It’s been said that when you know better, you do better.  I believe a very good argument could be made that if our unions had a true financial picture of Delphi when our last contracts were negotiated, we could have taken steps to prevent this current debacle.  It would have been irresponsible to negotiate for today, if we truly had a picture of what jeopardy tomorrow was in. 

My coworkers and I are only the latest victims of corporate restructuring, as business after business circles the globe for the cheapest labor they can find.  And yet, as our jobs are shipped overseas, the executives of our very companies line their pockets with the great savings near-slave labor rates bring. 

Even now, as Delphi's hourly employees are asked to take brutal wage and benefit cuts, our CEO seeks extravagant bonus packages to retain "key" employees during our restructuring.  Who is more key than the people that make your product?  Perhaps some of us could swallow this more easily if these bonuses were being used to recruit new talent to right the ship, instead of enriching the executives that drove a viable business into the Chapter 11.

My fellow workers and I have spent generations in these factories helping to build the global empire that Delphi has become.  I have followed my father and uncle proudly into Packard Electric.  The past profits from our efforts here in the North American operations are the very monies used to create the successful overseas facilities that, oh by the way, were not included in the bankruptcy filing. 

There are many solutions out there.  Hopefully, we, as a nation, will be able to find them before the American auto worker, as well as the American middle class, are extinct.

Thank you for your time,