Ford Motor Co., Chrysler and General Motors all are facing huge losses, and they’re down sizing their work forces, which will create new financial challenges for their workers, local banks and credit unions and the community leaders in the affected towns.

This is not a new problem, because auto workers have been seeing their way above average earnings leveled by globalization for years, but the sizes of the pending downsizings is huge. Ford alone could buy out some 30,000 of its North American workers. Those workers have almost no chance of finding new jobs that will pay as well as their auto manufacturing jobs do. Some will retire, some will take very low-paying jobs and some will move to markets where they can use their skills to make pretty good money.

The question is, how can banks and credit unions help their communities—mostly in Indiana and Ohio—replace their lost auto making jobs? Companies that supply materials and parts to the auto makers also face downsizing and the same problems.

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