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KOHL MEETS WITH KEY AUTO INDUSTRY RESTRUCTURING OFFICIAL ON BEHALF OF KENOSHA’S CHRYSLER PLANT
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Herb Kohl this morning met with Steven Rattner, the U.S. Treasury Department’s lead advisor charged with restructuring the U.S. auto industry, on behalf of Kenosha’s Chrysler plant during a closed meeting of the Senate Banking Committee. Chrysler revealed last week that it plans to close its Kenosha facility and eliminate the 800 jobs there as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. Rattner, cofounder of a private equity firm, is a key member of the interagency task force established by the Administration to restructure the auto industry and oversee the bailout loans to save the car manufacturers and the thousands of jobs that are dependent upon them. Kohl joined the Banking Committee at the beginning of the current Congress.
“It’s galling that a company that came here, hat in hand, to plead for taxpayer money to survive would turn around and move jobs out of the country. There is no place that Chrysler will find better skilled workers than they have in Wisconsin, and it’s important for the people making these decisions to understand that. It makes no sense to shutter the Kenosha facility and spend money to expand production elsewhere with unproven workers,” Kohl said.
The closed committee meeting was off-the-record, but Kohl said he conveyed a similar message to Rattner on behalf of Chrysler’s Kenosha employees.
Chrysler has received hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer financed loans to stay afloat as part of the economic stimulus package in an effort to save jobs. Chrysler has filed for Chapter 11 protection and recently announced that it is partnering with automaker Fiat in an effort to remain competitive. Chrysler’s employees have already made wage and benefit concessions to help the company survive.