I come here bearing news that I only dreamed of sharing when I was governor of this state.
Because, as you all know because we all lived through it-well, some of you are younger, but you with a little gray hair, we know! We lived through this-that somewhere around the turn of this century, the ground beneath our feet, you know, in this great manufacturing state started to shift.
Suddenly, an employer could pay a buck-fifty-seven an hour for work in Mexico. Suddenly, a company could get massive subsidies to build an auto factory in China. Suddenly, a country could lure businesses away from America while our government sat on its hands and watched.
Actually, a more precise metaphor would be that our national leaders were really bowing at the altar of globalization and laissez-faire, hands off.
Don’t worry, the economists told us. It’ll all work out in the end. People will pay less for cars that are made with cheap labor. That was the philosophy.
As a result-and we know this more than any other state in the country-our factories were offshored. Our jobs were outsourced. Our main streets in many communities rolled up. And auto workers would approach me and others and say, “You know what? All I know is this work. And if the auto industry fails, I’m going to have nothing.”
So, we bled jobs.
And we, and every other industrial state that was fighting to keep jobs, we threw every incentive and every policy that we had to try to compete. To try to compete globally.
But how can a state compete with the might of China? How can a state compete with the wages paid in Mexico? It was like bringing a knife to a gunfight for governors to try to keep these jobs here, in the wake of all of that with no federal partner.
And then, 2008 happened. And the bankruptcies of the auto industry happened.
How many of you were around during those days and remember how painful that was?
I know I was doing everything-before the Obama-Biden administration came in, I was calling the White House saying “please, please, you got to help!”
And then President Obama and Vice President Biden came in and obviously helped to resuscitate the auto industry. And that was great, even though through bankruptcy, I remember a day when 800,000 people called the unemployment lines-where’s Sue Corbin? You remember this, right? I mean, it was horrible. It was horrible. But the cavalry arrived. The auto industry was rescued. But globalization didn’t stop.
I’m here to tell you today that things are different.
What’s changed is that we have Joe Biden as our President.
[Applause]
Joe Biden decided that our country is going to do something about this-that we are not going to be passive any longer.
So instead of standing on the sidelines while other countries poach our jobs, we’re back in the game, baby!
[Applause]
The United States is back in the global game of getting manufacturing to come here rather than seeing it go overseas. We’re bringing it back to the workers who started it all…to the communities that we love.
And so today, I come carrying a message from President Biden:
This factory will stay open.
[Applause and cheers]
And your jobs will remain right here in Lansing, Michigan.
I met the Clarks-father and son-when we were walking the [GM assembly] line. And there are others across Michigan-examples of generations of families who have worked the lines here. We’re bringing this back to where your potentially parents and grandparents built the cars that defined America for 100 years, and that will define us for the next 100 years.
Thanks to the President’s agenda-this amazing Inflation Reduction Act-today we are announcing that we are investing-the nation is investing, through the President’s agenda-$500 million in this site.
[Applause and cheers throughout]
And General Motors is adding another $900 million to convert this facility from combustion vehicles to electric vehicles.
We’re going to save hundreds of jobs. We’re going to create even more at this plant. We’re going to support thousands of shop owners and restaurant employees and other folks in the Lansing communities whose livelihoods depend on a robust auto industry. On the pulse of Michigan’s auto economy.
So, GM is one of nine companies that are receiving investments today. These are called conversion grants. The idea is that we want to assist in converting facilities that would otherwise be closing-who are making internal combustion engines-to make electric vehicles. So, companies now have a reason to stay.
We’re investing in historic auto communities not just in Michigan, but in Illinois, in Indiana, in Georgia, in Pennsylvania, in Virginia, in Ohio, and in Maryland.
Almost $4 billion between the federal government and the private sector. This announcement today will save 15,000 jobs across the country. It will create 3,000 more jobs in manufacturing across the country.
[Applause throughout]
And that is Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda. Today-yeah, you can applaud that because you have a president who cares about this!
Today, we’re doing what decades of administrations prior couldn’t, wouldn’t, or didn’t. Because they were tricked by trickle-down. Or they fell for the fallacy of the free hand.
Michigan now has a partner in the White House who is giving our most iconic companies the tools that they need to win.
Hail to the victors! I recognize I’m saying that in Lansing.
[Laughter]
But nonetheless, you have a partner in the White House who really understands what a union job means. Yes! Giving skills for building future-facing careers, peace of mind, and above all, pride.
So in the end, today is a triumph for GM, who’s going to build the cars of the future.
It is a triumph for the American Auto-United Auto Workers, whose jobs are staying right here in Lansing.
And today marks a dawn for a great nation as well. Because if it’s a clean energy revolution the world wants, then it’s what they’re going to get. But you better believe it’s going to be proudly stamped Made in America and Made in Michigan.
[Applause and cheers]
So, with that, I want to turn the podium over to a great mayor who has been such a champion for manufacturing in Michigan and in Lansing. Give it up for Mayor Andy Schor.
[Applause]