PRESS RELEASE
Flint City Council Passes Resolution
To Support Auto Industry
June 28, 2005 (EIRNS)—The City Council of Flint, Michigan, once the proud center of General Motors production, yesterday passed a "resolution of expression regarding the U.S. Automobile's Current Financial Crisis," which urges the "United States Congress to intervene in the U.S. Automobile's current financial crisis so that we may ensure the continued viability of our automotive and machine tool industries."
The resolution was introduced by Councilman Scott Kincaid, who is an international representative for the United Autoworkers of America. The Congressman for the area is Rep. Dale Kildee (D), chairman of the Congressional Auto Caucus. The action, which followed the intensive intervention of the LaRouche Youth Movement in the region, brings to seven the number of local governing bodies who have passed similar resolutions. The others are Cleveland, the Wayne County Commission, Detroit, Buffalo, Pontiac, and Columbus.
The full text of the resolution follows.
Resolution of Expression Regarding U.S. Automobile's Current Financial Crisis
Whereas, it is in the best interests of our national, state and local economy to have a strong and vibrant manufacturing and industrial section; and
Whereas, the City of Flint's manufacturing and industrial sector has been experiencing a dramatic reduction in capacity and production over the last several decades, and these reductions have contributed significantly to the decline of our state and local economies; and
Whereas, on June 7, 2005, General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rick Wagoner, announced plans to reduce GM's manufacturing employment levels in the U.S. by 25,000 or more people in 2005 to 2008; and
Whereas, the U.S. automobile industry has $475 billion dollars of collective debt and its bond rating has been recently lowered, thus making filing for bankruptcy by the leading automobile manufacturers a very real possibility; and
Whereas, it is conceivable that the automobile industry's leading manufacturers could close most, if not all, of its factories in the United States which would cause a chain reaction of damage and devastate local suppliers and Delphi; and
Whereas, certain stop-gap measures and long-term actions should be adopted and implemented by Congress to forestall threats to our economy from the problems associated with the automotive and machine tool sections of our economy; and
Whereas, one of the key options is federal capital investment in diversification of the productive potential of the automotive and machine tool industries into a broader mixutre of production. Our nation needs to shift into the domain of essential capital goods and economic infrastructure, such as the repair, expansion and improvement of our national railway systems; maintenance and improvement of water management systems; and the development of other urgently-needed infrastructure projects. The result of this will be to save existing manufacturing jobs and create large new areas of employment in infrastructure and manufcturing for our citizenry in a manner comparable to the best of the New Deal programs that rescued the nation and the world from the ravages of the Great Depression; now,
Therefore, be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Flint, that this Council does hereby urge the United States Congress to intervene in the U.S. Automobile's current financial crisis so that we may ensure the continued viability of our automotive and machine tool industries.
