Unions Rally For Ford In DC

Reuters reported that thousands of United Auto Workers union members rallied outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday to support their employer, Ford Motor Co., as Congress held hearings into the recall of Firestone tires used on Ford's popular Explorer sports utility vehicle.

The union said around 3,500 workers, most from Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky, had driven 1,900 Explorers to Washington D.C. to demonstrate their confidence in the vehicle's safety.

The joint House of Representatives subcommittee hearing was called to try sort out claims from Ford and Firestone, who are warring over who is to blame for at least 203 deaths and 700 injuries linked to blowouts of Firestone tires fitted mostly as standard equipment on Explorers.

As the caravan of several hundred Explorers looped around the Mall, drivers blasted their horns, and some passengers poked their heads from sunroofs to take pictures of the monuments as they passed by.

Out of the window of his Explorer, Anthony Rahe hung a hand-lettered sign that read: ``Firestone. You are the weakest link. Goodbye.''

``That's how I feel,'' said Rahe, a worker at the Ford plant in Cincinnati, Ohio, at a rally held after the parade.

``They're trying to blame this on us. I think (the rally) is to show America that the people that built the cars are not afraid to drive them,'' he said.

Wes Hooker, who works at Ford's Visteon parts plant in Indianapolis, said morale had hit ``a low point'' because of the flood of publicity over the tire recall and questions about the Explorer's role.

``Explorer has been the main product at our plant. I'm worried if that doesn't stay that way,'' he said.

Rahe, whose nephew and daughter also work at the Cincinnati plant, also worried about slowing demand for Explorers.

``We're concerned by something that's not our fault,'' he said. ``This is our livelihood and our life that someone's threatening.''