Just wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. In the background at this moment are the strains of James Galway’s rendition of “Silent Night” — as perfect a song as has ever been written. We just wanted to remind you all, weary from the crush of shopping, wrapping, card-sending and well-wishing why we began down this path. Recall that it began in a manger in Bethlehem a little over 2000 years ago. We hope you’ll take time to remember at this most holy season.

As this is the official end of Thank a Soldier Week, we hope you’ll also remember our military families deployed all over the world — some in harm’s way, some not, but all are away from home. Do drop them a note and thank them for their sacrifice. Remember to thank them all year long.

And finally, we also hope you’ll remember the great contribution of manufacturers to our Nation. We will take our day off from making stuff and start right back tomorrow. Do take a minute today to look around you at all the stuff we make and at the enormous prosperity manufacturing provides to this great country, and be thankful.

Merry Christmas.

Most regular blog readers saw the fruits of our labor over at Skunk Holler, the blogger-in-chief’s residence, after we put up our Christmas lights in this post. Well, we got tired of those, but we kept the music and put up some new lights. Click here to see ‘em. We think you’ll like these, too.

Enjoy!

OK, here it is, a Christmas present one day early. As promised, it’s a video of the making of a very important (and common) mode of transportation: cars. Thanks to the good people at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, Kentucky for supplying the 5-minute narrated video of the manufacturing process. It goes from stamping through painting and powertrain through the end of the assembly process. At the end, you see the car being driven off the line. There’s also a video on their site which includes some of what you see in the manufacturing video as well as some history and other information about the Georgetown plant.

A little known fact: the blogger-in-chief actually made cars at one point in his career, way back when — after the invention of the internal combustion engine but when cars were actually painted by hand, and not dipped as they are today. It’s a fun and fascinating process to be a part of, and to watch.

We present it to you in the spirit of the season. We know it will be watched thousands and thousands of times, enjoyed by young and old alike. Sit back, watch a car being made and feel the manufacturing vibe.

Click here to see the video.

TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint yesterday announced the end of the transit strike and a return to the bargaining table. Workers are expected to return to the job tomorrow, though apparently not via public transit. Toussaint relented after being hit in the head by the anvil of public opinion and after having his demands subjected to a similarly unforgiving public glare. As one commenter said, “the union fired its biggest gun and it was a dud.” Well said.

So now what? They return to the table. Toussaint tries mightily to save face, for the moment claiming the pension issue as his life raft. If he can claim victory there — or anywhere — he may have his way out. Of course, it’s up to the MTA to help him find that way out, (WARNING: Shameless Plug Ahead) as readers of “The Negotiation Handbook” know. As with all labor disputes, the union claims victory and management remains silent. There’s a good reason for that, (It’s also in the book), and that’s this little thing called ratification. See, after the deal gets signed by the negotiators, it must go out to the rank and file for approval or ratification. If at the conclusion of negotiations, management comes out crowing about all the ways they won, you can kiss ratification goodbye, and it’s back to the bargaining table, with a steeper — and more expensive — hill to climb. It’s also not great from an employee relations standpoint for management to gloat about any gains made in the bargaining process. And so management will be silent, the union will declare victory. Hooray. Now can we get it ratified…?

However, there is a more fundamental problem for the union and for unions writ large: this strike once again raised all the issues visible in the comments posted on the related pieces below, most notably the level of their pay and debates over what the market will and should bear. The United Food and Commercial Workers strike at Giant Food in the Washington DC area a few years back called attention to checkers making in excess of $20/hour and not paying a cent for their health care — compensation (if not pay) far in excess of most if not all of their customers. The rest of the economy mostly functions in a world where pay is commensurate with skill. In manufacturing, high-paid unskilled jobs are in decline while high-skilled, high-pay jobs are in the ascension. There’s a direct correlation between education, skills and pay, but not so with the TWU. Up ’til this week, they were issues that remained largely, well, underground. But no more.

The damage to organized labor is that this strike will once again thrust that issue to the fore, will begin debates around Holiday dinner tables about fair rates of pay and the relative worth of various workers to society. By and large this is a good discussion to have, except if your Roger Toussaint and the TWU.

Since Christmas is drawing near, we thought we could sneak in a Christmas Bonus edition of “Friday Follies“. For those of you who are fans of the Holiday classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” (and who isn’t….?), but don’t have time to watch it this year, here’s is a truncated (30 seconds to be exact), and it’s told by animated bunnies. This is intended for the busy on-the-go blog readers out there.

Click here to enjoy a very short and unusual version of a true classic.

Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow in the midst of your last-minute shopping and wrapping to check out our video of Cool Stuff Being Made. It really is one of the best we ever have seen. You won’t be disappointed. It shows a certain (and very popular) mode of transportation being made. Can you guess what it might be? Round up the kids, grab a hot chocolate and check out the Saturday Video of the Week tomorrow. It’ll be up some time before 7:30 a.m. EST.

This came over the transom to us today from one of our manufacturing association allies. We pass it along to you as a public service for you to use this Holiday season so as not to offend anyone. We recommend you print it out, purdy it up a bit and just insert it with whatever cards you plan on sending this year. It’s a catch-all, generic, polenta-like Holiday (or non-Holiday) greeting. Use at will:

“Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes
for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress,
non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice
holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious
persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with
respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of
others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions
at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling
and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally
accepted calendar year 2006, but not without due respect for the
calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society
have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily
greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western
Hemisphere. And without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical
ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes. By
accepting these greetings you are accepting these terms. This greeting
is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable
with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by
the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself or
himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable
at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform
as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of
one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting,
whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this
wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.”

Today we celebrate a another milestone: our 1000th posting. Hooray for us!

Happy RamaHanuKwanzMas.

OK, let’s review the bidding as Day Three of the New York City transit strike begins:

– People on the street are still very angry at the union. From an AP story on the strike comes two quotes from New Yorkers at Penn Station. Says the first, “They’re too spoiled,” of the transit workers. “They want to retire at age 55. They’re making more money than a cop.” Says the second on having passed a group of pickets during her grueling carpool drive to work, “We were thinking about running them over.” Gotta love New Yorkers. Person-on-the-street interviews are rife with references to the fact that the striking workers earn more than teachers, firefighters and police officers. Without public support, the union is dead in the water, on the tracks, whatever euphemism suits.

– The strike is (still) illegal under the plain and clear provisions of the state’s Taylor Law. Looks like the union’s about to get hauled into court again today — before the same Judge that slapped them with the injunction — to account for themselves, where some of them might face jail time. No doubt the judge will be in a fine mood, facing the folks who have effectively thumbed their collective noses at him. They oughta sell tickets to that one — maybe the union could help pay for the fine that way.

– The union leader now says if the company takes the pension issue off the table the strike can end, or something like that. He’s sinking, and the pension issue is his life raft.

– Much has been said of the MTA’s current budget surplus, but it’s fair to ask: Over the last hundred years, at times when The MTA was awash in red ink, did the union give back wages and benefits or did they continue to get their 3% and 4% and 5% increases along with improvements to the pension? The latter would be a safe guess. So now that the MTA shows a surplus, the union wants a piece of it. In other words, what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is mine. If the union wants to change the compensation scheme, then they can go along for the financial ride with the company — share the spoils when times are fat and take the hit when times are lean. Don’t suppose they want to do that. They want the upside when times are good and , well , they want the upside when times are bad, too. Can’t have it both ways.

– The TWU’s parent union has washed its hands of Local 100 in a pretty extraordinary post on its home page, advising members, “to cease any and all strike or strike-related activities and to report to work at their regularly assigned work hours and work locations.”

Bottom line is that Day Three begins the way Day Two ended: Advantage Bloomberg.

We were certainly disappointed with the Senate vote yesterday on ANWR. Not sure how many of you suffered through the hours of debate and posturing — it was like torture to watch — but it was a little much. Opponents of drilling kept objecting to any change in the arcane rules of the Senate. At the end of the day, some 57 Senators voted right on the key vote that would have allowed ANWR exploration to move forward.

Think back to your civics course: Lessee, there are 100 Senators, right? Now think back to your arithmetic course: what’s half of 100? If you guessed a number near 50, you’re right. So you’d think that 57 Senators voting in favor would be enough to get it done, right? Not so. After all, this is the United States Senate. Precisely because of the arcane Senate rules, proponents needed 60 votes to get it done. The tyranny of the minority.

You might also recall that back in early November, there was another Senate vote on ANWR, where our side prevailed (again), that time with 52 votes. However, that bill failed to pass the House, so back we went to the Senate. Thanks to the enormous activism of manufacturers — through this blog and on their own, we boosted that total by 5.

The enviros are hanging on by a thread. We will win this vote in time. Maybe once people start shivering, start paying a fortune for their heating bills, the enviros’ opposition will be brushed aside and we will take another step toward increased domestic supplies of energy.

Click here to see how your Senators voted. Be sure to thank those who voted right and let those know who voted wrong that you don’t appreciate their lack of support for manufacturing. Here’s a link to our press release, expressing our disappointment and asking those who voted against for their solution to boosting domestic supply.

Thanks to all of you who weighed in. It will happen, all in good time. Stay tuned. This thing ain’t over.