Saturday, December 22, 2007

Links for other information on St. Paul Ford Plant

http://capitalistglobalization.blogspot.com/

http://gushallactionclub.blogspot.com/

http://alanmaki.blogspot.com/

My Letter to Editor of Fort Wayne Journal Gazette and how it relates.

In St. Paul, 2,000 workers are threatened displacement. I, along with others, have called for public ownership of the St. Paul Twin Cities Ford Assembly Plant and Hydro Dam. In my attempts, I have sent a letter to the Journal Gazette, as posted below:


"Dear Editor of Journal Gazette:

What's happening in Minnesota with a Ford Plant is connected to the plant closings that have occured here in our state. I am a high school freshman, but I do know that public ownership of the St. Paul, MN Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant would keep the plant open and guarantee job security. Public ownership is when the government takes over a plant and runs it for the benefit of the people. Public ownership would remove corporate profits out of consideration altogether and keep the plant operating. In France, public ownership of the train industry produced great trains such as the LTV.

2,000 jobs are at stake and must be saved in St. Paul, MN. We have a simular situation in Indiana. Remember the closings of many Fort Wayne Plants that have occurred? Last year alone we lost 17,208 jobs due to plant closings. In 1983, the International Harvestor Truck Plant closed. And remember how plant closings figured into the United Auto Workers vs. the Big Three Automakers situation. Plant closings are a national crisis that ruins communities and worker's lives. My friend in Minnesota has shown me a resolution that he and his friends are taking to their precinct caucuses. It reads:

Resolution 1. Resolution 0n the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant/Hydro Dam and 2,000 Union Jobs.

Where as Ford Motor Company has stated its intent to close the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant, sell the hydro dam to a foreign corporation, and displace two-thousand workers in the near future without consultation from the workers, the community, or local and state governments;

Where as this plant, its operations, and the hydro dam have received continued support from every level of government including tax-payer funding, tax-breaks and tax abatements under promises to maintain manufacturing operations and with assurances workers would have job security in St. Paul, Minnesota;

Therefore be it resolved public ownership should be used to save this plant, hydro dam, and two-thousand jobs."

I believe that people who have seen the disaster of plant closings can help people in Minnesota. You may write a letter to a local state representative or your local newspaper calling for public ownership of plants here and in MN. You may bring up the issue at work or in school of how public ownership would prevent plant closings and save jobs. There are many alternatives than to allow 2,000 union workers in Minnesota and other workers around the nation to lose jobs and not be able to support a family. Public ownership is the answer."