If the Auto Industry is Dead What does that Mean for Workers?

[Omaha Steve]

FULL STORY: http://labornotes.org/archives/2006/09/articles/c.shtml



End of the Road
If the Auto Industry is Dead What does that Mean for Workers?

by Mark Brenner and Jane Slaughter September 2006

In the 1980s Chevrolet proclaimed itself the “Heartbeat of America.” Today many would say that the American auto industry qualifies for life support. Last November, General Motors (owner of the Chevy brand) announced that it was cutting 25,000 jobs and closing up to 12 factories by 2008.

The news came one month after auto parts giant Delphi declared bankruptcy, promising to shutter at least a dozen plants and cut as many as 24,000 jobs in three years time. Ford completed the grim hat trick in January, revealing a plan to cut 30,000 jobs by 2012.


Mike Konopacki


Just months before, GM and Ford had convinced Solidarity House, headquarters of the once-mighty United Auto Workers, to make $1 billion in concessions to help pay for retired auto workers’ health benefits. Detroit is abuzz over the additional give-backs the Big Three auto makers (GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler) are likely to wrest from the union in next year’s contract talks, and the rank-and-file hear no tough talk—let alone action—from their leaders.

On the face of it, the industry’s problems seem almost insurmountable. Collectively, U.S. car makers are billions of dollars in the red and foreign competitors continue to gobble up the Big Three’s market share. America’s auto giants boost their bottom line only by selling gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs, and cars would be moving off the lots even slower were it not for thousands of dollars in incentives used to sweeten each sale.

In the face of these pressures, it’s no surprise that analysts from the Motor City to Wall Street are convinced that this is the end of an era in the auto industry. There is no alternative, these experts lament. Today’s auto workers will have to make do with less or kiss their jobs goodbye.

For over a century the auto industry has been an anchor for the U.S. economy and a trendsetter for corporate America. What does the current upheaval mean for workers? Announcing the company’s bankruptcy, Delphi’s CEO Steve Miller signaled what was at stake: “I want you to view what is happening at Delphi as a flash point, a test case, for all the economic and social trends that are on a collision course in our country and around the globe.”

[notadmblnd]

1. you know I think there was a study done sometime ago

that came to the conclusion that for every factory job lost, seven or 8 other people also lost work. Kinda trickle down layoffs if you will. What astounds me is how GM, Ford Chrysler could have ever thought that the Mexicans.. Chinese, Koreans etc was going to step up and buy their cars. Their US employees for the most part constituted their market share. People don't have jobs.. people don't buy cars. Unless they reverse their cheap labor policies soon, they're history.

[Selatius]

2. Well, at least we know the corporate execs largely still have jobs

I'm Mr. CEO, and sure, it sucks to lay off workers, but at least I didn't lose my job for my fucking stupidity in selling SUVs instead of throwing more research and development dollars at fuel-efficient alternatives.

:sarcasm:

[skids]

3. Lacking a thriving renewable energy industry, they are screwed.

We could have put people to work building turbines and solar panels and solar thermal collectors and flywheels and charge controllers and invertors and biodiesel plants and microhydro devices and tidal power generators and wave power generators and stirling engines and rankin engines and solid state thermoelectrics and thermophotovoltaics and thermoacoustic heat pumps and permanant magnet high-efficiency motors and...

...deep breath...

...vanadium redox batteries and lithium phosphate nanotech batteries and ultracapacitors and HVAC ice storage and geoexchange pipes and geothermal generation equipment and LED and OLED based signs and indicators and micro-chp home units and industrial-sized CHP and guided light-tube outdoor light collectors and sustainable VOC-free construction materials and micro-wind rooftop VAWTs and solar adsorption/absorption chillers and dessicant chillers and ... well a lot more...

But no.

Our investors, most of them Republican fools, decided differently.

[partylessinOhio]

4. Bush metes out death in many ways - Iraq, Katrina, Lebanon, jobs...