If only...

by: Jay Stevens

Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 06:55:47 AM MST

Still and all, don't you wish that Obama were willing to treat bankers the same way he's treating the carmakers? It's pretty much impossible not to compare his tough words this morning with the conciliatory tone and even more conciliatory actions he's taken with the financial industry.

If anything, this only underscores how weak the auto industry is, both economically and politically.

Keep Your Eyes On The Road

by: Auto Alliance

Thu Mar 26, 2009 at 15:35:33 PM MST

The auto industry is undergoing a major transition.  How can we set a course for its healthy development?

Automakers, by their nature, must make plans many years in advance.   Right now, we have people designing products for 2015.  That means that, if environmental standards are to be effective, it is crucial that we have very good collaboration between government and the auto industry.  It requires smart regulatory practices, achievable goals, and a national roadmap we can depend upon.

We are in this thing together.   It is time to collaborate.

Take emissions standards, for example.  We understand the direction of the carbon economy.  We embraced 40% higher federal fuel standards in the 2007 energy bill, and we fully expect a decade of rising standards, year by year, starting with the standards for 2011 to be announced in the near future.

We intend to accomplish those standards.  In order to do that, we've urged the federal government to set emissions standards for multiple years into the future, to give us a predictable set of regulations to plan and design for.  In recent years, California and other states have played an important role in setting emissions standards when there was no federal action on the issue.  But today, the federal government is acting.  Additional uncertainty can only undermine that progress.  A single, national standard administered by the federal government is a reliable roadmap and we can move forward rapidly.

We also need to know that the infrastructure will be in place to support the advanced technologies we're developing.  You can't have a fleet of plug-in hybrids and electric cars without a place to plug them in, or without sufficient energy to power them all.

Patchwork fixes and band-aids are not a good solution to our common problems.  Our environmental and economic problems involve our whole country.  So do the solutions.  An integrated national plan provides a stable foundation for progress.

We're committed to reinventing the automobile.  We will provide you with an even wider range of efficient automobiles.  And if we can depend on a smart and stable set of regulations, the auto industry will be the driver behind a new low-carbon economy.

GOP memo on auto bailout: the "first shot against organized labor"

by: Jay Stevens

Sat Dec 13, 2008 at 21:39:52 PM MST

This is the democrats first opportunity to payoff organized labor after the election.  This is a precursor to card check and other items.  Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it.

Whatever the merits, or lack thereof, of throwing $15 billion at the auto industry, it seems Republican Senators are missing the big picture. Instead of asking the right question -- will the loss of millions of jobs and our domestic manufacturing capacity hurt the nation on the cusp of the worst recession in a lifetime? -- they're in partisan attack mode.

More on Baucus' and Tester's support of the Republican filibuster later.

GOP kicks auto industry to the curb over union wages

by: Jay Stevens

Fri Dec 12, 2008 at 07:40:52 AM MST

Why are Senate Republicans -- and Dennis Rehberg -- killing the auto industry, when they rushed, without question, to bail out the rich executives and stock brokers of Wall Street investment firms and banks?

Union wages. The deal essentially fell apart over wages for US union workers. The filibustering Republicans wanted union wages to be slashed, now, not in 2011 when the union contract expires, to match Japanese wages.

To begin with, the disparity between the average wages of Japanese and US autoworkers is misunderstood and exagerrated. The Notorious Mark T has been over this already, noting that the difference is in part the "legacy costs," the money owed in health care benefits and pensions to retired workers, which we know is the result of US big business' antipathy towards universal health care. The wage figure also includes wages for white collar workers, and the fact that the auto industry is shrinking, so there's fewer entry-level wages being doled out. And, as John Judis points out, the Japanese wage is also the result of the industry's practice of building plants in "right to work" states and deliberate undercutting of workers' wages. That is, their wage is a result of "despicable" corporate behavior.