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The United Auto Workers union has ratified a package of concessions designed to reduce General Motors Corp.'s labor costs. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said at a news conference Friday that 74 percent of GM's 54,000 U.S. production and skilled-trade workers voted in favor of the deal. The vote comes before an expected Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing by GM on Monday. Bankruptcy experts say having the labor agreement in place will help move the process through court more quickly. The UAW says the cuts will save GM $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion a year.

President Obama insisted at his press conference last night that he doesn't want to nationalize the auto industry (or the banks, or the mortgage market, or . . .). But if that's true, why has he proposed a restructuring plan for General Motors that leaves the government with a majority stake in the car maker? The feds have decided they should own a neat 50% of GM, yet that is not the natural outcome of the $16.2 billion that the Treasury has so far lent to the company. Nor is the 40% ownership of GM that the plan awards to...

President Obama insisted at his press conference last night that he doesn't want to nationalize the auto industry (or the banks, or the mortgage market, or . . .). But if that's true, why has he proposed a restructuring plan for General Motors that leaves the government with a majority stake in the car maker? The feds have decided they should own a neat 50% of GM, yet that is not the natural outcome of the $16.2 billion that the Treasury has so far lent to the company. Nor is the 40% ownership of GM that the plan awards to...

So the man whose closest brush with a real job was as a community organizer in Chicago fired the Chief Executive Officer of what was once the largest car manufacturer in the world - General Motors - Monday. Richard Wagoner, as a condition of GM getting more bailout money from the community organizer, was told the only way the money would be forthcoming was if he resigned. So he did, putting the interests of GM ahead of his own. There's not much question that Mr. Wagoner made some terrible mistakes in his nine-year tenure as head of GM. Some were...

In forcing the resignation of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, President Obama said he was seeking a fresh start, a "new vision and new direction," for the beleaguered automaker. But some critics are questioning why the president of the United Auto Workers union didn't meet the same fate, to signal a fresh start on the other side of the bargaining table. Even though UAW President Ron Gettelfinger argues that his workers have made significant concessions in recent years, critics say Gettelfinger should have gone the way of Wagoner -- whose ouster could be seen as the final judgment for GM's...

Vanderburgh County Right to Life in Evansville, Indiana, will soon host the largest pro-life banquet in the nation -- but at least one invited high-profile guest won't attend. The sold-out event will attract about 4,500 people, and among guest speakers are former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Republican Party chairman Michael Steele. Steele, a Roman Catholic who has stated that he is pro-life, recently declared in a Gentlemen's Quarterly article that abortion is an "individual choice." (See earlier article) Now, Bishop Gerald Andrew Gettelfinger of the Diocese of Evansville is declining to attend. Mary Ellen Van Dyke, executive director of...

Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger / RNC Chairman Michael Steel Evansville, Ind., Mar 24, 2009 / 06:42 am (CNA).- Saying there can be “no equivocation” about abortion, Bishop of Evansville, Indiana Gerald Andrew Gettelfinger has decided not to attend the Vanderburgh County Right to Life (VCRL) banquet because Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, a Catholic who made conflicting comments about his abortion views, will be addressing the gathering.Bishop Gettlelfinger charged that Steele “assiduously avoids” strong language on abortion.The Washington Times reports that 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is also to address the banquet attendees.Paul Leingang, communications...

DETROIT United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said he will not seek re-election and plans to retire when his term ends June 30, 2010. Gettelfinger has said in the past he would retire at 65 in accordance with UAW policy. He repeated that Thursday on Detroit radio station WJR-AM after a Web site reported that he may seek a third term.

The United Autoworkers Union, which had a total net worth of $1.2 billion in 2007, owns a $27 million resort and conference center that features a $6 million upscale golf course, according to financial statements on file with the U.S. Department of Labor. The retreat, called the Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center, is located on Black Lake in Onaway, Michigan. The union-owned retreat includes the Black Lake Golf Club, valued at $6 million according to the financial statement.

Ron Gettelfinger lives in a very interesting little world. Even within the bubble of automotive Detroit, where grappling with economic reality is not the order of any day, the United Auto Workers president is outside what passes for the mainstream. In this respect, he is different from predecessors such as Owen Bieber, Douglas Fraser and Walter Reuther only by matters of degree. They, like he, regarded automakers as unlimited vaults of cash controlled by evil, greedy fat cats who could be dealt with only through threats, intimidation, guilt-mongering, public propaganda and more threats – all for the righteous purpose of...

