Auto workers decry "attack on middle class"

By Nick Carey

WARREN, Michigan (Reuters) - About 200 workers and a few local politicians gathered in this Detroit suburb on Tuesday to protest wage cuts and other concessions demanded by the Bush administration's bailout for the struggling U.S. auto industry.

"The call for wage cuts is an attack on the middle class," said Rex Lux, a truck driver at Chrysler LLC who had come to the rally to show his support for organized labor. "The middle class send their kids to college, they buy cars and they keep the American economy going.

"Why break the middle class?" he asked.

The $17.4 billion federal bailout for U.S. automakers announced in December included required labor concessions.

General Motors Corp M and Chrysler -- controlled by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP -- have received $4 billion each from the U.S. Treasury and GM has been promised another $9.4 billion.

Under the loans' terms, for example, GM has until the end of 2009 to get the United Auto Workers union to accept hourly wage costs and work rules competitive with the non-union plants in the United States run by Toyota, Honda and Nissan.

The UAW must also take half of the $21 billion that has been pledged by GM for retiree health care in stock in the restructured automaker, not cash. Further job cuts and plant closures are also expected.

Warren Mayor James Fouts told the protesters gathered in the City Hall's atrium that GM and Chrysler are the city's top taxpayers and account for 15 percent of his budget.