April 2, 2009 - Edward Montgomery, Washington D.C.

Auto Official to Focus on Displaced Workers

Former deputy labor secretary Edward Montgomery, President Obama's new point man to help towns harmed by the collapse of the auto industry, said yesterday that he's going to focus his efforts on helping displaced workers get such services as extended health-care benefits, income support and retraining.

Auto Official to Focus on Displaced Workers

Former deputy labor secretary Edward Montgomery, President Obama's new point man to help towns harmed by the collapse of the auto industry, said yesterday that he's going to focus his efforts on helping displaced workers get such services as extended health-care benefits, income support and retraining.

Montgomery met for three hours yesterday behind closed doors with Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm (D) and a dozen of her top officials who deal with energy, social services, health care and economic development to learn about the troubles the state faces because of the shrinking U.S. auto industry.

"My job is to cut the red tape," Montgomery said in a press conference after his meetings in Lansing, Mich. Montgomery and other administration officials said he would look at existing government programs, examine legislation that could extend to auto workers benefits usually reserved for those who lose their jobs when industries shift overseas and use money in the $787 billion stimulus program to help auto workers.

Montgomery, who was named Monday to serve as the director of recovery for auto communities and workers, said he's familiar with the plight of auto workers because his wife's family lives in Portland, Mich., and her grandfather, father, brother and uncle have all worked in the auto industry.

"I understand what the auto industry means to Michigan," he said, citing his upbringing in Pittsburgh, a steel town. "This is something the president is committed to having -- a strong, viable auto industry in America, and to helping Michigan and folks there deal with the situation we're currently going through." He said Granholm laid out how the state's unemployment and poverty rates have soared as jobs in the auto industry have been cut. "You hear it in numbers," Montgomery said. "You see it in faces. The president was very clear that we feel a sense of urgency to do something. It is my objective to move expeditiously and quickly in a way that is effective."

Granholm said her state had been trying to win the attention of the federal government for several years. "This is the first time we have had this kind of offer of help," she said.

Montgomery also met yesterday with Detroit Mayor Kenneth V. Cockrel Jr. (D) and some of his top officials. Montgomery was expected to return last night to Washington, where he said he plans to start meeting with officials in the Labor, Commerce, Transportation and Energy departments to "come up with strategies." He said his job was not to "deal with negotiations over a viability plan" for how to restructure the auto companies but to help communities that are dealing with the industry's downturn.

"We need to focus the resources of the federal government on helping those families," he said. "This is not going to be a problem that is solved overnight. We recognize that we need to start acting, and that's our commitment."

Montgomery will report to the White House's auto industry task force but plans to work closely with Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis and maintain an office at the Labor Department.

Montgomery is taking a leave from his job as a professor of economics and dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland. He previously served as deputy labor secretary under President Clinton.

While assembly plants are mainly concentrated in the Midwest and the South, the auto industry is a powerful force in the U.S. economy. GM and Chrysler employ about 132,000 people in the United States, and their supply chain employs another 500,000. Over the past decade, GM and Chrysler have made deep cuts to try to keep up with their more nimble foreign rivals, like Toyota and Honda, and boost their shrinking market share. Montgomery is planning to visit places in states like Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, which have suffering auto industries.

Officials in Flint, Mich., which has been especially hard hit, said they'd welcome a visit from Montgomery. In the 1970s and 1980s, about 80,000 residents were employed in the auto industry. Now 8,000 of the city's 125,000 people work in it.

"The fact there's someone in Washington paying close attention to this is a positive development," said Bob Campbell, a city spokesman. "Having someone at the federal level where you can pick up the phone and say, 'We have this idea; how can you help?' That will be very positive."

Original Story - Washington Post

Update May 8, 2009

Hearing Michigan’s Pleas, and Pledging U.S. Help

Edward B. Montgomery, a White House liaison, touring a General Motors factory in Flint, Mich.

The official appointed by President Obama to help communities scarred by auto plant closures and layoffs promised some help during a tour of Michigan.

He announced better access to training for unemployed workers, more loans for small businesses and $10.3 million to redevelop closed factory sites.

But the official, Edward B. Montgomery, also explained that the federal government had limited abilities to quickly rejuvenate the cities he visited.

