"One company employs about 100,000, the other employs millions. What’s the real difference? The people who work for AIG wake up, shower and go to work. The vast majority of people who work for the Big Three wake up, go to work, come home and shower ." - Brandon Spence

Screw the jackals in the main stream, here in a response to an article that states "let them fail" is some of the down to earth facts of what life without the "Big 3" car manufacturers would be like for all of us. Here's a response to some scumbag named Morgan Liddick's article that appeared in the Colorado's Summit Daily News, where he didn't hide his anti-union views, the original was titled "U.S. automakers have a duty to die". Many could just sit there and raed and ingest the story and go on with their lives, not caring about all the jobs that would be lost if indeed the "Big 3" went away. But wait, there is a voice of reason out there in Colorado, his name is Brandon Spence and here's what he had to say:

Re: “U.S. automakers have a duty to die,” Morgan Liddick, SDN Nov. 25
In a very twisted way, a part of me hopes Morgan Liddick and those who share his position for the Big Three to “die” get their way. Only for the sake to see what he would be writing years from now after the U.S. has slipped into an economic abyss. Would he then stand by his column that U.S. automakers have a duty to die? I somehow think not.

I am fourth-generation Flint, Mich. GM baby. My great grandfather was a part of the infamous 1937 Flint Sit-Down Strike. My grandfather put in 30 years at GM. One uncle recently retired from GM. Another has been a Teamster for as long as I can remember. My father’s job, selling industrial pumps, would not have existed if not for the Big Three. And I was born in Flint with most of my family still in both the Flint and Detroit areas.

I have seen first-hand what happens when the U.S. automotive industry fails. If you want to know what America will look like if the Big Three do not get their $25 billion loan, take a look at southeast Michigan. Unemployment is approaching 10 percent and will likely eclipse that mark by the end of 2009, with an estimated 108,000 jobs being cut . This would be just the beginning. The unemployment rate during the Great Depression averaged about 14 percent. Reports indicate the nearly three million jobs will be lost if GM, Ford and Chrysler file Chapter 11. That could dramatically escalate when you factor in that one in 10 jobs in the U.S. are tied into the automotive industry: parts suppliers, truck drivers, advertising agencies, dealers, etc. Those are the obvious ones.

The steel workers throughout the Midwest would take a major hit, one they cannot afford. There are also insurance agencies that will be bogged down with health insurance claims and benefits that are tied up in bankruptcy court for years. Millions of Americans overnight without jobs and healthcare.

But yes, Mr. Liddick, you’re right the automotive industry deserves to die. You’re right. They did produce the biggest cars and trucks possible. But this is not solely the fault of the automakers. Americans wanted the biggest, and that’s exactly what they got. It’s far easier to wake up one day with gas at $4 a gallon and decide to buy a smaller fuel-efficient vehicle than it is to change all of your manufacturing plants. That takes time. And for the record, let’s dispel the myth about the current quality and inefficiency of Big Three vehicles. A J D Power quality study scored eight Big Three brands as high or higher than Acura, Audi, BMW, Honda, Nissan, Scion, Volkswagen and Volvo. Both the Chevy Malibu and Ford Fusion scored higher than the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. All of the Detroit Three build midsize sedans the EPA rates at 29-33 mpg on the highway. The most fuel-efficient Chevrolet Malibu gets 33 mpg on the highway, 2 mpg better than the best Honda Accord.

So who do you want to see punished by this? It certainly won’t be the CEOs. They’ll be fine. The other millions that don’t wear white collars, not so much. AIG was handed upwards of $150 billion. The Big Three are asking for a loan, to be paid back, of $25 billion. One company employs about 100,000, the other employs millions. What’s the real difference? The people who work for AIG wake up, shower and go to work. The vast majority of people who work for the Big Three wake up, go to work, come home and shower.

