As published in the December 1, 2005 Toledo Business Journal
Bruce Baumhower
UAW Local 12, president
Toledo Business Journal recently interviewed Bruce Baumhower, president of UAW Local 12. He shared the following thoughts.
TBJ: What do you see as the most important need in the community?
BB: Identifying our community’s priorities is one of our most pressing needs. There are so many thoughts on what Toledo needs to move forward. Some will say downtown, the Marina District, UT president Dan Johnson’s technology corridor. I’ve been focusing on the auto industry, north Toledo, and the infrastructure in this area. I don’t know that we can do all of these things at the same time; it seems like we ought to set some priorities.
We also need to do something about our healthcare and energy costs. Business after business that I work with say that they cannot afford to stay in business with these kinds of costs.
TBJ: What advice would you provide for advancing the economy in our region?
BB: We need to focus on education and creating a skilled workforce. I’ve noticed some of the auto plants in other areas have complained of being in need of skilled workers. We’ve had that up here and we need to make sure we still have that available and make that a selling point, and that starts with the school systems and secondary education.
Another thing is people say that we need to abandon the smokestacks and go after the technology jobs. I think we need both. Dan Johnson’s technology corridor can support the manufacturing jobs, especially with automotive technology – I think it’s a great fit.
TBJ: Can you discuss long-range growth possibilities for DaimlerChrysler’s Jeep operations in Toledo?
BB: We have unbelievable opportunity here, in contrast to what’s going on in the auto industry today with Delphi filing bankruptcy, Visteon near bankruptcy, GM and Ford losing billions of dollars due to globalization. Our leadership and UAW membership here in Toledo saw this coming. Leaders like Jack Sizemore and Lloyd Mahaffey had the vision to put us in a position to compete once the globalization explosion happened, and we’re doing that right here in Toledo, Ohio. We have Chrysler’s newest assembly plant in the United States, opened on April 9, 2001 – the Jeep Liberty plant. We now have another new plant right next door that will open up in June, that’s a $2.1 billion investment. The first one was $1.2 billion.
Our volumes will be growing from the current level of 250 thousand cars to nearly half a million cars right here in Toledo. We’re currently building Liberty and Wrangler and we’re going to go to four vehicles, two in each plant, and there’s a fifth vehicle that we have our sights on for the 2008 calendar year, 2009 model year.
TBJ: Where do you see the best opportunities for growth?
BB: The opportunity will be in the supplier industry. When we were building, say, 170 thousand Liberties, we were bringing seats in from out of town. Now that we’re going to be building close to half a million cars, seat production is moving to Toledo because they are large and hard to ship. We’ve done this – Johnson Controls just moved the seating line into its Northwood plant, which is creating 150 jobs there.
Automotive interiors, plastics, frames, gas tanks, exhaust systems, stampings – the opportunity is unbelievable. Not only have we proven that we have a productive workforce, but we have the infrastructure to do that also. We have the transportation assets, water, and land. In north Toledo, between Alexis, I-75, Detroit Avenue, and Hagman Road, there are about 600 or 700 acres in that area that could be used to develop the automotive supplier industry. I think that’s our best opportunity.
There are seven new plants coming to northwest Ohio to support the new and current Jeep facilities. By next spring that will create about 750 brand new jobs. That’s just the beginning.
There’s also the old Jeep site that’s going to be vacant next year. If we can build the supplier base up here in northwest Ohio, we can then go to the other assembly plants and market our supplier base to them with this site.
TBJ: Can you discuss key issues in the automotive industry that are likely to have an impact on area workers? How might the regional economy be impacted?
BB: The Big 3 have an $11 billion disadvantage over competitors for two reasons: healthcare and pension costs. We have 240 thousand workers in assembly plants right now, and 880 thousand retirees. The Hondas, Nissans, and Toyotas that came to America within the last 15 to 20 years don’t have that yet. And you can’t take people who built GM, Ford, and Chrysler into the big corporations that they are today and say: “Sorry, we’re going to pull the rug out from under you now and take away your benefits.” So the healthcare issue has to be addressed. We can’t compete with China and Mexico on those kinds of costs, so we do it in productivity. But Canada – who we compete head-to-head with in the auto industry – they don’t have the healthcare issues we have since they have a national healthcare system.
TBJ: What is the number one thing that you personally would like to accomplish?
BB: In north Toledo, we need a strong, focused brownfield initiative, and then we need to assemble the other land that’s available that is still greenfield. We can put together about 700 acres for the auto supplier industry.
TBJ: Please identify an important community organization that needs more support.
BB: The schools. We have some full-time tutors inside the schools for students who fall behind in reading and math. There are about 500 volunteers in the community right now who do that after school. I think the whole community needs to rally around the education system and the kids to give them some hope. Not all of them are going on to college; they have to work somewhere. We need to give these kids hope that they can get good jobs.
TBJ: Can you share a favorite hobby or pastime?
BB: The University of Toledo athletics. My wife and kids and I never miss a basketball or football game. When I was a kid I’d ride my bicycle out to watch the Rockets practice. That was my passion and it still is today.
TBJ: Is there any other issue that you would like to address?
BB: One of the things I don’t think we do well enough is tell our story. This should be a national story. There isn’t a city in America that’s doing what we’re doing in the auto industry. Our membership has been willing to change and they’ve looked at industry trends and said: “I’ll try it.” You have to change with the times.