SEARCH
Democrats Send Auto Industry Loan Deal to White House |
|
Congressional Democrats have sent to the White House a proposed $15 billion emergency bridge loan for the nation’s Big Three automakers. The Bush administration is studying the plan, according to a Bush spokesperson. And workers say it cannot be approved soon enough.
Workers are demanding that Congress act quickly to save the domestic auto industry, which many call the backbone of our economy. If one of the Big Three were to shut down, the impact would send ripples throughout the economy, says Brian Schneck, president of UAW Local 259 in Hicksville, N.Y., which has 1,700 members and 3,000 retirees.
Says Schneck:
Congress is not just giving a bridge loan to the Big Three; it’s giving the middle class a bridge loan. We’re already in a recession, and if the [automakers] go under, we could lose 3.3 million good jobs, and that would put us in a depression. We all know what the end game would be if that happened. If Congress had the right trade policies and a health care policy that made sense and a tax policy that didn’t favor the companies over the workers, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
The members of Local 259 are auto technicians and parts and utility workers at car dealerships. Their jobs depend on a vibrant car industry, confident consumers and available credit, Schneck says, all of which are missing in this economic meltdown. The workers rallied today in New York City to make the point that the bridge loan would help not only the automakers but also millions of people who work in auto-related fields.
Another group that would suffer greatly if one of the Big Three shuts down is African Americans. A new report by Robert Scott, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), shows that African Americans hold a greater share of auto-related jobs (14.2 percent) than their percentage of the overall population (11.2 percent). The average wage African Americans are paid for those solid middle-class auto jobs—about $17 per hour—is much better than their average wage overall.
In the end, workers say, the issue is one of politics and what side your member of Congress is on. In recent letters sent to Sen. George Voinovich through the AFL-CIO online e-mail mobilization program, IUE-CWA staffer Peter Mitchell of Dayton and others tell the Ohio Republican:
An emergency bridge loan for our domestic automakers, enabling them to keep the production lines moving, is a necessary step to revitalize the U.S. auto industry, protect American jobs and begin rebuilding our economy. The U.S. auto industry built this country’s middle class, and to blame them now is ridiculous after Congress allowed those who build a house on sand in the financial markets and only enriched themselves to be bailed out without any strings attached.
6 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I just hope the bailout money is not going to be used to help out those American Factories and workers operationg in foriegn countries like Mexico. Its American taxpayer money and should stay here. If Mexico wants to bail out the American companies and workers in thier own country, so be it. As much as I can I buy American. As an example I will not buy at Wal-Mart because they sell mostly Chinese made products which doesnt help the American wroker and of course that money goes to china. The profits stay here but I dont see how that helps America and its finacial crises.
I truly hope the Auto Industry Loan Deal is enough to keep the Auto plants running. I work as a Forester for the City of Lansing’s Forestry, Parks & Recreation. Forestry plants, trims & removes the street trees throughout the 36 square mile area of Lansing. My staff are members of UAW Local 2256 and we all work hard. We want our fellow UAW workers and neighbors to continue working. We need the Auto Industry and allied suppliers to continue to earn money to spend and keep Lansing going. We all spoend money for lunch and but fuel and shop in the area.
I’m curious, why would any country allow other foreign countries to build factories on their own soil to their detriment. While they do provide jobs for Americans, the lion’s share of the profit is going back over seas. Its obvious by the staggering amount of bail out dollars, what the auto industries are worth. American business men are always bragging how smart they are. Boy! How dumb could you be? We need to stop this foreign take over now! If a person is bent on buying a Honda or Toyota- fine but let them be built in Japan and pay a foreign import tax. We’re doing the work and Japan is taking the profit and buying up our country with it. Could this disaster be reversed or would we have to ask permission from China first?
I called both my senators and left a message asking them to support the bailout. I agree that the companies need to retool, etc.
So do the banks and insurance companies who have been bailed out.
Who’s bailing-out GM in China. They’re one of the very biggest sellers of autos over there. What are they doing there, they’re not doing here? To follow is how I would have handled the immediate survival of the Big #3.
An incentive based solution
Why does it have to be bailout or bankruptcy? All or nothing at all. Why can’t there be an interim, incentive based alternative. Why not seed each of the “Big 3″ with a $1 billion loan to be used
for R&D to develop a device to be installed on cars that are currently on car lots all across the country that will immediately increase mileage 10 miles per gallon. If they produce this hi-tech
mileage extender in 1 year, the loan would be forgiven. Then pay those same car companies $500 per car for every car that’s retrofitted with their new device and $1000 for every hybrid or
alternative fuel car that rolls off the assembly-line. Then give consumers a $2000 Federal rebate to go out and buy a new car. That’ll get things going towards salvaging the US auto industry. Can’t create such a device? Well then, take the $3 billion, challenge the hi-tech universities around country to produce such a device, my bet is they’d have multiple prototypes ready to go in a month.
I just called my Senators’ offices and asked them to support a bridge loan to the auto companies. I also asked them to make sure that the terms protect the taxpayers, and require funds to be spent on US factories, not factories in other countries. I have nothing against workers in other countries, but the highest priority jobs to protect with our tax money are those in the US.