on Jul 19th, 2007UAW Retiree Pension and Health Care Costs Blimp Out
The saga of U.S. car companies promising to pay union workers generous health and retirement packages is coming to a head. The car companies have known since they signed on the dotted line what their obligations were. That’s what’s called a CONTRACT. Two people agree to something in writing and then both have to live up to it. Leave it to the fiddlers, the money men who work the back room financial mechanisms of these companies, to dream up legal ways of getting out of their obligations. The fact that Congress looked the other way when it came to writing pension legislation that should have made these guys put aside enough to pay their obligations is criminal.
Did you notice how we used that word obligation a lot? Hamlet had a problem with words words words too…but he was fictional. The pension and health care contracts drawn up between the car companies and UAW workers are real. Once again: Election 2008 is around the corner. We suggest you start practicing how your going to pull that lever or lordy, push that electronic button, in the name of getting rid of beholden Senators and Congressmen. Make sure you wear your cowboy boots to the polls, too, you know, the ones with the pointy toes because there’s some serious butt that needs to be kicked!
Retirees’ Health Costs Loom Over U.A.W. Talks