Automotive Industry Bailout

It is the kind of headline that gets me going...

Over 50s 'needing to work longer'
Almost two thirds of over 50s may have to work longer, as the recession has hit their savings and pensions, a study claims.

In the meantime, in other headlines: it is clever that GM workers vote yes. And GM workers in 4 Ontario cities ratify new deal.

Not a surprise that workers at General Motors of Canada Ltd. ratified a 3rd deal: another round of concessions in less than a year. GM workers voted 86 % in favour, despite "deep concessions".

Where is the money coming from? Ontario tax dollars, as implied by federal industry Minister, Tony Clement. Yet the above linked article says, "Ontario said there won't be an agreement on who will be responsible for covering the plan's shortfall – the company, provincial taxpayers or federal taxpayers – until a final restructuring plan is presented." I would like some answers, myself. How about you?

Now, I have blogged about this before, simply as a taxpayer, and a citizen. It does enervate does it not? I am beyond anger and frustration. As a retiree, with a pension below the poverty line, I pay over $200 per month to belong to a health care plan. GM workers will pay $30 PER MONTH in health care, and more for Rx drugs. The rest of us chumps who do not have such a plan, continue to look for work (8% of Canadians), do not have such plans, and, fortunately, rely on our health care system. The union, the article says, says hourly labour costs will be lowered to $57 per hour, down $20 per hour from what they were getting.

GM retirees get phenomenal health care benefits. Partly since their US-based negotiators at head offices know how bad the American medicare system is for those without money. The NY Times calls it: "time is about to run out on G.M.’s gold-plated medical benefits."

TheStar.com writes "GM says it can't afford pension, medical plans". No kidding! My husband's idea is to simply give the bailout money to individuals who can create small businesses and work programs. They can get funding to retool, market the ZENN car, for example, if only Ontario would get off its butt and legalize them. Vehicles that use Canadian ingenuity, such as the ZENN car and renewable energy sources.

I devoted my early career years to raising kids. I came late to teaching. I retired early, with a penalty, having burned out caring for failing parents. It seems that I am in the middle, in the sandwich generation. I feel for those getting minimum wage, but at least their low taxes do not go to propping up the automotive industry's pensions. I feel badly for the estimated 300 GM dealers who will close (GM to close up to 300 dealers). But I do not think that the public is happy with this deal. I do not think we can afford to prop up an industry that made bad decisions. We need to rethink and find a new vision of transportation that respects workers, taxpayers, the environment and all stakeholders.

media coverage

I have blogged a couple of times about the disparities of rural vs. city news. Apparently, with the economy news stations are cutting back on local news to save a buck, while keeping the US-based TV shows which garner a higher audience. In these times, however, it is important to have local information. For those without jobs, laid off in the impact of the auto industry failures, they must rely on local news, read local papers to determine how and where to retrain. They cannot rely on the fear-mongering of the big Media to encourage and support all of us in these trying times. For it is my premise that the bailout money needs to go to employees to retool and regroup and find new industries.

CHCH News in Hamilton is having some problems. As they cut local anchors, the powers-that-be have decided to try to find a buyer for the station, the staff have tried to buy out the company.
There is a Facebook site that supports these employees, with a petition to try and convince the CRTC who regulates the media and CanCon, to change the rules to permit this takeover. I truly believe that it is the small towns and employees who have to take the initiative.

There are two YouTube videos: CRTC underpressure, (see it below) and the CHCH Community Rally.

The petition website says, in part, 'They have stated that CHCH may be sold off, or possibly closed down if a suitable decision can not be found. "These stations have proud histories of serving their communities with strong independent voices,’’ Canwest President and CEO Leonard Asper said. “However, as they are currently configured, these stations are not core to our television operations going forward.”'

See also:

• Accuracy in the media
• Media in 2009
• Media Coverage
• Media shows restraint?

Canadian Automotive industry bailout

The headlines are scary.

