Is It Scabbing To Attend The Auto Show?
Happy Monday, everyone! One thing I didn’t do this weekend (or week) was attend NAIAS, the auto show. To the uninitiated, NAIAS had a decades-long reign in January before being moved, with little fanfare, to mid-September, smack dab in the middle of another month of busy and exciting things in Detroit Design Month. I used to go fairly religiously and I could usually get preview tickets either as media or with some corporate connection (they didn’t respond when I asked htem about media passes this year). This year, the event magically coincided with the declaration of an unprecedented strike by the United Auto Workers, who are seeking raises, job protections, an end to the “tiered” wage structure, and, interestingly, terms that would pay workers when the company spends money on stock buybacks.
Twitter was divided when asked about whether attending NAIS makes you a scab– an even 50-50- and the UAW rally on Jefferson on Friday wasn’t exactly obstructing entry to nearby Huntington Place (née Cobo). One former president railed against how the UAW was going to get screwed by the strike and have all of their jobs shipped to Mexico, but actually it’s the fault of the electric cars, while the president before him pointed out somewhat more eloquently that his administration had presided over a bailout of the auto industry which necessitated cuts for the workers, so maybe it’s time for these companies enjoying record profits to pony up. Meanwhile, Chris Freiman, a professor at a red state university that just eliminated liberal arts education, wants to tell you all that the term “scab” is “patently dehumanizing.” For our next article, Chris, we’ll refer to “scxbs” or “strxkxbrxxkxrs.” Is it a more politically correct reality when workers can’t afford to live?
