10-07-06, 11:01 am

The latest announcement of plant closings and reductions by Ford has pushed things past the breaking point. They follow huge cuts by GM, Delphi, Johnson Control and others. They will leave Ford with less than 80,000 hourly and salaried U.S. workers, down from 130,000 in 2003. Between Ford and GM, about 30 plants are scheduled to close. All autoworkers and their communities are hard hit by these closings, but they are especially devastating for African American and Latino communities, already suffering years of discrimination and neglect.

Why are workers the ones who always suffer the consequences, when it is autoworkers whose labor has made billions for the auto companies? Global competition cannot be an excuse for CEOs to rain down destruction on autoworkers and their communities.

Everything unions have fought for throughout our history is being lost. We cannot sit idly and watch our communities be destroyed. A handful of corporate and Wall Street executives — who draw salaries in the tens of millions — are making decisions that are hurting hundreds of thousands of people.

Enough is enough!

We need an emergency program:

The factories scheduled to close can be used to build things this country needs like mass transit, light trains and buses. If the auto companies won’t keep them open, they should be nationalized for the public good. Companies have no “right” to ship our jobs overseas. No tax breaks for overseas investments. Enact HR 676, the Conyers bill, to provide national health care for all. No one in the United States should go without health care. Congress must pass the Employee Free Choice Act, making it possible to unionize the U.S. plants of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, and all other non-union factories. No foreclosures on homes of workers who have lost their jobs due to plant closings or permanent layoffs. Government must guarantee full pension and health care. CEOs get golden parachutes, while our pensions are in jeopardy. Emergency federal aid to communities hit by plant closings to preserve schools, emergency and other public services.

Our country has no shortage of money to provide these services, without raising taxes on working people.

Reverse Bush’s tax cuts that have given billions to the wealthy and big corporations. The war in Iraq was wrong from the beginning. It is our sons and daughters, not the children of the rich, who are being killed and maimed. Bring the troops home and let the people decide how to spend the $500 billion now being squandered in Iraq.

--Issued by Communist Party USA Auto Commission