United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard appeared on CNN this morning to discuss a potential rescue package for the U.S. auto industry.  And Gerard is mad—or as he said on CNN, “I'm so angry. I can't tell you how angry I am.” Gerard is good and miffed at the view, best characterized by CNN anchor Joe Johns, that “unions and their demands have, in fact, sort of helped lead the auto industry into these kinds of problems.”  Gerard offered a very effective retort: “How does a person that makes $57,000 a year, who works in excess of 40 hours a week sometimes to get to that level, has some degree of health care, has some degree of pension, how does that cause the problem? The auto industry and General Motors used that as an example, as $200 billion in sales, their labor costs are $10 billion.  That's five percent of their overall cost. That isn't the problem.” Gerard noted that the problem, in many ways, is from Wall Street—“not the first collapse on Wall Street since they deregulated the financial markets.”  Ironically, Gerard points out, Congress has “been giving money hand over fist to the financial industry,” but is reluctant to assist U.S. automakers. According to Gerard, “auto sales are down across the board. Nissan sales were down 33 percent, Honda sales 22 percent, big three sales about 30 percent, and that's because people are afraid to buy cars. They're afraid to lose their jobs. They don't have credit. There's no credit available. So, the decline in the industries that we represent are directly results of the collapse on Wall Street.” To right things, Gerard echoes a theme that should be familiar to ManufactureThis’s readers: strengthen U.S. manufacturing.  As he pointed out: “The problem is, we've had economic erosion of the manufacturing base of America for the last seven-and-three-quarters years. We've had collapse after collapse, scandal after scandal on Wall Street that has destroyed pension equity...We have a major employer that we have a relationship with, that had a pension fund that was 100 percent funded.  They had to fund that pension through sacrifices we made at the bargaining table. Now all of a sudden they are 70 percent funded. Why is that the workers' fault? That's Wall Street's fault and our government has to step up and do something about it.” Gerard is right, and one immediate step is to recognize the importance of rebuilding and maintaining a strong domestic industrial base.  But accomplishing this takes the will to enforce existing U.S. trade law, an effort that has been sorely lacking during the Bush administration. To read a full transcript of Gerard’s appearance on CNN this morning, click here.  His interview appears in the last segment of the full transcript.