http://detnews.com/article/20091101/OPINION03/911010313/1008/opinion01/Obama-looks-for-union-label

Workers in Barack Obama’s new economic order fall into two categories — those who are worthy of the president’s energies, and those who aren’t. You may be surprised to learn where you rank.

Obama doesn’t weigh the value of workers based on their paychecks, what they do or whether they slip their feet into wingtips or steel-toed boots in the morning. His sole interest is in whether they have a union card in their wallet.

If they do, the president is in their corner, working hard to make sure they don’t get the short end of any stick. But if they are among the 88 percent of American workers who don’t belong to a union? Ask Delphi’s salaried employees what Obama thinks of them.

As part of Delphi’s restructuring in bankruptcy court, the Troy-based auto parts maker dumped its pension plan onto the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.

Advertisement

That usually means a continued pension check, but one that is much smaller. And for Delphi’s salaried workers, that’s what they can expect.

Delphi’s union-represented workers, however, will dodge that bullet. The Obama administration swooped in and, in an extraordinary deal, is forcing General Motors to make the 46,000 union workers and retirees whole. GM used to own Delphi, and relies on the supplier for much of its parts.

“The U.S. government is taking care of a select group of people and tossing the rest of us under the bus,” Peter Beiter, a retired financial manager for a Delphi plant in Rochester, N.Y., told the New York Times.

And it’s doing so with the tax dollars of those like Beiter who aren’t in the favored class of workers. GM is operating with more than $50 billion in government bailout money.

That gives Obama the freedom to force GM to subsidize the pensions of union workers it has no legal obligation to, and who are employed by an entirely different company.

11/4/2009 1:00:00 PM

no surprise here

11/4/2009 1:06:13 PM

Why make what is such an obviously bad decision? Seriously.

11/5/2009 5:58:43 PM

I'm sure glad Hopey McChange has restored the rule of law so long forgotten over the last administration.

11/5/2009 6:13:50 PM

Quote :

"Why make what is such an obviously bad decision? Seriously."

That is the question that pretty much defines the Obama administration. Not in the same way it plagued the Bush administration, but more in the way of wondering how someone with such a wonderfully orchestrated campaign could have between November 2008 and January 2009 lost every single strategist and advisor that could have prevented such obvious mis steps.

11/5/2009 7:59:36 PM

I think the bigger question is why haven't the media picked up on this. Surely America should know all of the great things Obama is doing for this nation!

11/5/2009 8:06:47 PM

Well, it was in the Detroit News, a media organization. I guess the national media has concluded it is only a local interest story?

11/6/2009 10:13:02 AM

They should have known better than to work for a company while not part of a union. Sounds pretty Simple to me.

Advertisement

11/6/2009 10:32:29 AM