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The underground workforce: the murky, controversial world of automotive ‘contract’ workers.
Contract workers are key to creating flexibility. They allow cyclical industries like carmakers to quickly expand or shrink their workforces as the market demands. But for the people who do the work, "contingent" employment is a murky, underground world where some prosper while others are exploited and steeped on.In 1988, a 25-year-old student at Oakland Community College saw a newspaper ad placed
By Frank Washington • Aug. 1, 1995 -
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Sandia Lab, PFG unveil new air bag
Precision Fabrics Group and Sandia National Laboratories announce the fruits of a three-year joint development: a new air bag technology that has less than half of the packed volume and weight of current air bags. Building on military parachute technology, the Precision Technology Air bag fits into the pocket of a man's shirt when folded.
Aug. 1, 1995 -
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A second look at vinyl
Vinyl.The word conjures up all sorts of negative images: those awful vinyl roofs, cheesy fake woodgrain paneling, searing hot upholstery on summer days. If you're a radical environmentalist, there are even more negative connotations: officially known as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), vinyl is a chlorine-based plastic that can produce toxins when burned, and is supposedly difficult to recycle.But sit back
By Drew Winter • July 1, 1995 -
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ITT Corp. to divide, hopes to conquer
ITT Corp. announces a planned divide-and-conquer business strategy, segmenting some $25 billion in sales and revenues into three separate companies sometime this fall. ITT calls the maneuver the largest transaction of its kind in business history.Each company will have its own board of directors and its own listing on the New York Stock Exchange. ITT common stock holders will be issued one share of
July 1, 1995 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Saturn turns 10
Spring Hill, TN -- A new "employee" on the assembly line makes a mistake. While trying to fit a speaker into a door assembly, he accidentally drops it, then tries to put it into the door anyway. Others on his work team grab him and gently admonish him to scrap the part. The worker, Al Serra, gets concerned and asks what the junked part will cost the company. The team leader tells him not to worry,
By Drew Winter • July 1, 1995 -
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T&N buys piston plant in South America
UK-based T&N plc buys 94% of piston manufacturer Sylicum SA. The company, located in Tortuguitas, Argentina, will be integrated into the T&N Piston Products Group and serve the Brazil and Argentina markets.Within 12 months AE Goetze's latest piston-manufacturing technology will be installed in the facility, making hightech, lightweight pistons available for the first time in the region, say company
July 1, 1995 -
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Automotive paint technologies: take the common sense approach
Common sense. Many organizations think they have it. In reality, few practice it.A new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program, the Common Sense Initiative (CSI), focuses on collaboration among environmental leaders, representatives from six targeted industries (including automotive), and federal, state and local regulators.The purpose of the program is to study ways of developing cleaner, cheaper
By Lahiere, Richard J. • June 1, 1995 -
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What to wear? We’ve heard of dressing down employees, but....
What to wear, what to wear? Don't laugh. That's a serious question automotive salaried staffers are asking themselves increasingly these days as once-rigid workplace dress codes give way to the casual look.For some it probably was easier to select a business outfit from the closet; not much choice was involved. Now, thanks to the "dress-down" wave that's sweeping automotive offices, salaried folks
By Rothenberg, Al • June 1, 1995 -
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State of the union; the UAW’s Yokich: a tough guy for tough times
Comedian Dick Gregory once told a story that during the 1960s civil rights movement in the South he "sat in" for weeks at a lunch counter demanding to be served. When they finally relented, he discovered that the food was terrible.Incoming United Auto Workers union President Stephen P. Yokich, 59, should be forgiven if similar thoughts pass through his mind when, as expected, he succeeds Owen Bieber
By Lowell, Jon • June 1, 1995 -
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Visualizing the future: science fiction comes to life in 3-D CAD/CAE displays
Science fiction has a way of becoming science fact. Jules Verne wrote about elaborate submarines and space travel a century ago. Cartoon character George Jetson ate instant food long before the dawn of microwave ovens. Now a scene from the movie Star Wars is close to being reality.In the film, R2D2 the robot projected a holographic message from Princess Leia to Luke Skywalker. Today researchers are
By Tim Keenan • June 1, 1995 -
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Utilase expanding blanking line
Utilase Inc., a division of DCT Inc., plans to spend $12 million on a new facility with a new sheet-metal blanking line and additional laser welding systems to produce tailored blanks, sheets of metal bonded together to allow stamped panels to have more strength in specific areas. In addition to a 6.00-ton (544 t) press with a 144- by 84-in. (3.6-by 2.1-m) bed and coil reel for 72-in. (183-cm) coils.
April 1, 1995 -
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Budd says goodbye to wheel & brakes
The Budd Co. is selling its Wheel & Brake Div., which represents less than 15% of the company's 1994 sales, to AlliedSignal for undisclosed terms. Later, Budd buys Cobourg, Ont.-based Complax Components Corp. (CCC).
