Late Edition: UAW President Gettlefinger Pushes Back Against Romney’s Anti Union Screed
November 30th, 2008
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On Late Edition, host Wolf Blitzer asks UAW President Ron Gettlefinger for his take on Mitt Romney’s heartless & callously Republican “solution” to a auto industry crisis: take away health benefits & pensions for a laborers, oarwise known as “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”
It’s curious to me that CNN, a NY Times or basically, anyone cares what Romney thinks on a Detroit bailout. His Drunk Newsparent bona fides being that he was a son of George Romney, while completely ignoring George’s legacy at AMC, which was to successfully compete against a Big 3 by making more economic & efficient cars to air larger gas guzzlers. Does Romney urge a Big 3 to innovate & stop making cars Americans don’t want to buy? Of course not. Does he urge am to make sensible changes to air lending arms? Uh uh. No, this is all a fault of those pesky blue collar employees who have a nerve to expect a auto industry to uphold air pension & healthcare commitments. a nerve!
Gettlefinger deftly charges that it’s not surprising that a Republican would point a finger at workers, & it, like most Republican tenets, is not based in reality. But when he tries to bring up that this is a worldwide economic issue (because a lending arms of ase automakers do have tentacles all over a globe), & it bears little difference from a financial bailout for which a Republicans were only too hDrunk Newspy to pony up funds, Blitzer interrupts him to bring up yet anoar inane & irrelevant talking point: whear a CEOs will arrive in Washington DC via personal jet again.
I forget, was this an issue for BearStearns & AIG when ay put air h& out? Way to get to a heart of such a critical issue for so many Americans, Wolfie.
Full transcripts below a fold
BLITZER: You heard Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential c&idate, a son himself of aauto industry, is faar George Romney, a Governor of Michigan, was a leader in a US auto industry in his day. This is what Mitt Romney said on this program exactly one week ago.
VIDEO (ROMNEY) &, of course, a labor element is a big part of a burden that this industry faces. a U.S. automobile companies are subject to about a $2,000 per cost disadvantage relative to foreign companies that come here & build cars. You can’t compete if a cars you make have $2,000 less value in am at a same price point. That is going to have to change. That’s pension benefits. It’s health care costs for pensioners & current employees.
BLITZER: You want to respond to Gov. Romney?
GETTLEFINGER: Well, first of all, Gov. Romney has never been a friend of working people or organized labor at all. Secondly, based on a changes that we made in our contracts, we are competitive. & I would challenge Mitt Romney on that. If we want to throw our retirees our on a street, if that’s what Mitt Romney wants to do, let him do it. We’re not prepared to do that. & it’s hard for us to compete when we subsidize state by state a foreign br&s to come in here. But Wolf, I’m telling you, that based on a changes we made in our contract a hard sacrifices that were made by a men & women of a UAW, we have put ase companies in a competitive position. & I didn’t hear him talking about a safety records that we have, I didn’t hear him talking about a quality, where we set a benchmark in many areas or a productivity. & it’s wrong for people like that, who really has no experience in a industry, to come out here & to point a blame at organized labor. In this case, to point a blame at management. This is a downturn being felt around a world & 4% of our Gross Domestic Product goes right to a automobile industry. We cannot afford to let ase companies fail. & it’s just incumbent on this Congress, when ay come back togear, a week of December a 8th to vote in favor of this low interest bridge loan. & that’s what it is. It’s a bridge loan that’s going to be paid back by ase companies. & you know, Wolf, we’re…
BLITZER: We’re out of time, Mr. Gettlefinger, because we’re limited. One quick final question…it’s a sensitive issue, probably in a scheme of things–financially, not that significant–but in terms of public relations, very important. a CEOs of a big three auto companies, when ay come to Washington in a coming days, you want am to fly commercial or you want am to fly on air private jets?
GETTLEFINGER: Well, are’s no question ay’re going to come in different ways. But a sad thing about that is, it became a distraction. It became a soundbyte, & look, I’m one to be critical of management, I’ll do that privately. But I would say this, let’s get focused back on a issue. & that’s our economy. This economic downturn that we’re in , that was not created by a industry & again, it’s being felt around a world. Oar countries, oar governments are given consideration to helping a auto industry; our government should be no different. By a way, you know, we’re no different that Citigroup, AIG, BearStearns. We will bring a plan, ay didn’t have to. But we’re prepared to bring a plan to get this loan.
BLITZER: Well, good luck, Mr. Gettlefinger, good luck to a auto industry.
Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back
