(From left) The participants were, Mr Richard Wagoner, Mr Alan Mulally and Robert Nardelli, executives of Detroit's Big Three US car companies Their sought-after prize: $34 billion (S$51.9 billion) in public aid for their beleaguered industry. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - BIG men drove small cars on a 525-mile (845-kilometre) road trip to Washington to beg for billions and billions of federal dollars. They rotated driving duties, ate at a Quiznos sandwich shop, and presumably used public restrooms like the rest of us.
Get paid without leaving home
NEW YORK - FOR more than two decades, many auto workers who lose their jobs have been able to enjoy one of the best unemployment benefits in the nation: receiving nearly full paychecks without even leaving home.
Since the 1980s, the industry's 'jobs bank' has allowed thousands of laid-off workers to get paid for staying home or sitting in a union hall.
Sound like a not-so-funny reality show? It was. But it is no game for millions of ordinary Americans whose way of life depends on the outcome. For them, it could be a real-life tragedy.
The participants were executives of Detroit's Big Three US car companies. Their sought-after prize: $34 billion (S$51.9 billion) in public aid for their beleaguered industry.
To help their chances, they made a very humble and public drive of shame from the Motor City - Detroit, Michigan -to the capital city for congressional hearings on Thursday and Friday.
It was both showbiz and serious business. The auto barons were not about to give lawmakers an opening to send them home with nothing but the disdain they received two weeks ago for begging after flying in private-jet high style.
So both lawmakers and supplicants stayed in character as the world watched.
The cramped journey by compact. The rejection of millions of dollars in bonuses. The pledge to collect salaries of $1. The corporate jets, gone.
It was all part of a message: We get it now; symbolism matters.
Whether they get what they came for is still unclear. Polls show a majority of people opposes an industry bailout or a loan or a rescue.
'Are you planning to drive back?' one senator, Alabama Republican Richard Shelby, asked the panel of witnesses at the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing.
The industry's top men were only too happy to share details of their itineraries.
'Yes, sir. And I did have a colleague ride and we rotated,' reported Chrysler's chief executive, Mr Robert Nardelli. 'Left Tuesday night and drove until midnight and then got up at 5.30 the next morning and drove the rest of the way in and we did rotate and I do plan to drive (back).'
Mr Shelby turned to Ford's Alan Mulally.
'What about you?' 'We carpooled,' Mr Mulally replied, pledging to drive back to Detroit.
Mr Shelby clarified that the Ford and Chrysler execs did not carpool together. No, Mr Mulally confirmed, they did not.
'OK. What about you?' Mr Shelby asked Mr G. Richard Wagoner Jr. of General Motors.
'I drove with a colleague. We split it up about 50/50. We drove down yesterday, and I'm going to drive (back) myself Friday or Saturday,' he answered.
Riveting testimony with the future of the industry at stake.
'Where'd you (stay)? What did you eat?' teased the committee's Democratic chairman, Sen Christopher Dodd.
For the record, Mr Dodd drives a Ford Escape but is considering buying a $35,000 Chevy Tahoe because he has two children.
Mr Shelby has driven from his million-dollar home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama to work in Washington.
In a Mercedes.
'It's an old one. I've had it for years,' Mr Shelby said.
Mercedez-Benz, a German company employs 4,000 people in the Tuscaloosa area. -- AP
