By: Marc Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
A loud and incessant car alarm is going off in the American economy warning of the potential loss of more than 2 million jobs, and Congress and the President are the only ones who can shut it off. We suggest they do so by extending to the troubled auto companies a $25 billion bridge loan that requires a detailed plan of "innovation, accountability and viability," as called for by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The automakers did not help themselves a few weeks ago, when they flew into Washington on private jets looking for a slice of the $700 billion of taxpayer bailout money that has so far only been extended to the financial sector. The auto executives had no plan for how the money would be used and gave no assurances that they would not be back again. But they have another chance this week to present a detailed bailout plan that may include limits on executive compensation, the elimination of some product lines, a shift to green technology and concessions by labor.
We at the National Urban League support a bailout with conditions for several reasons. First, this is not about rescuing corporate executives. It is about saving hundreds of thousands of autoworker jobs, and millions more if you include suppliers and other related industries that together make up about 2 percent of the nation's labor force. We have felt all along that the centerpiece of any economic bailout must be a plan to put America back to work. Helping the auto industry get back on its feet is critical to that approach.
Second, the decline in auto manufacturing jobs has already had a disproportionately devastating effect on African Americans. If the car companies crumble who do you think will be at the bottom of the pile? One of the big reasons many southern blacks migrated north to cities like Detroit after World War II was the prospect of good paying jobs with Ford, GM or Chrysler. While the doors to those jobs were slow to open, once they did, they played a major role in the rise of the black middle class and the creation of strong urban economies.
However, with the decentralization of manufacturing and the general decline in the auto industry in recent years, African Americans have lost an important lifeline to the American Dream. A report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that in 1979, 2.1 percent of all African American workers were employed in automobile manufacturing. By 2004, this share had fallen by more than one-third to 1.3 percent, while declines for White and Hispanic auto workers fell by just 0.2 percent. Clearly, if the auto industry crashes, African Americans will suffer the worst injuries.
Finally, we believe this crisis offers the auto industry an opportunity to make significant reforms, including retooling for clean technology and energy independence that will fuel industry growth and create new jobs. As President-elect Obama has stated, we can not allow the car companies to "simply vanish." If we do, millions of jobs will vanish along with them.
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