Fuck workers; save the execs (Delphi bankruptcy) -- violence coming?

[Bozita]

This is a MUST READ column for every working person in America.


http://www.freep.com/news/metro/dickerson10e_20051010.htm

BRIAN DICKERSON: Them that's got shall get

October 10, 2005

BY BRIAN DICKERSON
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST


People trying to understand what's happening at Delphi Corp. need only remember that we live in a competitive world.


To compete with stingy auto suppliers overseas, Delphi needs to pay its hourly workers less. To compete with corporations at home, Michigan's fourth-largest company needs to pay its top managers more. Got it? It's all about competition.


That's why Delphi wants its hourly workers to absorb a 63% pay cut, and why it filed for bankruptcy when they refused to swallow wage concessions on the company's tight schedule. And that's why, on the eve of its bankruptcy filing, Delphi sweetened severance packages for 21 top executives, who'll now get 18 months' salary, plus part of their regular bonuses, if their jobs are eliminated.


Message to hourly workers: These are tough times, but we're all in this together -- unless things get really bad, in which case managers' families get all the lifeboats.

-snip-

But I believe we are very near the point where the frustration of the working poor and newly unemployed may erupt in acts of violence the likes of which haven't been seen in this country since the earliest days of the labor movement.

-snip-

more...

[linazelle]

1. Delphi makes XM Radio. Time to buy elsewhere. nt

[European Socialist]

2. I agree--this is huge!

[sniffa]

3. BRING IT ON!!

sometimes, vioLence is needed.

[Sadie5]

5. Salaried retirees already cut I expect

But they will have trouble with cutting the union workers pay and benefits. They need more for the rich so they take it away from the workers. Bush has done a good job of destroying this country.

[Bozita]

6. Yup, GM cuts med benefits for white collar employees and retirees

from Sunday's Detroit News:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1838728&mesg_id=1838728

[mattclearing]

9. Ugh. n/t

[chaska]

28. The time is nigh.

[me b zola]

32. The labor/union movement was born in blood

The first industrialists did not willingly give up their feudal power to accommodate workers rights. It is a portion of history that few people are aware of. Many have taken for granted what workers are now losing--their rights. The labor laws that were enacted under FDR did not fall out of the sky. There were many bloody battles beginning in the 1840's (that is a hundred years of struggle) that eventually lead to legal protections for workers.

[t73rvo]

35. THANK YOU!!!

Finally...some truth!
How pitiful is it that over 100 years ago miners and factory workers who had Nothing were willing to risk it all, even their lives for a fair wage! And what have we done? We, who should be benefiting by their sacrifices? We have GIVEN everything away to the company store and wonder why we are in the position we are in today....

Lets see how bad it has to get before America remembers what they are made of and kicks the collective ass of corporate elites the same way it kicked the ass of the colonial elites over 200 years ago.

[nadinbrzezinski]

46. It is coming

and welcome to DU

[JanMichael]

61. That's why the flag is red.

[BeatleBoot]

4. Delphi Bankruptcy is all the Buzz in Detroit today....

Bank of America just raised the percent probablility of GM now filing for bankruptcy to 30%

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9651172/

[ret5hd]

8. GM: $60B market cap...$300B debt...i'd say at least 30%. (nt)

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. The answer is to ship all the working class people to china

or kill them, and leave all the money/real estate to "executives" to enjoy in this country.
x(

[liberal N proud]

10. A 63% pay cut OMG - What do they expect people to live on?

[sam sarrha]

16. Soylant Green

[BrotherBuzz]

20. They might just get by, barely, but....

what is going to happen to all the pizza joints, doughnut houses, etc when there is no disposable income floating around the community? This doesn't bode well for the economy. I might even suggest this could be the beginning of the big "D" as the repercussions reverberate across the nation.

[raccoon]

22. Well, one thing for sure, you'll never hear the corporate media

hoes use the "D" word. Even if it's as bad as in the depths of the other one in the '30's.

I remember reading once, don't remember the source, but the author said, "The Great Depression left a lot of people disillusioned. Another depression will leave America's cities in ashes."

I think he/she was right.

[IN-dem]

60. A lot of the people that lived through the depression

are dying out. They are the ones that know how rough it was. They used SCARE tactics to get Visteons contract approved.

[CrispyQ]

31. Your observation is spot on.

Too many people don't take small business into account when considering the economy. The very pizza joints & doughnut houses you speak of, help support our local communities, not only with goods & services that we desire, but with tax revenue, jobs & yes, even culture. Most people only consider the big picture (big employers) when considering their local economy.

The repukes have successfully brainwashed the sheeple to believe that individualism is more important than community, completely disregarding that community provides the very structure for each of us to fulfill our individual desires.

