Bailout Watch 282: DetN's Howes Promises Payback

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

I’ve been watching the polemics coming from the media within Fortress Detroit with increasing fascination. As the bailout bill has stumbled, faltered and face planted; the hometown cheerleaders’ tone has evolved from arrogant and bombastic, to arrogant and vindictive, to plain old vindictive. Detroit News carmudgeon Daniel Howes has always been one of the less aggressive of this cohort. His commentary has consisted of equal parts commiseration, head shaking and exhortation. Now that the Detroit bailout bill is DOA, Howes is struggling to put what Jalopnik calls the “carpocolpyse” into palatable perspective. Last night’s column, written as the bill went up in flames, frames the defeat as a North – South deal. “[The unions’ Political Action Committees] ignored the Republicans, even auto state Republicans, who represent the so-called ‘New American Manufacturers’ in places such as Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama… Stripped bare and put in the regional context of union vs. nonunion and domestic vs. foreign, the toughened conditions pushed by Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., are legislative cruise missiles aimed directly at Detroit’s business model, the UAW’s Solidarity House and 70 years of Big Three bargaining tradition.” While Howes considers Southern senators’ attempt to force the UAW to modernize is “understandable,” given “given Detroit’s glacial pace of change,” he predicts bad, bad things. In that “don’t tug on the tiger’s tail” kinda way…

“The president-elect and the congressional Democrats all have signaled a willingness to pass labor’s top legislative priority — the so-called ‘card check’ legislation, which would essentially abolish secret ballots and make organizing easier. Everywhere. If it passes, I’m betting the first stops on the UAW’s southern swing will be auto plants in Shelby’s Alabama and Corker’s Tennessee, soon to be home to Volkswagen AG’s first U.S. plant in a generation.”

In other words, as humiliated Union Boss Karl Rojek said in “My Favorite Year,” the fightin’s in rounds. Only if I were a betting man, I’d know which side I’d bet on.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Banger Banger on Dec 12, 2008
    AG: "Toyota’s actually concerned that the Confederates contempt for organized labour is clouding their judgment." I haven't seen where they said this, but if indeed Toyota has that sentiment, they're probably right. And I applaud them for saying so. Not because it takes what I see as a favorite "side" in the debate--and let's be honest, it really doesn't--but because it looks past the grandstanding and arguing over nuances and smaller issues that should be saved for another, less urgent time.
  • 50merc 50merc on Dec 12, 2008

    For decades the UAW's negotiating muscle stemmed from being able to tell one of the automakers, "Give us what we want, or we'll kill you." The pay and benefits package they wrung from the company least able to survive a strike was then extended to the stronger firms. This practice didn't trouble the D3 a lot, because productivity gains and oligopolistic pricing power made higher labor costs affordable. But in time, everything changed. Card check, along with enforced arbitration, will be the unions' top priority in the next Congress. pressed by unions. Only the very bravest workers will publicly stand up to union organizers. Once the big transplants are brought under the UAW's thumb, it will be able to compel the transplants to do the main thing needed to "level the playing field" -- make Toyota, Honda, et al help pay for the health and pensions of D3 retirees.

  • Ajla Those letters look like they are from AutoZone.
  • Analoggrotto Kia EV9 was voted the best vehicle in the world and this is the best TOYOTA can do? Nice try, next.
  • 3-On-The-Tree 4cyl as well.
  • Luke42 I want more information about Ford’s Project T3.The Silverado EV needs some competition beyond just the Rivian truck. The Cybertruck has missed the mark.The Cybertruck is special in that it’s the first time Tesla has introduced an uncompetitive EV. I hope the company learns from their mistakes. While Tesla is learning what they did wrong, I’ll be shopping to replace my GMC Sierra Hybrid with a Chevy, a Ford, or a Rivian — all while happily driving my Model Y.
  • 3-On-The-Tree I wished they wouldn’t go to the twin turbo V6. That’s why I bought a 2021 Tundra V8.
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