WCA May 2014

From the Americas German-style works council, a committee of managers and workers who together develop factory policies. The company, which has unions and works councils at virtually all of its 105 other plants worldwide, views such councils as critical for improving morale and cooperation and increasing productivity. But US law requires that, for a company to form a works council, its employees must be represented by a union. And in the end the UAW failed to commend itself to a majority of the workers at Volkswagen Chattanooga. One of those who voted for UAW representation told Mr Snavely that having a seat on a Volkswagen global works council would have given the workers a stronger voice on where future models are produced. The company wants to launch a new midsize SUV for sale in the US by 2016. The most likely assembly plants for it are Chattanooga and Puebla, Mexico. The pro-union sentiment faltered at the ballot box. A worker who voted against the UAW at Chattanooga shared his reasoning with Mr Snavely: Volkswagen is, he said, the best employer he has ever worked for. Of related interest . . .  A paper published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics (Harvard University), showing that firms in North America discriminate against people who have been out of work for more than eight months, has had an influence on President Obama. Invited to convene at the White House three days after the 28 th January “State of the Union” address, the CEOs of more than 300 companies, including Apple Inc and Ford Motor Co, pledged to examine and revamp their hiring practices. The study, Duration Dependence and Labor Market Conditions, written by two economics professors at Canadian universities and an American assistant professor, found that firms were nearly twice as likely to offer interviews to applicants who had been out of work for one month than those who had not drawn a paycheque for eight months. In 28 of the 50 states of the US, a third or more of job seekers have been out of work for six months or longer. “The sheer magnitude of that difference surprised us,” said co-author Matthew Notowidigdo of the University of Chicago.

Mr Healey cited an analysis for the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute suggesting that motorisation in the US – per person, per driver, and per household – peaked in the last decade. According to “Households Without a Light-duty Vehicle” (car, SUV, or standard pickup), Americans now have fewer such vehicles, drive each of them less, and consume less fuel than in the past. (“Is America’s Love Affair with Cars Officially Over?,” 22 nd January). The author of the study, Michael Sivak of the university’s Sustainable Worldwide Transportation unit, offers these observations on motor-vehicle density and use in the United States:  In six of the 30 largest US cities, more than 30 per cent of households do not have a vehicle  From 2007 to 2012, there was an increase in the proportion of households without a vehicle in 21 of those 30 cities  In 2012, 9.2 per cent of US households were without a vehicle, compared to 8.7 per cent in 2007 While other analysts confirm the slump in vehicle ownership, some see it more as an example of fallout from the Great Recession than as a shift to an anti-car mind set. According to Karl Brauer, senior analyst with the used car evaluator Kelley Blue Book (Irvine, California), to cut costs people are making do with fewer vehicles. But, he said, “Population growth means total car sales will start to rise even if registrations per household drop.” Recent slippage in the number of vehicles on the road does appear to indicate that younger Americans – more open to car-sharing or getting around by bicycle – are less covetous of cars than their parents were. And it is a fact that the big cities in which most Americans live offer public transportation that trims the need for individual vehicle ownership. But Lacey Plache, chief economist at Edmunds.com, a pricing service for new and used cars, said her data indicates that, once jobs are easier to get, the 18-to-34 age group will push the average ownership numbers back up. “The number of vehicles on the road will continue to grow,” Ms Plache told USATODAY .  According to analysts and industry groups, the average age of a vehicle plying the roads of the US today is about 11 years. For his part, Mr Healey observed that, at least for a while, new vehicle sales will grow simply because people who babied old vehicles through the recession are now are dumping them for new ones. Right-to-repair legislation in Massachusetts prompts automakers in the US to release their grip on proprietary information American motorists will no longer be prevented from engaging the services of independent repair shops on

Automotive

Have Americans soured on car ownership? Experts concur on a downward trend but not on how it should be interpreted “Here’s a scary thought for auto makers celebrating the return of the auto boom,” wrote James R Healey of USATODAY : “It’s already over.”

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Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 2014

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