In 2002, GM led its unions to believe that a US engagement on increasing fuel-economy would lead to unemployment. In February 2002, the UAW petitioned the US Senate to reject the bill to raise CAFE standards in order to mitigate global warming. This has been a short-term tactical error that has entrenched GM into the low fuel-economy segment of trucks and SUVs while fuel prices have risen and stayed at historical highs. Thus, union-led actions have worked to counter the global sustainability goal of curtailing green house gas emissions from the auto sector. In return for helping to quash fuel economy standards, GM announced
30,000 job cuts and will close 12 facilities in the next 3 years. The question for Democrats to consider, since many voted to help GM quash new CAFÉ standards, is why?
In fighting new fuel economy standards, GM broke the so-called 'Blue-Green" alliance that started up between labor and environmentalists during the Seattle WTO protests.
But ironically for the unions, the reason that GM is laying off workers is because Japanese car-maker sales are up and US sales are down as concerns over fuel efficiency become more important in auto sales. Toyota and Honda have focused on fuel efficiency and with record high gas prices turning consumers away from low-efficiency vehicles GM took a big financial hit. GM said U.S. sales overall sank 24% to 344,797 vehicles in September. Sales of light trucks, including pickups, sport-utility vehicles and vans fell 30% from the previous year, while car sales declined 14.5%. Ford, the No. 2 automaker in the U.S., said September sales overall sank 19%. Ford's sales of light trucks fell even more sharply, sinking 27%. Meanwhile, at Toyota, car sales jumped 22.2%, more than making up for a 3.9% decline in truck sales and Honda sales jumped 22.5%
The question is, what would have happened if GM had prepared for higher fuel economy standards? Would they be in as bad a position as they are today? Would the unions be losing jobs and members as non-union Japanese brands out-sell American ones on the basis of environmental credentials and fuel economy? Democrats in Congress voted out of fear that jobs would be lost if CAFÉ standards were raised. But if big three automakers had spent the past three years preparing for new efficiency standards they would have been in a much better competitive position today, we'd likely see far fewer jobs lost as a result.
The lack of a coherent strategy to combine environmental policy with economic growth presents an opportunity for Democrats. We've seen the results of NOT doing so.