UAW, DETROIT AUTOMAKERS GATHER SUPPORT FOR IMMEDIATE FINANCIAL AID

Friday, November 14, 2008

(PAI)

UAW, DETROIT AUTOMAKERS GATHER SUPPORT FOR IMMEDIATE FINANCIAL AID
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer

WASHINGTON (PAI)--Including a push from President-elect Barack Obama (D), the Auto Workers and Detroit’s auto makers are gathering political support for immediate financial aid from Washington.

In a round of meetings on Nov. 6, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and the presidents of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler made the case to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada). And Obama raised the issue in talking about the economy in his first meeting with current anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush, on Nov. 10.

The case for aid for the auto makers--and their workers--was bolstered by dismal reports of multimillion-dollar losses and slumping sales, especially at GM. That car maker, still the nation’s largest, was burning through cash so fast it might run out by next July. And the credit crunch, which prevents new car buyers from getting loans or dealers from getting credit to purchase cars from the auto firms, doesn’t help either.

Gettelfinger called his meetings with Reid and Pelosi "constructive
discussions about the state of the auto industry and the steps government can
take to help companies, workers and retirees.”

Both the UAW leader and the auto company presidents will get to make their case in public in congressional hearings the week of Nov. 17. "There is an urgent need for federal assistance--not just for our members, but for millions of workers and retirees and for thousands of companies who depend on the auto industry for jobs, retirement benefits and revenue," Gettelfinger added Nov. 6.

Gettelfinger and the auto execs urged the federal government to help the firms immediately, by making the auto companies eligible for aid in the $700 billion banking bailout law. There were discussions about whether the auto firms’ financial arms could qualify for such aid, but Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson flatly rejected carving out money from the bailout for the auto firms themselves.

Gettelfinger also asked lawmakers to include $25 billion in loans--which would be less than that in actual spending--in any stimulus package that passes the lame-duck session of Congress. The auto firms are in line for $25 billion to help retool their plants to make more fuel-efficient and hybrid cars, but rules for such loans are still being written. The new loans would help the firms meet their health care obligations to more than 780,000 retirees and dependents, Gettelfinger said.

"Strategic assistance to a critical manufacturing industry makes sense for U.S.
taxpayers. The alternative is lost jobs, business failures and a shortfall in pension and health care obligations--all of which will cost far more in the future than the assistance we are requesting now,” he explained.

Besides Obama, the UAW and the auto firms drew strong support from the Michigan congressional delegation, in a joint bipartisan letter to Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, urging them to allot part of the bailout money to Detroit’s not-so-big-anymore three firms.

“One in ten American jobs is related to auto manufacturing,” their letter said. “U.S. auto makers directly employ about 355,000 American workers and through related industries that are dependent on auto manufacturing and sales, the industry supports about another 4,500,000 workers in the economy. They are among the nation’s largest purchasers of U.S.-manufactured steel, aluminum, iron, copper, plastics, rubber, electronics, and computer chips.

“The three U.S. auto manufacturers provide health care to almost two million Americans and pay pension benefits to 775,000 retirees or their survivors. The disappearance of liquidity in credit markets, if not relieved in coming weeks, threatens to cripple these industries and the communities in which they operate,” not just in Michigan but elsewhere, the lawmakers added.

In his talk with Obama, Bush said he was open to suggestions for aid to the auto industry. Some reports said Bush would accept $25 billion for the auto firms as part of a second stimulus package if that law also included labor’s agreeing to his top remaining legislative priority, passage of the controversial U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Unions, Obama and congressional Democrats all strongly oppose the pact due to no labor rights in its text and to the murder of 2,500 Colombian unionists over the last decade-plus, by right wing paramilitaries sometimes hired by U.S.-based multinationals.

Both Obama and Bush representatives flatly denied Bush sought such a trade-off. “We are willing to listen to ideas the Democrats would come forth with if they have some on how to accelerate loans to the auto industry,” Bush spokeswoman Dana Perrino said of the already-enacted $25 billion loan program.

“And we just want to make sure that we let everybody know the president did not suggest a quid pro quo, but he did talk about the merits of free trade in hopes the next administration will recognize that not only is that good for our businesses (but) especially if you want to create jobs, one of the best ways to do that is to open up new markets for our businesses and our entrepreneurs,” Perrino added.
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