This subject certainly is a sticky one. I too, hate the union bashing and I see it almost every day in the Indianapolis Star. People blame the unions for being crybabies and making too much money. Well, this is coming from someone who is laid off from a UAW assembly line. And in July the plant will go ahead and close, leaving my husband out of work, also. In 10 years there, I had to have three shoulder surgeries due to the repetitive, overhead work. My shoulders will never be the same. We made 27 dollars an hour and the toyota plant down the road that is non-union makes about the same. The fantastic insurance everybody thinks we have cost me 65 dollars every time I went to the docs office. That was our union-negotiated benefits...65 dollar co-pay for every visit. This is the truth...I used to get refund checks from my doctor at the end of the year because the co-pay was more than the actual visit. For the work we have to do in there, the money is right.
As some of you know, I am also a photographer and able to fall back on that. I made some good money in the 10 years I worked in the factory. And I took the job for that reason alone, and the "benefits". But trust me, it's no picnic in there. Assembly work is the most mind-numbing hell you'll ever want to find yourself in. Do we need the auto industry? I think so, yes. And we need the union. But all that said, more bail-out money is a little over-the-top. Why? Where is it all going? They've laid off so many now. And how much of the bail out money will be spent on their factories in Mexico, Guatemala, India, China? (my own job went to Mexico) As long as they're spending that much on a bail-out, shouldn't they pay them to bring all the jobs back HOME?
