Post by wplap on Oct 14, 2011 12:08:25 GMT -5
Did I punch the clock at a used car lot? I look at these hustlers and pimps with their dull eyes pushing "Contract Highlights" and dreams of voluptuous bonuses, giving greasy winks, "this is a good deal for us" they say!
Let's look under the hood: Yeah, she looks clean on the outside, the tires are new, the interior is as clean as the day it was shoved off the line, but put the key in it...take it for a ride. What we have is a car that was destined to go kaput in 4 years. Nothing you would fix up or add onto. The transmission is drawing out, it idles a little high so that it doesn't die at the stoplight, and the frame has some rust and cracks that you can't see. That's fine. A lemon is a lemon, right? But imagine this was the only car on this lot and the others, that there were no other options...anywhere. You're being sold a facade of reliability and performance, wrapped up in promises from a man -who if you look deep enough behind the eyes- you can see the shame and loathe being pressed deep behind his crook smile.
Ford wants fixed costs. IUAW wants collusion. The problem? We live in a world where costs are not fixed, and a "fixed" bonus today won't pay the inflated costs of living tomorrow. They would all have us feel guilty for being Middle Class, to live the American Dream, where a family can thrive and save instead of just get by. Regardless of my hourly wage, my annual income is in the middle of this Middle Class range, but in four years...maybe 2 or 3 years...where will I rank on this forever sliding scale of income? It's safe to assume I will be at the bottom. But that is where EVERYONE wants us to be: The media, Ford, and every person whose nose has never been close enough to the grindstone to know the personal costs of our proletariat reality will never accept us grunts and geeks, as equals in the bourgeois strata of this feudal pyramid. How could we not be viewed as Second Class Citizens? The government has shipped most manufacturing jobs to Third World Countries so they could set up a hub for corporate headquarters to wear the veil of "American Company" while all production lies over some border, some desert, some foreign, jagged mountain range far beyond the ocean that divides this country from a destiny it manifested with the Industrial Revolution, and in its absence, has filled the void with a Service Industry and criminal money makers who make money off of making money(?)
We are, as Automakers, the last shadow cast in twilight of industry. We are the bastard children whose birthright was nothing more than sweat on the brow and a bend in the back. We are not tied and collared and cuffed. We are tattooed, heavy booted, sleeveless, and pissed. The night is coming and when there is not a light to show the madness of greed, greed will feed on itself if it must. Henry Ford didn't build the first automobile, he built the first automobile cheap, roughly 75% the cost with the invention of the assembly line. And much like today, it was the elite and the dregs, no middle class to be seen. He had to create a middle class by paying his workers more money so that they could buy the vehicles they produced. I think that legacy should live on. I would hate to see an ironical turn where the leaders at Ford destroy their own base. I would hate even more to see those that are supposed to represent the workers, deceive us, leave us Blue Collar Broke while they aspire their way up a corporate ladder, leading further and further away from their base. I think it's happening, but does that even matter any more? They are just stuffed shirts perched on top of self made totem poles. I am Union. You are Union. We are Union. And in honor of our leaders at the IUAW, I say we give ourselves a raise this year.
Let's look under the hood: Yeah, she looks clean on the outside, the tires are new, the interior is as clean as the day it was shoved off the line, but put the key in it...take it for a ride. What we have is a car that was destined to go kaput in 4 years. Nothing you would fix up or add onto. The transmission is drawing out, it idles a little high so that it doesn't die at the stoplight, and the frame has some rust and cracks that you can't see. That's fine. A lemon is a lemon, right? But imagine this was the only car on this lot and the others, that there were no other options...anywhere. You're being sold a facade of reliability and performance, wrapped up in promises from a man -who if you look deep enough behind the eyes- you can see the shame and loathe being pressed deep behind his crook smile.
Ford wants fixed costs. IUAW wants collusion. The problem? We live in a world where costs are not fixed, and a "fixed" bonus today won't pay the inflated costs of living tomorrow. They would all have us feel guilty for being Middle Class, to live the American Dream, where a family can thrive and save instead of just get by. Regardless of my hourly wage, my annual income is in the middle of this Middle Class range, but in four years...maybe 2 or 3 years...where will I rank on this forever sliding scale of income? It's safe to assume I will be at the bottom. But that is where EVERYONE wants us to be: The media, Ford, and every person whose nose has never been close enough to the grindstone to know the personal costs of our proletariat reality will never accept us grunts and geeks, as equals in the bourgeois strata of this feudal pyramid. How could we not be viewed as Second Class Citizens? The government has shipped most manufacturing jobs to Third World Countries so they could set up a hub for corporate headquarters to wear the veil of "American Company" while all production lies over some border, some desert, some foreign, jagged mountain range far beyond the ocean that divides this country from a destiny it manifested with the Industrial Revolution, and in its absence, has filled the void with a Service Industry and criminal money makers who make money off of making money(?)
We are, as Automakers, the last shadow cast in twilight of industry. We are the bastard children whose birthright was nothing more than sweat on the brow and a bend in the back. We are not tied and collared and cuffed. We are tattooed, heavy booted, sleeveless, and pissed. The night is coming and when there is not a light to show the madness of greed, greed will feed on itself if it must. Henry Ford didn't build the first automobile, he built the first automobile cheap, roughly 75% the cost with the invention of the assembly line. And much like today, it was the elite and the dregs, no middle class to be seen. He had to create a middle class by paying his workers more money so that they could buy the vehicles they produced. I think that legacy should live on. I would hate to see an ironical turn where the leaders at Ford destroy their own base. I would hate even more to see those that are supposed to represent the workers, deceive us, leave us Blue Collar Broke while they aspire their way up a corporate ladder, leading further and further away from their base. I think it's happening, but does that even matter any more? They are just stuffed shirts perched on top of self made totem poles. I am Union. You are Union. We are Union. And in honor of our leaders at the IUAW, I say we give ourselves a raise this year.
