Area auto industry workers sometimes feel like they are sitting on a time bomb. Did China Save Nexteer From Bankruptcy? Brits Seem to Think So -- We Don't
|
||||||||||
| Printer Friendly Story View |
Area auto industry workers sometimes feel like they are sitting on a time bomb.
And they are nervous for good reason -- in Saginaw thousands are working for a repressive Chinese regime that virtually owns the United States.
Workers will find out this week if its government really has the courage to face up to China.
British television channel 4 is airing a program filmed in Saginaw last weekend spotlighting the Chinese acquisition of Nexteer, formerly Delphi.
MyBayCity.com got a call from the British TV station, inquiring whether there were any other "dissenters" to the Nexteer/China deal. We could find only U.S. Rep. Dale F. Kildee who was willing to be publicly be dubious.
(See MyBayCity.com "Nexteer/China" Dec. 12, 2010.)
Apparently the British show is designed to continue to mollify the rapacious Chinese, who some local observers think is just in Saginaw for five years to acquire the 1,000 patents in Nexteer's safe.
Said British TV star Sarah Smith: "In Saginaw, Michigan they don't know whether to love or hate Chinese economic might. One of their major employers Nexteer Auto, was about to go bust when the Chinese stepped in and bought the firm. 3,000 jobs were saved, but at the cost of US dignity.
The Brits seem to have discovered retroactively a concept we hadn't heard -- that the Chinese saved Nexteer from bankruptcy. Well, Delphi already had been bankrupt twice, and the reincarnation of the firm through downsizing seemed to be doing quite well.
General Motors may have peddled Nexteer to escape pension and other costly obligations and help its longterm bottom line, according to some local business observers.
Or perhaps GM was cutting a deal to sell out Nexteer in exchange for rights to manufacture its new minicar in China, or to sell more cars to the country some say soon will be the world's largest car market.
Ms. Smith, however, was right on when she said: "When something as iconically American as the auto industry is being bought by the Chinese it feeds American fears that their economy is about to be overwhelmed by China's."
"As President Hu Jintao of China prepares to visit the United States, Sarah Smith looks at whether the Chinese are helping the US economy or trying to take it over," states the TV station on its website.
Getting tough with China -- which has been eating our lunch for years and now is preparing for dinner -- is the stated theme in Washington.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has aptly said: "How do you get tough with your banker?"
She was referring to the fact that China owns about $1 trillion in U.S. debt. "China is both financial friend and foe," said the TV station.
Former UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said last year: "For too long, our government has sat on the sidelines while other nations take advantage of the most open market in the world."
China's gaming of the global trade system has struck U.S. auto manufacturing hard, by some accounts costing millions of jobs. China must be held to its World Trade Organization commitments, including dismantling its national automotive industrial policy, Gettelfinger said.
China's unfair advantage over American workers includes such policies as environmental and worker health and safety standards, and the repression of labor rights, especially low wages.
The red carpet (wink, wink) is awaiting Chinese President Hu Jintao when he arrives today in the US for his first official state visit.
Vice President Biden will be on the tarmac waiting to greet him and then will rush to the White House to lay out the napkins for his meal and brush off his chair. On Wednesday a very grand state banquet will be held in Hu's honor, only the second official banquet hosted by the Obamas. The first was for Indian PM Manmohan Singh.
The truth is that the Chinese have far more money to spend than Americans these days. They are the ones who can afford to buy up parts of the ailing US car industry and have money left over to invest in further expansion. The only American firm bidding to buy Nexteer wanted to "downsize and consolidate operations," opined the British. "In other words cut jobs and shrink production. Pacific Century - the new Chinese owners - want to expand and can afford to make that happen."
"It's the biggest deal of its kind in America and it will test just how much inward investment - from China into America - the US can stomach.
"People were initially worried that Pacific Century might just move the whole operation to China. Others are convinced that this Chinese firm only bought Nexteer because they wanted to get their hands on the one thousand unique patents that Nexteer owns.
"Those patents that could help to build the emerging Chinese car industry. But Pacific Century seems to be committed to Saginaw for the next five years at least.
"The Chinese want to make this deal work because they are increasingly looking for places to invest their money and they want to be welcome in the US," concludes the British station.
If the welcome lasts only five years and the Chinese say "sayonara," then from Saginaw to Washington to London we'll have egg on our faces.
We don't know anyone willing to bet their jobs on that not happening. Except 3,000 UAW members who are forced to take that gamble.
| Printer Friendly Story View |
|
|
Dave Rogers |
|
|
|
Printer-Friendly Story View
0200 Nd: 04-14-2024 d 4 cpr 0
12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm
SPONSORED LINKS
12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm