US government bailouts: poverty wages for auto workers, trillions for bankers
By Jerry White

In the debate over federal assistance to the failing Detroit automakers, the clear consensus has emerged within the corporate, political and media establishment that auto workers must accept sharply lower wages and benefits as part of any industry bailout.

The White House, Congress and the incoming Obama administration all insist that substantial sacrifices are needed. The United Auto Workers union, which last year negotiated a fifty percent reduction in the wages of new hires, has pledged to reopen contracts with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler and make pay and benefits "fully competitive" with the non-union factories operated by their international competitors in the southern US states.

Such a course of action would result in a historic reversal for auto workers who would then be earning some $14 an hour—or, adjusting for inflation, about half what their counterparts made in the 1960s. The Democrats and Republicans made no similar demand for sacrifices from the banking executives and financial speculators who were handed $700 billion in last September's bailout of the Wall Street banks.

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