GOP is engaged in good, old fashioned union busting

UAW President Ron Gettlefinger responds to GOP sabotage of the auto bridge loan.

It appears that there are those on the Republican side, and we know who they are [...], that believe that workers are expendable, that wages mean nothing - and oh, by the way, they're gonna be getting a raise January 1st - but they use taxpayer dollars to subsidize our competition!

It's just easy to take the union and blame us for everything.

This is nothing but union busting. There is no amount of compromise from the Detroit automakers or from the UAW that would get Mitch McConnell or Richard Shelby to support a deal that would leave the union on anything but life support.

This is simply the latest expression of the shock doctrine - exploiting a crisis to realize a long-term ideological goal. The GOP sees in the pending collapse of the American automobile industry a chance to deal a fatal blow to a pillar of organized labor in this country. It is a goal so dear to them that it is worth putting literally millions of people out of work and sending the American economy spiralling into a depression.