An industry on the brink

TheStar.com | Canada | Ottawa pledges billions to avert auto meltdown

Ottawa pledges billions to avert auto meltdown

While I have blogged about this before (Automotive Bailout), I am still shocked. We need to put money into retooling, retraining, and creating viable industry that uses Canadian workers to produce goods and services that will maintain a standard of living. It is time to stop outsourcing and exploiting workers in other countries. Give the money to the workers who can form a collective and produce clean, toxin-free, reliable, environmentally safe products. I resent throwing good money after bad. We need to rethink and reinvent our economy based on the current situation.

If or when the bailout fails, so will the other industries, secondary and tertiary goods and services that support the industry and their workers.

We must invest in those who are interested in retraining. Poverty and ignorance can be ameliorated with supports in place to educate those in saving money and finding retraining and/or alternate work. A Toronto Star article, "The death and life of small Ontario towns", asks the question, "Do these places have a right to exist?" How nuts is that? They were created to help manufacturers pay small town wages and save the big bucks. Now, outsourcing is doing the same thing by moving to overseas sources of cheap labour. We need to reverse this, let the employees take a loan from the $billions destined for the automotive industry, and provide a thriving industry to small town Canadians. The town can create a board to manage plants, like the former Hershey factory. Surely, somebody can create solutions that will be long lasting and find a vision of this new millennium.

Smiths Falls, Ontario, is a case in point. Chuck Hudson, Community Development Officer, tells me that these job losses are caused mainly by the loss of three major employers, one of them being Hershey (the others are a provincial institution and Stanley Mechanics Tools factory).

The Hershey factory is moving production to Mexico where cheaper labour will help them make money. Ontarians should be more interested in providing fair wages for work and support local workers who have forged a good life in a small town. One comment on the above article says, as I do, that we should demand Fair Trade for Canadians. No handouts, but business loans and Transfer Payment Agencies to help workers manage their towns.

Renewable energy and jobs

I just watched a most interesting Fifth Estate broadcast. It is called The Gospel of Green. There are those who have taken up the torch, but we need someone like Germany's Herman Scheer, to pass it on to our politicians and our local power companies and industries. Ontario needs to manufacture environmentally-friendly goods and create services that will take us into the future. Another soon-to-be-released video, here is the trailer, has clips featured in the aforementioned documentary.

The Fifth Estate speak of the millions of barrels a day that countries use:

• USA - 20.7 million barrels
• China - 7.2
• Japan - 5.2
• Russia - 2.8
• Germany - 2.7
• India - 2.6

Mr. Scheer, a member of German parliament, with 85 million citizens, speaks truth to power - power companies. He has taken East Germany's troubled economy, after the wall came down, and turned it around. Scheer's Law, named after himself, is that those generating renewable power must be paid MORE than the going rate for power - to encourage development on renewable power sources. In The Solar Economy, he writes of the possibilities that await this generation for real regeneration of our economy and our renewable energy sources.

In Canada, the powers-that-be continue to set back new developments and charge huge fees for those attempting to connect to Hydro's power grid, and expect them to purchase the equipment to be placed on government land. Yet, the privately owned Bruce Nuclear Power Station in Haldimand-Norfolk region of southern Ontario, is apparently good to go. The solution is not bigger, more powerful and risky project but a series of smaller, independent renewable sources that can support the entire system.

Forward thinking Canadians, in their pursuit of clean energy sources, have only been stymied by Ontario Power Generation, and the old boy's network of power generators, manufacturers or energy and American cars, who insist that nuclear power and oil is the way to go. In Ontario, the McGuinty government has committed to phasing out coal-fired generators by 2014. Unfortunately, time is running out and the only immediate answer is nuclear generating stations (like Bruce in the photo) that, inevitably, go over budget, put Ontario more in debt for power, and result in leaving us with storing spent nuclear waste - an insolvable problem.

There are solutions. This documentary speaks of wind, solar and biofuel sources. One company, Arise Technology, travelled to Germany where the Germans gave them 50% of their start up costs ($35 million) and created a plant, with jobs and are building solar panels. Why did we not do that here?

Trillium Wind Power has been trying to establish a wind farm, potentially investing $2.5 billion for a wind farm off the shore of Lake Ontario. All THEY met was opposition from politicians, and entrenched bureaucrats with inertia. They are shallow shores, with a potential 938 watts / sq. m of power, and not on a migration flyway. There are more than 1000 wind power companies world wide, all we need is to buy into this project and create the opportunity. Time is running out. Fossil fuels will run out.

