UAW members building award-winning vehicles

Optimism was in the air at the 2011 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) held Jan. 15-23 in Detroit – and with good reason.

Demand for American cars continues to grow. UAW-represented facilities at Chrysler Group LLC, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are adding shifts, recalling workers and hiring new members. And UAW-made vehicles are winning multiple awards.

The Chevrolet Volt, above, was named the 2011 North American Car of the Year. Susan Lewis of UAW Local 22 works at Detroit’s Hamtramck Assembly Plant, where the Volt is currently manufactured. Wes Bunch of UAW Local 14 takes a seat in the Chevrolet Silverado, winner of Motor Trend’s Truck of the Year Award. The Silverado is built at GM’s Flint (Mich.) Assembly Plant by UAW Local 598 members.

Two of the most prestigious honors were announced at the Detroit auto show:

• The Ford Explorer was awarded the 2011 North American Truck of the Year.

• The Chevy Volt was awarded the 2011 North American Car of the Year.

Also awarded:

• Motor Trend awarded Truck of the Year honors to the Chevrolet HD Silverado pickup and named the Chevrolet Volt Car of the Year.

• The Chrysler Jeep Grand Cherokee was rated “Best Buy” from Consumers Digest magazine.

Growing market share

Ford’s market share grew to 16.7 percent in 2010, up from 15.5 percent in 2009. Ford plans to add approximately 7,000 jobs nationally at its plants by the end of 2012.

Chrysler’s share of the market increased to 9.4 percent in 2010, up from 8.9 percent in 2009.

GM’s U.S. market share in January was 21.9 percent, up from 19.7 percent in December 2010.

At GM, UAW members continue to add quality to the American-made vehicles in multiple ways, by working in quality teams to create best-in-class vehicles.

UAW Local 14 member Wes Bunch said “workers are now able to stop production if there’s a problem, not just in assembly plants, but also in component manufacturing, all the way through the whole product lineup.”

“So it’s more than just involvement – it’s a partnership [with the employees] in the business,” added Bunch, a 40-year UAW veteran out of Toledo’s GM Power Train Plant.

GM’s Flint (Mich.) Assembly will add a third shift to accommodate demand for the Silverado. About 2,500 UAW members from UAW Local 598 will be working at the Flint facility this year.

The 2012 Chevy Sonic and Buick Verano models will start production at Orion Assembly in Lake Orion, Mich. Orion Assembly was slated to close at the height of the 2008 economic collapse but instead UAW members will produce, for the first time in any U.S. plant, small, energy-efficient cars on the “B platform.”

These B platform cars were made in South Korea under the Aveo badge, but they will now be produced in the United States instead. UAW Local 5960 represents the members who are being called back to work.

Attendees at the Chrysler auto show exhibit weren’t just looking – they were also shopping.

Joel Powers hoped to purchase a new Jeep Wrangler. Powers works with automotive supplier Johnson Controls Inc. Manufacturing (JCIM), making interior plastic auto parts.

Powers said temporary workers at the plant are now being hired full time to become members of UAW Local 723.

At the Chrysler exhibit, Lynetha Moore of UAW Local 140 presented new features of the new award-winning Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland.

More than 735,000 visitors attended the 2011 auto show, up from 714,137 in 2010.

With the help of UAW members’ award-winning workmanship and gains in U.S. market share, you just can’t help but feel the optimism.

Susan Kramer