At Least One Thing That's GOTTA GO if we Taxpayers Bail Out the Big 3.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0510/17/A01-351179.htm

Holy schneike! This article was written in 2005! Do you know what it documents? The UAW "Job Bank" program. What is the "job bank", do you ask? It's very simple. People who are not currentlymaking cars or car components are in a "bank" of employees who still earn money.

The article illustrates the situation for Mr. Ken Pool who is "works" at the Ford Michigan Truck Plant. "Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working -- on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits."

Essentially the Big 3 carmakers and Delphi (the major U.S. auto parts supplier) were estimated to pay $4.1 billion to the pool of laid-off workers. The idea was to discourage the manufacturers from outsourcing their jobs or to hire new cheaper employees to replace more experienced and expensive employees. However, this means that (IN 2005!!!) almost 12,500 employees were being paid by these same manufacturers even though they weren't working in plants, assembly lines, or whatever.

The UAW has managed to strong-arm the U.S. auto industry into a untenable position. If the auto manufacturers don't agree, then the UAW will strike and cripple a vulnerable industry. If the auto manufacturers agree then they must take on a burden that damages their competitiveness against foreign car companies who do not suffer from the same contract restriction. If I were the UAW, I'd be very seriously thinking about that right now, because their policy is about to kill the "golden goose".

As a U.S. taxpayer I can only say that unless this program is terminated, fuggedaboudit (<== New Yorker for "forget about it"). I will not have ANY of my tax dollars used to pay people that are being kept on the payroll by a foolish or worse yet, corrupt labor union.

Unbelievable.