TOM WALSH: For some in auto jobs, the apocalypse is now

[Bozita]

http://www.freep.com/money/business/walsh8e_20051008.htm

TOM WALSH: For some in auto jobs, the apocalypse is now
All must feel, share urgency

October 8, 2005

BY TOM WALSH
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST


Will impending shakeouts at Delphi Corp. and General Motors Corp. be apocalyptic events for Detroit's auto industry, shattering forever the notion that America's industrial working class could expect good wages, company-paid health care and secure retirements in perpetuity?


A frustrated UAW President Ron Gettelfinger talks like doomsday is near.


"People who live in gated communities in this country need to think about where we're headed," Gettelfinger said Friday, suggesting that the nation's working class is trapped in a downward wage-and-benefits spiral and getting pretty darned angry about it.


Gettelfinger was fending off questions Friday from reporters about the UAW's progress -- or lack of same -- in talks with GM and Delphi when he let loose with a rant about the U.S. trade deficit, cheap labor in China and Mexico, and free-trade agreements that he claims are pushing U.S. workers out of the middle class.

more...


For the two news articles about Delphi that spurred this column, see the LBN link:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1834567#1836211

[acmejack]

1. Good piece!

The Autoworkers are learning what tech workers & other skilled industrial manufacturing workers learned several years ago. Everyone knows them, people who are nice to have around to help with computer problems. They used to do (fill in the blank) for such & such, but now they work at walmart (or whatever big box, low wage paying, no benefit providing employer they now toil at).

Only when there are enough angry laid off, dispossessed workers who have exhausted their unemployment benefits will anything happen that the gated elites need be concerned. They forget the real reason the social programs originated, which was to contain popular resentment.

Those who forget the lessons of the past...