UAW's King Exposes Fall Strategy at #DNC2012: Instill FEAR if GOP wins, HOPE if Dems win

Among those few union bosses showing up for the Democrats’ national convention in Charlotte is the United Auto Workers’ Bob King.

The Bogeyman Cometh. Speaking to Michigan delegates on Tuesday, according to a report in the Detroit News [emphasis added], King outlined a union strategy of both fear and hope going into November’s elections.

“We have to have people have the right amount of fear in terms of if (Republicans) win what they will do,” King said. “But I also want us to go more with hope. We all supported President Obama in ’08 because we did have hope.”

Apparently, it’s hard to sell ‘change’ twice so, explaining his (and Democrats’) fear strategy, King told delegates that Republicans want to end the world…or something like that:

“If you read the Republican platform, they want to destroy unions,” said King, who will address convention delegates Wednesday night to talk about the $85 billion federal auto bailout. “The baby step in the platform in my mind is passing a national right to work law. They want to do much more than that — they want to take away the rights of workers to really bargain.”

To energize his state’s delegates and instill hope for the future, King went on to state:

“A lot of things the Republicans blocked in the first four years, we’re going to do in the second four years,” King said.

He said Democrats have a big agenda for a second Obama term.

“We’re going to pass national single payer health care,” King said. “We’re going to pass infrastructure bills. We’re going to make education a priority in America again.”

While King outlined his union (and the Democrats’) strategy for the Fall, his union continues to fall into the abyss of irrelevancy.

Down from over 1.5 million members in the 1970s to only 381,719 in 2011, King and his UAW cohorts have overseen the demise of the domestic auto industry–only to be bailed out by U.S. taxpayers.

In addition, despite threats to unionize foreign-owned auto manufacturers in the U.S., King has yet to produce any results.

Moreover, according to a 2011 Reuters report, the UAW’s financial future is so grim that, without some success somewhere, the UAW itself may cease to exist.

The UAW needs Democrats to win. This explains why Bob King, like his ally in the White House, has chosen to deploy a campaign of fear and hopeful promises.

Related:

___________________

“Truth isn’t mean. It’s truth.”
Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

Cross-posted at LaborUnionReport.com

Get LUR tweets on Twitter