Rev. Jesse Jackson says that he will attend today’s annual meeting for Ford Motor Company – and he plans to meet privately with some of Ford’s top executives to discuss the preservation of manufacturing jobs in the United States. Jackson says that, although Ford’s position is strong relative to its Detroit rivals, the automaker needs to focus more on keeping industry in the U.S.
“Our industrialization policy must be comprehensive,†Jackson told reporters at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Delaware, where the shareholders will hold their annual meeting. “Not a subsidy to speed up the closure of plants and taking away of jobs.â€
Jackson will also hold a rally in Lansing, Michigan, on June 1 to illustrate the importance of factories on the day General Motors will announce its reorganization plan, which is expected to include numerous factory closures.
“We intend to organize resistance public resistance to the deindustrialization of American manufacturing,†Jackson said.
The civil rights activist has taken a strong stance on the dwindling Detroit automobile industry.
“We must now save the entire industry from itself,” Jackson said last week at the Detroit NAACP’s Fight for Freedom Fund dinner. “We cannot have joy while Chrysler is in bankruptcy and GM is in line. There is a sense of joy because it’s high noon in our politics, but it’s midnight in our economy.”
