The Department of Defense is currently considering whether it has the power to break a strike at tire plants, according to The Nation. The tire plant, Goodyear Tire & Rubber plant in Kansas, is part of a strike involving 17,000 members of the United Steelworkers union which has crippled 16 Goodyear plants in both the US and Canada since October 5. Because they supply the military, the US Army is considering forcing workers to return to work.
In 1952, when a similar situation arose, Harry Truman was asked by a reporter: “Mr. President, if you can seize the steel mills under your inherent powers, can you, in your opinion, also seize the newspapers and, or, the radio stations?” Truman replied that “Under similar circumstances, the President of the United States has to act for whatever is for the best of the country. That’s the answer to your question.”
In reality, the Constitution gives the Executive Branch no such power, so we can be absolutely sure that it won’t happen.
Technorati Tags: Politics, Current Events, Bush, Current Affairs, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Executive Power, Free Speech, Protest, Strike, Goodyear, Department of Defense, Kansas
25 December 2006 at 5:56 pm
If Goodyear makes tires for US vehicles in Iraq, maybe it would be justified. Michelin tires are better.
27 December 2006 at 8:16 am
I don’t know, I guess it’d work out to be similar to a draft debate in the end. I don’t think I believe that the US government should be able to justify certain things just because it’s wartime, and it’s not as though the workers are burning Humvees or anything that I’ve heard, they’re just not making tires for them.
As for Michelin tires being better, I don’t have a car and I have no idea who makes better tires, but maybe Michelin doesn’t make Humvee tires.
27 December 2006 at 7:01 pm
I agree. Bush seems to love making exceptions though. So does Goodyear actually make tires for the Humvees?
28 December 2006 at 6:18 am
I just checked and Goodyear makes Humvee tires, but it’s production has been cut in half due to the strike. And you were right about Michelin, it’s been suggested as an alternative to Goodyear (although I’ve apparently it’s a French company, so they’d have to be “Mission” tires instead of “Michelin” or something like that).