“Clearly the problems that we face and the challenges we face today didn’t occur overnight and they’re not going to be solved overnight,” Mr. Montgomery, the director of recovery for auto communities and workers, said Friday. “We need to get the economy growing. We need to get people buying automobiles. As that process goes on, I’m confident we can bring back jobs and growth in Michigan and around the country.”

Over two days, Mr. Montgomery traveled through what he called “the very heartbeat of the auto communities in America.” He explored an engine plant in Flint, a city where General Motors has cut about 80,000 jobs over several decades, a G.M. design studio in suburban Detroit and a parts supplier in western Michigan.

Everywhere he went, Mr. Montgomery heard pleas from state and local leaders who say the struggles of their constituents have long been ignored in Washington.

“If we’re going to keep the middle class in this country, we have to focus on Flint and Michigan and get people back to work,” Senator Debbie Stabenow, Democrat of Michigan, said. “We have been through too much for too long.”

For years, Michigan’s governor, Jennifer M. Granholm, has described residents of her state as victims of an “economic hurricane.” Ms. Granholm, a Democrat, accompanied Mr. Montgomery throughout his visit.

“The levee has broken in our region,” Michael J. Brennan, the president of the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, told Mr. Montgomery. “You just can’t drive up to it and point to it because it’s all throughout our communities.”

Yet Mr. Montgomery saw little of the fallout from the industry’s restructuring. His visit did not include conversations with unemployed auto workers, a drive through the sections of Flint and other cities hit hardest, or stops at other ailing businesses.

Mr. Montgomery said he was planning to return to Michigan soon and to visit other states, including Ohio and Indiana.

“The president made a commitment that we will stand behind our communities and the workers, and part of the first step in that process is to come out and listen to people on the ground,” he said. “This is not going to be directed from Washington. This is a bottom-up effort.”

Michigan’s troubles are likely to be worse by the time Mr. Montgomery returns. Thousands more job cuts are looming at Chrysler, which filed for bankruptcy protection last week, and at G.M., which could end up in bankruptcy at the end of May.

Michigan’s unemployment rate was already 12.6 percent in March, four points higher than the national average. Flint, northwest of Detroit, had a jobless rate of about 15 percent.

“We’re not to the bottom yet,” Representative Candice Miller, Republican of Michigan, told Mr. Montgomery. “This time we don’t see the comeback that we have always experienced in this area.”

Many officials urged Mr. Montgomery not to simply focus on job training programs and more unemployment benefits.

“Our safety net in this community is in tatters and we need help,” said Deborah Cherry, who represents Flint in the State Senate. “It’s wonderful to have job training dollars, but we have to have jobs to train people for. It’s important to have unemployment insurance and we thank the administration for the extensions, but what we really need is work.”

Ms. Cherry and others told Mr. Montgomery there were already many programs to provide help. The problem, they said, is that they require communities to put in funds they do not have or that they simply take too long to produce results.

“We don’t have months or years,” Ms. Stabenow said. “We need help right now.”

Update Story - New York Times

Update May 22, 2009

A Driving Force in the Downturn For Montgomery,

Auto Industry's Crisis Hits Home

Maps and charts don't tell the whole story for Ed Montgomery, the president's point man on rescuing the auto industry. "In some cases multiple family members have lost their jobs. . . . It's palpable.

Ed Montgomery is so new to his job that the only things on the wall of his sparse office at the Department of Labor are a couple of unemployment charts and a pair of color-coded maps highlighting the communities hardest hit by the collapse of the American auto industry.

The Midwest is a blotch of dark purple.

The maps show the challenge Montgomery, 53, is up against as Obama's point man to help auto workers and communities that depend on the sector. A month into the job and in between a recent trip to Michigan and a two-day tour of Ohio yesterday and today, Montgomery said a plea in Warren, Mich., reminded him of just how serious the crisis is for some cities. A United Way director told Montgomery the No. 1 request on a help line is food.

"That reminds you this is real. People are hurting . . . You look at numbers. You can look at statistics. You look at unemployment rates," he said, but hearing that example stuck with him.

