Tag: boycott

The alleged unwillingness of banking giant JPMorgan Chase to renegotiate the terms on conversion vans full of cash owed by Michigan based auto giant Chrysler LLC was going to throw a monkey in the wrench of a potential merger with Fiat Group SpA, they told us.  Hundreds of thousands of Michigan jobs were at risk.

The only thing to do, obviously, was cut up your Chase credit cards, close out your checking accounts and hide the cash under your mattress.  

They filmed themselves taking scissors to their plastic.  

They blogged about it.

They circulated petitions.

They launched a Facebook group.

They even brought in other cogs of the Soros / Stryker money machine to help spread the word.  According to Progress Michigan:

"By refusing to help Chrysler negotiate on its debt, JP Morgan Chase is all but assuring thousands of hardworking Michigan families that joblessness is an inevitability, said Leigh Fifelski of Progress Michigan...

If Chrysler is forced into bankruptcy, as many as 300,000 auto workers stand to lose their jobs and their health insurance coverage. Chrysler retirees, too, could suffer a significant setback, as pension benefits and ongoing health insurance plans could be liquidated. This threat is especially significant for Michigan auto workers, as Chrysler and the rest of the Big Three auto makers comprise a large backbone of the state's consumer economy.

Ms. Fifelski is right about one thing... a Chrysler bankruptcy could kill 300,000 Michigan jobs.  And she and the rest of the regressisphere is right, in principle, about something else... Fiat is threatening to walk away from a job saving Chrysler merger.

One little issue, though.  It's the lack of a willing negotiating partner in UAW, not Chase, that could scuttle the deal.

The Detroit News reported yesterday:

Fiat Group SpA CEO Sergio Marchionne is ready to walk away from a proposed alliance with beleaguered Chrysler LLC if the U.S. automaker's unions do not agree to concessions that would put their pay on the same scale as workers at North American plants owned by foreign car companies...

"Absolutely we are prepared to walk," he was quoted as saying by the Toronto newspaper. "There is no doubt in my mind. We cannot commit to this organization unless we see light at the end of the tunnel."

Ron Gettelfinger and Big Labor leadership continue to take a hard line on negotiations and all-in labor costs at the Big 3 remain, by most estimates, nearly double those of automobile manufacturing employees in Right to Work states.  Not other countries.  Other STATES.  That's between $20 and $30 an hour more, for every employee just to operate here in Michigan.

If Gettelfinger and his team continue to stonewall in defense of programs like the "jobs bank," Fiat appears poised to walk away from the deal, killing 300,000 Michigan jobs.  Union jobs.  

What says the regressisphere?

Well yesterday they said nothing.  But I understand, conceptually, how group-think works.  They need to wait for their marching orders out of C4P, the Open Society Institute, MDP and the DNC.  It can take some time for orders to filter down to all of the troops.  I get it.

So I checked again this morning... still crickets chirping.  Crickets chirping and a lot of very crude sexual humor.  (Because nothing says "my ideas are better than yours" than scatological snickering.  Welcome back to the sixth grade.)

How about it, regressives?  When a bank was going to stop a merger because it wouldn't negotiate you threw a fit conniption and cut up your credit cards. No one now willing to call out Gettelfinger and Big Labor leadership?  No one willing to cut up your UAW membership card?

We're talking about the EXACT same principle.  The EXACT same problem.  The EXACT same terrifying reality threatening to ninja kick this State in her collective face.

Nothing?  Really?  So much for principle and integrity.  

Hypocrisy thy name is regressisphere.

Apparently the King of Shrill, Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer wasn't as big a fan of the new ads.  In fact, quite to the contrary, Brewer just issued a press release attacking both Brandon, Domino's and each of her thousands of Michigan employees because the CEO dares to be a political conservative... in his free time.

Brewer doesn't just put politics over Michigan jobs and families, he goes as far as suggesting consumers should boycott the Michigan based pizza chain.  Because their CEO is a Republican.  

Should conservatives boycott the Big 3 because their union employees overwhelmingly support Democrats?  Heavens no.  This is Michigan.  We're all in this together.  Or we should be... Brewer... he disagrees.

But the next time the Democrats' top dog wants to run off at the mouth, trying to put a Michigan company out of business he should consider the facts:

Domino's employs almost 500 Michigan moms and dads at their Ann Arbor office alone.

They have over 30,000 people on the corporate payroll nationwide.

Michigan is home to 73 individual Domino's locations, each owned and operated by independent entrepreneurs with each employing anywhere from twelve to twenty people.

That's 1,400 more Michigan jobs.

With over 4,500 franchise-owned stores across the country, Domino's employs about 100,000 Americans.

And those are just the direct jobs.  Consider the "spin-off" jobs the company creates.  Farms (think millions of pounds of meat, cheese and vegetables), truckers, equipment manufacturers (coolers, ovens, computers, software, uniforms etc.), marketing agencies, box makers, etc etc etc etc.  You get the idea.

Then there's that whole "good citizen" thing, too.  Just this week this Michigan company gave away nearly 4,000 slices of pizza (500 total pies) to Michiganders waiting in line for tickets to Jay Leno's "comedy stimulus show."

Do those sound like the actions of a CEO and a company that "contribute" to the economic crisis?  Or a CEO and a company who've helped?
Oh, and Mark?  If you want to make a noun plural you simply add an "s."  An apostrophe followed by an "s" is used to make a noun possessive.  I know I've never written this blog in strict AP format but I do my best to follow the fundamental rules of grammar.  Would suggest you do the same.

Brewer's jaw-droppingly offensive (and grammatically painful) release:

Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer today criticized Domino's CEO David Brandon's hypocrisy for the company's "Bailout" TV ads unveiled Tuesday evening.

"CEO Brandon apparently thinks the country's current economic crisis is funny and just another opportunity to sell pizza's," said Brewer. "In fact, these ads are the height of hypocrisy because Brandon and Domino's have long supported the policies and elected officials which allowed the reckless and greedy abuses by Wall Street CEO's, banks and insurance companies which created the current economic crisis."

"Despite what CEO Brandon says in the ad about not helping Wall Street fat cats, over the years Brandon and the Domino's PAC have contributed to many elected officials who have helped those fat cats - House Minority Leader John Boehner, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning, George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, Trent Lott and Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, among others," continued Brewer. "TV viewers and Domino's purchasers should know that purchasing from Domino's enables CEO Brandon to continue to support elected officials like these who helped bring on the current economic crisis."