By Mark Scott
Lockport, NY – The United Auto Workers Union will hold a rally outside the Delphi Corporation's Lockport plant on Wednesday to highlight the plant's importance to the Western New York economy.
The UAW has termed as unacceptable a demand by Delphi management to lower wages to below ten dollars an hour. The auto parts maker filed for bankruptcy protection in October.
But UAW Region 9 Director Kevin Donovan says cutting employee salaries is not the answer. He says that would only lead to more economic hard times for the region.
"You know I walk around the different circles throughout the community, and I hear people saying, well...they're making way too much money, and so forth. Well, each one of those people who work in that plant is a neighbor, is a family member, is a taxpayer," said Donovan.
"It's somebody who puts money back into the community somehow, either by buying products at the local grocery store, or down the street buying stuff at Kaufmans or the Bon Ton, or something like that, which keeps the economy going in Western New York," said Donovan.
Donovan says he's also deeply concerned about last week's announcement by General Motors that it's closing nine North American plants and cutting 30-thousand jobs.
The union leader says he doesn't like where the American automotive industry is headed.
"Ford has already said that by 2010 all of their parts are going to be bought from China," said Donovan. "What does that say to the American people? We want you to buy our product, but we're not going to support you here. We're not going to be putting money into your pocket so you can buy our product."
Donovan says the long-term solution to the problem facing the U.S. auto industry is for the government to change its trade policies to preserve good-paying American jobs.
Wednesday's Delphi rally begins at 12:00 noon in front of Plant 7 on Upper Mountain Road.