The UAW Strike and Universal Healthcare.
The current UAW strike has forced GM and the rest of the American automakers to grapple with the realities of their rising healthcare costs. Right now, GM wants to get rid of the $50 billion in healthcare benefits that it promised its retired workers. The UAW has developed a spine and demanded that GM stop exporting jobs overseas. All three of the major American automakers are being undercut by foreign competitors who are setting up shop in non-union red states in the South.
There are spillover effects to this -- this will only exacerbate the problem of cheap labor in this country and companies hiring illegal immigrants in an attempt to engage in wage suppression. There are major structural problems within this country that have got to be addressed.
First, as the New York Times editorial notes, they repeat their calls for the candidates to come up with ways of combatting healthcare costs. Creating a government-run alternative to private insurance will bring down rates by creating competition, but more must be done to address the problems of healthcare costs in this country. The fundamentals of rising healthcare costs are still the same.
Next, we must either liberalize our immigration laws or open our borders so that we can level the playing field and immigrants can have the same rights that our workers do. That way, they will not be vulnerable to the kind of exploitation that these instances of auto companies locating in union-free zones smells of. The biggest trump card that our corporations have over immigrants is the threat to report and deport them if they try to organize unions.
Next, we must get rid of the so-called "right to work" laws. Passed with misleading framing, these laws have made it easier for corporations to hire non-union employees to either undermine the unions or to break strikes and then bring down wages. This will also serve to level the playing field between the Big Three and the rest of the auto companies who are locating into the US.
However, there are no longer merely moral reasons to go to a universal healthcare system in this country; there are practical and economic reasons as well. It has gotten to the point where car companies are more likely to locate in Canada because it costs less to pay into their Universal single-payer system than it is to pay rapidly-rising healthcare costs in this country.
Newsflash:
GM and the UAW just reached a settlement that will be voted on by the workers. It will transfer the liability of the pensions to a union-run trust fund that the company would fund. The company gave assurances to workers about job security as well. However, the weak fundamentals of the auto industry are still there, as they are making cars that Americans don't want.
Obamathon
