By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – As Delphi struggles through bankruptcy, and General Motors deals with a major decline in sales, one area auto parts manufacturer continues to strengthen in the global market.
American Axle employs more than 2,200 workers at plants in Tonawanda, Cheektowaga and Buffalo. And now those employees are getting a chance to brush up on their job skills.
State Senators Dale Volker and Mary Lou Rath appeared at the Tonawanda facility Wednesday. They delivered a $400,000 state grant for work force education and training to help ensure that the company remains competitive. Mick North, plant manager at the Tonawanda and Cheekotwaga plants, says in the past 18 months, American Axle has gained more than $45 million in new business. He says as General Motors struggles, they are trying to grow their customer base.
"We are growing with our customers outside of General Motors," North said. "We still continue to look for and win GM business, but we are also looking at diversifying as well. That is a very important part of our strategy."
North says Delphi also remains a very important customer to American Axle's Tonawanda plant. American Axle workers are represented by the United Auto Workers. Sam Williams, president of UAW Local 846, says job training is essential to upgrade skills for workers if the company wants to compete globally. Williams says the UAW has made the same efforts at Delphi.
"We have collectively done that and we continue to do that today," Williams said. "A lot of people have this vision that we have an adversarial role between Delphi and the UAW, that is not true."
Williams says Delphi's financial struggle is a very complex issue. He says there is not a worker in the world who doesn't have job anxiety.