Auto jobs matter

UAW members, families and supporters have worked hard in recent months to make the case for targeted federal assistance to the U.S. auto industry.

Ammunition to tell our story is available from the Level Field Institute, which has documented the jobs impact of domestic auto production. Fact sheets and briefing papers are available at its Web site: www.LevelFieldInstitute.org.

Data from Level Field tells why good paying union manufacturing jobs are so important: Chrysler, Ford and GM employ more workers, fund more research and development, and create more spinoff jobs than automakers that operate here but have their headquarters overseas.

What you drive, drives America: When it comes to supporting U.S. jobs and rebuilding our economy, the choice is clear. Public support for the domestic auto industry makes sense.

And for consumers who want their purchases to help drive the U.S. economic recovery, it also makes sense to buy quality, union-made cars and trucks.

A complete list is available at: www.uaw.org/uawmade/auto/2009/index.cfm.

One Detroit 3 autoworker supports nine other U.S. workers

Nearly 300,000 Americans work at domestic automaker assembly lines, stamping plants, research labs and offices across America. And nearly 3 million other Americans depend on those plants and labs for their jobs.

Each union autoworker supports nine other jobs, from parts suppliers to the local schools, hospitals and police stations that serve them.

Keeping Americans working

GM employs nearly as many Americans as all foreign automakers combined. Ford operates nearly as many assembly lines as Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai combined. Chrysler employs more U.S. workers than Honda, Hyundai and Volkswagen combined.

Automakers invest in the U.S. economy

Detroit 3 automakers:
• Buy much of the steel, rubber and semiconductors made in the United States.
• Are the country’s largest exporters.
• Have invested more than $230 billion in new plants and infrastructure over the past 25 years.

In just five years, from 2001 to 2005, Ford, GM and Chrysler invested more in U.S. plants and infrastructure than all the foreign automakers combined invested over the previous 25 years
($38.6 billion vs. $33 billion).