Bailing Out The Auto Industry

I recently heard something that I just could not believe.  In case you doubt the facts here is one of the articles, found on MSNBC, that I quelled my information from.  Auto Industry Bailout and Union Impact

I discovered that when workers get laid off at General Motors they still are paid 95% of their salary. 

Does this make sense to anyone besides a laid off auto worker?  I would love it if someone would explain it to me.

They are no longer working but they still are making 95% of their income.  At most factories, and I have worked in some of them, people do not look forward to lay offs.  Why?  Because you stop making money.  I am 39 years old and I have always thought that when you were laid off the company still did not pay you to do nothing.

Do not get me wrong lay offs, for a lack of a better word, suck.  They are unfortunate.  They are an indication that the company is not doing well but it is supposed to free up some money so that the company can keep its head above water.

Another shocking fact to me was that the average auto worker makes $73.20 an hour.  Seriously?

Is there really a mystery as to why they are struggling with an impending recession and a vast reduction in sales?

Do not get me wrong, the auto manufacturers made a huge error by pushing SUV's and other gas guzzlers when they should have spent a little more money and investment on hybrid vehicles and alternative energy vehicles.

The Boy Scout motto is "be prepared", perhaps the CEO's of the auto manufacturers should have been Boy Scouts, because they sure as heck were not prepared.

What about the United Auto Workers Union that negotiated the unbelievable hourly raise and very attractive lay off programs?  What are they saying?  Well they are saying that they will not accept wage concessions or benefit reductions.

Huh?  Where I come from, when you ask for a handout, you better have something to offer in return.  You have to give something up.  You have to compromise.

What is so troubling is that there are no guarantees that the auto makers are willing, or possibly, able to make.

They need this money to get through the next few months.  No one knows if they can make it after that.  At the end of that time they quite possibly are going to need another bailout or will have to declare bankruptcy.

Giving them money now, seems to me, like delaying the inevitable or placing the industry on life support.

Obviously a large proportion of our economy is tied into the auto industry.  We should do everything necessary to ensure that they can survive.

Forcing them to declare bankruptcy allows them certain advantages like renegotiating contracts and terms of their debt.

They should be given nothing without restrictions on bonuses, mandates concerning production of fuel-efficient vehicles, enabling them to renegotiate salaries without fear of strikes, and getting rid of their absurd, preposterous lay-off terms that they have agreed to.

In order to get something, you should have to give something up.  That is the works where I am from.