LORDSTOWN, Ohio (Reuters) – President Barack Obama promised struggling autoworkers yesterday he was committed to rebuilding a thriving US auto industry and said the world’s largest economy was on the mend.
“It’s going to take some time to achieve a complete recovery,” Obama said during a visit to General Motors Co’s sprawling Lordstown plant in Ohio.
But Obama, who took office on Jan. 20 after eight years of the Bush administration, said his policies had stopped a freefall in the economy and “helped us turn the corner.”
The fate of the Lordstown plant has been up in the air for much of the past decade but lately it has become the centerpiece of GM’s effort to build more fuel-efficient vehicles and change its image as a producer of gas-guzzlers.
“We’re going to rebuild,” Obama said in a campaign-style speech to the unionized workers who are an important part of his political base.
Later, visiting Pittsburgh, another part of the US industrial heartland hit hard by economic woes, Obama pitched his plan to extend health coverage to the uninsured before a raucous crowd at the AFL-CIO labour federation’s convention.
“When are we going to say enough is enough?” Obama said. “Now is the time to deliver on healthcare reform.”
“We can’t wait,” the workers chanted back.
They reserved their loudest applause for Obama’s call for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for unions to organize.
Obama will return to Pittsburgh next week to host the Group of 20 leaders of the biggest industrialized and developing economies.
Trade frictions with China are likely to be on display at the summit after the United States last week imposed new duties on Chinese tyres. Obama did not mention the tyre decision at either the auto plant or AFL-CIO speeches, although the move is popular with many union workers.
Obama has sought in recent weeks to highlight indications of economic improvement in the hopes of recovering his popularity, which has suffered amid a heated debate over his plans to reform the healthcare system.
In signs the US economy is on the road out of recession, retail sales rose at the fastest pace in 3½ years in August and a gauge of New York state manufacturing activity hit a nearly two-year high.
Obama travelled on Monday to Wall Street to push his plan to overhaul US financial regulations to prevent a repeat of the crisis triggered by the collapse a year ago of Lehman Brothers, once a titan of investment banking. He said the government was beginning to unwind its role in the financial sector.