[dogfacedboy]

23. If I had to take a 63% pay cut

I would be earning $7.70 per/hr. This WOULD lead to violent thoughts.

[mermaid]

42. They Don't Give A Fuck

n/t

[jim3775]

11. What a horrible URL; freep.com n/t

[bananas]

21. That's the Detroit Free Press n/t

[Batgirl]

12. my brother works for Delphi

he's made a good living for more than 15 years as a skilled tradesman. This brother is smart and hardworking and has saved the company millions of dollars by submitting many "suggestions" --specificying ways to improve manufacturing efficiency, ideas that were subsequently adopted by the company.

He's also a little bit fundie, a little bit wingnutty, and voted for Bush.

He can go on chapter and verse about how the company shipped the manufacuring of it's most popular, best selling products, overseas. Then blamed the domestic workers for not bringing in enough revenue with their output of products that have lackluster sales.

He can go on chapter and verse about built-in waste and chicken shit managers who are much more concerned with manipulating facts so that on paper their little corner of the Delphi universe looks good, even while undergoing practices that cost the company more money.

Now he's looking at a $500/week paycut. An amount of money that will push him out of the middle class. How bitter do you think he is?

Yet he and too many of his co-workers voted for the same Repuke mentality that is the source of a large part of what's going on. And by the way, if the Democrats can't figure out how to speak to the concerns of these voters, they're beyond pitiful.

One of the saddest aspects in all of this is the number of people who are working for Wal-mart wages, who, upon hearing that these autoworkers are about to be brought down to their level, are actually glad. Unfortunately they feel misplaced resentment towards what they view as spoiled, overpaid shoprats who are finally and deservedly going to be poor like them.

So we have people at the very top, and too many near the bottom, who can't think far enough ahead to envision what this country is going to be like when there's no one left to spend on anything more than bare subsistence. They don't realize what the end result will be -- and that Flint, MI was like the canary in the coalmine to show what the whole nation is going to look like when the middle class disappears.

[Beam Me Up]

13. "they don't realize what the end result will be."

The hell they don't. Why do you think they're gutting the Constitution NOW? Why do you think they're putting in place measures that ANTICIPATE social dislocation and unrest?

Moreover, what makes you think they aren't looking forward to selling to other markets OUTSIDE the continental US? Who needs an 'overeducated, opinionated, ungrateful' US consumer middle class when you have emerging consumers in dictatorships like China?

What they want is to make the US more like that market.

[Batgirl]

18. I'm sure there are some high level Dr. Evil types

like you describe, who are fully aware of ultimate consequences.

My opinion is that most of them are thinking only of short-term gain.

[starroute]

29. More of them are aware of it than not

I forget where I read it, but something I saw just recently said that upper management circles are perfectly aware that American is going to have to come down closer to the rest of the world, and that this is going to mean drastic cuts in the US standard of living. The only choice is whether it's done in terms of shared sacrifice or in terms of authoritarian repression.

Given the mechanisms the Bush administration has already put into place, it seems that most of them have opted for authoritarian repression.

[bobbieinok]

49. why must US come down? why can't companies arnd the world be

FORCED to pay their workers and give health benefits and have safety and environmental regulations and etc??????

then companies couldn't 'save' by outsourcing and create a situation where each company thinks it also has to drastically cut wages and benefits or outsource to compete

of course, I know why companies aren't being forced....b/c they have $$$$ to pay for laws they want and workers haven't got the $$ to compete and too many have forgotten or never learned that they can only fight what's happening BY WORKING TOGETHER

[Jose Diablo]

52. Your right, they know "what the end result will be"

This process has played out in many parts in the world. It comes right out of the IMF playbook. The globalists and corporatists are saying we are next. Then on to Europe.

And there will be apologists for these people in congress, in the news media, sprinkled in the internet, they will pop-up everyplace because it's profitable for these people, to steal the stored value of people.

Think of them as beekeepers raiding a store of honey. Or maybe parasites, at least the beekeepers take care of the bees so they can make more honey.

Leo Strauss at his best. Know your enemy.

[Bozita]

17. Yes ... Excellent post!

Just wondering about the number of Bush/Cheney '04 bumper stickers in the Delphi parking lots. Are there less today than a week ago?

[Batgirl]

19. It would be hard to make a comparison

between this week and last, but overall in this area, sightings of Bush/Cheney stickers have become a rarity. Thanks gawd!

[spuddonna]

27. Too true...

"One of the saddest aspects in all of this is the number of people who are working for Wal-mart wages, who, upon hearing that these autoworkers are about to be brought down to their level, are actually glad. Unfortunately they feel misplaced resentment towards what they view as spoiled, overpaid shoprats who are finally and deservedly going to be poor like them."

