General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC have scheduled a rally in downtown Chicago Thursday in the hope of developing grass-roots support of their position.
Hundreds of United Auto Workers members at Ford`s South Side Chicago assembly plant and Chrysler`s Belvidere, Ill., factory are expected to attend the rally at Chicago`s Federal Plaza, The Detroit News said.
A similar rally with UAW members from all three Detroit automakers will be in St. Louis next Wednesday.
The automakers want to beat back a proposal passed by the U.S. Senate that would raise corporate average fuel economy mandates 40 percent to 35 miles a gallon for cars and trucks combined by 2020.
The rallies seek to build support for a measure sponsored by U.S. Reps. Baron Hill, D-Ind., and Lee Terry, R-Neb., that would lower the rise in mandates to 35 mpg for passenger cars by 2022 and 32 mpg for light trucks by 2022.
'The rallies give an outside-the-Beltway voice to our position that you can have improved fuel economy and protect jobs,' GM spokesman Greg Martin said.
