Web Letters: The Case for Kenosha

This article's viewpoint is rather limited. Why doesn't the author use actual wage/benefit facts about the UAW to see how they compare to the rest of the private workforce?

In my company the load of white-collar workers is about 20 percent (including most of management). The load of our union employees is 50 percent, which means that our union employees' benefits are more than double the costs of management benefits.

The current Western economic system rewards a few categories very well: the political and economic elites, the public service system and most (not all) private unions.

I understand the confusion. Many of my friends who have minimal benefits and are poorly paid as artists, activists or working in nonprofits still somehow believe that they share the same economic interests as unions.

The UAW and Automakers are both as unconscious and irresponsible as the other. They just do it in a different way and then get to point the finger at each other.

Chris Jones

Los Angeles, CA

Thanks, John, for putting into print the wonderful spirit of my town, the workers and retirees who, like my husband, have kept the auto industry alive all these years.

Once again, you have captured the real impact of policy on the workers and families, the town, the area, the nation.

Ginger Helgeson

Kenosha, WI

The worst part is that since the 1980s the US tax code has allowed US domestic corporations to declare all of their offshore employees as US workers simply because the main corporate office is located in the US. It also defines all companies whose main corporate offices are not on US shores as foreign companies and the US workers who work for them as foreign workers, which is why all those former Detroit workers who are now working in Tennessee or Arkansas for VW, Toyota, Mazda, etc., are no longer counted or discussed as American workers. Weird, isn't it: the same American workers who can't make a good American car are the same American workers who can make a great foreign car only on the basis of whom they work for and where they work. And by the way, this holds for people who work for Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, Philips, and other "non-American" companies employed here on American soil as well.

So, technically and legally, and sadly, Chrysler closing the Kenosha plant will not really result in US workers losing any jobs, for if the number of workers that Chrysler hires in Mexico equals the amount of workers fired in Kenosha, there will be no "net loss of US jobs" to discuss, and, for the government, all the noise about the workers in Kenosha can remain irrelevant.

One of the first, great, examples of this "newspeak" was right after the laws changed, when Ford started closing their Michigan plants and opening Mexican ones. One announcement discussed releasing "1,000" US workers, but then they hired "992" workers for their new Mexican plant (don't remember the exact numbers), allowing Ford, and the Reagan administration, to announce that the move resulted in only "a net loss of only 8 US workers." Today we are seeing similar announcements from HP, Dell, Microsoft, GM, Ford, Microsoft, etc. (yes Mildred, all those HP workers working for HP in India are considered US workers!).

So, if the public wants American jobs to remain in America, then the tax codes need to be changed back to define American workers as any worker who work for any business here in the states, and any worker working elsewhere as a foreign worker. The costs and profits associated with using these foreign workers should be non-deductible and taxed accordingly.

Paul Colvin

Chicago, IL

Bravo, Mr Nichols! Thank you for bringing to light the end results of "free global trade," or call it NAFTA or CAFTA--whatever it is, it is killing our middle class.

Our Chrysler workers have been good stewards of their community pumping, $250,000 a year into our local non-profit agencies. Those Chrysler support companies have done the same as well. With double-digit unemployment in the city, we do not look forward to more unemployment or the loss of UAW-Local 72's past generous charity to our non-profit agancies, especially now.

Our tax system is based on GNP, but our country , state, county are producing less and less. Either close those offshore gaps or restructure the tax system (oh, that should be a breeze).

We are hopeful that ongoing negotiations will be fruitful, but we are not betting the farm on it. A whole lot of praying and letter-writing happening in Kenosha these days.

Sincerest respect,
Kenosha County Supervisor Kenosha County Supervisor Jenn Jackson

Jennifer jackson

Pleasant Prairie (Kenosha), WI

And I just heard on NPR that GM wants to move to China to build smaller cars. We seem to have gone from insanity to sheer madness.

James L. Pinette

Caribou, ME