From the president

Never underestimate the dedication, talent and toughness of American workers.

That’s the common theme of several stories in this issue of Solidarity, where you’ll read how UAW Local 3303 members in Butler, Pa., are producing steel that Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda and Toyota buy to put in their vehicles because of its top quality.

In fact, steel made by UAW members is used in every Toyota vehicle manufactured in North America, the very vehicles that have garnered multiple awards for their superior performance.

In Pennsylvania, Toyota is giving UAW-made products the strongest possible endorsement: spending precious corporate cash to buy UAW-made steel for its U.S.-produced vehicles.

But in California, Toyota has chosen to abandon its workers, and state residents, with its decision to close the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) assembly plant in Fremont, Calif.

It’s hard to fathom why Toyota, which is spending $1 billion on marketing in California – its single biggest market in the United States – would want to walk away from a plant that has been so successful in productivity, quality and sales.

UAW members deserve better, and we’re not giving up.

NUMMI workers are circulating a petition to keep their plant open. They’ve already collected more than 30,000 signatures, which they’ll be presenting to Toyota executives in the coming weeks. (See story, Page 7.)

While Toyota turns its back on American workers, a new auto company called Fisker Automotive has made a dramatically different decision.

A new entry in the automotive field, Fisker is planning to refurbish a shuttered GM plant in Wilmington, Del., to produce 100,000 electric hybrid vehicles per year by 2014. (See story, Page 6.)

Part of the funding for this vehicles-of-the-future project will come from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Incentive Program. UAW members successfully lobbied to create and win funds for this program, which gives low-cost loans to companies that build advanced technology vehicles and their key components here in the United States.

Fisker’s investment shows the importance of this effort to transform the U.S. auto industry. The plant is expected to employ 2,000 workers and create more than 3,000 vendor and supplier jobs by 2014. This is the kind of sound economic policy our union has been calling for all along: investing in American manufacturing and American jobs.

Time and again, American workers have proven we have what it takes to make these investments pay off.

That’s what happens when tough, talented and dedicated workers are given a fair chance on a level playing field.

Ron Gettelfinger