GM Closures

Topics:  General Motors

Senator Sherrod Brown
Congressional Record: 116th Congress
14 March 2019

  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I concur with the comments of my friend 
from Montana. I know what this President wants to potentially do to the 
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and to the air bases in Springfield, in 
my hometown of Mansfield, in Youngstown, and in Toledo in my State and 
so much more.
  Last week, we got yet another clear illustration of whose side 
President Trump is on. All week, we got news of favor after favor from 
the Trump administration in what it is doing for Wall Street. The White 
House looks

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like a retreat for Wall Street executives except on the days it looks 
like a retreat for drug company executives.
  Wall Street banks have complained to the President about the Volcker 
rule. That is the rule that stops the big banks from taking big risks 
with American families' money. Wall Street didn't like it, but it had 
passed this Congress a decade ago. The rules were being written far too 
slowly because of Wall Street's influence even during the Obama years, 
but because Wall Street didn't like it, the Trump administration agreed 
to rewrite them. The Wall Street banks complained that even the rewrite 
was not weak enough, so the administration reportedly is going to water 
it down even further.
  Secretary Mnuchin, the Secretary of the Treasury--another Wall Street 
guy who was appointed by this President--announced he is going to go 
easier on shadow banks, and the Fed announced it would make it easier 
for big banks to pass the annual stress test. It is like this body and 
Senator McConnell, who is down the hall, have forgotten what happened 
10 years ago. It is this collective amnesia that has worked its virus 
through this body and through the administration so that people forget 
what happened 10 years ago with regard to our economy.
  My wife and I live in Cleveland, OH--ZIP Code 44105. In the first 
half of 2007, that ZIP Code had more foreclosures than any ZIP Code in 
the United States. I see what happens when people lose their homes. I 
think about what happens to families who have to explain it to their 
children, who have to give away their pets, who have to move to new 
school districts--all the things that happen to families when their 
homes are foreclosed on or when they are evicted from their apartments. 
Yet none of these executives seem to mind. None of these executives 
have to have those conversations. Nobody in the Trump administration 
has to have those conversations with one's kids.
  The Trump administration is weakening the stress test. It is 
weakening some of the capital. It is simply doing Wall Street's bidding 
over and over--and that was just last week. Of course, we know that 
comes after 2 years of this President's and this Congress's doing Wall 
Street's bidding.
  To me, the one what was even more personal was how this 
administration decided to weaken the overtime rule. Here is how it 
works. If somebody is making $40,000 a year and is working as a night 
manager at a restaurant, say, or at any kind of job in which one may 
manage a few people and is making $35,000 or $40,000 or $45,000 a year, 
if the top people of the company give this gentleman or gentlewoman who 
is doing this job the title of management, then they don't have to pay 
him or her overtime.
  They can work them 45, they can work them 50, they can work them 60 
hours a week and pay them not a dime of overtime--nothing. They get a 
salary for 40 hours.
  So you take a worker, you pay that worker $45,000 a year, $40,000 a 
year, the owners of the company classify them as management, and they 
can refuse to pay them for the extra 10 or 15 hours. That is 10 or 15 
hours without pay or it is 10 or 15 hours away from family, away from 
raising your kids, and the administration, of course, sided with the 
companies. Of course, they sided with Wall Street. Of course, they 
betrayed workers. They never ever side with workers.
  Look at Youngstown, OH, right now. This President stood by while 
General Motors closed the Chevy Cruze plant. It had been there 53 
years--Lordstown, OH, a valley of about 400,000 people. This is 5,000 
jobs. There are probably another 4,000 to 5,000 jobs for people who 
worked in the supply chain and made components that go into the Chevy 
Cruze. I asked the President personally--first, he didn't even know 
about the plant closing when I talked to him, even though by that time 
they had laid off about half of the workers. Then I asked him face-to-
face, and I asked him on the phone to actually call the CEO of GM to 
make an appeal to say: Instead of using your huge tax cut that you got 
from the White House to build more jobs overseas and to do stock 
buybacks so the executives are getting richer, how about investing in 
this General Motors plant, how about retooling, which this company has 
done many times in the past?
  I remember one of the best days, other than the birth of six of my 
grandchildren during my last term in the Senate, during that several 
years--I remember the best day of that last term was when President 
Obama, Secretary of Labor Perez, and I stood together in Columbus, OH, 
at Jeni's ice cream, and we announced that the Obama administration was 
going to update that salary threshold on the overtime rule. If you work 
extra hours, you get extra pay, you get time and a half under the law--
under the law the way that President Obama did it.
  The Obama rule would have meant that more than 4 million Americans--
130,000 people just in my State, 130,000 people, if they work 10 hours, 
they get hundreds of dollars in overtime pay. If they are working 50 
hours instead of 40, they literally would get--depending on their wage, 
of course--at least another $100 in their pay.
  Now, because of Trump and the Secretary of Labor in this 
administration--first because of some judges and now the President--
those workers never got that raise.
  Attorneys general around the country, Republican, far-right attorneys 
general, including one in the Presiding Officer's State, are always 
glad to do the bidding of their corporate sponsors. They are always 
glad to do the bidding of billionaires. They are always glad to do the 
bidding of the richest 1 percent in this country. They blocked it.
  Now President Trump has come up with a new rule that leaves most of 
those workers behind.
  Again, these aren't rich executives who are working. I am sure the 
Presiding Officer, the Senator from Texas, most of us work well over 40 
hours in these jobs. We get paid a salary; it is a good salary. We 
shouldn't get paid overtime; neither should a corporate lawyer who is 
working more than 40 hours overtime, and neither should an executive 
nor should a doctor who works more than 40 hours get overtime. But 
these are workers who are making $30,000 and $35,000 and $40,000 a 
year, and you classify them as management, so you refuse to pay them 
overtime. That is what this rule is about. It means that millions of 
ordinary workers are not getting the pay they have earned.
  As if the richest 1 percent aren't doing well enough without this 
rule, President Trump again--President Trump again--betrayed workers. 
Again he stood with the billionaires. Again he stood with the largest 
corporations that ship jobs overseas.
  It comes down to whose side you are on. Are you on Wall Street's 
side? Are you on the side of Senator McConnell, who responds to every 
special interest in this country that wants something from this Senate? 
Are you on their side or are you going to be on the side of the 
American workers?
  This President came to Youngstown. He promised to fight for American 
workers. He breaks that promise damn near every single day. He breaks 
it over and over and over.
  If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. 
I wish President Trump would understand that.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.