Nolan Finley

Obama looks for union label

Workers in Barack Obama's new economic order fall into two categories -- those who are worthy of the president's energies, and those who aren't. You may be surprised to learn where you rank.

Obama doesn't weigh the value of workers based on their paychecks, what they do or whether they slip their feet into wingtips or steel-toed boots in the morning. His sole interest is in whether they have a union card in their wallet.

If they do, the president is in their corner, working hard to make sure they don't get the short end of any stick. But if they are among the 88 percent of American workers who don't belong to a union? Ask Delphi's salaried employees what Obama thinks of them.

As part of Delphi's restructuring in bankruptcy court, the Troy-based auto parts maker dumped its pension plan onto the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp.

That usually means a continued pension check, but one that is much smaller. And for Delphi's salaried workers, that's what they can expect.

Delphi's union-represented workers, however, will dodge that bullet. The Obama administration swooped in and, in an extraordinary deal, is forcing General Motors to make the 46,000 union workers and retirees whole. GM used to own Delphi, and relies on the supplier for much of its parts.

"The U.S. government is taking care of a select group of people and tossing the rest of us under the bus," Peter Beiter, a retired financial manager for a Delphi plant in Rochester, N.Y., told the New York Times.

And it's doing so with the tax dollars of those like Beiter who aren't in the favored class of workers. GM is operating with more than $50 billion in government bailout money.

That gives Obama the freedom to force GM to subsidize the pensions of union workers it has no legal obligation to, and who are employed by an entirely different company.

Perhaps the administration, in ignoring the nonunion Delphi employees, assumes they all are fat cats who can fund their own retirements.

But among those 21,000 salaried Delphi employees and retirees are clerks, secretaries and others who earn far less than the overtime-eligible blue collar workers.

It isn't about money, it's about membership. Obama protects union members with the fervor of a shop steward.

Obama forgot all about the GM and Chrysler salaried staffs during the automakers' White House-directed bankruptcies. They lost more of their benefits than did union workers.

The president also signed an order requiring all contractors on federal projects to either use union labor or pay union wages and make contributions to union pension funds that their workers don't benefit from.

The mandate could cut off 80 percent of the nation's private construction workforce from federal contracts.

Obama is sending a message to American workers -- if you want to join his new government-controlled economy, you'd better sign a union card.

If you don't, you can't expect him to get your back.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The News. Reach him at nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064. Read his blog at forums.detnews.com/blogs/, and watch him at 8:30 p.m. Fridays on "Am I Right?" on Detroit Public TV, Channel 56.