BAIL-OUT BULL-SHIT

Editorial Thoughts from Web Editor, Jeff Welle

June 8, 2009

While in Pittsburgh, March 2005, reading a news paper an article described how GM was going to save itself by laying off 3 thousand workers at a Kentucky plant and move those jobs to Mexico to a newly constructed manufacturing plant. Boasting it would save $1400+ per vehicle sold by eliminating the Union benefits packages. OK. GM moved that Chevy plant to a new plant (Cost Unknown) and began paying $25 a day instead of $25 per hour. With all those "Benefit Package" savings of $1400 per car and the $220 per day savings per person in wages....GM saved itself... or at least gave huge salary increases and bonuses to its Top Execs!!!!

Here we are 4 years later and they say they need to file for bail-out moneys because it is going bankrupt. Now after $15.4 billion in bail-out bucks they want another $11.6 billion and is offering to close 16 of is American plants terminate 21,000 jobs and move them to "cheaper" Mexico, China and South Korea and ship the cars back to us!!!

At least we know there will be cars in hell... all the automakers will be there and you know they will do anything to make a buck!

We're taking a stand. It's gotta stop here. The United Steelworkers (USW), the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) and the Mayors and Municipalities Automotive Coalition (MMAC) are conducting an 11-state, 32-city protest bus tour. At each stop so far, hundreds of people have cheered our message: "Keep it Made in America." And they've signed our petition calling for support of a simple idea: Buy it here; build it here.

Dana idles 115 workers

Layoffs come on heels of Jeep plants shutting down

Marty Schladen

The Journal Gazette

Fort Wayne – Dana Holding Corp. has laid off 115 of the 280 employees working at its Fort Wayne axle plant, the president of the union representing the workers said Wednesday.

The layoffs last week were in response to Chrysler LLP's shutdown of plants that make Jeep Grand Cherokees and Wranglers, said Denny Leazier, president of United Steelworkers Local 903, which represents workers at Dana's Fort Wayne plant.

"Fifty percent of our work is for Chrysler," Leazier said of the automaker, which filed for bankruptcy protection and idled its plants at the end of April.

The laid-off axle workers, whose pay averages $22.75 an hour, should know by July 1 whether they'll be called back, Leazier said. Officials at Dana's corporate headquarters in Toledo couldn't be reached late Wednesday afternoon for comment.

When Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection April 30, the company said it was idling its factories to reduce inventories. But Leazier said he's been told inventories of Jeeps aren't any greater than in a typical year.

Dana filed for bankruptcy in March 2006 and emerged in December 2007. Leazier said he didn't understand why Chrysler would stop making Jeeps if people are still buying them.

"When we went through bankruptcy, we didn't stop at all," he said.

General Motors Corp. also has put its North American plants on extended layoff to reduce inventories. Workers at the Allen County assembly plant started an 11-week layoff May 4.

But Leazier said he doesn't expect the GM shutdowns to affect the Fort Wayne axle plant.

"They're only about 4 (percent) or 5 percent of our business," he said.

Dana's Fort Wayne plant also makes axles for Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. Both have reported deep drops in vehicle sales since the financial markets melted down last fall.

In November, Dana said it would shut 10 plants by the end of 2010. The company hasn't announced which plants it will close, but cut 5,000 jobs from its global workforce in the first three months of 2009.

Last week, it announced first-quarter earnings.

Sales were $1.2 billion for the three months ended March 31, a 47 percent decrease from the same period in 2008.

Dana's net loss for the quarter of 2009 was $160 million. It had net income of $663 million in the first three months of 2008. The loss in the first quarter of 2009 equates to $1.64 a share. It reported earnings of $4.23 a share in the first quarter of 2008.