The automotive market cannot sustain three Detroit car companies, making a merger of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC a more palatable option for the industry than allowing one of the Big Three to go bankrupt, Patrick Anderson, principal and CEO of Anderson Economic Group said today.
And even the best-case scenarios are likely to result in the loss of up to 70,000 jobs including as many as 35,000 blue- and white-collar jobs lost in Michigan.
... or it can get really, really bad.
“It’s a much bigger job loss and a much bigger taxpayer hit if Chrysler simply goes out of business or is dismantled,” Anderson said.
Chrysler employs about 49,000 people in the United States and has about 125,000 retirees and spouses.
So let's go back to the first scenario.
A tie-up with GM would still result in the closure of about 10 assembly plants, of which three (affecting 8,000 to 10,000 hourly workers) are likely to be in Michigan. The white collar ranks (technical and design jobs) would be in the 10,000 to 15,000 range in the state over a one- to two-year period.
Huge job losses would come from the supplier and dealer ranks and the job losses will be in all 50 states, he said.
Retool them to make wind turbines, maybe?
No easy answers to this one, except to keep working to diversify Michigan's economy and never, ever put all our eggs in one basket again.