Happy fucking Labor Day

It's Labor Day! Time to roll out the "unions are ruining America" meme!

The companies, hit hard by the slump in sales of trucks and sport-utility vehicles, collectively lost $16 billion last year, and each is undergoing restructuring that includes eliminating tens of thousands of jobs and closing dozens of plants. Auto executives have repeatedly said they must find ways to lower the cost of unionized labor in North America to return to profitability.

This isn't to say that the UAW doesn't have problems. Their bargaining model is highly centralized and far-removed from the organizing model which involves the rank-and-file, and they remain wedded to a model of industrial organization that's no longer relevant with the advent of post-Fordist production, putting brakes on the ability to rapidly change production techniques to meet changing demand.

But to put the responsibility for the lack of profitability on those who are trying to maintain a middle-class life that so many fought for over the last century? Not blaming the overpaid suits who manufactured demand for grotesquely oversized gas guzzlers, and continued to bank on them when the writing was on the wall with regards to higher oil prices? C'mon!

But I know, it's Labor Day. Blame the worker.