It's so sad that these people feel this way. It also shows how effective the rw has been in framing unions and unionworkers...

[sam sarrha]

14. they will recover when they get to default on all the pensions...

[LuCifer]

15. Nominated!

KKKorporate AmeriKKKan MUST wake up and realize the more you take a CRAP on your workers, the very backbone of your company, the more ANTI-American you are, and though your short term profits might be nice, YOU WILL DIE IN THE LONG RUN. Make my words...

Lu

[Skidmore]

24. Dubuque, Iowa has a steel company making similar

arguments now as it tries to break the union there and cut wages and health care for its employees. They will take the jobs overseas if the workers don't accept management's plan.

In the old days, the teamsters and every AFL-CIO union in the state would have walked out in sympathy. Where the F are they now?

[progressoid]

26. Unions strength and unity began to crumble under Reagan

It hasn't and may never recover.

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. It will, in blood

you may be seeing the rebirth of that movement, that column is a shift

;-)

:popcorn:

[IN-dem]

48. You are 10000000% right my friend.

The working man gets screwed every time. Reagan destroyed the unions.

[Bozita]

25. Caller to Thom Hartmann just mentioned Dickerson's piece

Thom had a hard break coming and had to cut the caller short.

OK, which one of you guys was the caller?

[Loge23]

30. why we needed unions in the first place

"But I believe we are very near the point where the frustration of the working poor and newly unemployed may erupt in acts of violence the likes of which haven't been seen in this country since the earliest days of the labor movement."

Unions were essential to protect worker's rights. Now, with unions on the decline, corporations are back to their old tricks again - but now perhaps much worse. Profiteering is an acceptable practice particularly in a Repug administration. Management uses the globalization issue as a one-way reason for lowering worker's wages/benefits. But it also means more profits and higher wages for the chiefs. It's just like shrubs reasoning: in order to cope with the terrorists, we need to limit your freedoms some more.

Unions built this country - republicans destroyed it.

[Kukesa]

53. Amen, Loge, amen. n/t

[IN-dem]

33. Hubby just took a pay cut with new contract at Visteon.

They say it isn't a pay cut but now we have to pay for part of our medical insurance that comes out of his check every week. My mom also worked at this particular visteon factory and gave up a raise in order to get this insurance.

[Deja Q]

34. Irresponsible and filthy. How can the execs pull these stunts?!

I anticipate violence: The poor killing each other.

Then the "patriot act" kicks in to save us from ourselves. :eyes:

Buckle the seat belt and ignite the jet pack...

[Rex]

36. Naw people will take it, just another Enron.

And if people don't realize their 'place' in society then I'm sure a cop or three can make them remember. We've allowed huge amounts of corporate corruption to pass by without any real change. This won't be any different IMO. I truly believe Americans will settle for consumer slavery no matter how adverse the conditions.

[Jose Diablo]

56. And of course, Northern Command and Blackwater

is always there to help the police, just like Pinkerton helped those poor coal mining companies.

Riots are an expected response. The Patriot Act, 9-11, it all fits. Even the Katrina response, or lack of it, makes sense in the context of a prelude to military intervention and suspension of posse comitatus.

And everyone says Bu$h is a moron, don't believe it. He's a nazi just like his grand daddy. Let me see. February 27, 1933 was September 11, 2001. I'd say we are about 1937, right on schedule.

[Mr_Spock]

37. If the execs keep f'ing their workers in the butt, yeah, violence will

happen eventually. It's getting pretty stressful already for some. Wanna outsource people and expect them to just watch you drive by to work every day while you twiddle your thumbs? I don't think so...

[Bozita]

38. Mike Malloy repeatedly made references to Dickerson's column

He spent a fair part of his second hour discussing it.

IMHO, Dickerson is the first major paper columnist to broach the subject of torches and pitchforks.

[nadinbrzezinski]

44. Yes yes he is

and bout bloody time

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. I am an insulted Casandra

Been saying this was coming for a while

Oh and for those knowledgable in how revolutions start, this is a monumental shift in the micro climate

[mermaid]

41. In Response To The BOLDED Words

I sure hope you are right! I'll gladly take part in those acts of violence, too, because I have had enough of being exploited and fucked over by big corporations!

When MY company was bought out by a Fortune 500 company, two years ago...they hired us all in, and promised they would not lower wages.

HORSE-SHIT!! The very first thing they did was go from an hourly wage to a piece-rate, which resulted in workers like me being stuck with nearly a 3 dollar an hour wage cut...while all the motherfucking managers got raises!

Piss on them! I say pull them down, pull THE MAN down and rip him apart limb from limb!!

He has shown no compassion, no mercy...he deserves none!

