Ron Gettelfinger’s Innocence

It is nice to see that Ron Gettelfinger has survived our current domestic automobile catastrophe with a clear conscience, stout heart, and a bullet proof self esteem with nary a chink in the armor. He was right and the results prove it. Just ask him.

Gettelfinger now sits atop a union with a fraction of the number of members it once had, clinging to the sphincter of a largely failed American industry like a tick on the backside of an anemic dog. Detroit, Flint, Lansing, and Saginaw, once bastions thick with his unionized followers, are now but shadows of themselves. Countless factories across our state, both union and non-union, urban and rural, sit shuttered or operating at a mere fraction of capacity. Michigan’s unemployment rate sits at a watermark neighboring 13 percent, perhaps six to eight points beneath the level where it will likely crest.

Ron Gettelfinger appears oblivious to his own role in the demise of the domestic automobile industry. Admittedly, Gettelfinger was not the first head of the UAW to blackmail once great companies, but he did nothing during his tenure to soften the eventual crash of Michigan’s economy. Gettelfinger may not like the fact that the industry crashed with him at the helm of its biggest adversary, but those are the breaks.

In an editorial today in the Detroit News, Gettelfinger touts his many accomplishments of late despite the "perilous times for America's auto industry."

The whole article is a writing exercise in willful ignorance and out of sympathy I will only quote one thing from it, for it makes obvious that consumers and taxpayers are still within the cross hairs of Gettelfinger`s socialist rifle.

Can Chrysler, Ford and GM succeed once the economy recovers and consumers start buying cars again?

Not if we settle for the status quo.

A long-term commitment to U.S. manufacturing requires action to address America's failed health care system, which adds cost to every vehicle made here. We must also address our unbalanced trade policies, which deliver hidden subsidies to every car or truck imported from overseas.

Changing these policies won't be easy, but nothing we've confronted in recent months has been easy.

Thank you Ron for your ceaseless dedication to the destruction of a state and an industry. Please forgive me for not wishing you luck in your next endeavor.