Clergy wonder how to deal with effect of Ford job cuts in their areas

Published: 2006-01-26

DETROIT (CNS) -- As Ford Motor Co. announced its intent to close 14 manufacturing plants and cut up to 30,000 jobs over the next six years, clergy in cities affected by the plant closings wondered how they were going to help their parishioners whose jobs and livelihoods were at risk. Father Michael Savickas said he would remind parishioners affected by the planned closing of Ford's assembly plant in Wixom, a Detroit suburb, of the symbol of the church as an anchor. "Our faith is a fixed point we can hold onto when things are changing around us," Father Savickas, pastor of St. William Parish in nearby Walled Lake, said soon after hearing the Jan. 23 announcement that the huge plant within his parish boundaries would close as part of the automaker's "Way Forward" restructuring plan. Faced with a declining share of the U.S. car market and losses on its domestic business, Ford's sweeping plan includes closing five plants by 2008, including Wixom. Ford is also closing an assembly plant in Hazelwood, Mo., outside St. Louis. "The impending closing ... is a matter of great concern both to me and to the Catholic Church in the St. Louis region," said a Jan. 24 statement by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis.

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