Gov. Whitmer Threatens To Close Auto Industry If People Do Not Obey Her Order
Michigan’s auto manufacturers are getting nervous after last week's threat by Whitmer stating that she could shut down auto factories in Michigan once again if residents don’t obey her order to wear masks. At a press conference last Wednesday she said:
If Michiganders don’t mask up when we go out in public, cases could rise and we could be forced to close down more of our businesses, including auto manufacturing plants that employ thousands. A second wave of this virus could be absolutely devastating
The Detroit Free Press is reporting that after Whitmer’s latest threat Eric Welter, UAW Local 598 shop chairman who represents the workers at a Flint Assembly plant said:
There’s a future at risk. This is our future...There is market demand right now. People want our product and if we don’t deliver that product, that’s our job security. So we have to push on, do it safely, but product demand is job security.
What Eric may not know is that Whitmer has never worked in the real world in a position that depended on supply and demand. She has no idea what supply and demand mean to a business and is showing she really does not have a concern about anyone’s life but her own. I would have like to have said she does not have a concern about anyone's life but those who could or have contracted COVID-19 but she proved that to be wrong when she sent COVID-19 positive patients to nursing homes which then caused many deaths in those homes and she has yet changed that policy or apologized for that.
Last Thursday Glenn Stevens the executive director of MICHauto, an economic development initiative of the Detroit Regional Chamber, committed to the Michigan automotive industry sent a letter to the Governor that stated:
no major COVID cases are tied to any Michigan auto facility...On behalf of Michigan’s automotive leaders, I urge you to resist the closure of our manufacturing facilities and allow these demonstrated safety protocols to continue working to keep our businesses open
During their last devastating shutdown via the orders of Whitmer, the Detroit Three automakers and the UAW created safety protocols. Since restarting their plants with those safety processes, there have been no coronavirus-related deaths according to the UAW.
All of you union members and the tens of thousands of people who will also be affected if Whitmer shuts down the manufacturing plants once again should ask yourselves do your lives and families matter to this Governor?