Word: chryslers
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...over whether to bail out the ailing U.S. auto industry has shown, that distinction is as tired and broken as the Big Three's business models. In fact, the political game of chicken that ended Friday with President Bush announcing a temporary $17 billion aid package for GM and Chrysler to stave off the immediate threat of bankruptcy has shown the rest of the country what the South has known for years: led by foreign carmakers like Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, Dixie is now Detroit's rival in auto production...
...When Southern politicians like Alabama Senator Richard Shelby blocked a $15 billion congressional bailout for Chrysler and GM, they gave their constituents something just as valuable as pork: some regional self-esteem, if not outright revenge. The Big Three automakers, Shelby insisted last week, "have basically failed" because of their bloated, rigid and outdated manufacturing methods, while the South's lower costs and more flexible management schemes are the new exemplar...
...says Merle Black of Emory University in Atlanta, a southern politics expert. "A lot of southerners feel they've been talked down to for a long time by northern industry, so he doesn't lose any votes by doing this." Jason Ray, who has worked for both Mercedes and Chrysler in Hunstville, Ala., says the Big Three "have engineered a doomsday scenario where if they aren't allowed to continue being irresponsible with money, including the billions from taxpayers, the U.S. economy will crash. American automakers need to learn to grow with the times or become obsolete...
...Dodge's parent company, Chrysler, isn't quite so optimistic. On Dec. 19, the Big Three automaker closed all of its factories for a month - twice as long as the usual year-end shutdown. Chrysler's sales were down 47% in November, even worse than the 37% decline for the industry over all. And all the grim headlines about Detroit's uncertain future aren't helping local salesman. At this sprawling dealership in suburban Kansas City, the biggest problem facing auto salesmen is squeamish buyers spooked by too much talk about bailouts and bankruptcies. "Our problem is getting them...
...strong economy is a strong middle class, and the key to a strong middle class is union bargaining. They point to heroes of the movement like Walter Reuther, the famed head of the United Auto Workers, who once famously noted that his workers were also Chrysler's best customers. "What studies show is that every time there's been a strong labor movement, there's been a strong middle class," says Janice Fine, a professor at Rutgers University's School of Management and Labor Relations...