The situation, said Gettelfinger, "is critical. It is a crisis….If the Detroit–based auto companies are forced into liquidation, the consequences would be truly devastating, not only for UAW members, but also for millions of other workers and retirees across this nation, and for the entire economy of the United States."
Gettelfinger and the three top executives of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler called on the committee and Congress to approve a $25 billion emergency bridge loan to help automakers weather the current credit and economic crisis that has driven car and truck sales to the lowest level in 25 years.
The automakers have been forced to burn through their cash reserves, and news reports say GM could run out of money and be forced to shut down by the end of the year. As General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner told the committee: "Our industry…needs a bridge to span the financial chasm that has opened up before us.…We’ve moved aggressively in recent years to position GM for long-term success. And we were well on the road to turning our North American business around. What exposes us to failure now is the global financial crisis, which has severely restricted credit availability and reduced industry sales to the lowest per-capita level since World War II."
Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said if the automakers are forced into a bankruptcy, "the repercussions would be severe….If a major industry goes down, it could take huge swaths of the nation’s economy with it."
The $25 billion package would be carved out of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout Congress approved in October.
Several Republican members of the committee said the car and truck makers should be left to fall into bankruptcy, and that labor contracts be thrown out and renegotiated with lower wages and benefits.
But as Gettelfinger noted, contracts negotiated in 2005 and 2007 reduced wages for active workers and cut health care benefits for retirees in "unprecedented ways…to help the companies remain competitive."
The auto industry emergency loan legislation was attached to legislation extending unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for the long-term jobless that passed the House in October. That bill provides seven weeks of unemployment insurance for workers who exhaust their benefits, and adds an additional six weeks for workers in high unemployment states.
The bill also includes $37.8 billion to reduce states’ share of Medicaid costs, as well as $13.5 billion for building and repairing highways, bridges, airports and mass transit, thereby creating 470,000 jobs. In addition, there is funding for more than $3.3 billion in loan guarantees for advanced battery manufacturing and a temporary increase in food stamp benefits.
The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on the legislation, but a likely Republican filibuster will force a vote that requires a 60-vote majority before final passage.
Mike Hall writes for the AFL-CIO news blog, http://blog.aflcio.org , where this article originally appeared.
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The situation, said Gettelfinger, "is critical. It is a crisis….If the Detroit–based auto companies are forced into liquidation, the consequences would be truly devastating, not only for UAW members, but also for millions of other workers and retirees across this nation, and for the entire economy of the United States."
Gettelfinger and the three top executives of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler called on the committee and Congress to approve a $25 billion emergency bridge loan to help automakers weather the current credit and economic crisis that has driven car and truck sales to the lowest level in 25 years.
The automakers have been forced to burn through their cash reserves, and news reports say GM could run out of money and be forced to shut down by the end of the year. As General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner told the committee: "Our industry…needs a bridge to span the financial chasm that has opened up before us.…We’ve moved aggressively in recent years to position GM for long-term success. And we were well on the road to turning our North American business around. What exposes us to failure now is the global financial crisis, which has severely restricted credit availability and reduced industry sales to the lowest per-capita level since World War II."
Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said if the automakers are forced into a bankruptcy, "the repercussions would be severe….If a major industry goes down, it could take huge swaths of the nation’s economy with it."
The $25 billion package would be carved out of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout Congress approved in October.
Several Republican members of the committee said the car and truck makers should be left to fall into bankruptcy, and that labor contracts be thrown out and renegotiated with lower wages and benefits.
But as Gettelfinger noted, contracts negotiated in 2005 and 2007 reduced wages for active workers and cut health care benefits for retirees in "unprecedented ways…to help the companies remain competitive."
The auto industry emergency loan legislation was attached to legislation extending unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for the long-term jobless that passed the House in October. That bill provides seven weeks of unemployment insurance for workers who exhaust their benefits, and adds an additional six weeks for workers in high unemployment states.
The bill also includes $37.8 billion to reduce states’ share of Medicaid costs, as well as $13.5 billion for building and repairing highways, bridges, airports and mass transit, thereby creating 470,000 jobs. In addition, there is funding for more than $3.3 billion in loan guarantees for advanced battery manufacturing and a temporary increase in food stamp benefits.
The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday on the legislation, but a likely Republican filibuster will force a vote that requires a 60-vote majority before final passage.
Mike Hall writes for the AFL-CIO news blog, http://blog.aflcio.org , where this article originally appeared.