Autoworkers: Make Big Three produce electric cars, wind turbines, public transit

Autoworkers from Michigan are in Washington today with recommendations for how the federal government should respond to billions of dollars in aid requests from General Motors, Chrysler and Ford.

“We need a comprehensive plan not just for the auto corporations and not just for autoworkers, but a plan that can address the economic and environmental crisis that our nation faces,” the workers explain on a Web site created to advance their platform. “We see the crisis as an opportunity to lay the foundation for a decent life for the next generation of Americans.”

The American car manufacturers, nearing bankruptcy, have asked for $34 billion to stay afloat. Without an immediate infusion of billions, GM and Chrysler could fail within weeks, observers say, and millions of jobs could be lost. Some say this would signal the end of manufacturing in America.

Any public spending on the car companies should be organized as an investment, the workers say. The companies must be reorganized to produce needed energy-efficient transportation and provide decent-paying jobs. Lawmakers should also support workers and the economy by enacting a national health care plan and passing the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to organize.

Given the grim forecasts, the workers are frustrated with lawmakers who, just months ago, granted a $700 billion bailout package to financial institutions, quickly, and with few provisions for oversight. Some are angry with what they see as a double standard.

Reached by cell phone near Pittsburgh as she caravanned with 17 others from Detroit, Wendy Thompson, a retired production worker at American Axel and former president of Local 235 of the United Auto Workers of America (UAW), called the lawmakers who oppose saving the car companies “lame-duck politicians“ who “want to make their final attack on unions.”

Unions are not to blame for the car companies’ problems, she said.

“We started giving concessions back in the 80s. It has not stopped. One concession has led to another, to a two-tiered system, and they have played us off each other.

“We feel we have given up enough, we also feel that what we have got should be expanded to everyone.“

A nationwide health care plan must be part of the plan to save manufacturing, she said.

If the automakers are given public money to continue operating, this must be seen as an investment, and the government must require the companies to produce the things that this country actually needs, Thompson said, such as efficient cars, wind turbines and public transit.

“The government is in a position to put some conditions on the company,“ Thompson said. “They could even take control of it.

“The government has to play this kind of role. We don’t trust the corporations to do the right thing.”

Filmmaker Michael Moore, the son of a factory worker, said in a public letter last week that rather than loan money, the government should buy the companies and put them to work:

Transporting Americans is and should be one of the most important functions our government must address. And because we are facing a massive economic, energy and environmental crisis, the new president and Congress must do what Franklin Roosevelt did when he was faced with a crisis (and ordered the auto industry to stop building cars and instead build tanks and planes): The Big 3 are, from this point forward, to build only cars that are not primarily dependent on oil and, more importantly to build trains, buses, subways and light rail (a corresponding public works project across the country will build the rail lines and tracks). This will not only save jobs, but create millions of new ones.

Moore is circulating a petition for an approach much like the one suggested by the auto workers, nationalizing car companies with a Marshall Plan-like program to reinvent transportation, and has promised to deliver all signatures to Senate Majority Leadet Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

A decision on the bailout/investment is expected soon. On “Meet the Press” Sunday, President-elect Obama said that the automakers cannot be allowed to fail.

Members of the caravan will hold a press conference in Washington today.