Suppliers have been hurt by auto industry's outsourcing

Posted by Robert F. Mollic, Girard December 03, 2008 04:49AM

Categories: Letters

I would like to add suppliers of the American auto industry to the proposed government bailout list.

I've been a supplier to the auto and electronics industries since 1969. Over the years, normal business cycles resulted in periods of good earnings and poor. This is a reality that anyone in business accepts as normal. However, for the past seven years my business has deteriorated to the point that I can now be considered a part-time worker.

This is the direct result not of normal business cycles, but of the current business practice of outsourcing work overseas. Offshore suppliers are not burdened by costs related to Social Security, employee medical insurance, OSHA and EPA regulations, etc., nor are they required by law or conscience to pay their workers what we all consider to be a fair living wage.

I find it ironic that I am now being asked to pay for the gross mismanagement of the same auto industry whose practices have devastated my business. The automakers should be asking the beneficiaries of their outsourcing practices for help, not the companies those same practices have so negatively impacted. These executives have shown no concern for the fate of American suppliers and their employees and families, from whom they are now begging for money.

Management is not exclusively responsible for the financial crisis of the auto industry. The United Auto Workers union needs to accept some responsibility.

My sacrifices, as well as those made by other suppliers, have been significant. Before my tax money is used to bail out the industry, it would be good to know that the autoworkers are making sacrifices other than greater contributions to their health care costs and allowing new hires to earn less than half longtime employees' wages (no personal sacrifice at all to most UAW members).