By Gus G. Sentementes , gus.sentementes@baltsun.com|December 03, 2008
Phillip Peay has reaped the benefits of working at a bustling port of Baltimore for the past 19 years. His employer, a port logistics company, has paid for most of his college education, and he, his wife and two children live in a house in Rosedale.
But the 38-year-old man is also concerned, because he knows his livelihood may depend on the Big Three automakers, specifically Chrysler LLC - the port's largest exporter of automobiles. After listening to Chrysler's president and others speak about the necessity of a federal bailout for the Big Three during a town hall-style meeting yesterday, Peay says he still has more questions about how the automakers will succeed.
He said he plans to follow their efforts closely as he and his colleagues wonder about their jobs.
"For the most part, everybody's getting 40 hours," Peay said outside an Amports ATC terminal in South Baltimore, where he works as a shop manager. "No cutbacks or layoffs, but you can see the work is slower than it has been in the past."
Leaders of the Big Three automakers head to Congress this week to rally support for a $25 billion bailout package as the economy lurches through a recession and car-buying plummets. Officials with Ford yesterday asked Congress for a $9 billion bridge loan and made other concessions, while officials with Chrysler and General Motors are expected to detail their business plans later this week.
James Press, Chrysler's president, meanwhile, said he's undertaken his own "whistle-stop trip" this week, to listen to ideas from workers connected to the auto industry about what the company needs to do to succeed. He stopped at an Amports ATC terminal in South Baltimore yesterday to talk to port workers.
"It's about saving jobs and preserving our way of life in America," Press told a gathering of port workers, government officials and reporters, while flanked by several different Chrysler models.
The visit came the same day that Chrysler announced that its November U.S. sales fell 47 percent. GM suffered a 41 percent drop, while Ford's decline was 31 percent.
Press also had plans today to meet with Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter and automotive industry interests in Philadelphia, followed by a visit to a car dealership in New Carrollton, Md., according to a Chrysler spokesman. It is part of a public relations push the automakers have launched in the face of skeptical, but worried, Americans who are still grappling with the prospect of a $700 billion dollar bailout for the country's financial markets.
