourself, how do you pay the bills in the meantime?)
I would argue that the ability to pick and choose one’s workplace based on more than salary and benefits is a privilege that we have thanks to our advanced education and general skill set. If you only graduated from HS, you can’t be so choosy about your employer.