Auto bailout fight reveals sticky issues

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20081228/OPINION03/812280359/1008/OPINION01

By Mike Morrow • THE TENNESSEAN • December 28, 2008

Once you get under the hood of the rescue plan for U.S. auto companies, you can see the issues go much deeper than the more simplistic version that recently played out in Washington.

The drama in Washington looked basically like a group of Republican senators, primarily from the mostly nonunionized South — led by Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee — simply saying no to helping big automakers from Detroit.

The story almost came down to Corker vs. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. The Tennessee senator tried to work out a deal that would have made compensation for union workers at troubled Detroit plants more competitive with nonunion counterparts at other plants. Corker was looking for what he called "a date certain" for that to happen, but the sides couldn't settle on a date in 2009, and the deal fell through. The White House rode to the rescue with a bailout loan of $17.4 billion to help General Motors and Chrysler, while Ford says it can manage for now. The House had approved a rescue plan before the Senate refused.

But while the story appeared to be union vs. nonunion, domestic vs. foreign, even North vs. South, other wrenching factors hover over the issue. They include:

• A coming confrontation over a broader labor dispute, the Employee Free Choice Act, known as "card check," in which unions can organize workers simply by getting them to sign up. Some observers see the Senate Republican stand against the automakers as a precursor to a bigger fight. President-elect Barack Obama is expected to side with unions.

• The overwhelming cost of health care and the degree to which American employers can offer employee health plans still lingers, whether employees are unionized or not.

• U.S.-based automakers' longevity, long a point of pride, is now working feverishly against them, because of promises in benefits to retirees.

• And, ultimately, the political ramifications of what those Republican senators may have wrought. Union members in the South are already worrying if the boardrooms of those major automotive companies will remember what Southern senators did to them when companies make decisions about where to locate plants down the road.

FULL story at link.