Big 3 need help or we all sink... sooner or later

The Big Three Automakers lobbied Congress this week for billions. With the vote pushed back until December, tough questions remain for me:

1 - Where will lawmakers get the dough from - the existing $700 billion "Wall Street" bailout or an entirely new auto package?

2 - What steps will auto executives take to make the company financially sound?

3 - How will labor agreements be affected?

4 - Will retirees be forgotten or pushed aside, like countless steel company examples?

5 - What happens to our communities, small businesses, schools, and government agencies if there is no rescue?

Why should public employees care about auto workers? It's not just about them... it's about our jobs, too, and communities, as Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola stressed during his foot tour of Ohio, dubbed Road to Recovery.

Ohio simply cannot afford to lose any more jobs. According to today's Dispatch Politics blog,

Jobs are disappearing, including 17,600 in Ohio during the past year, retail sales are declining, and state revenue last month was $96 million less than estimates that already had been revised downward in August.

An auto industry bailout, $25 billion proposed to date, will not help only GM, Ford, and Chrsyler and their employees. All of us in the mid-west, especially communities scattered throughout Ohio and Michigan, will gain by keeping these giants afloat. Parts suppliers, numerous businesses, dealers, school systems, and local governments and their employees are all impacted by both the revenue and tax dollars generated by the auto industry.

It's also important to remember that the Big Three have labor contracts and obligations to current employees as well as retirees. It's very troubling, to say the least, to hear silver-spooned politicians like Mitt Romney, (R) former Mass. Governor, refer to retiree pensions and health care benefits as "burdens" for the Big Three rather than financial obligations.

As the daughter or a GM-UAW retiree, I worry that without the right kind of help, auto makers will fail to deliver on these union-negotiated, worker-earned benefits. According to the AFL-CIO Now Blog, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says that such a failure would indeed create horrible results for the entire nation -- weakening labor unions, placing more demand on a drained unemployment fund, and damaging state government budgets nationwide.

We've already lost steel; Americans cannot afford to lose auto entirely. I say: Bailout the auto industry with a package from the government and consumer loyalty from car buyers. As union members, do your part to help the Big Three compete without busting unions by, in Romney's words, "get[ting] rid of excess labor costs." In fact, the next time you car shop, consider these "6 myths about the Detroit 3" covered by the Detroit Free Press.

I'm not sure if Romney's intentions are good or not. It's hard for me, personally, to hear through all his clanging and banging about unloading retiree benefits and labor costs. However, I did like one thing that Romney had to say in his recent Op-Ed in The New York Times: "Cut executive pay and perks." I've been asking my dad about this cost cutter for years, especially anytime we would hear about possible layoffs or plant closures.

Hopefully, with new leaders in Washington who respect Labor, we won't have to kiss goodbye the American auto industry or our strong unions.