Detroit Press Conference to Announce People's Summit Rally for Jobs

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, on right, with the MECAWI solidarity team which supported the UAW strike against American Axle. This photo was taken on Sunday, March 16, 2008. (Photo: Alan Pollock).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 7, 2009

Contact: Diane Feeley
Telephone Number: (h) 313-843-2125; (c) 734-272-7651
Email Address: feeleyd@earthlink.net
Websites: http://www.autoworkercaravan.org
http://www.peoplessummit.org

Press Conference to Announce a June 16 “Rally for Jobs” at the Renaissance Center targeting American Axle CEO Dick Dauch, ex-Michigan Governor John Engler

Organizers of an auto workers’ rally to be held June 16, 2009 in front of the GM World Headquarters/Renaissance Center will hold a press conference at 3:30 PM Tuesday, June 9th, at American Axle UAW Local 235 in Hamtramck, Michigan. The Local Hall is located at 2140 Holbrook St.

The purpose of the press conference and the planned rally is to highlight the urgent need to challenge the planned plant closings and layoffs which will result in massive unemployment beyond the already unacceptable levels affecting our region. The rally is timed to coincide with the scheduled appearances of two of the architects of these anti-worker policies: American Axle CEO Dick Dauch and ex-Michigan Governor, now head of the National Association of Manufacturers, John Engler.

The Auto workers’ rally is part of a 4-day “People’s Summit and Tent City (PSTC)” to be held at Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit June 14-17, 2009. The PSTC is a direct response to the National Business Summit convened by the Detroit Economic Club for the purpose of “Defining America’s Future.”

Autoworkers facing joblessness, retirees facing cuts in health care, homeowners faced with foreclosures, and their communities are outraged that corporate CEOs, government representatives and persons from academia are gathering in our devastated city to decide our future without the input of those whose lives have been most disrupted by their policies.

Participants in the “People’s Summit and Tent City,” and auto workers will gather at 12:00 Noon at the Renaissance Center on Tuesday, June 16.

“We intend to make ourselves heard,” said Frank Hammer, a retired GM employee, former President and Chairman of UAW Local 909 in Warren, Michigan, and an activist with the rank and file group “Autoworker Caravan.” “There can be no viable plan for ‘America’s Future,’ with the people who have the most to lose shut out of the process.”