In a message dated 5/3/2009 2:18:56 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
More on the UAW, its murky finances, and its self-screwing: _http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/uaw-revisited/_ (http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/uaw-revisited/) >> A word on the UAW itself: this is not a poor union. As of 2006, it had assets of almost $1.3 billion, and annual receipts of $304 million. (I wish I could provide a link to the UAW’s own financial statements, but if they’ re on their website, I can’t find them. I had to go to the anti-union site, _UnionFacts.com_ (http://unionfacts.com/unions/unionFinances.cfm?id=149&year=2006) , to find this basic financial info. And I learned that _there_ (http://server1.laborpains.org/?p=2157) that the AFL-CIO had successfully _lobbied_ (http://otrans.3cdn.net/2607359fc5c7820a44_p3m6btw14.pdf) the Obama administration to loosen financial disclosure requirements for unions.) It could have easily financed serious research into a better strategic direction for the auto industry than the idiot management has been able to—cleaner cars, better modes of work organization. Its _PAC_ (http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00002840) spent $13 million on campaign contributions during the 2008 election cycle; it could have spent a few mil of that on campaigning for national health insurance. But they didn’t. And now they’re pretty well screwed. << Comment Yea, today is worse than 1979 when Chrysler went belly up. The UAW is better understood if looked at from the standpoint of a "bu siness model." The UAW is all of its members, that to one degree or another elect its leaders. The uppermost leaders of the union are elected on the basis of something akin to an electoral college. That is to say, President Gettlefinger and heads of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors divisions are not directly elected by the membership. The UAW President is elected at the Constitutional Convention. Gettlefinger is akin to a CEO. The reason the union has not made national health care a national social cause of the working class, which includes UAW members is its business model and lack of foresight. Bill Gates success in the market was bound up with IBM's lack of foresight. Cisco systems success in the market is its foresight and anticipation of new markets. The UAW's uppermost leaders lack foresight and without an abrupt change in its business model have roughly 48 - 96 months of life left in it as a significant union in the life of America. The unions lack of foresight is not reducible to a personal problem. Gettlefinger is the person that manifest the social problem of change within the union. To the degree that General Motors could not and did not change its business model to keep pace with a changing market is the same degree to which the UAW is stuck in the old business model of industrial unionism. On the other hand the UAW could not exceed the boundary that is the understanding and striving of the working class as a whole. The working class as a whole is being swung around to the need for a single - government, payer health system. Huge sections of the working class are in the process of rejecting anti-communism and anti-socialism. The slow and growing rejection of anti-communism in America is very important. The fact of the matter is that no one . . . and I mean no one . . . other than the communists and socialists of all stripes and character, have the passion, imagination and fire in their belly to inspire and push our working class. This has been the case since 1890. The era of an anti-communist democratic left in America is over. The union has to be pushed from within and especially from without to change and such change will involved splitting and restructuring of the union. The odds are such that the UAW will be destroyed - as it exists, in the marketplace along the same lines that General Motors is being destroyed in the domestic market. The United Automobile Workers - UAW, needs to become "Unite All Workers" regardless of industry or economic status. And the union needs to fund a party of labor that can champion issues like national health care. Today is a great time for such a party with the Republican Party in absolute decay. WL. . **************The Average US Credit Score is 692. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222376998x1201454298/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072&hmpgID=62&bcd=M ay5309AvgfooterNO62)
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