We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Alabama

This week’s round of congressional testimony has forced our elected officials take sides on the auto industry, a topic that typically doesn’t often factor too heavily into national level grandstanding politicking. Detroit News Scribe Bryce G. Hoffman figures that the divisive issue of aid to automakers is creating a house divided… along the old Mason-Dixon line. The split is based on another legislative battle that hasn’t visited the corridors of power as often in recent years: anti-union “at will” employment laws. These laws are popular in many southern states which have used the lack of labor organization to attract transplant auto factories which have bring hundreds of jobs– and an ambivalence to Detroit’s self-made hell– to their sunny shores. And like much of Detroit’s newspapers’ coverage, Hoffman is taking his lead from UAW boss Ron Gettelfinger who blasted Alabama’s congressional delegation at a recent press conference. “Alabama paid $175,000 per employee to create those jobs there,” he said. “It just seems odd to us that we can help the financial institutions in this country — that we can offer incentives to our competitors to come here and compete against us — but at the same time we’re willing to walk away from an industry that is the backbone of our economy.”

Compuware Chairman Peter Karmanos Jr. chimes in too, with a letter sent to ‘bama Senator Richard Shelby. “I was more than a little taken aback by how out of touch you really are about what Detroit’s Big Three automakers have been doing for some time and continue to do to transform their businesses,” Karmanos wrote. “The intent of this letter, however, is not to take you to task for the inaccuracy of your comments or for the over-simplicity of your views, but rather to point out the hypocrisy of your position as it relates to Alabama’s (the state for which you have served as senator since 1987) recent history of providing subsidies to manufacturing.”

Of course, it’s not as if Detroit turns down state subsidies in order to allow its fine employees to unionize. The D3 have received countless millions from a number of US states and Canadian provinces to attract their factories and jobs. So there’s some hypocrisy for ya. Besides, offering your state’s citizens jobs at $100k per year with a stable company that will be around for years to come is a lot better than $140k per year union jobs with firms that have been opening then closing US plants for decades. But by all means, let’s restart the Civil War over this.