I would wager that if you asked any unsuspecting American who the owner of Chrysler is they would either reply with Fiat or say they had no idea. I myself was a victim of such a lack of knowledge. After all, I read the headlines and Fiat was clearly out front. Until recently, I had no idea of just how large a role that the UAW played in leadership at Chrysler.
Upon further research, I discovered that Fiat was an owner, but a small one at best. Fiat currently controls 20 percent of Chrysler. But if you were to read the headlines, such as this one from ABC last June “Italy’s Fiat Now Owns Most of Chrysler’s Assets”, you would assume they were the ones in charge at the Detroit based automaker.
But a little reported fact is that the United Auto Workers Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association owns 67.69 percent of Chrysler. The UAW VEBA was created as a way for the UAW to fund their members’ health care benefits. What better way to fund them than to own a failed car company. This little known fact seems to have been reported on in only a few outlets.
Surprisingly, you would never know that Chrysler is run by Big Labor. For instance, check out this advertisement from Jeep, a prominent brand of Chrysler’s, proudly declaring that the entire vehicle is American.
While the labor unions have long championed the “Buy American” slogan, which is seriously flawed but has become popular amongst those with little understanding of basic economics, the proper slogan would rather be to “Buy Union”.
Aside from the fact that the UAW’s pension fund is underfunded to the tune of $17 billion, they now seek to gain their money through the companies that they destroyed. Not only does the UAW own Chrysler, but they also own 17.5 percent of General Motors — the second largest owner aside from the U.S. Government.
The takeover of the companies that they operate inside of has long been a goal of organized labor unions. Their success was finally realized in mid-2009. But the road to such a takeover was long in the making.
With the U.S. Department of the Treasury controlling a 61 percent stake at General Motors, which they have promised to relinquish as the company returns to profitability, one wonders if the UAW VEBA, which currently has the second largest stake, will simply buy the government’s controlling share out. This is not outside of the realm of possibility. They have already taken Chrysler, why stop there?
The labor unions in America have been on a long journey of destroying American industries, hoping to run them themselves. Next time you see that patriotic Jeep commercial just remember that they don’t mean what they say. The UAW, which owns Chrysler, would support legislation in a heartbeat that would fleece the taxpayer to bailout their failed pension programs. And those pensions are failing because the labor unions blew the money on buying dinosaur car companies.
Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com.
