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The United Auto Workers union called on Congress and the Bush administration to get a loan to U.S. automakers to prevent their collapse before the legislature adjourns Friday. "Congress must not adjourn with the Bush administration in place without an agreement," said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. "If there's no action, we could see the collapse of one or more domestic auto companies by the end of year." Gettelfinger said the cost of not acting would be devastating for the industry's employees and the U.S. economy. "The current recession that we're in would be made much worse," he added, saying states...

The Big Three automakers’ chief executives testified before Congress today, blaming the credit crisis for their downfall. But Richard Wagoner, CEO of General Motors (GM: 2.11, -0.68, -24.37%) did not use the credit crisis as an excuse for the company’s poor profits when he wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal in December 2005. In his opinion piece, which came amidst record sales, he blamed not the credit crisis, but a kaleidoscope of other reasons, including “intense” foreign competition, soaring gas prices in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and high benefit costs for the automakers’ downfall. And in his...

WASHINGTON -- A full-court effort by U.S. auto makers to secure federal aid appeared to be on the rocks after the companies failed to convince lawmakers of the urgent need for a rescue. Michigan Rep. Dale Kildee, Chrysler Chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli, GM Chairman and CEO Richard Wagoner, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Michigan Rep. Sandy Levin (left to right) prior to a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill at which the auto makers made their case for federal assistance. Late Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid backed away from efforts to force a vote this week on a Democratic-backed...

The chances of the US Congress quickly approving a bill to save the "Big Three" car manufacturers are said to be "remote" but one economist warned that their collapse could shave 4pc off America's gross domestic product next year. Democrat Senator Chris Dodd, who chairs the influential Senate banking committee, believes that the chances of Congress approving a new bill this week to advance up to $25bn in lifeline funding to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are slim. "I'm anxious to see something happen," said Mr Dodd, who on Tuesday heard pleas for the money from the leaders of the...

Barney Frank favors bailing out the Detroit automakers over letting them go into bankruptcy. Chief among his concerns is that bankruptcy might "bust" the unions. You know, those organizations whose contract demands have put Detroit on the brink of extinction. The Massachusetts Dem, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was interviewed by Maggie Rodriguez on today's Early Show. He appeared alongside Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Al.), ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, who favors letting the automakers reorganize under Chapter 11. View video here.

There’s a big push on in Washington to bail out the Big Three automobile companies. It’s the usual “crisis” scenario where scare headlines predict woe and economic gloom if something isn’t done NOW!But would a bailout of the Big Three actually solve their problems? No. But it would make sure unions which have held these companies hostage to a failing business model don’t get hurt.Consider this: GM also famously spends over $1,600 per vehicle on the healthcare costs of current and retired U.S. workers while Toyota pays about $200 per vehicle. Although GM also pays about another $1,000 per vehicle...

DETROIT: When Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Automobile Workers union, appears this week at congressional hearings to help make the case for the Detroit automakers getting emergency U.S. government aid, he wants lawmakers to know what he believes is at stake. "It wouldn't be just one company failing here," Gettelfinger said in an interview. "It would be all three going down." He might as well add the UAW. The union's membership at General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler has been nearly halved to 139,000 workers in the past three years, and it continues to shrink with every new plant...

WASHINGTON: As top Detroit auto executives prepared to make their most intense plea for aid to Congress on Tuesday, General Motors also pleaded Monday for a billion-euro credit guarantee from the German government to help its Opel subsidiary. The request, greeted with some skepticism in Germany - Chancellor Angela Merkel promised a reply by Christmas - demonstrated how what had been building as a Washington drama involving efforts to save the venerable Detroit auto industry was fast becoming a story about how the international industry might be transformed by the spreading financial crisis. Governments around the world, from Tokyo to...

A card-check law would give union bosses an unfair advantage in organizing the workplaceTHE ISSUE: A card-check law would give union bosses an unfair advantage in turning workplaces into union shops. Probably no group celebrated the election of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama as president more than organized labor. For decades, labor unions have watched membership rolls dwindle. In 1983, union members made up 20.1 percent of employed wage and salary workers, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Today, the union membership rate is down to about 12 percent. In Alabama, union membership is even lower, about 9.5 percent. The...

- - Says Taxpayers Demand Real Reforms & Accountability From Washington WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, made the following statement regarding today’s announcement by Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid that he will seek Senate passage next week of a $25 billion bailout for the U.S. auto industry. Senator Reid’s support for this latest government bailout comes on the heels of yesterday’s announcement from the Treasury Department that the federal government has a record deficit of $237.2 billion for the first month of the fiscal year. This represents the highest monthly imbalance on record....

