Auto Industry Falter May Impact Tri-Cities

By Darius Radzius
Reporter / WJHL
Published: November 11, 2008

Without that bailout, General Motors claims it may run out of money by the end of next month.  Should that happen, the entire country would feel the ripple effects from Detroit.

Of course the workers putting the cars together immediately feel any fluctuations in the industry, but so do workers at companies who make the parts, even those who clothe the workers.

“So goes general motors, so goes the entire nation, so goes Johnson City and the Tri-Cities,“ said Gary Mabrey III, president and CEO, Johnson City Chamber of Commerce.
The Tri-Cities area has numerous companies who have ties to the automotive industry from making hitches, interior fabric, to door interiors.  And then, there are companies like L.C. King in Bristol that supply the companies who supply the auto makers.

“What we are is a supplier to a lot of the feeder plants.  The Michelin plants in South Carolina.  We supply a lot of the coveralls for that.  Allison transmissions in New York,“ said Jack King, owner, L.C. King Manufacturing Company.
L.C. King has been making blue jeans for more than 90 years.  The auto industry was 20% of King’s business last year, but it has shrunk since.

“We are probably only shipping 1/3 of what we shipped them last year,“ said King.
A lot of businesses are hunkering down and riding out this economic storm.

“I think they’re stepping back and determining what it is we do.  The level of service we provide, we’re determining if we need to be more green,“ said Mabrey.
Warning bells rang out of Wall Street at first, but now, those same alarms are heard from Detroit that some fear may have an even greater impact on the country.  So the pressure is back on Capitol Hill for help similar to what they provided to the banks.

“Something’s got to be done because you can’t have six million people out on the street,“ said King.

Where King lost business from American automakers, they’re making up from automakers overseas.  Non-unionized automakers in the south are doing better than the big three in Detroit.  Tri-Cities companies hope they’ll do even better if Volkswagon moves forward with a plant in Chattanooga.

Congress has already given $25 billion in government-backed loans to help the automakers retool factories and make more efficient vehicles.  Since then, auto executives and union officials have called for more help to avert a possible collapse of the industry.