Why do Auto Workers Feel Like GM is being treated unfairly?

[berni_mccoy]

Because the MSM never made a deal about the CEO of AIG stepping down and the government hand-picking his successor.

From an article in the AP today (http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20090330/49d1a350_3422_1334620090331-1243074560):

"While CEO oustings haven't been widespread among the banking industry, the government did in September reserve the right to remove senior management at American International Group Inc. as part of its agreement to give the insurer $85 billion in emergency aid. AIG Chief Executive Robert Willumstad stepped down as part of that company's bailout package, and the government hand-picked his successor."

And you have Democratic reps like Gary Peters complaining on MSNBC that there needs to be Equal Accountability for Wall Street as there is for Detroit. Well if he was paying attention, maybe he'd realize there is. Let's not forget about the fact that the government took control of AIG with an equity stake and allowed GM to keep it's own control by giving it a loan.

[rsmith6621]

1. The Real Issue

...are the BANKS who have been GIVEN $$$$ to OPEN up CREDIT LINE MARKETS......ARE NOT!!!!!

[chimpymustgo]

2. So people can't buy the CARS (and other things) that will help the economy get back on its feet.

NO MORE APOLOGIES!!!

[berni_mccoy]

4. Why doesn't GM make more affordable cars that people don't need loans for?

[BobRossi]

6. Does any car maker?

Try Walmart.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Which car can you get without a loan out there that you are willing to buy?

[berni_mccoy]

11. How about a used one that doesn't fall apart because it's parts were made in China and

it was assembled in Mexico.

[berni_mccoy]

3. The Real Issue is that GM doesn't have a plan on how to recover.

[Skidmore]

13. The corporation had diddled around for decades now trying to

preserve the status quo. Did not look to the future. Status quo all around. For its products, brand, CEO perks, and union contracts alike. Now I realize that the workers have given much ground, perhaps more than they should have. However, unless the leadership in management drastically changes its mindset, I can't see the public buying into more salvages of this industry.

Now, I think we have gone way overboard for the financial sector and that these people should have to swallow some of the risks they took, and not just on the balance sheets because you know darned well if these bozos get by with such a large flimflam yet again without a good kick in the knickers for it, they will do it again. Remember the S&L debacle that Neal * was involved in? Well, it came back on steroids.

[uponit7771]

18. +1

[Dinger]

7. Ding! Ding! Ding!

From THE Dinger!

[uponit7771]

19. Slight correction, they've opened up credit line to those with EXCELLENT credit not those who would

...by in a wider market of credit approval.

Banks are only doing A paper loans but as we all see there are only a certain amount of folks with A paper credit...

The banks are screaming "the rules have changed" because they have to a certain extent...the Bush admin didn't tell them they HAD to lend to overall broad market of debtors and they wont...

[amandabeech]

5. That's one and one only.

We supporters of the auto industry want more heads to roll among financial institutions that took government money.

I'm looking for Citi, BOA, Morgan, Wells, Goldman etc. to be roasted over the coals and thrown out.

Even more, I want their employees to be treated like GMs. I want across the board cuts of pay and benefits like the UAW and white collar workers have taken over the past few years. Why are there no pay cuts in these institutions for people in the mail room or the secretaries? Why is the answer to these insolvent institutions only more taxpayer dollars?

Why aren't the bondholders of these institutions asked to take a haircut? They're still at 100% and treated like kid gloves.

When is someone in the Obama administration going to explain why AIG was able to make good 100 cents on the dollar for those CDSs? That equity stake really allowed us to run the operations over at AIG, didn't it?

Why did the Goldmans and the Societe Generales of the world not have to take a cut on the payout on those?

Why not let the incompetent, bankrupt U.S. financial institutions who sell weapons of mass financial destrution to go out of business when their products turn out to be bad?

Why not let the Japanese and German banks expand operations here to take up the slack? Free markets, you know.

[xchrom]

12. and let's not forget how foreign banks

weren't required to take the hits as the financial institutions here -- AIG made sure all those guys got there money -- and haven't made good here the same way.

[amandabeech]

20. Yes. That's the CDS bailout that no one even wants to explain.

Lulu says that the Brazilian banks weren't involved.

Maybe they should be invited here.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

9. Gary Peters is a Michigan rep.

Of course he's going to go far over the top in his rhetoric defending his people.

Why is it that DUers believe Congressmen aren't supposed to be defending their district/state's interests?

[CBR]

10. I sympathize with the UAW but...

there are a lot of industries that have lost jobs and were never even offered the chance to restructure or given a bailout. That is going on today.

[HelenWheels]

15. Lowest level

Do you think workers should aspire to the lowest level? The workers of the UAW should be supported and not maligned for not taking more cuts in pay and benefits. This is a race to the bottom.

[CBR]

16. NOT AT ALL. I am just asking that our outrage be evenly

distributed. Also, I think that autoworkers are giving too many concessions but their industry is also getting a chance that many others are not and have not received. Workers at my husband's preschool, for example, just get laid off -- no restructuring, no bailout, no healthcare, nothing. I come from a line of UMWA workers so I strongly believe in the union cause -- I have to say this because it seems like on this board your "liberal creds" are questioned at every turn.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. September, that means Bush axed Willumstad

and since then the banks are running roughshod over the people. The banks are taking our money and then spitting on us, jacking interest rates, changing payment cycles, lowering credit limits to below the balance...anyone defending the bankers needs to look at how the bankers are treating the public that is supporting them before speaking.
All that promotion of the financial industry contracts being sacred and how they must be honored even if the company has to beg from the people, compared to the demands that union member's contracts be forgotten, that they make consessions while the financial folk got performance bonuses for failing, that is far too much of a double standard for most to stomach. One contract is sacred, the other is not? A guy being paid millions 'must get his money' but a worker making a living 'must make consessions'. If that is not what they mean, they need to think about the message they are sending in words and deeds.

[Romulox]

17. I think it's the $3 trillion (Strings free) already forwarded to Wall Street

[Egnever]

21. You are a font of complete nonsense

There were and are plenty of strings attached. Try to look past the headlines.