Nader
WASHINGTON — Long-time consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader this afternoon joined the dissenters questioning the government-backed bankruptcy of General Motors.
In an interview with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now, Nader criticized the White House for being secretive in handling GM’s bankruptcy filing. He pointed to an earlier precedent from the 1979 bailout of Chrysler, when Congress held public hearings on the company’s restructuring.
“Congress … completely abdicated its role to the White House, then allocated the role to a secret task force run by Wall Streeters,” Nader said.
The government has made it clear it wants to see a competitive GM emerge from a painful restructuring but President Barack Obama has also tried to quell fears that he wants a nationalized auto industry saying he has “no interest” in running GM will act as a reluctant shareholder.
Walking this line presents conflicts, Nader said, especially with numerous unanswered questions surrounding the government’s move to save GM.
“What if GM management continues to ship its production to China, which is the grand China strategy of GM from several years back,” Nader said. “Is Obama going to step aside?”
“There are all kinds of reasons why this should go back to Congress for thorough House and Senate hearings, if Congress wanted to adhere to its constitutional duties,” he added.
Nader is not a new critic of the auto industry. He gained his initial fame from a 1965 book “Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile,” which focused on GM’s Chevrolet Corvair model.
Of course it’s GM’s strategy is to move production to China. Unfortunately I cannot blame them and would too given how they are blackmailed in the US by the UAW. I am 100% for good paying American jobs, but I draw the line at UAW blackmail. The UAW has one goal and that is to extract as much money as possible from GM through ridiculous work rules, slow work and grievances. I did a contract programming job for GM on the weekend and while I was working, an UAW electrician was sleeping in the shop and an UAW porter was playing cards in the break room. Both had to be there for no other reason that UAW work rules designed to make their labor cost as much as possible. With the old GM, the company was a really not even run by it’s management or “shareholder” owners. It was run by the UAW for the UAW. The only difference with the new GM is that the government officially took ownership of GM’s assests (shareholders and bond holders) and gave it to the UAW.
GM was able to manage in the recent past because enough people wanted $50,000 Escalades, Pickups and Hummers. It will be interesting to see GM’s future where the market is for more practical cars with lower margins. And GM is not allowed to make business decisions that produce a profit.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Mr Nader must be mistaken. The President and Democratic-led Congress have pledged numerous times and in no uncertain terms that this would be the most transparent and open goverment evah! They wouldn’t lie about something like that, would they?
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0