As published in the Lansing State Journal
October 30, 2008
Staff and wire reports
The mayor of Michigan’s third-largest city says state officials have called an emergency meeting of local governments to discuss General Motors Corp.’s possible acquisition of Chrysler LLC.
Warren Mayor Jim Fouts said today the meeting will take place at Warren city hall Friday morning. He said the Michigan Economic Development Corp. contacted him Wednesday.
Officials from cities with Chrysler or GM facilities have been invited to discuss the impact if the automakers merge.
It was not clear if Lansing and Delta Township officials would be represented. The city and the township have four GM facilities between them — the Lansing Grand River and Lansing Delta Township assembly plants, Lansing Regional Stamping facility and the Lansing Service Parts Operation.
Fouts said today the short notice for the meeting leads him to believe an announcement could be coming soon.
Detroit-based and New York’s Cerberus Capital Management LP, which owns Chrysler, are in talks to combine the automakers in order to survive, but financing is one of the biggest obstacles.
GM has been lobbying in Washington for the federal government to put money into the deal.
Meanwhile, the governors of six states have sent a letter to federal officials asking they take “immediate action” to help the troubled domestic automakers.
In their letter, the governors of Michigan, Delaware, Kentucky, New York, Ohio and South Dakota remind Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the domestic automakers are “particularly challenged” in the down economy.
They warn that the financial well-being of other major industries and millions of American citizens are “at risk.”
[...] I was reading the news stories the other day about the Boeing machinists strike and the potential sale of Chrysler. Interestingly both those companies are headed by former GE executives. My friends at the GE plant [...]