Linkmeister

United Steelworkers on bailouts

This seems accurate, even if it comes from an obviously biased source.

Congress drove the Big Three CEOs out of Washington, D.C. last week, ordering them not to return with their tin cups until they could guarantee their companies would be viable after a $25 billion bailout.

Just days later, Citigroup, a bank that had already received a $25 billion bailout in October, held its hands out for more. Within 48 hours, federal officials approved giving the bank another $20 billion and providing backing for $306 billion in its risky loans and securities. Even though Citigroup was failing just weeks after getting its first government bailout, Congress didn’t subject its CEO to the public lecturing and demands for business plans that it did the Big Three.

The message here could not be more clear: Washington will bailout out those who shower before work but not those who shower afterwards. (My emphasis)

That was Leo Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers, writing on the union's blog yesterday.

Gerard makes a lot of points, some of which I've been trying to make when writing about the car companies.

1. Republican Senators have an obvious union-busting agenda in their opposition to helping the Big Three.
2. The Congress, including Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, to their detriment, demands a recovery plan from GM, Ford and Chrysler, while asking for no such plan from Citigroup or the other banks that have gotten bailout funds.
3. In hearings, blame and shame was heaped on the auto companies' CEOs for their mode of travel (those corporate jets). Neither Gerard nor I heard anything about bank CEOs arriving in Washington via train or automobile.

I need to go shower now.

Posted by Linkmeister at November 26, 2008 09:07 AM | TrackBack