Bond: Auto industry needs to stay afloat

FENTON, Mo. -- Autoworkers, suppliers, dealers and government and school leaders on Monday described the cascading effects of the auto industry's financial crisis and urged federal aid.

They said the auto industry's slowdown is cutting work orders, forcing layoffs, depleting reserves for the state's fourth-largest school district -- Rockwood -- and hurting charities that depend on well-paid workers' largesse.

They discussed the ripple effects with Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., in Fenton, where Chrysler closed one plant and slashed production at another.

Bond said millions of jobs are at stake. He hopes for passage of a bipartisan compromise package when Congress returns Dec. 8. Further delays would be devastating, he said.

"When the plants close here, it's a domino effect," said Joseph Clark, owner of Lumbee Enterprises, a quality control company that serves the auto industry. "If the Big Three file bankruptcy, the domino effect will be huge."

Bond is co-sponsoring a plan to divert a $25 billion loan program created by Congress in September -- designed to help the companies develop more fuel-efficient vehicles -- to meet the auto giants' immediate financial needs.

Bond, along with Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, and Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, have been trying to placate skeptical Democrats by including a guarantee that the fuel-efficiency loan fund would ultimately be replenished.

Bond said the package is needed to keep the industry alive, and that 225,000 jobs in Missouri alone are connected to the auto industry.

He said he's heard from many skeptical constituents who don't want Congress to bail out the auto industry. But, he said, they need to hear how not helping the auto industry will hurt the entire economy.

"Missouri's economy cannot stand the blow of seeing the auto industry go under," Bond said.

Allen Cassens said his Cassens Transport Co., which ships new vehicles produced in Missouri, has slashed its work force from 180 employees to 50 in recent weeks.

Frank Gualdoni, plant manager of Chrysler's north plant, said high gas prices in the recent past and tight credit reduced demand for vehicles in this market by 30 percent. He said the industry needs help to get through 2009 and return to profitability.

Tyree Minner, plant manager of Chrysler's south plant, which built minivans, said last year's 3,000-person work force has been slashed to 100. "We need consumer confidence and a financial base to bridge ourselves," he said. "We have good products. We just need time."

David Glaser, chief financial officer of the Rockwood School District, said Chrysler -- the district's largest taxpayer -- pays roughly $4 million a year in property taxes.

"If Chrysler jobs decline, there'll be a lot of ripple effect," he said.