|
Congress seeks car industry bailout
 Democratic congressmen call on the Bush administration to offer more financial assistance to US automakers in the face of a nationwide recession.
A downward spiral in auto sales resulting from lower purchasing power among Americans - who are more concerned with paying their mortgage and feeding their families than buying new cars - has led to the cut of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the US. "A healthy automobile manufacturing sector is essential to the restoration of financial market stability, the overall health of our economy, and the livelihood of the automobile sector's work force," the letter read. "The economic downturn and the crisis in our financial markets further imperiled our domestic automobile industry and its work force," it said. Officials from top automating companies of General Motors, Ford, Chrysler LLC as well as the president of the United Auto Workers held talks with congressional leaders on Thursday to discuss the prospect of an additional USD 50b loan. General Motors, the biggest US automaker, said on Friday that about 3,600 workers would be laid off indefinitely beginning early next year as the automaker slows down production at 10 of its assembly plants. The second-largest American automaker, Ford also announced it would slash more than 2,000 white collar jobs. This is while speculations of a possible General Motors-Chrysler merger, raised last week, would result in the loss of some 200,000 jobs throughout the United State. Posted by: Fred 2008-11-09 |
|
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=254709 |