JERUSALEM – The enactment of a "single payer" socialist health care system; passing laws to make joining a labor union easier; raising the minimum wage and increasing labor union support – all these are just some of the policies the Community Party USA has mapped out as crucial for Obama to push through during his term of office. Just days after the party's official newspaper lauded the role of labor unions in Obama's election victory, another article in the Communist Party's Political Affairs magazine by leading party member and Rutgers University history professor Norman Markowitz outlined the kind of "change"...

Chapter 11 would better preserve the valuable parts of the company than an ad hoc bailout. General Motors is a once-great company caught in a web of relationships designed for another era. It should not be fed while still caught, because that will leave it trapped until we get tired of feeding it. Then it will die. The only possibility of saving it is to take the risk of cutting it free. In other words, GM should be allowed to go bankrupt. AP Consider the costs of tackling GM's problems with some kind of bailout plan. After 42 years...

The failure of one or more of Detroit’s Big Three automakers would put a huge initial dent in American manufacturing, but in time foreign car companies would pick up the slack by stepping up production in their plants here, many industry experts and economists say. Whether Washington should let that play out — risking hundreds of thousands of jobs — is a central question Congress will weigh this week as it hears testimony from Detroit leaders who are pushing for immediate federal intervention, before the next administration takes over in January. “Barack Obama has made it clear he understands the...

DETROIT -- The president of the United Auto Workers union said the dire financial troubles of the three U.S. auto makers is the result this year's spike in gasoline prices and the meltdown on Wall Street, not missteps by management or high labor costs. "This industry is in a crisis situation not of its own making," Ron Gettelfinger said in an interview Saturday afternoon with The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Gettelfinger also urged Congress to provide financial help to prevent General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. or Chrysler LLC from sliding into bankruptcy protection. Bankruptcy is "the worst possible route...

According to the Associated Press, former Rep. David Bonior, who ran John Edwards' recent failed bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, had harsh words for Edwards upon his confession of an affair with former staffer Rielle Hunter. Bonior, the former Michigan congressman, told the AP that he was disappointed and angry after hearing of Edwards' confession. "Thousands of friends of the senators and his supporters have put their faith and confidence in him and he's let him down," Bonior said "They've been betrayed by his action." Asked whether the affair would damage Edwards' future aspirations in public service, Bonior replied:...

If we can't accuse them of being unpatriotic, can we at least accuse some Democrats of being monumentally dense? Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. The three anti-war Democrats made the trip in October 2002, while the Bush administration was trying to persuade Congress to authorize military action against Iraq. While traveling, they called for a diplomatic solution. Prosecutors say that trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a Michigan charity official, who was charged Wednesday with setting up the junket at...

Follow the Money: Towards Treason Written by Melanie Morgan    Wednesday, 26 March 2008 And now for our trip in today's Way Back Time Machine.Let's visit Iraq, shall we? That's where three United States Congressmen traveled in 2002, in the days before the Bush administration launched a war to depose Saddam Hussein, sparking a huge controversy.  Following Ben Bradlee's excellent advice to Woodward and Bernstein during the Watergate era to 'follow the money', the Associated Press has learned that Saddam Hussein's secret agents financed the trip towards treason.          "An indictment unsealed in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti, a member of a...

... I listened last night to syndicated talk-radio host Mark Levin report the breaking news that an Iraqi-American had been indicted as a spy. In addition, he stands accused of secretly funding the October 2002 pre-invasion trip to Iraq of three antiwar House Democrats, Congressmen Jim McDermott (D-WA), Mike Thompson (D-CA), and David E. Bonior (D-MI, now retired). I first posted a clip of that audio on MarkLevinFan.com and then I followed the money. Always follow the money. You just think that you have read all where it led in this case.

Feds Say Mich. Man Arranged U.S. Lawmaker Trips for Saddam Hussein's Intel Service The former spokesman of a Detroit-area Islamic charity, who organized U.S. congressional delegations to Iraq, has been indicted for alleged conspiracy to spy for Saddam Hussein's government. Muthanna Al-Hanooti, who worked as a top official at Life for Relief and Development — a charity in Southfield, Mich. — allegedly coordinated U.S. congressional delegations to Iraq at the direction of the executed dictator's intelligence service between 1999 and 2002. In return, investigators say he received payoffs via the United Nation's Oil for Food program. The indictment, which was...

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors say Saddam Hussein's intelligence agency secretly financed a trip to Iraq for three U.S. lawmakers during the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion. An indictment in Detroit accuses Muthanna Al-Hanooti of arranging for three members of Congress to travel to Iraq in October 2002 at the behest of Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say Iraqi intelligence officials paid for the trip through an intermediary. In exchange, Al-Hanooti allegedly received 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil. The lawmakers are not mentioned but the dates correspond to a trip by Democratic Reps. Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan and...