[FreedomAngel82]

43. Be prepared

I agree. You can just feel tension in the air all over the country. Frustrations are very high. :\

[Bozita]

47. Monday in a freeper store: "The economy must really be booming"

I said it while breaking the 90 second silence waiting for approval of my credit card purchase. Telephone line.

There isn't any business. That's what he said. Then he took off on the Delphi thing. Even bought up Visteon.

The times, they are a'changing.

[akarnitz]

45. There's a Delphi plant in Wyoming(suburban Grand Rapids).....

as well as a GM plant. W. Michigan is a LOT more coservative than Detroit, Flint, Lansing and the other towns w/more automotive industry jobs per capita, but the UAW guys I know aren't gonna take to this bullshit to well. If I was Wyoming P.D., I'd stay as far away from this as possible. UAW folks seem to have given back as much as they can.

As a wise man once pointed out "When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose."

[jayfish]

55. I Lived 100 Yards From That Plant For Most Of My Life.

It's steadily gone downhill for the past 20 years. Very sad.

Jay

[Neil Lisst]

50. The country is in big trouble

All this happy talk about the economy one hears on Fox News and various business talking heads, but it's not true.

AMERICA is doing poorly. Her people are hurting. They are experiencing negative savings, a way of saying they are spending all their savings and going deeper in debt.

Bush has ignored the needs of AMERICAN workers. While I'm at it, let me just say how disappointed I have been with labor's defections the past several elections, and the chickens are coming home to roost. There go your jobs. The pukes you voted for shrugged and mumbled "free market" when your time came.

Get behind the Dem party again, labor, and get there strong.

-----------------------
today I shout out to DU mods and posters
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/

[rucky]

51. Luddites Unite!

Burn their fucking mansions.

[BiggJawn]

54. Wishful thinking.

"But I believe we are very near the point where the frustration of the working poor and newly unemployed may erupt in acts of violence the likes of which haven't been seen in this country since the earliest days of the labor movement."

S'Yeah, right.... My GF's BIL works for Daimler. These guys are the ones who put the RED in "Red-State Indiana"...

They'll listen to Gush Pfleghmball tell 'em how it's all "Klintoon's" fault and continue to vote for reTHUGs in order to "save marriage"

If the employment picture REALLY starts to look grim, watch our Masters drop the price of Cable Teeeeee-Veeeeeeeee so they can keep the populace dumb and happy.

Walter Reuther is DEAD! Eugene V. Debs is DEAD! Long live "Survivior: Guatemala" Long live FOX NEWS!

[Jose Diablo]

57. Now, now, now, Bu$h will save the day

All those unemployed will be put to work. It will be like those 'folkswagon' plants in Germany, except when the product rolled out the end of the line, it wasn't a 'folkswagon', it was a panzer tank.

The nazi's always had a use for cheap labor.

Go ahead, have riots, it won't mean diddly-squat. They cannot be stopped by riots.

[nashville_brook]

58. this goes straight to the heart of what it means to be human

a 63 percent paycut? do they think we WORK b/c we love it? or b/c we need to feed our families?

no one NEEDS to work FOR SOMEONE ELSE enough to take a 63 percent paycut. you're much better off staying at home, gardening, selling all your stuff on ebay and watching your kids grow up.

do they think we are robots? do they think we don't have CHOICE. freewill?

it is an essentially human trait to WORK for SURVIVAL. to provide for the family. what's happened is we've been manipulated to think that means recreational shopping; 60-hour workweeks; 2 cars; suburbs; 2 incomes; NO TIME. i agree it is essentially human to WORK -- but not TO BE A SLAVE.

(pulling up the soapbox) how much money DO we need to live? how much shopping? how many cars? how much house? how much time?

there was a thread a few days ago about SINGLE-INCOME families. that's the direction we need to go. single parents need to be able to support a family. two-parent families need time to grow their LIVES. people in general have other things to do than glorify the bottom line of corporations that don't give a shit about us. we need to take care of ourselves, first. that means doing the things that makes us human. raising our families. doing our personal work. writing. art. music. cooking. gardening. teaching. BEING HUMANS rather than corporate ROBOTS.

(put away soapbox)

[mermaid]

59. Like I Said Before...They Don't Give A Fuck

The corporatists are all evil fucking bastards, and I swear, if riots and acts of violence break out, as I hope they will, I will be first in line to jump in and get involved! How satisfying it will be for me to pound the fuck out of some fat-cat asshole exec!!

I am so angry, I want to literally rip them apart, limb from limb, like they did in China! I sincerely want to HURT them! Badly. The way they have hurt us!

I want them to know pain. I want them to know suffering for what they have done to us. And if I get a chance to join up in a great big mob riot tearing these people apart, I'll be there to get MY pound of flesh!