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I remember when Dick Dauch bought American Axle Manufacturing from General Motors and poured tanker truckloads of bright blue paint over what was then a dreary complex of parts plants sprawling across Hamtramck and Detroit.
Dauch, the quintessential factory man, was hell-bent on proving heavy manufacturing could still be done here, with a union work force, and with the Big 3 automakers as the customer base. That eye-catching paint job was the symbol of his hopes.
Now, 15 years later, Dauch is cutting the Detroit work force sharply and consolidating the work in Three Rivers, Mich., and Mexico. He isn't mealy-mouthed about the reasons:
"This isn't a North America problem, or a Michigan problem. It isn't a union problem. It's a Detroit problem," says Dauch, who has headed manufacturing for GM, Chrysler and Volkswagen North America. "Detroit has an entitlement culture -- 'You owe me this job.'
"Detroit can compete on quality, but it can't compete on costs. And the difference in the global economy is cost structure."
Dauch is still obviously angry over the 87-day strike by the United Auto Workers union against AAM last year in response to demands for concessions. In the end, the new contract reduced wage and benefit costs, but that was only part of the answer.
"The No. 1 disadvantage to being in Detroit is labor costs," Dauch says. "No. 2 is reliability."
Detroit has the highest absenteeism rate of any AAM facility. In Mexico, Three Rivers, Indiana and elsewhere, absenteeism is barely a blip. Many days, the Mexican plant -- also unionized -- has no workers absent.
But in Detroit, absenteeism runs at least twice as high, and on some days it can approach nearly one-third of the workforce in parts of the plant. Lines have been shut down because not enough employees show up.
"I've been working since Aug. 24, 1964, and I've taken three-and-a-half sick days," says Dauch. "I've got employees who miss two or three days a week."
Maybe that would have flown 30 years ago when Detroit was still fat and happy. But jobs are fungible today. Employers like Dauch have a fiduciary responsibility to take work where it will be done most efficiently.
It isn't just about hourly wages. Dauch's employees in Three Rivers, also UAW members, make about the same hourly rate. But they've agreed to a contract that gives the company more operating flexibility, and they show up for work.
Dauch says he hasn't given up on North America. In fact, he's opened four plants in the United States, including one in Indiana. He hasn't even given up on Detroit. He's keeping the equipment here and, if business picks up, may bring back work.
But he offers fair warning to this job-starved city. We aren't entitled to anything, least of all a job that someone someplace else is willing to do not just cheaper, but also better.
Wednesday, I listened to several autoworkers complain on the radio about union-busting corporations, unfair trade policies and the loss of middle-class manufacturing jobs.
But not one mentioned that on the same day, there were places in Dauch's now-faded blue Detroit factory where nearly one in three workers were AWOL.