July 23 2005:
"More than a month ago, GM informed us that they would be eliminating another 25,000 additional hourly production worker jobs, accompanied by the closure of an unspecified number of production facilities, probably seven. Unless there is aid from Congress, which developed for Chrysler in the 1980s, we will witness the disappearance of one of the most powerful corporations of the 20th century. If GM goes under we will lose a priceless, technologically advanced machine-tool capability. The termination of 25% of operating capacity will terminate the incomes of some 500,000 individuals and suppliers of one form or another, a tribute to free trade and globalization. GM is disassembling its operations in the US and globalizing them. Already 45% of GM?s North American production capacity ? some 15 plants ? is unused or produces models that generate little or no profit. That means more closings are on the way. Then there is the pension plan that is underfunded by $45 billion and effects 1.2 million pensioners and $270 billion in junk bonds, which could eventually destroy the derivatives market. The carnage at GM has only just begun and will be followed by Ford. Not a pretty picture, but reality as we see it today and in the future. As long as corporate America offshores and outsources, the American economy will continue to collapse."
"Detroit and Michigan is a zone of the living dead. Detroit represents the deliberately arranged decline of American manufacturing. The dangerous path of offshoring and outsourcing will lead not only to the destruction of the US economic base, but it will take down the rest of the world with it. During the past 55 years Detroit's population has fallen from 1.8 million to 900,000 in round figures. That is extraordinary deindustrialization. Ford's River Rouge plant once employed 100,000. Today, it is 6,000. Since 1970, it has lost 75% of its manufacturing and jobs. Whole areas of the city have been leveled. We see the same happening to a lesser degree in Buffalo, NY; Chicago; Cleveland; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and generally throughout Indiana, Ohio, Quebec and Ontario in Canada. Today the median household Detroit income is one-third lower than it was 30-years ago. About 50% of homeowners pay 40% or more of their income on the mortgage on their homes. Thirty percent of housing stock is in worse condition than normal and still takes 40% to 50% of income to either finance or pay rent on. The sad story goes on and we do not see it getting any better thanks to free trade and globalization."
(...re-read that again till it sinks in)
***** In order to try to avoid bankruptcy Delphi wanted workers to take wages of $10 to $12 an hour instead of $26 to $30 that they make today. Delphi will also stop paying 4,000 workers who no longer have jobs to do. At the same time the company management increased the severance packages of its top 21 executives. Once again, corporate America cannot help itself. They are consumed with greed. We see a disgusting spectacle of the people at the top taking care of themselves and at the same time demanding extraordinary sacrifices from their hourly workers. Delphi was the 63rd largest US company with annual revenues of $28.62 billion. Our Congress and the American people just don?t get it. There economy is being ripped out from underneath them. Their entire society is being destroyed and no one seems to care. The answer is protective tariffs and quotas and a reversal of our national policy of free trade and globalization."DUMP BUSH AND THE GOP CORPORATE NEOCONS NOW !!! THEY ARE DESTROYING AMERICA FROM WITHOUT AND WITHIN.