Look who wants to protect a GM plant

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Look who wants to protect a GM plant
Corker wants to save jobs
BY TODD SPANGLER • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF • APRIL 10, 2009


WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a leading critic of the domestic auto industry's management during congressional debate last year who tried to force UAW pay cuts, now is fighting like a Michigan Democrat to keep a General Motors plant open in his home state.

Over the last few weeks, Corker -- in a news release, in interviews and in a column in the Tennessean newspaper -- has argued that in a fair fight, the GM Spring Hill plant, which makes the popular midsize Chevrolet Traverse SUV, would be a survivor.

Industry experts, though, said it is vulnerable to closure -- because it's farther from suppliers than another plant that could turn out the Traverse.

Corker's concern, he told the Free Press this week, is that decisions on plant closings -- as GM cuts deeper to meet the Obama administration's mandate for more government help -- will be based more on politics than what's best for the company.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20090410/BUSINESS01/904100306/Look+who+s+fighting+for+GM+plant

---

Is anyone surprised by this sonofabitch?

[TBF]

1. Republicans will only do something to help people if it's in their economic interest.

Hopefully dems will not make the same mistake.

[DCKit]

22. That's an awfully broad brush you're wielding. The same could be said of the DLCers and Dinos.

Too many of "ours" represent corporations instead of constituents.

Healthcare reform is going to be the test - at least a major test - of who's for and who's agin' (US).

[PassingFair]

2. We lost a lot of our population to Tennessee at the beginning of this...

depression here in Michigan.

3 of my neighbors moved there in
2003 alone. They all worked in
auto supply industries.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Wish GM would close Spring Hill first.

[Lucky Luciano]

6. Oh come on...makes no sense to unemploy Tennessee working

class folks just to spite Corker.

[Downwinder]

9. You can be sure that if they keep the plant open Corker will take credit.

[DBoon]

10. Exactly

Isn't it hard enough for people in TN?

[Winterblues]

11. It was those Tennessee workers that elected Corker so I'm sure they are happy about it.

:shrug: If any plant has to be closed then it should be in Corker's district. Let his constituents have what they paid for..

[Romulox]

15. Er, the Senator that Tennesseans voted for is trying to destroy my hometown

Of course it makes sense to close the Spring Hill plant first. Maybe then, Tennesseans will vote for a decent man to represent them in the Senate.

[Lucky Luciano]

16. I take it you don't work at the Spring Hill plant and are in no way

dependent on it. I dunno...even if the workers there voted for him, which is not clear, it does not mean we should not sympathize with them. Some people got hoodwinked - and I do not hate such people - I have sympathy for them and hope they get educated if they indeed voted for Corker.

[Romulox]

20. And I take it that you don't live in the metro-Detroit region

My first sympathies lie with the workers in my hometown. Of course I sympathize with UAW workers in Tenn. However, as between them and my own, the choice is simple.

[PatGund]

19. I'm surprised they don't....

Spring Hill was built as a plant for Saturns, back when Saturn was supposed to be the US showing that we could build a car as revolutionary and affordable as Japan could.

Back before GM decided to put a stop to Saturn's quasi-independence and decided instead to make it Just Another GM Marque. Since then, it's become increasingly obvious GM wants to wash their hands of Saturn and anything to do with them as fast as possible.

I'm on my 3rd Saturn now. And when it finally goes, I strongly doubt the replacement will be a GM vehicle of any marque.

[Blue_Tires]

4. I'm also waiting for Bunning to have teary-eyed appeals on TV

if the Corvette plant and museum are ever moved away from Bowling Green

[Alcibiades]

5. The Free Press really should rename its website

The "Freep" link always makes me do a double-take.

[Lucky Luciano]

8. I don't know much about the Detroit Free Press except

that I usually note that their articles are worth reading.

Would you say that the DFP is, in general, a pretty good paper?

[Bozita]

13. DFP has always been Detroit's "liberal" paper. The DN has always been rabid Republicon.

The Freep's quality has diminished in recent years. But that's also true of every other paper in the country. The whole corporate thing.

[knitter4democracy]

17. I always get one if I see them.

It's a good paper with good reporting overall.

[Alcibiades]

18. It's a good paper

Or, at least it was back when I lived in MI. I do think that calling their website "Freep" is just an unfortunate coincidence.

[Romulox]

21. The Free Press has been around since 1831. Let that OTHER sight change its name!

[gizmo1979]

7. What an ass

He's getting a nasty e-mail from me.

[samplegirl]

12. Not a bit.........

the biggest Union busting peice of shit.

Ohio is being hit hard by this too............it's all about votes for this jackass......I hear the people in Tenn. hate him!!!!!!!

[dogfacedboy]

14. Then why did they vote for him? n/t

[DCKit]

23. You're assuming they did.

I figure far too many in Congress owe their seats to "Kkkarl's math" and E&S/Diebold/Sequoia. Just as it took more than a slim margin to get Obama into the WH, we didn't pick up all the deserved (D) seats in the House and Senate last year.

[NashVegas]

24. You Had To See This One Coming

Thanks, Bob.