"THE FORD STORY: FOMOCO'S ON-LINE PITCH FOR HELP

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As the high stakes "auto bailout" hearings continue in Washington D.C., Ford Motor Company is advertising its on-line pitch about how it has changed its ways.

The Ford Story presents FoMoCo's latest "Way Forward" plan to a skeptical public and an often hostile Congress.

At Ford, we are headed in a new direction. After turning a profit this year in the first quarter and making significant progress on cost reductions, we were hit by a spike in gas prices, followed by the current credit crisis. But instead of focusing on our challenges, we’d like you to know how very far Ford has come and how we’re doing business differently.

Ford's actual plan submitted to the Feds is here

Important data on Ford's Economic Footprint is here

Still, the Detroit haters are making a rhetorical full-court press to destroy the Detroit 3. The automakers' Tokyo Rose -- Alabama Senator Richard Shelby -- is a veritable quote machine of anti-American, Anti-Detroit 3 bile:

I don't know how they're going to make it . . . If they called this a plan to get money, the bankers all over the world would laugh."

Even UAW boss Ron Gettelfinger apparently sees the inevitable Hobson's Choice facing his union and the Detroit 3:

"I believe we could lose General Motors by the end of this month."

The Associated Press is reporting the emerging plan looks to put the Federal Government deeply into the automotive business.

[M]embers of Congress and the Big Three both were contemplating a government-run restructuring that would yield similar results [to a pre-packaged Bankruptcy plan], including massive downsizing and labor givebacks.

The stress of the drama is making some UAW families go crazy.

One FoMoCo UAW wife vented to Ford with pain and passion:

Is the American government really trying to shake down the UAW?

I mean come on whats really going on here? Is our government really that stupid or blind? The big 3 [sic] is asking for a LOAN not a BAILOUT! Citybank [sic] goes to them for a BAILOUT and then goes back and asks for more. Did they torture that company or AIG? No but here the ALMIGHTY GOVERNMENT sits up on their so called pedestals and asks our MAJOR employers of the USA to cut this and cut that.

Would our Government cut their pay or their benefits? Start at the top and work your way down not at the low guy who is already struggling! They really have some NERVE!The GOVERNMENT helped Toyota years ago when they were going under on the brink of bankruptcy! Do you all know that? Why are they letting our AMERICAN automakers SUFFER and BEG??? [sic]

This is bull! . . . PEOPLE GET THE WORD BAILOUT OUT OF YOUR MIND. IT'S NOT A BAILOUT THEY ARE ASKING FOR.IT IS A L O A N!

Congress needs to be ashamed. They get free benefits,their social security [sic] is guaranteed,and they are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a YEAR! Tell THEM to give all that up and see if they like it! . . . Come on people support our automakers because this is going to affect everyone here in AMERICA not just the workers of the Big 3. If the Big 3 starts cutting the wages of those workers the foreclosure and repos are going to skyrocket! Those people in congress need to live a day in an average AMERICAN families shoes. Could they survive? . . . .

To be certain, Gettelfinger would not be acknowledging the need for give-backs and contract changes if the situation was anything other than dire.

But the plain truth is that the Detroit 3 simply must obtain competitive labor costs or they will prove Detroit haters like Senator Shelby correct.

The UAW rank and file should see that it's better to save some jobs at a lower level of pay and benefits than it would be to lose them all.

But it will be very painful, indeed.