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Tom Barrett has persistently stood in the way of jobs and progress for Michigan, and Michiganders have no trouble seeing through his pitiful attempts to hide his terrible record. Earlier this year, Barrett voted against a bipartisan measure to support 5,000 auto manufacturing jobs in mid-Michigan for a FIFTH time and then tried to cover up his betrayal in an op-ed.
With only a few months left before Election Day, one thing is overwhelmingly clear: Tom Barrett does not stand for Michigan.
Read more about Barrett’s standing in the eyes of Michigan workers below.
The Detroit News: Letter: Corporate incentives keep auto jobs in Michigan
Jason Peek, UAW Local 602
8/18/22
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Unlike Barrett, I actually work in the auto industry. In fact, I married into a GM family, and getting a job at GM was a life-changer. GM has been a part of the Lansing community for 80 years and has lifted generations up. These new investments will bring another 80 years of good-paying jobs to Lansing and other parts of Michigan.
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But it’s not just the jobs at the assembly plant. Every job GM creates in Michigan brings 3.3 other jobs up and down the auto supply chain and in local businesses across the community.
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The new GM deal alone should generate nearly $29 billion in personal income for Michigan. That means more economic activity in our communities and more local tax revenue to fund our first responders, schools and roads.
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The fact is that these investments won’t happen without the incentives. That’s clear to the people running the auto companies, to Republican legislators like Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, to mid-Michigan business leaders and to the people working in these factories with me.
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Somehow, that’s still not clear to Barrett.
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That’s especially apparent in light of the recent signing of the CHIPS Act. The legislation is a sweeping, bipartisan bill that will invest in our economic and national security, defend our supply chains, expand domestic manufacturing and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs across the industrial Midwest.
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It also builds in robust safeguards against corporate greed to make sure semiconductor producers live up to their commitments. Yet, according to the framework proposed by Barrett, the CHIPS Act is just another waste of resources.
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Barrett reminds me of exactly the kind of leadership that’s let Michigan residents down for decades. He faults “Lansing politicians” for failing to invest in our auto industry, even though, by definition, he’s a Lansing politician too.
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He offers no solutions, ignores inconvenient facts and blames everyone but himself for the shortcomings of the very government he helps run.
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I don’t want these plants, these investment opportunities and these jobs to leave Michigan. I don’t know anyone who does. So rather than writing an entire op-ed just to point fingers, the question I really want Barrett to answer is: What is he going to do to keep them here?
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