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More than 170 autoworkers, retirees, suppliers, dealers and others braved a cold wind Wednesday to show their support for General Motors Corp. and the two other major American automakers as they seek emergency financing from Congress.
For an hour, they marched in a circle in front of the Federal Building in Fort Wayne, where U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh and U.S. Rep. Mark Souder have offices.
As they marched, there was general agreement on two things: If GM is forced to file for bankruptcy, it will devastate the local economy, and more concessions by the United Auto Workers union are inevitable.
“I think everyone will be taking concessions,” Holli Murphy said as she shivered on the courthouse steps.
Murphy has been an hourly worker at GM’s Allen County assembly plant since 2003. With the company saying it needs $4 billion immediately and $8 billion more in March, Murphy says she lies awake nights worrying whether she’ll be able to support her children, ages 1 and 8.
After one failed appeal to Congress in mid-November, the Big Three on Tuesday filed plans with the government they hope will show that with the taxpayer loans, the automakers will become viable.
GM promised the deepest cuts, including the elimination of 21,000 to 31,000 workers, nine plants and 1,750 dealerships.
The UAW, the principal union representing Big Three employees, said it had already agreed to significant concessions. In September 2007, it agreed with GM to a wage system in which new hires would start around $14 an hour, and it made a pact with all three companies for the union to take over retiree pensions and health care in 2010.
But even as Murphy was marching, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union was open to further concessions, including delaying part of the $13.8 billion GM and Ford Motor Co. were supposed to pay into a trust fund for retirees as part of the 2007 agreement.
Gettelfinger also said the union would suspend the UAW’s jobs bank, which pays 3,500 laid-off workers across the Big Three 95 percent of their salaries while they’re not at work.
“We’re going to sit down and work out the mechanics,” Gettelfinger said at a news conference after meeting with local union officials. “We’re a little unclear on some of the issues.”
None of the Allen County assembly plant’s 2,500 hourly workers participates in the jobs bank, said Orval Plumlee, president of UAW Local 2209, which represents workers at the plant.
The Allen County assembly plant employs 2,700 workers. An additional 1,500 work at GM’s Defiance, Ohio, foundry.
The company hasn’t announced which plants it intends to close and probably won’t until after Congress decides next week whether to provide emergency loans. CEOs of the Big Three will testify before congressional panels today and Friday.
If Congress refuses a loan and GM fails, the Big Three say it will take down GM’s major suppliers, touching off a chain reaction that will bankrupt the other two.
Jerry LaMere said he can easily see that happening. The plant manager of Advanced Assembly LLC in Columbia City marched in Tuesday’s rally.
Advanced Assembly’s 240 employees make seat systems for the GMC Sierras and Chevrolet Silverados produced at the Allen County GM plant.
“Fort Wayne Assembly has the lion’s share of our business,” LaMere said. “If we lose Fort Wayne Assembly, we go down.”
And Advanced Assembly is just one link in a chain. LaMere said there are 56 companies that supply his plant.
“I can’t guess how important we are to their business, but I have to guess that losing us would be detrimental for them,” he said.
Mike Ball, a retiree from the Fort Wayne plant, said a lot of businesses will fail if the plant closed.
At 50, the Columbia City resident said he retired from his $27-an-hour job this year only because he was asked to. He predicts disaster if the entire plant shuts down.
“I’d hate to see what would happen,” he said.
This might explain workers’ willingness to consider more concessions.
“I’d much rather do that than have bankruptcy,” Murphy said.
mschladen@jg.netThe Associated Press contributed to this story.
