This Letter to the Editor was submitted to the Minneapolis Star Tribune for publication; writer granted the Editor the right to edit as seen fit. The letter was not published... so much for "freedom of the press."
Note: Since this letter was submitted to the Editor for publication, the UAW leadership of Ron Gettelfinger has joined with the CEO's of the Big Three in forming a "united front" seeking a tax-payer bailout. Gettelfinger has agreed to more plant closings, more layoffs and more job losses and cut-backs to unemployment benefits and delayed payments to health and union pension funds... but, Barack Obama is still not satisfied, he wants auto workers to give up even more... the "thanks" auto workers get for laying out hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of thousands of woman/man volunteer hours in efforts for his campaign for the presidency. Also, the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant has been unexpectedly idled for months leaving many employees without any income from SUB benefits or state unemployment benefits.
And, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the huge GM Stamping Plant will be permanently closed throwing over a thousand workers into the street as Michigan's Democratic, labor-backed Governor--- Jennifer Granholm, and David Bonior have encouraged these auto workers to take up training for employment in the Gun Lake Casino where they will be subjected to second-hand smoke day in and day out while receiving poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws. Each employee will have to sign a statement pledging not to engage in union organizing as terms of their employment just as workers employed by Stanley Crooks at the huge Mystic Lake Casino and Resort employing over 5,000 in its operation have to do... so much for the Employee Free Choice Act.
November 12, 2008
First Wall Street Bankers. Now the Big Three automakers. Who is coming for a handout and free lunch next? The lobbying industry or the health insurance companies?
The government is prepared to let the St. Paul Ford Twin City Assembly Plant and two-thousand jobs go down the river because there was no money to save this one plant and now tax-payers are being told, not even asked, that they will be bailing out the entire auto industry.
Obviously free enterprise has failed. Why should tax-payers bailout the Big Three when in a few months the price of each of the Big Three's stocks should be less than one-dollar a share.
Tax-payers will have the opportunity to purchase the entire automotive industry for a real bargain for far less than what the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing us.
A board consisting of all the stake-holders could be brought together and we could finally produce quality products which are environmentally friendly... not to mention affordable.
Capitalism hasn't worked; socialism will.
The Big Three cry poverty after they have taken the wealth created by North American workers and invested that wealth in quest of cheaper labor and resources overseas.
I don't believe politicians would even consider turning over one penny to these greedy corporations without even having had the opportunity to see their books... all the books, including their international operations.
What tax-payers finance, tax-payers should own.
Nationalization under public ownership is the solution to the problems of the auto industry.
The time has come to put People, Jobs and the Environment Before Corporate Profits!
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
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Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/