Russ Carnahan says leaders must hustle for Fenton plant
Russ Carnahan
WASHINGTON — Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, said today that the big bankruptcy today would lead to a “stronger, leaner Chrysler.”
He hopes. He hopes, too, that the Fenton plant is part of the future of the new Chrysler-Fiat merger taking place.
“This is going to be prime time to make the business case for the Fenton plant and its capabilities,” Carnahan told us a few minutes ago.
Carnahan, who had the benefit of a briefing today from the president’s Auto Task Force, described a fluid situation in coming weeks. Decisions that he described as fundamental to the new company’s future will be made by joint leadership of the two companies, and those leaders must be impressed with the Fenton plant and the St. Louis region.
What’s the case to be made? “There’s a half-billion-dollar investment there with flexible manufacturing. They can build virtually any car there, including to European standards. And they have an award-winning workforce … I think we can compare our plant and our worforce to anyone’s,” he said.
Carnahan said that local leaders, Gov. Jay Nixon’s state task force and Missouri’s congressional delegation must work together in this sales job and get to it quickly.
Carnahan spoke of the recent negotiations leading up to the bankruptcy, calling it ”absolutely remarkable that they got Chrysler and Fiat together, worked through an agreement with 70 percent of the debtors, the labor unions, the retirees … But they had these hedge funds that were trying to hold them up.”
“We’re at a really critical time,” he said, adding that “it’s great to have the president up there encouraging people to buy American cars.”
Did Russ every pay his roofing bill from a non-union shop? I thought the whole point of the bailouts was to create jobs? Don’t be fooled the economy is in free fall and all we are worried about is the flu?
Sorry, Russ, but it’s a lost cause. We need to focus on building a new base. My suggestion would be to focus on biotechnology.
Back before we had free trade the American auto industry provided us with cars that were cheaper and better than the cars produced in foreign countries. General Motors had a great advantage in economies of scale. That means that since they sold more cars they could spread fixed costs over more units giving them a cost per unit advantage over the others. For example they changed body style about ever two years. That is about how long the tools to make body parts lasted. When they changed body styles they were discarding tools that had worn out. The competition matched them but by discarding tools that were still good. GM could set the price of cars at a point below where the competition could prosper.
Free trade means that foreign car makers can use cheap foreign labor to do the same thing with all American car makers. They can set the price at a point where GM, Ford, and Chrysler slowly decline. The domestic industry will emerge with a lower cost structure but the basic problem is unchanged. Consumers will continue to get good deals until the domestic industry is killed off. Then you will pay big.
So just exactly what is Rep. Carnahan doing to “hustle for the Fenton plant?” I failed to see anything about that in the article.
With Russ and Jay on the job, how can we miss?
I really wish that my representative, Mr. Carnahan, had spent as much time responding to his constituents, as he had these issues. I have sent Rep. Carnahan multiple communications (both emails and stamped letters) and he has never replied to any of them. We need to clean house. If folks don’t agree, then keep voting him in. If not, let’s get rid of the whole bunch.
Carnahan is such a joke…..