Corporate bailouts draw ire of Detroit protesters

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By Nick Carey

DETROIT, June 16 (Reuters) - Protesters rallied outside a gathering of corporate executives, politicians and academics in downtown Detroit on Tuesday to protest bailouts for the country's financial sector, and demand jobs and healthcare for all Americans.

"We need jobs. We need jobs and healthcare," said retired postal worker Glenn Shelton. "Instead of bailing out all the rich folk, we should be bailing out the poor folk."

"I'm not against companies making money," he added. "But if they exploit people or the environment, that's wrong."

The high-profile gathering, dubbed the National Summit, is being held here to discuss key issues facing America, including future industrial and energy policy. Speakers so far have included such Wall Street notables as Vikram Pandit, the embattled chief executive of Citigroup Inc (C.N), which has received $45 billion in government aid following disastrously risky bets in the subprime mortgage market.

The summit comes at a time when the country is some 18 months into a recession that has left the financial community and real estate sectors battered, and forced automakers Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp GMGMQ.PK into bankruptcy. It has also pushed unemployment to its highest level in 26 years.

As if to emphasize the scale of the problems the United States currently faces, the summit is being held at GM's Detroit headquarters, which dominates the city's skyline.

"I need a job, I have eight children and need to feed my family," said Raymond Sanders, an unemployed construction worker. "I'm only 54, I can still work hard."

The crowd of several hundred outside GM's towering complex included a number of retirees and unemployed auto workers -- a reflection of how badly the auto industry has been hit by the downturn. In warm summer sunshine, they carried banners touting slogans such as "Being poor is not a crime! Job or income now" and chanting "Not one dollar, not one dime, cutting wages is a crime."

'IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND'

Michael Stenvig, a high school teacher from Hamtramck in Detroit where auto supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc (AXL.N) is based, said he had come because the company is moving jobs to Mexico and because of corporate mismanagement across America.

"I'm here to protest the corporate decisions that do not help working people," Stenvig said. "The executives who are gathered here are the same people that led us to an almost total collapse of the U.S. economy."

The loss of jobs to Mexico will leave the Hamtramck "blighted by a future wasteland," he added.

"Part of my job is to help high school graduates find work," Stenvig said. "It is impossible to do that now."

"There is no work because the low-paid, part-time work high school kids used to do is being done by their parents."

Long in decline, Michigan had the highest unemployment rate in the nation in April at 12.9 percent, compared with 8.9 percent nationwide. Almost one in four people in Detroit -- where GM is still the largest employer -- are out of work.

"Families are being torn apart, people are losing their homes and there are no jobs," said Prisscilla Cooper. "Something is wrong with the system if we can only get work if we're willing to work for free."

There was a great deal of concern in the crowd for the future of the auto industry and its workers. As part of efforts to cut costs and compete with Asian automakers like Japan's Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), U.S. car makers have installed a two-tier system where new workers receive $14 an hour compared with $28 for their longer-term colleagues.

"I'm concerned about the next generation of auto workers," said Gregg Shotwell, a retired union activist who used to work for GM and auto supplier Delphi Corp DPHIQ.PK, which is trying to work its way out of bankruptcy. "They can't live on what the automakers pay them."

"When I joined GM we were given a full plate with benefits and good pay," he added. "We're not even giving the next generation an empty plate."

"We're giving them a broken plate." (Reporting by Nick Carey, editing by Matthew Lewis)