Mar-Apr 2006

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

“I was up in Rochester, and I met with UAW members at Delphi. They were so impressive. They gave a great presentation; I wish I could have put it on national TV. I would have wanted our country to see UAW leaders and members speaking about the global competition we’re in. They weren’t whining or complaining. They were saying, ‘Give us a chance, don’t pull the rug out from under us.’

“We’ve got to enforce trade agreements already on the books. And we cannot grant Thailand access to the U.S. auto market. That makes no sense at all.”

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

“I believe in competition. I believe in free and fair markets. But that is not what we have today. Other countries are practicing predatory trade practices targeting our industries and targeting our jobs. All too often our government is missing in action, and you have a right to expect more from us than that. The global economy is not going to work very well if when they have a competitive advantage, we buy from them, but when we have a competitive advantage, they cheat or steal from us. … The cheating has got to stop.”

Rep. Tim Ryan meets with UAW members from Ohio.

UAW delegates meet with Ohio congressman

An overflow crowd of more than 80 UAW CAP delegates from Ohio met with Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, on Feb. 7 to discuss the union’s legislative agenda. Here are excerpts from that discussion:

Are we going to get full funding for veterans’ health care?

Every year Congress can vote on the budget and you find out how much we are going to spend on health care for veterans. Veterans’ groups have said this should be a mandatory piece of the budget. No one asked them when they were going off to war, you know, maybe we’ll give you some health care, maybe not. There were commitments made, they made great sacrifices for the country. So I’ve signed on to legislation that says this should be mandatory funding.

Can we fix the bankruptcy laws so companies can’t use them to rip up our contracts and take away our benefits?

There’s a bill on that. It hasn’t been assigned to committee yet. We’re not sure of all the details yet, but it basically says that if you work for an employer of a certain size, that provides a certain amount of jobs, your benefits would be covered in that scenario. On some of these bills, you just have to get an idea out there and then start to work on it. Because everything is negotiated — it’s just like a contract.

What about national health care?

There are some proposals in Congress with the ultimate goal of creating a national health care system, but with a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican president right now, we’re not going to do it yet. We’ve got some ideas, like extending Medicare for everyone, or extending Medicare down to everyone at the age of 55. We also have to do a better job with the money we’re already spending.

What can we do to protect auto jobs in the United States?

We’re starting to work on a tax credit for consumers who buy U.S.-made vehicles. It would look at not just is this a GM vehicle, but where are the parts from, the tires and everything else. So it would be based on overall content, and hopefully that would create an incentive in the marketplace for consumers to buy your products.

Roger Kerson