by Barrie Barber | The Saginaw News
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero posed a question to mostly United Auto Worker backers rallying to “Keep It Made In America” Tuesday at the Commerce Tower.
“Are you tired of being screwed?” he asked about 60 people who gathered, many of them auto retirees.
“I have to remind you that Wall Street has a name for you,” he exhorted. “Legacy cost.”
He condemned “bailouts for the banks” and “baloney for the middle class” as U.S. car makers struggle for survival and jobs are outsourced. Bernero blasted a “double standard” of Congress sending hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up the ailing U.S. financial system from collapse as lawmakers back free trade policies that devastate communities such as Saginaw and the economic security of the nation.
“They call it free trade,” he said. “I call it unconditional surrender.”
The mid-Michigan mayor joined a rolling bus tour that made a stop down the street from GM’s Saginaw Metal Casting Operations foundry, 1629 N. Washington, as workers there and at other auto plants in the region wait and wonder what’s next. GM teeters on the threat of bankruptcy under a Monday, June 1, deadline President Barack Obama imposed as a condition of $15.4 billion in loans while Chrysler remains in bankruptcy and temporarily shutdown factory production.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing organized the 11-state, 30-city tour to put out the word the U.S. auto industry supports 7.2 million jobs. Autoworkers, labor and political leaders told workers now is the time to fight to save good-paying U.S. middle class work.
“This isn’t battle for the UAW and the Big Three,” said Mark Musho, an alliance representative from Philadelphia. “This is a battle for the middle class in this country.
Those jobs will slip away if we allow this industry to slip away.”
Saginaw Mayor Joyce J. Seals said the city has pledged to “Buy American” when it can. “When the auto industry does well, guess what? We do well.”
Michael Bolton, United Steel Workers district director, said “car vouchers” could stimulate domestic demand. He also urged lawmakers to nationalize health care to help companies compete.
U.S. production capacity has shrunk so much it may not keep up with sales when the market rebounds, he said.
“We’re going to import (autos); we’re not going to make it here,” he said.
His message: If it’s sold here by either a foreign or domestic nameplate, make it here.
When factory workers lose their paychecks, the spin-off impacts everyone from dentists to firefighters, speakers said. Social services are strained, neighborhoods decline, retail stumbles and communities lose taxes and layoff employees, they added.
Elena R. Soria, 28, of Saginaw worried about layoffs at TRW Integrated Automotive Systems, 2328 E. Genesee in Saginaw, where she works in receiving and shipping.
“If GM ends up going under, they’re going to affect a lot of people in small cities like this one,” she said after the event. “I’m concerned just because of the fact if we’re not shipping anything, I don’t have a job.”
Carol A. Spencer, 66, a Delphi Saginaw Steering Systems retiree, said autoworkers too often confront attitudes and are unfairly portrayed in the media as overpaid and lazy when thousands like her worked hard at demanding assembly line work, paid taxes and helped communities prosper.
Now, after three decades behind factory walls, she said she worries about her GM-backed pension.
