Shutdown and Breakdown in Detroit

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Uttt OHHHH! The Big Three automakers are shutting down plants and that is not a good thing. Detroit is closing up shop because cars are not moving off the lots in the dealerships all across America. Trust me, this is not going to be an American made auto manufacturer phenomenon. Chrysler is shutting down all of its plants for thirty days and Ford is looking at similar options. GM is planning major shutdowns at plants as well and the ripple effect is not going to be good for the world economy. Over at Market Watch they have this to say and I have my own opinion on it afterward…

Chrysler to shut assembly lines for at least a month

Rival Ford takes similar steps, extending shutdown times at most plants

By Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch
Last update: 6:57 p.m. EST Dec. 17, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Chrysler LLC, struggling to keep afloat as it awaits word on a federal lifeline, said Wednesday it will idle all of its 30 plants for at least a month in an effort to bring output closer in line with plunging demand for new cars and trucks.

The privately held carmaker said it will shut its assembly lines at the end of Friday's shift and keep them closed through at least Jan. 19, extending a holiday shutdown that was already put in place. Under the current union contract, idled workers still receive most of their benefits and wages during the production stoppage.

Separately, Ford Motor Co. announced that it will shut down most of its North American assembly plants for an extra week in January, according to the Associated Press.
Automakers typically close their factories for a couple of weeks over the two weeks during holidays and often, as in Ford's case, target specific plants for even longer idle periods to keep a lid on inventory during times of slack demand. Yet Chrysler's move to idle its entire operation for at least a month reflects just how dire the situation is in Detroit.

"This is definitely out of the ordinary," Edmunds.com analyst Jesse Toprak said. "I've never seen this kind of shutdown for this long, and if you read the language Chrysler used in the release, they're leaving the door open for another extension."

Toprak added that the company will probably take a hard look at its December sales results, which he expects to be down 45% from a year ago, and decide whether to keep blue-collar workers from assembly lines even longer. - Market Watch (Link not working?)

It doesn’t matter anymore what side of the issue you stand on when it comes to the bailout for Detroit and its automakers. The Congress has spoken and the auto industry in America was told to go screw itself. That is a double edged sword so to speak.

Granted the UAW contracts will still pay many of the idled workers almost the same pay for a short shutdown but they can’t get paid forever if the companies end up folding. All of the investment capital that the Big Three used as leverage for long term loans was based on the price per share and all of them are in the toilet as far as share price goes. Wall Street can not and will not offer capital to these companies because the collateral in shares is just not there anymore. The Congress and the Republican members made that a reality by not backing the industry simply because they could. Rather than looking at the bigger picture, Republicans in the Congress looked to see who was in their own back yard and all they could see was Toyota, Honda and the list goes on of foreign owned plants here in the United States. Good for them, they covered their own political ass. Or did they?

While those same Republican leaders were looking out the back step they didn’t see their neighbor Joe that drives twenty minutes to a little mom and pop owned machine shop that just makes screws that go to Detroit. Those screws are installed by the thousands every day by Detroit workers in American made cars. All the little screws do is hold one little piece in a pick up or mid size car down so that another piece of the truck or car can be installed over it with those same little screws holding that part down. Those little tiny machined screws have paid all the wages and healthcare benefits for the five or six people running the actual machines that made them for decades. Not to mention mom and pop put a couple of kids through good schools, then good colleges, and then had those kids buy homes in the local area. Those five or six machine operators buy groceries locally, buy homes or renovate existing homes at the local hardware or home improvement center. They pay local and state taxes that pay for schools, roads, police and fire. They spend their hard earned paychecks where they live and other people benefit from their hard earned wages making little tiny screws that ship to Detroit.

Mom and pop have to close up shop for a while because Detroit is shutting down for a spell. Pick an industry and expand the scenario however you like. There is that old saying about a butterfly beating its wings in China and it gives birth to a hurricane thousands of miles away. Bingo!

There was a reason why the government of long ago would never let Chrysler go bankrupt. It reached to far and wide into the capillaries of the American economy. Lee Iacocca rebuilt Chrysler from the ground up because he had the means to do so courtesy of an American government backed loan. He didn’t do it alone and yet they all made it work out in the end. But now it is okay to let ALL THREE automakers fail? This lack of interest by or government is totally on the Republican Party and they are more than welcome to own it. I can literally see the history books thirty years from now on the new generation of Hoover that started the second economic collapse of America and the world.

This is the never ending ripple effect and when the small business manufacturing owners start closing the doors because Detroit is no longer in business then it is in fact a DEPRESSION! Somebody please call your Congressional representative and give them an earful!

Papamoka

White Collar Job’s Only Bailout

Yesterday the U.S. Government bailed out another white collar giant in the banking industry. Citi Bank, the largest of banks in the nation received a blank check from Washington without any questions asked. This most recent of bailouts is all okay with the higher than thou Congress simply because the people cashing the blank check all wear white collars. White collar jobs are good, blue collar jobs bad.

The Steel Workers President put it best, it’s okay to bailout someone that takes a shower before work but if you take one after working all day you get thrown out.

Rachel Maddow has this interesting view on this very same subject…

Video Link



I think I might have just found the answer to the automotive industry bailout problem. Don’t tell anyone in Washington but GM, Ford, and Chrysler should change their mailing address to Wall Street in New York city. Better yet, they should all start offering brokerage accounts and free toasters with every car purchase. Even better and this would be a slam dunk, change the corporate names to GM Bank, Ford Bank and Chrysler Bank. Then they could get the same blank check as Citi Bank!

