The Obama Administration has threatened to veto the House of Representative’s “Cut, Cap and Balance” deficit reduction legislation; because it does not preserve what the President refers to as “investments that encourage economic growth”. A signature example of that Presidential encouragement has been prioritizing production of the Chevrolet Volt electric car in the government bankruptcy restructuring of General Motors. But after six months and a $700 million to build the cars; only 2,745 Volts have been sold at the $39,995 price tag and 508 unsold vehicles are languishing in dealer inventories. Deficit spending to finance losses of $255,009 per unit doesn’t sound like an investment that will encourage growth.

The Administration effectively fired the CEO; forced bondholders to take 75% loss; and “invested” $50 billion of tax payer money to gain 61% control of GM’s stock. Since the restructuring, the independent Government Accountability Office has issued reports that cast “substantial doubt” on the likelihood taxpayers will fully recoup their investment. More troubling is the Administration, at the behest of the UAW, forced GM to withdraw from their profitable NUMMI joint- venture with Toyota in California.

GM reported the NUMMI plant’s production in 2008 of 149,000 Toyota Corollas, 122,000 Toyota Tacomas, and 71,000 Pontiac Vibes 2008. According to Motor Trend Magazine, Toyota stated: “Our hope was for the 50/50 joint venture to continue,” and indicated willingness to move production of their wildly successful Prius Hybrid from Japan to NUMMI. But under pressure from the Administration, General Motors opted out of the 25-year-old California venture with Toyota and spent hundreds of millions building Volt manufacturing in UAW friendly Michigan.

NUMMI ceased operations on April 1, 2010. The closure left 4,700 employees jobless at the Freemont plant and affected another 25,000 supplier jobs around the state, according to a study commissioned by California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer.

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Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the United Auto Workers’ Bob King thinks he’s just the union boss to make a go of it. With negotiations about to start with the Big Three American auto companies (two of which are UAW-owned), King is ramping up his rhetoric against the CEO of the only automaker that taxpayers did not bailout (Ford’s Mulally), while plotting his strategy for negotiations.

Meanwhile, claiming that he’s fighting for “social justice” and the entire American middle class (as opposed to just trying to save his otherwise failing union), sounding a lot like he is using the model being used to overthrow governments in the middle east, the UAW’s top boss is recruiting global activists to attack UAW-free foreign automakers.

If action is necessary, “we have a new strategy to organize them,” Williams said, which involves mobilizing members, retirees and allies “to expose violations of human rights.”

The efforts fall under the umbrella of the newly created Global Organizing Institute that is training the activists.

“It has the potential to be the largest, sustained consumer action by organized labor,” Williams said. “We have the resources and the people to be successful in this mission.”

In the United States, the Institute has put coordinators in each state to oversee recruits from university campuses and social organizations. An initial group of activists also has been recruited abroad in countries including China, India, Brazil, Japan and South Korea.

This coordinated effort will allow simultaneous protests at a company’s dealerships around the world to press for auto plant union organization in the U.S.

A second wave of eight interns from other countries is wrapping up a visit to the United States, where they interviewed workers at nonunion auto plants in Mississippi and Alabama.

When the UAW picks a company, these young international leaders say they will take action against the target, knowing they have UAW support.

In addition, alliances have been formed with unions in Germany, Japan and South Korea.

Of course, to King and his clan of foreign crusaders, a violator of “human rights” would be any foreign auto company that does not succumb to King’s extortionate version of a “fair election.”

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As a gloomy, snowy February came to a close in the nation’s capital, so did the most recent circus attraction on Capitol Hill.  Several days of congressional hearings on the Toyota recalls didn’t exactly deliver many more facts for Americans but they did leave behind a plethora of speculation and opinion to feast upon.  While the saga now known as GasPedalGate flailed around quietly for several years, it’s suddenly taken center stage and today plays out like a bad made-for-TV-movie, complete with its villain, its victims, and most telling, a very long list of opportunists.

To see the full picture, the story begins in California with the history of General Motors and the United Auto Workers in the 1980’s, and GM’s rescue by Toyota through a little venture called NUMMI.  Today, in 2010, the NUMMI chapter nears its close.  But before it does, the Fremont, California plant and its rank and file workers will serve as unwilling pawns in what could turn out to be an orchestrated blueprint for incapacitating the strongest competitor to Government Motors and one of the most significant threats to labor unions here and around the globe.

Today’s rendition has been so manipulated and so propagandized, the facts have all but been removed from the storyline.  The bread crumb trail of truth has been trampled upon and so broadly scattered about, the trail is almost beyond the point of recognition.

The story that emerges is the collusion of forces in Big Labor, Big Government, Big Journalism, Big Litigators and Big Progressive Philanthropy.  And no, I’m not talking Breitbart sites.

The History of NUMMI

When a bankrupt and bailed out General Motors officially announced in June 2009 that it would be pulling out of its joint venture with Toyota, it marked the end of another era.

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It’s time for your weekly dose of markets and politics with Coffee and Markets, featuring The New Ledger’s Francis Cianfrocca, a podcast brought to you by the fine folks at Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com and LibertyPundits.com, your new home for conservative podcasts. In this week’s edition, we’re recording on-site from the president’s Blair House summit by the White House, and we’re talking about the bond market, the targeting of Toyota, and the future of health care reform (note: the quality on this one is a bit below our normal episodes, since we had to record remotely).

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Related Links:

TNL: The White House vs. Toyota?
Daily Caller: Summit of Broken Promises
Health Care News: Obamacare’s Last Stand
Gergen: Best Day in Years for GOP
Protein Wisdom: Full Speed off the Cliff
TNL: Paul Ryan’s Moment

United Auto Workers (UAW) union rank and file members shout down their own UAW leadership in a heated meeting on January 24th, as their UAW leader loses it at the podium.  Sunday’s meeting in California made last summer’s Town Halls look like a family picnic, after a few choice words from their UAW leader spurred the crowd of rank and file members to erupt in screaming and chaos.  At one point,  another attendee tries to reason with the crowd, pleading “we have women and children in here that are scared.”

WARNING: Strong language, angry-town-hall-mob-like-behavior

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