TOLEDO, Ohio — President Barack Obama on Friday celebrated Chrysler’s ongoing recovery and the government’s sale of its 98,461 shares in the automaker before grateful workers here, telling them “I couldn’t be prouder of what you’ve done.”
But Obama’s Toledo visit was clouded by the government’s report that employers added just 54,000 jobs in May, the fewest in eight months, as the unemployment rate ticked up from 9 to 9.1 percent.
“I don’t want to pretend like everything is solved … We’ve still got a long way to go,” the president told the friendly group of workers.
Obama usually talks about the monthly jobs numbers the day they’re released, but he never mentioned them directly at the Chrysler plant. He focused instead on the turnaround in the auto industry and how the government has recouped much more money than anticipated from the capital it sunk into Chrysler and General Motors two years ago to save them from collapse.
Late Thursday, the U.S. Treasury said Fiat will pay $500 million in cash for the U.S. government’s 6 percent stake in Chrysler. Last month Chrysler repaid $5.8 billion in loans made in 2009 under Treasury’s Trouble Asset Relief Program.
Chrysler earned $116 million in the first three months of 2011.
“This industry is back on its feet, repaying its debts, gaining ground,” Obama said. “Because of you we can once again say the best cars in the world are built right here in the U.S. of A.”
At the Anchor Inn about a mile from the plant, John Nowotka, 48, and Mark Rygalski, 47, were eating lunch. Both work at Chrysler’s Toledo North Assembly plant next door to the factory Obama visited. They had the day off because they work 10 hours a day Monday through Thursday.
“I’m proud of where I work, and I didn’t used to be,” said Rygalski, who has worked at the current plant and its predecessor, Toledo Jeep, for 26 years.
Two years ago Rygalski and Nowotka cut back on family vacations and cut expenses as they suffered through as much as 20 weeks of layoff. Now Toledo North, where workers assemble the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro, has been idle only one week this year.
Asked what their lives and Toledo would be like had the government not come to Chrysler’s aid, Rygalski said, “Can you imagine a whole city being wiped out?”
Not all Chrysler Toledo workers laid off in 2009 have been called back.
Before speaking the president toured a portion of the Jeep Wrangler assembly line where workers install the dashboard and attach a distinctive front grille is attached.
“Toledo, you showed that this was a good investment, betting on American workers,” Obama said. He described them as people who “recapture the toughness of who we are, the builders and the doers.”
Over at the Anchor Inn, Mark Rygalski was feeling better about his future.
“I’m pretty damn proud of the progress we made,” he said.
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