Buzz, Lightyear's Behind!

Poor Buzz, he blames everything, but the union for the auto industry troubles. Face the facts Buzz, $50 per hour jobs for making car parts isn't cutting it anymore. Buzz isn't going to lose his job, but less senior members are, it's happening right now. Maybe Buzz should ask his worker's whether they would prefer; the company they work for to go bankrupt, or to work for $25 an hour instead.

Buzz finally got his "audience" with the PM today.

Mr. Hargrove has been seeking a meeting with Mr. Harper since the Conservatives were elected two years ago. The crisis afflicting segments of the auto and auto parts industry has deepened since then with the meteoric rise in value of the Canadian dollar.

“Just getting the meeting, I feel like a winner, after two years,” Mr. Hargrove said.

But he outlined a litany of problems facing the industry, including the number of imports from Asia and Europe that far exceed the number of vehicles shipped there from Canada.

The union wants Mr. Harper to make a public statement saying Canada will no longer allow such imports to enter North America unless Japan and South Korea in particular open their markets to North American vehicles.

In that same article, it states that GM lost $38.7-billion (U.S.), so Buzz, what are you going to do to help your union workers? Is it better that they have no jobs, or that 50% of your workers have $50/hour jobs? This is typical union mentality at work.

Unions in the 70's were demanding COLA's (cost of living allowances) because inflation was in the double digits. They got those COLA's, but they also got massive layoffs. The problem was that the price of oil was increasing because OPEC was restricting supply, and Japan had just entered the North American market with small gas efficient cars, while America was still producing gas guzzling cars.

Staglation was born (high unemployment, high inflation).

Buzz, do you see any parallels here? Oil prices are breaking records, China/India/Korea are building cheaper/more fuel efficient vehicles, using cheaper labour. Inflation is headed upwards (Alberta), so is unemployment in the manufacturing sector (Ontario). Why should only the auto sector get help, and if they are losing billions of dollars, should we throw good taxpayer's dollars after bad union agreements? If you are not willing to compromise, why should taxpayer's have to?

Who can bring Canadians through this better? An economist, or a sociologist?

You a betting man Buzz? Cause my money is on PM Harper.