"Until you actually confront the fact of what it means to try to live on and try to feed a family of four on the benefits that are out there . . . in some cases people don't have that or in some cases multiple family members have lost their jobs," he said. "It's palpable."

Creating a senior position in the administration to help a battered industry's workers is new and unique, according to labor historians and economists. There was no identical position for Pittsburgh's steel industry, for instance.

For now, Montgomery operates from mostly a bully pulpit. He has a skeleton staff and a small budget. Much of his work will involve pushing department secretaries in Washington to cut red tape and steering some money from the $700-billion plus stimulus package to hard-hit auto towns.

"Ed is their best hope," said Robert Schwab, associate dean at the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland. "But we've all got to recognize there are limitations to what Ed or anybody can do. You're fighting an economic fact: The auto industry is going to be a shadow of what it was."

In Flint, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) teased Montgomery about his "fancy title" -- director of recovery for auto communities and workers. The reality of Montgomery's job, Levin said: "He's our lobbyist."

Montgomery calls himself a facilitator or a coordinator. "I don't have the magic bullet, but I sure would like to help and see if I can move it forward and craft a solution and help people," he said.

Montgomery is not creating government-funded programs or initiatives. Instead, he is trying to link struggling communities to ongoing federal efforts. For example, Montgomery told community and business leaders in Michigan about funds available through the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up old industrial sites. He also promoted stimulus funds to help extend small-business loans to companies including auto dealers and suppliers.

At a stop yesterday in Dayton, Ohio, Montgomery said $50 million in stimulus money would go to help train workers in auto communities for jobs in the green energy sector. Next week, he is expected to travel to Detroit to listen to Michigan energy officials and help kick off workshops to show cities and towns how to access nearly $80 million of stimulus funds to help them develop new, green jobs.

"The government has made a large amount of money available," Montgomery said. "My job is to make sure people who are affected in these communities have full access to those resources, are able to tap into them, know how to get to use them . . . quickly and effectively."

Montgomery left his job as dean at the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences to work for the administration. Having served as the No. 2 official in the Labor Department during the Clinton administration, he helped lead President Obama's Labor Department transition team. When Lawrence H. Summers, one of Obama's top economic advisers and Montgomery's graduate school classmate, called to persuade him to help with the struggling auto industry, Montgomery admits it wasn't a hard sell. "He had me at hello," he said.

Born in New York, Montgomery is the younger of two sons. When he was an infant, his parents moved to Minnesota, where his father worked as a machinist.

He recalled that he would get excited when he came home from school some afternoons to find his father's toolbox there -- not realizing at the time that it meant bad news. His father had been let go, again. After repeated layoffs, his father went into academia, eventually teaching at the University of Pittsburgh and Yale, where he became a labor historian.

Montgomery, whose wife is the granddaughter of a General Motors worker from Portland, Mich., lives in Howard County and drives a 2000 Lincoln. He used to drive his 1990 Harley-Davidson motorcycle to College Park. He's broad-shouldered and wears black-framed glasses that make him look like the college professor he was.

Montgomery has written extensively on labor unions, unemployment and other economic trends. He is careful to point out that textbooks often give examples of how things should work on average, but that the solutions may not work for every city. Health care jobs may thrive in one town, for example, while manufacturing parts for wind turbines may be a better fit in another.

"This is a bottom-up effort," Montgomery recently told a group of politicians, community leaders and auto workers at a community college in Flint. "This is not Washington talking to Flint. This is Flint talking to Washington."

When Montgomery was young, his family eventually settled in Pittsburgh, where he said he watched the rise and fall of the steel industry. He recalled that in the early 1980s, when he was a young professor at Carnegie Mellon University, his friends would tease him that he needed to find a job that paid more.

They were making $30,000 to $40,000 a year with overtime in the then-vibrant steel mills. He was earning $19,000. But when the mills started closing, some of those friends were laid off. "It was real to see what they were going through," he said.

He said he sees parallels in the fall of Pittsburgh's steel industry and the auto industry's struggles. In their heydays, both sectors "generated a way for people to get good, middle-class jobs," Montgomery said.

"That paid well, provided health-care benefits that provided a pension. What too many folks are going through is the threat to that and in some cases losing those jobs and losing that middle-class existence."

Original Story - Washington Post