WCA May 2014

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44 Wire & Cable ASIA – May/June 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 28th 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.
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.”
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