For most of his career, Don Riviera was a tool-and-dye
maker. When the fourth company he worked for went out of
business, he enrolled in Eastern Michigan University' technology
management program.
He received his bachelor's degree from EMU in December
2008 and now operates Riviera Industries, his own tool-making
and machining company that employs seven in Gibralter.
"Training continues. It never stops," Riviera said. "We
are an automotive town. We'll remain an automotive town.
When the UAW is working, we are working."
 |
AUTOMOTIVE ANXIETY: U.S. Labor Department
Secretary Hilda Solis (center) makes a point during
an auto recovery panel discussion in Welch Hall
June
2. Solis was on campus to listen to concerns
and
announce the Department of Labor has released
an
additional $49 million to the state of Michigan
to
provide career retraining assistance, extended
unemployment insurance and some healthcare
coverage
to workers who lose their jobs for trade-
related
reasons. Also pictured (from left) are EMU
President
Susan Martin, Congressman John Dingell
and Andy
Levin, deputy director for the Michigan
Department
of Labor and Economic Growth. |
It will be retraining stories like these that will have
to multiply rapidly to eventually pull the state of Michigan
out of its economic auto doldrums and harken a recovery
of the state's economy.
"We think it's important here to talk about worker retraining," said
EMU President Susan Martin. "Ypsilanti is really a
wonderful working man's town. We are a community together.
...We want to work with our community and our citizens
to get people back to work."
Riviera's and Martin's comments came during a roundtable
panel discussion hosted by Eastern Michigan University
and Congressman John Dingell June 2. At that discussion,
U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced
that the U.S. Department of Labor released an additional
$49 million to the state of Michigan to provide career
retraining assistance, extended unemployment insurance
and some healthcare coverage to workers who lose their
jobs for trade-related reasons. Michigan now has nearly
$60 million available to assist trade-affected workers.
"We have to provide support for this industry and the
communities affected," Solis said during a panel discussion
in Welch Hall that included Andy
Levin, deputy director for the Michigan Department of Labor
and Economic Growth; and a smattering of state legislators,
Ypsilanti city officials and United Auto Workers (UAW)
Local union representatives.
At the request of Dingell and Governor Jennifer Granholm,
Solis came to talk with Michiganders about the future of
the American automotive industry as well as worker retraining
programs and green job opportunities.
"In June, we will be soliciting (federal) grants to the
tune of $500 million for green jobs," Solis said of money
that would prepare and transition auto and auto-related
workers for careers in energy efficiency and renewable
energy sectors. "We want to get people — a workforce already
skilled and equipped — to easily make the transition (to
green jobs)."
The announcement of the additional $49 million for Michigan
came on the heels of General Motors' bankruptcy filing
June 1. GM took a route similar to auto rival Chrysler
LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in
April. Under a reorganization plan for GM, the federal
government will have a 60-percent ownership stake in the
new company. The United Auto Workers would receive a 17.5
percent stake; the Canadian government, 11.5 percent; and
unsecured bondholders would receive 10 percent. Existing
GM shareholders would receive nothing. The Obama administration
expects a restructured GM to emerge from bankruptcy in
60 to 90 days.
The GM bankruptcy announcement was a double whammy locally
when officials received unexpected news that the Willow
Run Powertrain transmission plant will close by the end
of 2010, with its work to be handled by GM plants in Toledo
and Silao, Mexico.
"We can no longer stand by and watch GM send jobs
out of Michigan to other countries," said Don Skidmore,
president of United Auto Workers Local 735, which represents
workers at Willow Run. "The taxpayer deserves better. Members
of the UAW deserve better. To look at my workers' faces
yesterday (June 1)...I feel that pain. Do we need a green
future? Yes. Do we need to stop outsourcing of American
jobs? Yes!"
While Solis said the federal government would not get
into the business of micro-managing GM, she did say, "The
president supports keeping these jobs here. I took this
job with the understanding we have a productive workforce
with high-paying jobs. I promise you we will have a more
robust discussion on these issues."
 |
TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT: Don Riviera (far
left) discusses the importance of worker
retraining
in the state of Michigan. Riviera
received his bachelor's
degree in technology
management from EMU in December
2008 and
now operates a tool-making and machining
company in Gibralter. |
Dingell joined with Ypsilanti Township officials to plead
their case to GM to keep the Willow Run plant — which employs
approximately 1,364 hourly workers — open. Dingell
stressed the point that the Willow Run plant was creating
six-speed transmissions for $145 less than GM's Toledo
plant, which also produces the six-speed transmission.
Without the Willow Run plant, that would be a loss of
$5 million in county taxes, said Ypsilanti Township Supervisor
Brenda Stumbo.
"Nothing like pouring salt in the wound," Stumbo said.
Like Skidmore, Levine agrees the future includes more
green jobs. But both said more must be done to preserve
and protect existing jobs.
"We're looking not to just get additional funds, but fund
creative ways for incumbent worker training," Levin said. "...A
job saved is even better than a job created. It causes
a lot less pain and suffering."
Eastern Michigan is helping preserve jobs and helping
people receive training for better ones with its technology
management program, said Pam Becker, the program's coordinator.
Becker said EMU has partnerships with 10 community colleges,
in which those community college credits transfer up to
94 semester hours of coursework to EMU and count toward
a bachelor's of science degree in technology management.
"They (community college transfer students) can come to
EMU and get a bachelor's degree for $15,000, which is almost
unheard of," Becker
said of the program,.
Anthony Sledge, a member of UAW Local 547 who works at
the Saline Ford plant, is one of the students — by way
of Henry Ford Community College — in EMU's technology
management program.
"It's really helped. The technology management program's
going to sustain me," Sledge said.
The U.S. Department of Labor grant "Workforce Investment:
Providing Higher Education for the Displaced Worker" that
EMU received for retraining of
65 displaced workers in technology management is still
accepting applications. People that are interested in the
program may contact Pam Becker at pam.becker@emich.edu for more information and an application.
