Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / Feb. 9, 2006, edition 1 / Page 24
Part of The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
m mt 8C BUSINESS/irte Ctarlstte $o(t Thursday, February 9, 2006 Layoffs hit black auto workers hardest Continued from page 7C force around the world In all, the so-called Big TTiree U S. auto companies have cut or declared plans to cut almost 140,000 jobs since 2000 That is about one-third of the entire North American payroll “This may not be the end, but it is certainly the beginning of the end of the automobile industry as we knew it,” said Gary N. Chaison, a professor of indus trial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in an article in the New York Times. The source of the problem for the Big Three is the worldwide crisis of overpro duction in the manufacture and sale of automobiles. The result of this has been inten sifying competition and declining profit rates. As this competition has intensified. Ford and GM in particular have lost a signifi cant portion of the U.S. mar ket. At the same time, auto motive manufacturing monopolies based in Asia have increased their share of the U.S. market to 31 percent last year. AH together, the share of the market owned by U.S. auto companies dropped to 58.7 percent last year, according to Autodata Corp. Chrysler - which is majority- owned by German automak er Daimler - is the only U.S.- based auto manufacturing company that increased its share of the market last year, with a four-percent gain. Azariah explained the impact this has had on pro duction in Ford’s TVin Cities plant: “With a line speed of 50 jobs per hour and a 40- hour work week, we produce 8,000 trucks a month per shift. We have two shifts, which equal 16,000 trucks per month. Over the last two months, Ford has only sold in the area of 8,000 trucks.” In making these big job cuts and plant closures, in addition to demands for wage and benefit conces sions, the auto companies have armounced their inten tion of taking this profit cri sis out on their workforce. “These are some difficult times working people will have to go through for the next decades,” said Azariah. “They are going to come after everything they think they can get.” Mark Fields, Fordis new point person for their restructuring program euphemistically titled “The Way Forward,! confirmed Azariahis predictions in com ments made two weeks ago. Fields said that his goal is to put workers fin a crisis mode.” In the face of these attacks, autoworkers across the coun try have begun to speak out and take the first steps toward organizing resistance to the attacks. iFor the first time in a long time, I see workers reaching out,! said Tbm Laney. Laney, who retired fi-om Ford several years ago, worked at the TVvin Cities plant for 31 years and served as president of the United Auto Workers union local 879 fiom 1984-87. “Workers at Delphi have organized a national slow down,” said Laney, referring to workers at GM’s auto parts subsidiary, who are currently fighting against concession demands fiom the company In order to convince union members to accept their mas sive concession demands, auto companies make the argument that workers should take cuts in wages, benefits, and woridng condi tions to save the company and thus save jobs for some. However, Laney argues, “Our job as workers is not to save the corporation, but to save these poor people on the street!” Laney explained what he considers necessary for work ing people to confiont the cri sis: “What’s happening is that they are waging a war abroad and at home against working people. TTie only answer for the Auto Workers union is to build connections within the union and sofidar- Group forms to help black- owned S. Carolina businesses Continued from page 7C unified voice, Benjamin stressed the organization is not exclusive. “Membership is open,” he said. The group has a 25-member board of directors. Currently, all are from the Midlands, with the exception of Pinson. “We wanted to get a base in the Midlands and then go statewide,” Benjamin said. Point your mouse onto the latest news. www.thecharlottepost.com ity between the union and the working people in the communities. The old idea of the labor movement was to fi^t for a job for everyone; I think the old idea is a good idea.” For Ford retiree Desi Amaz Scott, confionting the chal lenges facing the union means finding a way to orga nize the unions in plants where it does not exist to take away the auto bosses! ability to drive wages, bene fits, and working conditions down. T want the UAW to come down here [in , Mississippi] and organize Nissan,” said Scott in an interview with the Spokesman-Recorder. Scott was the second Black woman hired at the 'Twin Cities plant in 1973. She was also the first Black woman to retire from the plant, an accomplishment of which she is proud. She now lives in Bentonia, Miss., with her husband, who is also retired recently fiom Ford. Scott discussed some of the problems she has in attempt ing to convince workers she knows who work at the Nissan auto plant in nearby Canton, Mississippi, to orga nize a union. “They make $12 to $13 an hour without many of the benefits I enjoy as a UAW member. When I tell them to get the union in the plant, they tell me, “No.’ The company says that they will close the plant if we get a union.” The industry’s crisis is hav ing a disproportionately neg ative impact on Black work ers. A study recently released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, “The Decline in Afiican-American Representation in Unions and Auto Manufacturing, 1979-2004,” presents figures that outline the sharp decline in black employment in the auto industry In 1979, says the report, 12.1 percent of all Afiican- American workers were employed in automobile manufacturing. By 2004, this share had fallen by more than one-third to 1.3 percent. By contrast, the share of white workers employed in auto manufacturing fell just 0.2 percentage points fiom 1.3 percent to 1.1 percent The share of Hispanic work ers also fell by 0.2 percentage points, fiom 0.8 percent to 0.6 percent This decline has taken place despite the fact that black workers still maintain a hi^er percentage of union members based on their numbers in the workforce. Says the report: “In 2004, Afiican-Americans were still more likely to be in a union (16.6 percent) than whites (13.9) and Hispanics (11.4 percent). Nevertheless, the decline in union member ship for black workers between 1983 and 2004 was sharper for blacks (down 15.1 percentage points) than it was for whites (down 8.3 percentage points) and Hispanics (down 12.8 per centage points). Local elected officials have negotiated with Ford in an effort to convince the compa ny to keep the Twin Cities facility open. The main pro posal officials have made to Ford has been to reconfigure the plant to make hybrid cars, with the state and city government picking up a good deal of the bill in the form of research and devel opment monies, tax breaks, and other incentives. Gov. Tim Pawlenty pro posed that the State and Ford build a “Center of Excellence in Renewable Fuels.” In his proposal, Pawlenty promised that the state would make “signifi cant investments in this effort.” Azariah is not optimistic about the prospects of the plant staying open. ‘T think the fact that the Twin Cities plant was not mentioned [in the first round of closures] does not mean that we are out of the woods. AH of the reasons that they gave for closing the other fadfities aU apply here, too.” OnStar debuts updated system “We want to have a coHabora- tive effort that is representa tive of the state. .. But being big is a not a goal.” Continued from page 7C he said it wHl be less than $34.95 per month, which is what customers currently pay to access directions from OnStar. Customers pay $16.95 (eurol4.15) per month for OnStar safety features, such as an automatic caH when the air bag deploys. Handsfi^ calling minutes are purchased separately Eighty-five percent of OnStar customers currently get only the safety package, whHe 15 percent get the directions package, Huber said. Huber said Tbm-by-Tlim Navigation is less labor-intensive than the current system, which depends heavHy on live operators. OnStar currently has three caH centers, in Michigan, North Carolina and Ontario. GM doesn’t release separate financial data for OnStar, but company officials have said GM first started making money from OnStar in 2003. ■Say Yes To Success! “Dr. Arrington shows home-based business owners how to add 20-50 people per week, week in and week out without fail, to their businesses. Dr, Carl Arrington, Director of Market Expansion It Is Only Human It may seem from so much that we learn about what it takes to be successful, that every day is to be a perfect day for us. We may get the impression that as we go about working to make our dreams come true that we should always expect to be upbeat, positive and enthusiastic. There are times when we may even encounter others who are striving to be successful in life. They may have hit a snag in their plans. For example, they may be behind in achieving their goals. There may be days that they did not feel very positive about trying to achieve their dreams. There are those who would say that you must always be positive and never let anything get you down. No matter what may happen in your life, according to them, you are not to skip a beat in the pursuit of your goals. However, life really does not allow us to run our lives so smoothly. There are times when plans just do not go as we had planned. The unexpected comes into our lives and derails our plans at times. We may become so disappointed when our friends cannot support us in ways that we had hoped. When we experience such feelings, we may actually feel guilty for having such feelings. But the truth is that it is only human to feel disappointment, sadness and even discouragement at those times when we do not achieve as we had dreamed of doing. The key, however, is to admit to our feelings but not allow them to get in the way of achieving our success. We cannot ignore these feelings. We must admit that we have them, deal with them and then move on, belidving that the next day will be better. Once we express these feelings and realize that our disappointing situations are only temporary, we can take the steps we need to move on to success. When we realize that it is perfectly natural to feel disappointed at times, this will take us a long way along the road to success. Remember, it is only human! Create the Success You Want! Contact Dr. krringlon for details 704-591-1988 • clatgr maximumsuccess.com Maximum ^otentid, Inc,,. • Tappity into the fotoer of‘foul l.\K)R.M.\T10N REQUEST FOR .MORE DEr.\H.S • FAX: 704-568-3497 Name_ City Street Address State ZipCode Home Phone WolkPhone E-mail Don’t Delay, Call Today!
The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Feb. 9, 2006, edition 1
24
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75