Interviewing George Smitherman, the new energy minister, he stalls and speaks of Ontario power that costs 6 ¢/ KWh, compared to Germany's 23 ¢. He hums and haws around the cost of a new nuclear generating station ($27 billion), which we know will experience cost over runs. This is typical of politicians who can only think in terms of PR moments and 4-year election periods. Those of us who are worried about this issue have been reading and writing about it for 30 years. Elementary teachers, which I used to be, have taught Reduce/Reuse/Recycle to many, many students. But it is time to go further. We need the vision of someone like Herman Scheer to take us into the future.

Jackson's Toyota, in Barrie, ON, is trying to install a wind power station, but the locals are quite opposed. Rodney Jackson's Facebook site reflected their problems. The same is true on the Scarborough Bluffs, which I have blogged about previously. Unless we stand up and make politicians take notice, we are going to burn our way through our non-renewable fuel sources before we are ready to get off grid.

A Swiss farmer, trying to harness his farms waste, and put it back into the grid, is only finding blocks on the part of the bureaucrats. He wants to take a waste product and turn it around to recycle it. What is the hold up? We can move from a dysfunctional agricultural system to one that functions, and adds to our economy, making money for our precious farmers.

We need to encourage fuel-cell-powered vehicles, like the ZENN car - legal to drive in some states, but Ontario sits on its fuel cell, in a puddle of non-renewable oil, while Rome burns. The automotive industry, pleading poverty, still manufactures gas-guzzling vehicles (necessary for some) rather than responding to city folks who could drive a Zero Emission No Noise car and help to save our planet. Until we stand up and say YES in my backyard, we will not make progress. This is the answer to the state of Ontario's economy. We need to be building things that consumer want to buy AND that are good for the environment. We need a hero, like Herman Scheer, to step up in Canada.

Automotive Industry Bailout

I hope not. This industry is not viable. It they built cars worth driving: reliable, fuel efficient, and affordable, yes. Vehicles that use Canadian ingenuity, such as the ZENN car and renewable energy sources. But since the North American car industry, and CAW, have been building undependable trucks and SUVs, in lieu of the more cost efficient, and less profitable cars that N.A. car owners want and can afford, it is not an industry that should be propped up like the corpse in Weekend at Bernie's.

CAW is partially to blame. They ought to have demanded that the industry be accountable for previous loans, they should have counselled employees to prepare for the future. They have millions of dollars and rather than spending it fighting for more tax dollar bailouts, they could have invested in lobbying for local jobs and local initiatives, such as the ZENN car.

We need to spend tax payer dollars ($8 million dollars?) on retraining, in manufacturing goods and creating services that Canadians want and can afford. No more outsourcing every industry and service to help businesses make more profit and to pay cheap labour. We need to pay employees what they are worth - and not pay people $30 /hour to build cars. We will pay a few more dollars for clothes, appliances, IT support but will be able to avoid potentially contaminated food (i.e., pet food) and toys made in China that do not meet Canadian standards and contain lead. We will be guaranteeing jobs and we will be able to invest at home. I am tired of phoning a company and having to speak to a service rep who cannot speak English and whom I cannot understand, with no concept of where I live.

We must pay better EI benefits while those laid off seek work. We must increase welfare in order to allow families to have better lives. Poverty and ignorance go hand in hand. We must educate our citizens and help them establish a good standard of living.

It is time to invest in Canada, Canadian ingenuity and Canadians.

Our N.A. Continent is in shock

What a surprise to wake up and hear the challenge not to bear arms, but to stand up for one another.

Ronald Wright says in What is America? A short history of the new world order:

"Few nations have clung so much to their own mythology and historical patterns."

His text follows the development of the USA on the North American Continent. From a tradition of Puritans escaping British rule, and a history of colonization, to ...well, sail over the pond and colonize America. You live what you know. It makes me think of my toddlers running out of the room, plunking themselves down in the yard yelling, "You're not the boss of me!" to their playmates who were there first. I guess I've been reading too much Rick Mercer!) As the Americans trade Presidents, they trade their values and fundamental beliefs fairness and liberty. The pendulum has swung again.