Blue collar union jobs bad, white collar big bank jobs good? Makes sense so far in the scheme of things that Washington and our pontificating Congress uses for an excuse not to bailout the big three automakers. While they claim that the big three have put themselves in the position they are all in, how did Wall Street and all the banks robbing the treasury blind get where they are?

Papamoka

GM, Ford, and Chrysler Bailout is a MUST!

How is it that our government has no problem stuffing $80 Billion dollars down the throat of AIG executives as they party it up but has a problem with offering a loan to a manufacturing industry inter connected with hundreds if not thousands of other manufacturing jobs and industries all across America. Manufacturing jobs that pay the rent, pay the mortgage, make a couple of car payments and the list goes on that are all connected directly or indirectly to GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

The big three are not asking for a handout without repayment. Matter of fact they are willing to pay back all of it if they are given the chance to survive this downturn in the economy. The current leadership in the Congress and the minority party need to get this done and quickly. Over at MSNBC they have this to say on how quickly they are acting on this…

Senate to take up auto bailout bill on Monday
$25 billion bill offers aid for struggling automakers; Republicans opposed

msnbc.com news services
updated 42 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Senate plans to take up a $25 billion bill on Monday to bail out distressed domestic auto companies, but it is unclear whether proponents can muster the necessary support.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday he “plans to press forward” with emergency aid to automakers and a plan to extend unemployment insurance even though Republican backing is far from assured.

Reid plans to begin debate and hopes the Senate will conduct procedural votes early in the week.

Snip a bolt…

Still, powerful senators like Richard Shelby, R-Ala., appear willing to let the U.S. automakers collapse. Shelby said in a statement recently that the problems facing the Big Three are the product of their noncompetitive structure and not the current economic downturn.

Alabama is home to vehicle manufacturing plants operated by Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes, as well as a Toyota engine plant. - MSNBC

Dick Shelby is a moron and a fool! While he is in the great state of Alabama with all of those foreign owned auto manufacturers hounding him to not let this bailout happen I’m pretty sure his campaign for re-election coffers are filling with serious donations from Japan, Korea, and Germany. After all, the bottom line of Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes, and Toyota are in fact sending the profits overseas. Way to go you ass Shelby for being a paid for spokesman for a foreign national corporate monopoly in your own state. Ten bucks says he does not even own an American made car! Any takers? How about an American made flag? How can he claim to be an American worker supporter when he just chucked the bird to more than one and ten amongst us and that includes the proud people of Alabama that don't work for his top four best friend foreign national corporations.

Dick Shelby wants to tell all of you folks that work in electronics manufacturing products that eventually end up in a GM car, a Ford car, and a Chrysler car to go screw yourself. Same thing goes with all of you people in the plastics industry that supplies the big three with molded parts, same thing goes for the huge wire and cable manufacturing market in America. All of you folks that make American made tires that the big three are buying, get a paper route and go bag groceries. Do you work in a textile mill that supplies Detroit with fabric for new cars? You just got the middle finger from Dick Shelby too! Steel workers in the foundries spread out from Pennsylvania and beyond should start filling out applications for non existent jobs in an economy that is in collapse. It isn’t Dick Shelby’s problem that you people working in his home state happen to rely on the big three automakers for your weekly paycheck. Dick Shelby says the big three should shutter the doors and with that shuttering so goes many small businesses that supplied the big three all across America. He’s an economics idiot and a moron that has no clue as to how reliant his own state is on supplying the big three American Auto Makers with parts and components to build a Chevy, a Ford, and a Dodge Ram truck!

I feel better, I vented. But I think other folks are just a little bit more interested in this conversation. Chris Matthews has this on the big three bailout with an interview with Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas…

Video Link



I think we need to add Jeb Hensarling to the list of morons and idiots when it comes to economics. Jeb wants to wave the flag of creation of thousands of new small business jobs with the same money that this bailout loan is proposing but if the big three collapse then Jeb Hensarling just committed genocide on thousands of other small businesses in his home state of Texas. What about all of their jobs at descent paying wages Jeb? Maybe they can get more than minimum wage working for your re-election campaign?

This bailout is not even close to the blank check written to Secretary Paulson to spend as he pleases. While some say that it is the big three auto makers own fault for the environment they now find themselves in I would have to beg the same argument for AIG and the blank check for Wall Street. Should there be concessions to this loan from the big three, hell yes! If the UAW (United Auto Workers) is already taking a big piece of the heat off of all three auto makers by cutting wages in half in new contracts in order to save jobs. The CEO’s, Direcetors, and management of all three can eat the same humble pie. The fact still remains that the auto industry is directly connected to one in ten jobs in America and if they collapse we are not talking about just three million jobs as Chris Matthews pointed out. We are talking thirty million jobs or more with the pressure wave of panic that will ensue when each of the big three declare bankruptcy, skip out on the debt owed to vendors and pretty much start the wave of layoffs all across America. It does not take a genius to understand how the manufacturing environment works and how so many industries are linked together not just by choice. We need more than just common sense when it comes to knowing the weakest link at the top of the food chain in our industrial society. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler are asking for a loan that they will repay over time. The language of the Paulson Bailout plan is financial industry specific.

Congress and President Bush need to act quickly to save American jobs! This legislation can not wait two months to fester in the auto industry and all the sub manufacturing companies across America that service the big three in Detroit. Bail them out but use common sense in doing so.

Papamoka

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