The Big Three catapulted America into the 20th Century as an economic power. During WWII Detroit halted production and turned its attention to building tanks. A quarter of all tanks manufactured in the U.S. came from the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant, a division of Chrysler. General Motors was the world’s largest employer for most of the last century. The backbone of this country was built on the labor of the automotive industry. And now when it looks bleak, people like you, Mr. Liddick, want to see them crash and burn. I’ll be sure not to call you if I’m in a bind. Finally, off point here. You said “WE” voted for change in the last election. I somehow find it hard to believe that you voted for change. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

And a very good article at DailyKOS:
Detroit is angry at anti-autoworker media spin

By Bendygirl
Crossposted from Bendygirl

I've been watching the hearings, hearing the testimony and pulling for the bridge loan. Then there was this tidbit, reported by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post:

So it was hard to feel sorry for the executives when Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), late in the hearing, reminded them again that "the symbolism of the private jet is difficult," and mischievously asked the witnesses whether, in another symbolic gesture, they would be willing to work for $1 a year, as Nardelli has offered to do.

"I don't have a position on that today," demurred Wagoner (2007 total compensation: $15.7 million).

"I understand the intent, but I think where we are is okay," said Mulally ($21.7 million).

"I'm asking about you," Roskam pressed.

"I think I'm okay where I am," Mulally said.

And don't even think about asking him to fly commercial.

CEO pay is a hot issue. AIG is goind out of its way to pay out for their "top managers" and then you have the big 3. The emphasis has been on the income of workers represented by the UAW (think Mitchells smarmy comments from Sunday's Meet the Press) and then there's reality:

Chrysler $29-$33:
More contract info by company here: http://uaw.org/contracts/index.php

TOYOTA
$30/hour

EXECS
Alan Mulally
Chief Executive Officer
Ford Motor Company
$22,750,385 in total 2007 compensation

G. Richard Wagoner
Chief Executive Officer
General Motors Corporation
$19,761,874 in total 2007 compensation.

Assuming a 40 hour work week, that's $9,615 an hour for Wagoner - 150% of the average CEO salary of $6,153/hour.

Chrysler isn't traded, but here's this article from the weekend about how Chrysler is paying about $30 million in retention bonuses to keep top executives while cutting thousands of jobs.

How much does the average AIG worker make? What's the median? How about the other "bailed out" organizations? Ones where they sent their IT operations off shore to India and elsewhere and canned all of their IT people like IndyMac (they weren't bailed out, just belly up)?

It's fine to get these numbers, but the issue isn't how much the average autoworker makes or the average Toyota or Honda worker, the message should be that these are American Workers who WORK. They produce American jobs, they contribute to their communities, they raise their kids, they vote and yeah, their represented by a union but they don't deserve anything less than what Wall Street has already gotten. That includes the Executives because not to do it means a destruction of local economies, not just detroit, we're talking Parma Ohio, Lordstown, St. Louis and this doesn't include the rolling effect on suppliers.

But let's take another look at AIG, again, from the Washington Post:

American International Group plans to pay out $503 million in deferred compensation to some of its top employees, saying it must tap the funds to keep valuable workers from exiting the troubled insurance giant.

News of the payments to top AIG talent comes as the federal government has just put more money into saving the company from bankruptcy, beefing up the total public commitment to $152 billion. Meanwhile, members of Congress are questioning the company's expenditures -- including lavish business trips to resorts -- during a time when taxpayers are on the hook for the bailout.
snip

Companies over the past 20 years have increasingly use deferred compensation as a way to attract and retain highly paid executives. Under these plans, top talent can postpone taking some of their large annual salaries for years -- often until a set date -- and can put off being taxed on it. Some wait to take the funds until they retire, when they would presumably be in a lower tax bracket.

Few executives seem to understand the correlation we common Americans make with failure and excess. I for one see their salaries and wonder, WTF?

But after watching what's been going on with AIG (and the scandalous behavior AFTER their bailout-not a loan), it's just incredible that these executives from the big three flew to DC on private corporate jets. But for Mullaly and Wagoner to say no to taking a massive ONE YEAR pay cut as Nardelli has said he'd do, well, damn, I wouldn't have given them a bridge loan either, because they aren't a good risk. Of course, that's me speaking as a former home loan underwriter. If I had a homebuyer with this kind of credit, this kind of debt load while arriving in a vehicle well beyond what should be their means, I'd have to really think long and hard about those combined factors and here and now, it'd be one tough call.

What's saddest of all, it seems only Nardelli really gets what's at stake in this financial melt down, survival.