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AUTOMAKERS' CRISIS * USA - Backlash brews in wake of Big 3 bashing
A retired autoworker is organizing a boycott of Alabama
Woodhaven,NY,USA - The Detroit News, by George Hunter -December 16, 2008: -- ... An ubiquitous bumper sticker in Metro Detroit warns "Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign." And last weekend, Woodhaven cops investigated a rash of vandalism on foreign cars... After a month of Detroit-bashing in Washington and nationally, some say a backlash is forming among Metro Detroiters, annoyed by the attacks on their lifestyle and angry at their neighbors' choices of vehicles. Some fear that simmering resentment could turn to outright hostility... In Woodhaven on Friday, someone punctured the tires of five foreign cars -- a Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Toyota and Volkswagen -- and used a marker to scrawl "Buy USA" on the sides of the vehicles, in the lots of Lowe's and Kohl's stores near a Ford plant... The recent congressional hearings, in which Big Three auto executives unsuccessfully sought federal loans, prompted Babiasz, 58, to launch a Web site, www.boycottalabamanow.com, to dissuade people from visiting Alabama, where Hyundai, Honda, Toyota and Mercedes have plants. Opposition to the bailout was led by Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican... The situation has some who drive foreign cars re-thinking their decisions. More than a year ago, Jonathan Barlow, 24, of Detroit bought a used Lexus in part because of its gas mileage. Now, his next purchase could come from the Big Three... (Photo by Dale G. Young / The Detroit News - Josephina Martinez, a GM retiree, shows her support for federal aid to the Detroit automakers at a UAW rally Monday in Lansing) * Commentary: Senate snubs middle class on auto loans - Filmmaker: GOP stalls help because it opposes workers making decent wages
Detroit,Mich,USA -The Detroit News, by Michael Moore -December 16, 2008: --* They could have given the loan on the condition that the Detroit Three automakers start building only cars and mass transit that reduce America's dependency on oil.
* They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers build cars that reduce global warming.
* They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers withdraw their many lawsuits against state governments in their attempts to not comply with our environmental laws...
* They could have given the loan on the condition that the management team that drove these once-great manufacturers into the ground resign and be replaced with a team who understands the transportation needs of the 21st century.
* Yes, they could have given the loan for any of these reasons because, in the end, to lose our manufacturing infrastructure and throw 3 million people out of work would be a catastrophe.
Instead, the U.S. senators said, we'll give you the loan only if the factory workers take a $20 an hour cut in wages, pension and health care. That's right. After giving hundreds of billions of dollars to Wall Street hucksters and criminal investment bankers -- with no strings attached and, as we have since learned, no oversight whatsoever -- the Senate decided it is more important to break a union, more important to throw middle-class wage earners into the ranks of the working poor than to prevent the total collapse of industrial America... (Photo by Chris Kleponis / Agence France-Presse - Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., wanted the auto workers union to bring its wage and benefit costs in line with those of U.S. plants run by foreign automakers by a specified date. The UAW refused, so the proposed $14 billion loan to Chrysler and General Motors stalled
* Commentary: Detroit gets undeserved disdain; what benefits GM still helps U.S.
Detroit,Mich,USA -The Detroit News, by William Kristol -December 16, 2008: -- In 1953, the president of General Motors, Charles Wilson, was nominated by President Dwight Eisenhower to be secretary of defense. During his confirmation hearings, Wilson was asked if he'd be able, as defense secretary, to make decisions contrary to the interests of GM. He answered yes, but added that he couldn't imagine such a situation, because "for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa"... Today, GM, Ford and Chrysler get no respect... But, there is a kind of undeserved disdain, even casual contempt, that seems to characterize the attitude of the political and media elites toward the American auto industry... As Warren Brown, who writes about cars for the Washington Post, recently put it, "There is a feeling in this country -- apparent in the often condescending, dismissive way Detroit's automobile companies have been treated on Capitol Hill -- that people who work with their hands and the companies that employ them are inferior to those who work with their minds and plow profit from information. How else to explain the clearly disparate treatment given to companies such as Citigroup and General Motors?" ... Now there are other ways to explain the disparate treatment of GM and Citigroup. Finance is different from manufacturing, and banks from auto companies. It may be that the case for a huge bank bailout was strong, and that the case for a more modest auto package is not. Still, it seems to me true that the financial big shots haven't been treated nearly as roughly in Congress or in the media as the auto executives, who have done nothing remotely as irresponsible as their Wall Street counterparts... What's more, in their disdain for the American auto companies, the left and right wings of the establishment agree...
* Feds weigh $10B in emergency auto aid - Loans would get GM, Chrysler through Feb
Washington,DC,USA -The Detroit News, by David Shepardson -December 16, 2008: -- The Treasury Department is leaning toward granting General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC a loan package of roughly $10 billion that would allow them to survive into February, putting pressure on Congress to act to add funds... Talks between the automakers and Treasury are continuing, but no announcement of a deal is expected until at least Wednesday. One auto official said Treasury is considering "a bridge to a bridge loan" rather than the full amount sought by automakers... Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told reporters in Ireland on Monday he expected the administration to act quickly but said any loans would allow the automakers to survive "basically into the first quarter"... The Treasury is considering using some or all of the remaining $15 billion of the first $350 billion of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to help GM and Chrysler avoid collapse... Bush told reporters Sunday that a decision would be made soon to prevent a "disorderly bankruptcy"...
* USA - Honda, Nissan and Toyota Are Hurting in U.S., Too
USA -BNET Auto, by Jim Henry -December 16, 2008: -- With so much negative attention focused on the Detroit Big Three, it’s easy to overlook the fact that today’s U.S. market is more like the Big Six... While their parent companies are in much better shape globally, the leading foreign brands in the United States, Honda, Nissan and Toyota, are quietly having about as much trouble moving the metal lately as Chrysler, Ford and GM. Honda’s U.S. sales fell 31.6 percent in November from the year-ago month; Nissan fell 42.2 percent; Toyota dropped 33.9 percent, according to AutoData Corp... And while the Japanese brands are less dependent than the Detroit automakers on truck sales, it’s not for lack of trying...
Labels: automakers' crisis
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