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger holds up a document during a news conference in Detroit, Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. A relieved Gettelfinger said he's happy that the White House appears poised to step in and rescue the beleaguered auto industry, and he accused GOP senators who blocked emergency loans of trying to "pierce the heart" of organized labor. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)(CNSNews.com) - The United Auto Workers (UAW) union is “solely” to blame for the collapse of negotiations on a $14-billion auto bailout deal that stalled in the Senate Thursday, Sen. Tom Colburn (R-Okla.) told CNSNews.com on Friday. But UAW...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZ1VXHNWI0 UAW Union Czar Ron Gettelfinger blames National Right to Work for his failings, then, goes on to lament the fact that he doesn't know the names of the members of the National Right to Work. Why? He and his Union Boss cohorts have been trying for years to get the name of all the members of National Right to Work in order to institute "payback".

DETROIT — For more than 70 years, the United Automobile Workers union has known who its adversaries were: company executives, foreign automakers and right-to-work advocates who fought its organizing drives. Now it has another: Senator Robert Phillips Corker Jr. On Thursday night, Senator Corker, a freshman Republican from Tennessee, pushed the U.A.W.’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, to agree in principle to tough contract concessions before the Senate Republicans would agree to provide a lifeline to General Motors and Chrysler. But Mr. Gettelfinger, after giving ground in recent years on health care, job security and pay issues, would not agree to let...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZ1VXHNWI0

Just a few years ago, I took the opportunity to attend special guest appearances by two high-profile political personalities at Syracuse University whose visits were within a few weeks of each other—Ralph Reed, former leader of the Christian Coalition and a Republican strategist on the right, and Jocelyn Elders, former surgeon general of the United States during the Clinton administration and a Democrat of decidedly left orientation. Although their addresses and responses to questions that followed illustrated vividly their wide differences of opinion on current issues, that was not the most striking contrast between the two mid-week evening events at...

Organized labor helped elect Barack Obama and now eagerly awaits his promised support for its top priority—a bill that would make it easier to set up union locals. The Employee Free Choice Act would allow unions to create local bargaining units without winning the vote of a majority of workers in a secret ballot. The local unit would be certified if a majority of workers endorsed it by signing an authorization card handed out by union organizers. Fair enough? Not really. The so-called card-check bill would not protect workers and it would not be "free choice." It would strip away...

WASHINGTON -- The head of the United Auto Workers made a public plea Sunday for government help for U.S. carmakers as the Big Three put the final touches on stabilization plans to submit to Congress. "We cannot afford to see these companies fail," said Ron Gettelfinger, the UAW chief, calling on Congress to approve the aid during a special session the week of Dec. 8. Gettelfinger said a $25 billion rescue plan for the carmakers is "not a bailout, this is a loan _ a bridge loan _ that will get us through until we can take a longer-term look...

Regarding Dr. John David's commentary, "Make it Easier to Unionize Workplace": Labor unions certainly have their place in a contemporary American economy, but not at the expense of employee free choice and economic security. Indeed, the Employee Free Choice Act would severely erode the freedom enjoyed by employees for nearly 75 years to make a private, fully-informed decision about whether or not they want a union to represent them. Too often, the losing party in a union election - the company or the union - blames its loss on the opposing party's "coercive and underhanded" tactics. In reality though, the...

Alright so this auto bailout bill is in a holding pattern. But just remember that it doesn't mean it is dead. So here are some facts that should keep you seething ... The Big Three currently pay 85% of union benefits to UAW members ... who aren't even working. Yep. Remember how I told you about the Job Banks for union workers? If a union worker is employed at a plant that closes, the auto makers still pay 85% of their union benefits. Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, says that his company must reduce operating costs ... but his...

“You just sit and you worry,” said Pat Weber, a construction administrator in Fennville who was laid off more than a year ago. “In the last year, I’ve put in for more than 100 jobs. I stopped counting after 110. It’s just so defeating.” All around Fennville and its neighbors here in southwest Michigan, front lawns are peppered with for-sale signs and merchants complain about slow days. But while this remains a beautiful place with none of the obvious blight of Detroit on the other side of the state, residents say the hardship beneath the surface is very real. It...