The Puritans, fundamentalists, and evangelical white Christians left the UK in the 1600s in the same sort of protest. Once they arrived, having contributed small pox and measles to the Native population, seeking land grants and rich furs, were assisted by their future victims in surviving and adapting to the extreme winters of North America. The Aboriginal Peoples; the Six Nations in Canada, Creeks and Cherokees further south, with a strong government and agricultural system, and a literacy rate higher than the whites that invaded their territory, proceeded to be decimated by disease, or herded off the land like the now long-gone buffalo that sustained their central brothers and sisters. Their decimated towns and cities were taken over by the invaders. They moved into their homes, ate their winter corn, and planted crops in Native-cleared fields.

The great white hunters needed slaves and workers, in that time-honoured British Class system in which you hired those below you for any job too lowly for you to perform. That the early Americans had to import slaves set them up as the colonizers they long-sought to escape. One of the most powerful books I have read is, The Hanging of Angelique. It follows the early years of the slavery movement in Europe to the hanging of a woman in Montreal. A class system, now applied to those with different colour of skin, were voluntold (Mercer's non-volunteerism word!) that they were inferior and set to work. The great Canadian myth of the Underground Railroad is grossly exaggerated by Canadians who want to believe themselves better than their siblings to the south.

These Libertarians brought with them the sense of personal freedom that allowed them to rape the land as much as the people they found inhabiting this continent. This is the difference between Libertarians and liberals. The Americans who fought so hard in 1812 to escape British rule, created a ruling system that emulated that from which they fled. The American Empire, having ruled their own, have ceased to move into the new millennium as has the rest of the world. European countries have granted independence and divested themselves of their colonies resulting in cooperation, human rights, but the US has yet to buy into this world view. American presidents having exploited the voters, have failed to protect them from the vagaries of the environmental, economic and human issues which we now face.

Small l liberals who are concerned about health care, education, poverty, jobs, foreign debt, increasing numbers of immigrants and migrant workers, who help shape a country, fight with those in central south America who want the right to bear arms. The intellectuals (Jefferson and Franklin) who wrote the American Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, in the more sophisticated cities, liberals fight with the Libertarians who want more. The rich fight to keep their personal freedoms and their wealth, while the poor get sucked into this vortex of haves and have nots. Wright cites "serial relapses" as various presidents suck voters into supporting their aggressive, isolating, arrogant attacks on human and financial resources designed to replicate the wealth and freedom built on the slaughtering of public finances to undermine public programs and give the middle class a tax break.

The power of the almighty dollar and profits remain the bottom line with the previous Administration. I will do with a little less to help those with little reason to have faith in 'The Man.' It is my fervent hope that President-Elect Obama puts an end to the isolation, cruelty, miserly domination of the infrastructure that is based on the backs of the many working class who pay taxes, and demand that the very rich be accountable to their brother and sisters. In this new world order we must be held accountable for our neighbours, our our environmental footprint and the state of this world. Those businesses who take advantage of their power (see the Wal-Mart Effect) to kowtow to investors on Wall Street need to be stripped of their power and held accountable for outsourcing policies that result in cheap goods that poison our children and elders. Our current economic crisis is due to many factors. I blame the recent spike in oil prices, as well. As I worry over those who demand bail outs for the automotive industry, and their unions, who denied the changing nature of this world. We need fewer, smaller, better built dependable vehicles that need not be out of the reach of many. This was seen coming a long way off and it was ignored as greedy bankers gave loans to a failing sector of the economy.

I am haunted by those who are unmoved by the momentous occasion afforded the American people. I am comforted by the young, old, rich, poor, people of many colours and ethnic origins who identify with this fine man. They - no WE around the world - laud this man, no matter our faith, homeland or creed, as a harbinger of hope, who tells us, "Yes, we can."

~~~~~~~~~~~
References

The Hanging of Angelique. by Afua Cooper (2007)

What is America? A short history of the new world order by Ronald Wright

The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--And How It's Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman and Alan Sklar (2006)