The Ultimate (This Week) In Conservative Straw-mannery

7:30 pm EST December 12th, 2008 | News | 8 Comments

This post and picture from the anti-labor folks at the “Center for Union Facts” (a front group for pro-corporation lobbyist Rick Berman) is hyping the fact that the labor contract between the UAW and Ford is big. This is supposed to be a big deal. For conservatives, this is a central tenet of their failed ideology: mythmaking about small and efficient things, even when it isn’t practical in the real world. I suppose these lobbyists think that the labor contract should be printed on a single piece of paper.

The Workers Will Do Whatever We Tell Them To.

Love,
Management

Of course in reality the UAW is a 464,000 member strong organization dealing with, in this case, Ford – the 7th largest company in the United States.

Any contract dealing with that many people, revenue, etc. is going to be large. Comparing the contract size to a Coke can is the epitome of conservative stupidity and its the kind of simplistic thinking passing for brilliant analysis that has America now sliding off the edge.

Sweet Jesus, I’m far from a kneejerk supporter of labor unions. I often think many of them have outlived their usefulness, do a poor job of communicating what they do and how they want to do it, but the hackery directed towards them from the right is just lame.

(And lest we forget, when we leave corporations to police themselves and have a union-free system we got lovely things like children working adult jobs)

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8 Responses to “The Ultimate (This Week) In Conservative Straw-mannery”

  1. Mylegacy says:
    December 12, 2008 at 8:32 pm

    “GM pays more than a thousand dollars per vehicle for their ‘legacy health care costs.’” In Canada, Europe and Japan these costs are picked up by all businesses and individuals in their taxes.

    Wikipedia says the US pays 15.2% of its GDP on “health care” and that “45.7 million Americans have no health insurance.” France (which has a GOLD plated – Doctor comes to your house – amazing system) pays 10.5% of its GDP with zero people not covered. Sweden pays 9.1% of GDP with zero uncovered. Canada pays 10.0% of GDP with zero uncovered…you get the idea. Also according to Wikipedia in, France, Canada and Sweden people can expect to live to “over 80.” The US is “77.5 to 80.”

    You pay approximately 50% more for less.

    Why?

    Because on this issue – and many, many others the American working class and middle class vote AGAINST their own interest. Approximately 50% of Americans CONSISTENTLY vote against their own interest. Why bother wasting Democracy on them?

  2. LibraryMark says:
    December 13, 2008 at 9:00 am

    Leave it to the cons to gauge whether a union contract is good or bad by using a ruler. Makes it much easier for the stupid among the republicans to understand.

  3. Republicans Discover The Relativity Law of Contracts « The Long Goodbye says:
    December 13, 2008 at 10:59 am

    [...] Corporate lawyers and Republican lobbyist Rick Berman has put up a little political astro-turf site called “LaborPains” on which he has inconvertible proof ( the Google link shows lots of right-wing echoes of this absurdity) that unions are responsible for the collapse of the domestic auto industry. That proof consists of  pictures of stacks of documents. One with a can of cola and one with a ruler, so that viewers might see the proof for themselves. If the chemists that work in quality control at Coke-Cola used the same logic to do their jobs, Berman would be dead now. H/T to Oliver Willis -The Ultimate (This Week) In Conservative Straw-mannery [...]

  4. Tim Fuller says:
    December 13, 2008 at 4:17 pm

    Sweet Jeebus, I am a knee jerk supporter of unions,as the alternative currently being shown is incoherently worse (as well as evil). Come on board OW.

    The government could buy all the stock in Ford, GM and Chrysler (effectively buying the companies)and it would only cost three billion dollars. Then let the unions hire the new management. Sweet.

    Enjoy.

  5. Sean D. Martin says:
    December 13, 2008 at 8:06 pm

    Tim Fuller: The government could buy all the stock in Ford, GM and Chrysler (effectively buying the companies)and it would only cost three billion dollars.

    I haven’t checked the latest market capitalization figures, but I’d be very surprised to find the combined value of the “Big 3″ is that low. Ford alone was larger than that not so long ago.

    But in any event, it is a nice idea. Why give them $25 billion if we could just buy the entire companies for less than that? Yeah, I known. “Socialism”.

  6. Oliver Willis says:
    December 14, 2008 at 12:48 am

    Unions have too much corruption in their past and are regularly so anti-innovation that I will likely never be a knee-jerk supporter.

  7. Parthenon says:
    December 14, 2008 at 11:42 am

    Every time one of those panzer tank SUVs passes me on the highway carrying one or two people, I take a little childish joy in the big three’s problems, I’ll admit it. Of course I don’t want them to sink, but still…

    For conservatives, this is a central tenet of their failed ideology: mythmaking about small and efficient things, even when it isn’t practical in the real world.

    Mythology is definitely the right word here.

  8. The Reality-Based Dave says:
    December 15, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    Want to work a 12-16hr day instead of 8?
    Blame the unions.
    Want to work 6 1/2 days per week instead of 5?
    Blame the untons.
    Want to compete with children for a job?
    Blame the unions.
    Want to get paid whatever the company says, even if it is $5 per day?
    Blame the unions.
    Want to do any & all dangerous jobs, without regards to your own safety?
    Blame the unions.
    Want to pay for medical insurance by yourself?
    blame the unions.
    Want to work every day without any vacation?
    Blame the unions.
    Want to not get any compensation for getting hurt on the job?
    Blame the unions.
    Want to not get paid when sick?
    Blame the unions.

    And those were off the top of my head.
    Olliver: I agree that some unions were/are corrupt, but unions are neccessary until the workers have the same power as management.