Profits before all else for Big Three

These are some thoughts on what the Detroit car people will have to do to survive.

The Big Three have the responsibility of operating profitably, not the right. You have to operate in a way that creates a profit first. The need for labor to be paid so they will be comfortable is important, but it is not as important as the need for the company to make a profit. If the Big Three are going to survive, they have to put forward a set of plans to produce a series of very good cars that their dealers can sell. It's a matter of priorities and Detroit must do this as a first priority. If the companies can do this, the support of the laborers will take care of itself.

This is not the time to be concerned with whether the union is to be forced to cut labor costs or not; it is the time to put together a strong program of producing quality cars at a salable price and making a profit happen. The unions or lobbyists are secondary here unless they can come up with so much lobbying control that they can force the government to keep coming up with excessive amounts of money to keep this unprofitable way of operating in place.

If this happens, then school is out and the lobbyists have control; and I hope very much that the Congress and the President will have the guts to step up and decide the Big Three must be able to operate profitably first and the rest will have to follow. It's harsh, but that's the first priority.

Being in a recession and keeping Detroit stumbling along will do more harm than good in people being kept at work with the Big Three going nowhere unless they declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Chuck Barr Jr.

St. Charles