April 1, 1995 -
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SAE recycling ... System identifies plastics in a flash
The biggest hurdle to economical recycling of automotive plastics is that they can't be properly sorted and identified. Most plastics on new vehicles now are labeled, but it's an impossible guessing game with older models heading to the salvage yard. At SAE the American Plastics Council introduces a prototype machine that can distinguish between 23 different types of automotive plastics after scanning
April 1, 1995 -
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Transplant export pipeline to grow
Look for the North American transplants to hike exports this year, as they add more destinations to the shipping roster, according to assemblers surveyed by our sister publication, Ward's Automotive Reports. Economists expect total U.S. exports to continue expanding due to improved U.S. competitiveness, a weak dollar and rising global economy, says the American international Automobile Dealers Assn.
April 1, 1995 -
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New tires keep rolling longer: advances in compounds end performance compromises.
Some say the entire U.S. tire industry was the beneficiary of a divisive mid-1980's takeover bid for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. In repelling that takeover play, Goodyear was forced to close three plants and sell off a couple more. The resulting global restructuring (and expensive buyback of its own stock) drained the corporate war chest and cost thousands of jobs.In the end, though, Goodyear emerged
By Bill Visnic • March 1, 1995 -
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Let the good times roll: supplier sales, profits continue to rise at torrid pace
With plants at full capacity due to high demand for their products from strong automaker production, several suppliers end 1994 with record sales and profits.A.O. Smith Corp. announces that its 1994 per share earnings of $2.08 are a corporate record stemming from $1.36 billion in sales and net income of $57 million."The economy and excellent performance has had a positive impact on our business, especially
By Tim Keenan • March 1, 1995 -
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The snickering has stopped
The robots are coming." It was a sure-fire joke at the manufacturing trade journal I worked at 12 years ago. We'd sit around the conference table brainstorming new story ideas when the inevitable lull would settle in. Then somebody would blurt out "I know! How about `The Robots are Coming!'" and everyone would laugh. Then someone else would chirp up "The Lasers are Coming!" Someone else, "The Waterjets
By Drew Winter • March 1, 1995 -
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Varity Japan names chairman
Varity Corp. announces the appointment of Keiichiro Shiojias as chairman of its Tokyo-based subsidiary Varity (Japan) KK. Mr. Shiojias retired in 1993 as general manager of Fuji Zerox Co. Ltd.Other major promotions include:* Rosemary Younts is vice president of GenCorp. She also is vice president of communications.* Alan Best becomes vice president-North American truck components operations at Eaton
March 1, 1995 -
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Delphi Thermal, Calsonic join forces in Europe
Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems and Calsonic Corp. announce plans to form a joint venture in Douai, France, to manufacture an enhanced variable displacement automotive air-conditioning compressor for European customers. Production is slated to begin at the end of 1996.
March 1, 1995 -
Courtesy of WardsAuto
Copper radiators not dead
If you've been following installation rates of aluminum radiators lately, you'd think copper was doomed as a long-term radiator material.Not so, argues the International Copper Association (ICA), which says copper/brass radiators are superior to aluminum in life-cycle energy consumption. "Copper combined with brass may once again be the metal of choice for new-car radiators," it says, basing this
By Drew Winter • March 1, 1995 -
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They’re spinning used fiberglass into gold
Just last summer 30-year-old Bryan Sims was knocking on the doors of auto companies begging for leftovers. "I've got a plan," he told them. "My company can spin used fiberglass into `gold.'"The "gold" would be made by recycling the waste fiberglass back into body panels and other components at great savings - up to 30% less than the cost of virgin fiberglass, he told them.Mr. Sims' four-year-old company,
By Sorge, Marjorie • March 1, 1995 -
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Two nylon giants
Although it has a low profile in the auto motive industry, AlliedSignal Plastics dominates the nylon 6 market in automotive. It is the largest North American producer of nylon 6 resin, and is planning to increase capacity as much as 40% during 1995, primarily through changes in its existing production control systems. Future gains will result from the addition of new production lines and capital expansions
March 1, 1995 -
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GMI runs counter to U.S. trends
GMI President James E. A. John says GMI's enrollment trends run counter to national trends. Statistics show, he says, that there's a smaller pool of qualified high school graduates and fewer students entering technical and scientific fields of study. GMI is located in Flint, MI.
March 1, 1995 -
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Worst case for 1995: a sideways slide. Trio of analysts see auto sales sitting level for the rest of the year.
NEW YORK - Is the party over?Outside of Kirk Kerkorian's takeover attempt of Chrysler Corp. (see story p.70), that was the major topic of conversation at the New York Auto Show.Several analysts concluded that there will be no calamitous industry collapse within the next six months. Despite all the pessimistic news circulating this year, Scott Merlis of Morgan Stanley, Stephen J. Girsky of Paine Webber
March 1, 1995 -
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Aerospace comes down to earth
You wouldn't think that combat pilots on precision bombing sorties in the Middle East would have much in common with people fighting rush-hour traffic, or that space-shuttle astronauts navigating in orbit share much with a traveling salesman looking for his next stop.Think again. When a mother hits the brakes of her child-filled van and the antilock braking system (ABS) keeps her out of harm's way,
By Tim Keenan • March 1, 1995
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