Nancy Pelosi's Jobs Plan: Shut Down Non-Union Plants in Right to Work States (Except for GE's)

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi has weighed this week in on the ongoing dispute between Boeing and the National Labor Relations Board, stating that the aircraft manufacturer's South Carolina facility should shut down if it can't unionize [video at link- NANESB!].

Interestingly, Pelosi's comments come more than two years after workers at the Charleston, SC plant voted overwhelmingly to decertifty their union.

In a move that seemingly went under the radar back in May, General Electric [NYSE: GE] announced that they were constructing a new 500,000 square foot facility to build locomotives in right-to-work Fort Worth, TX- shifting production from closed-shop Erie, PA with no apparent objection from either Congresswoman Pelosi or the NLRB.

Other venues under consideration included Lynn, MA and Mexico. With rival Caterpillar's [NYSE: CAT] subsidiary Progress Rail opening up a new facility in Indiana, GE and Local 201 of the International Union of Electrical Workers were unable to come to any sort of agreement regarding wages.

While GE's Railway unit CEO Lorenzo Simonelli disclosed that a Mexican site had been under consideration by GE they ultimately chose the Ft. Worth site for largely political reasons.

The Fort Worth choice saves Immelt from the potential embarrassment of having the facility go south of the border while he serves as chairman of President Barack Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

The Obama Administration had previously lavished Immelt's General Electric with millions in stimulus money and 'green energy' grants while the conglomerate continued to outsource jobs overseas. Prior to January of this year, GE was also the parent company of NBC/Universal entertainment, whose networks frequently act as the Obama Administration (or Obama campaign's) unofficial mouthpiece. Earlier this year, Comcast [NASDAQ: CMCSA] gained a majority control of the NBC networks.

Since the May announcement about the Texas locomotive facility, General Electric has announced they are breaking ground on two more projects in right-to-work states.

Last month, the conglomerate announced that they will be building a $95 million 236,000 square foot facility that will make components for mining equipment- also in Ft Worth, TX.

Meanwhile, in Auburn, AL, GE is breaking ground on a new jet engine component factory this month. Like the two facilities in Fort Worth, the NLRB apparently sees no problem with Immelt's GE setting up shop in right-to-work states as they've remained conspicuously silent on the matter.

[Hat tip: Director Blue, Lonely Conservative, Eat it or Wear It]

'Cash For Clunkers' Costlier Than Advertised- Edmonds.com; Also, NANESB! Digs up the Railway Equivalent for $$ for Clunkers

The publishers of the Blue Book guide to used-car prices determined that the earlier Cash for Clunkers program actually cost the American taxpayer approximately $24,000 per new car sold during that time frame. According to the Edmunds.com study, out of the estimated 690,000 cars that were sold while Cash for Clunkers was in effect all but 125,000 of them went to people who were had decided to purchase a new car anyway.

[Edmunds] crunched the numbers. A valid way to evaluate the program economically, it says, is to look at how many people purchased cars that otherwise wouldn’t have been bought. The firm says that number is about 125,000 cars. By that measure, the government spent $24,000 to generate each sale of a new car.

For comparison, the average price for a new vehicle in August 2009 was $26,915, minus an average cash rebate of $1,667.

In all, the government spent $3 billion on a program that provided cash toward 690,000 car purchases – about $4,348 per car. That makes 565,000 people who got as much as $4,500 to buy a car they would have bought anyway, according to the Edmunds analysis.

While the White House took exception to the Edmunds.com claim, the Obama Administration's 'New Media' Chief Macon Phillips decided to quietly take the high road.

/Just kidding!

“In other words,” writes Macon Phillips, the White House’s “new media” chief, “all the other cars were being sold on Mars while the rest of the country was caught up in the excitement of the Cash for Clunkers program. The CEA’s analysis is transparent and comprehensive … Edmunds.com, on the other hand, is promoting a bombastic press release without any public access to their underlying analysis. So put on your space suit and compare the two approaches yourself.”


You'll also be pleased to know that the rail industry has what could be considered a long-running predecesor to Cash for Clunkers for the past few years. Straight from National Railway Equipment's website is this PDF file explaining that the purchase of some of the Genset locomotives manufactured by companies like NRE or Railpower International are eligible for state, local and federal subsidies of up to 80%. When these gensets were first introduced, I assumed that Class I Railways like BNSF or Union Pacific were interested in them because they were effective. Instead, it's because of an artificial demand created by a patchwork of emissons laws across various states, matching funds and various subsidies that have the railroad paying only 20% of the purchase price. If I'm not mistaken, I believe for every Genset a railroad purchases, an older locomotive has to be stricken from the roster to qualify. However, unlike this years' Cash for Clunkers, there is no provision for scrapping the retired locomotive and in a few cases, the recently retired locomotives are sold off to a leasing company and promptly leased back by the same railroad.

Today's Train of Thought

One of the first questions for some of the visitors to the newly-formed Not Another New England Sports Blog! was 'Where are the trains?'

Ah yes- those who know me well enough know that I hardly miss an opportunity to bring up railroads and locomotives in everyday conversation; of course, that's when I'm not gratuitously bringing up the Sox, Pats B's or C's in daily conversation.

So I bring you today's Train of Thought- an SD45 helper set for Montana Rail Link heading down Bozeman Pass.

-Today's image comes courtesey of Stefan Loeb and railpictures.net