UAW pulls an AIG with its posh golf course

Not to be outdone by bailed-out Wall Street fatcats, the UAW continues to operate a posh golf course and center that has lost mega millions in dollars in union member dues.

The story only reaffirms the outrage among most Americans who demanded that the Big 3 automakers not be bailed out without major concessions from union employees. The Bush administration caved in, however.

The investment house AIG outraged Americans when it continued to grant luxury retreats to sales people as rewards and incentives despite being bailed out by taxpayers. That was another Bush administration cave in to Wall Street and Congressional Democrats.

Here is how FOXNEWS reports it:

The United Auto Workers may be out of the hole now that President Bush has approved a $17 billion bailout of the U.S. auto industry, but the union isn't out of the bunker just yet.

Even as the industry struggles with massive losses, the UAW brass continue to own and operate a $33 million lakeside retreat in Michigan, complete with a $6.4 million designer golf course. And it's costing them millions each year.

The UAW, known more for its strikes than its slices, hosts seminars and junkets at the Walter and May Reuther Family Education Center in Onaway, Mich., which is nestled on "1,000 heavily forested acres" on Michigan's Black Lake, according to its Web site.

But the Black Lake club and retreat, which are among the union's biggest fixed assets, have lost $23 million in the past five years alone, a heavy albatross around the union's neck as it tries to manage a multibillion-dollar pension plan crisis.