Tennessee Senator Is Whistling a New Tune
By Michelle Krebs April 10, 2009WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Corker, the "let the Big Three go bankrupt" Republican from
Tennessee, is now whistling a different tune since General Motors' potential bankruptcy could hit his state.
Corker, according to the Detroit Free Press, has been arguing in news releases, interviews and columns in Tennessee newspapers that GM should not close its assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant -- the one built in the 1980s to build Saturns and that now builds the Chevrolet Traverse. The plant now employs 3,000 voters --- er -- people.
In light of President Obama's recent directive that GM must cut deeper to obtain more government loans, industry experts say the Tenneessee plant is vulnerable to closure because it is farther from suppliers than another plant that could build the Traverse.
The Spring Hill plant became vulnerable awhile ago when GM spread the assembly of Saturn vehicles,
once made exclusively in Tennessee, throughout the rest of GM's manufacturing operations. The plant got a reprieve when GM selected it to build the Traverse.
However, GM could move the Traverse to a plant in Lansing, Michigan, that already assembles crossovers using the same underpinnings as the Traverse. Those are the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and the Saturn Outlook. The Saturn version will be dropped from the line when GM phases out the Saturn brand by 2011 under its viability plan.
Corker, whose state is also home to Nissan's headquarters and plants as well as the upcoming Volkswagen plant lured there by hefty incentives, was a leading critic of the domestic auto industry in last fall's Congressional hearings. In particular, he was critical of UAW wages and benefits and strongly suggested the automakers should just go into bankruptcy to restructure. He repeatedly insisted everybody should "take a haircut."
Just not his turf. Corker now insists that in a fair fight the Spring Hill plant would remain open but he suggests politics are playing a role. "If the decision is made absent of politics, it has a good chance of staying open," Corker told the Free Press.
Imagine -- politics entering the auto debate!
Photos by GM
1 - Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, right, looks over the Chevrolet Volt at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show with GM's chief designer Ed Welburn.
2 - Assembly of the Chevrolet Traverse could be moved from Spring Hill, Tennessee, to Lansing, Michigan.
LEAVE A COMMENT
Good article. Thanks for reporting on the hypocrisy Corker
continues to demonstrate........which also further underscores
the shallowness of his anti-Big 3 arguments and actions
Corker is an idiot but at least he knows how to whistle out of both sides of his mouth. Hopefully it is a talent that will keep him employed once he is tossed out of office.
ADD A COMMENT