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February 16, 2006

Contact: Marilyn LeFeber, (810) 238-5651, info@mott.org

Mott Foundation Makes Two Grants Totaling $1.2 Million to Support State’s Automotive Market and Workers

FLINT, Michigan — In response to problems within the domestic automotive industry and its suppliers, and their consequences for Michigan’s economy, the Mott Foundation has made two grants totaling $1.2 million for long- and short-term assistance.

A three-year, $900,000 grant to the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor is designed to improve the long-term global competitiveness of Michigan’s automotive manufacturers and suppliers through a series of collaborative efforts.

A two-year, $300,000 grant to the National Employment Law Project (NELP) in New York City is designed to increase current participation of dislocated workers throughout Michigan in retraining through the federally funded Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program.

“This package of grants is based on two economic realities,” said Maureen H. Smyth, Mott’s vice president for programs and communications.

“One is that outsourcing is a fact of life. The second is that efforts to subsidize manufacturing jobs in the face of global competition must be coupled with long-term strategies to improve the domestic manufacturers’ economic competitiveness through better education and workforce development systems.”

CAR will use its grant to create the Program for Automotive Renaissance (PAR), which will seek to increase the level of cooperation and collaboration among the larger players in the state’s automotive industry and create new business models to better compete in the global economy.

“This is an important first step in extending collaborative business practices and embracing globalization to ensure Michigan remains competitive in automotive technologies and labor education,” said Sean McAlinden, CAR vice president of research and director of the program.

“Competitors who become allies can share best practices, practice collaborative engineering, pool resources, find innovative solutions faster and attract larger business opportunities than they could on their own.”

Through PAR, the Center for Automotive Research will focus on launching and managing up to nine self-sustaining collaborative programs that will address common issues facing Michigan’s automotive community.

Mott funding will be used to create two of those programs, the Global Automotive Marketing Alliance and the Program for Automotive Labor Education.

The Global Automotive Marketing Alliance will assist groups of Michigan supplier companies and communities in marketing to global automotive firms and suppliers, both in North America and overseas.

The Program for Automotive Labor Education will focus initially on the Bay-Saginaw-Genesee counties region. It will bring together human resources executives, K-12 administrators, and community college and university faculty to create new models for curricula delivery, outreach programming and funding. They will address training and certification needs required by the global automotive industry as well as the anticipated skills shortage as current workers retire.

NELP plans to use its Mott grant to expand technical assistance and services for community groups, state policy organizations, workforce agencies and others interested in improving the use of TAA in Michigan. It will focus initially on workers in the Greater Flint and Saginaw areas.

Despite its potential advantages, TAA is not widely known or well understood. The federal program pays for up to two years of retraining, both remedial and vocational education as needed. It also pays up to 78 weeks of extended unemployment insurance benefits to trade-certified dislocated workers participating in training. When combined with state unemployment insurance benefits, the programs offers up to 104 weeks of benefits, enabling workers to complete meaningful retraining programs also paid for by TAA.

NELP will focus on outreach to suppliers and secondary firm as well as communities throughout Michigan impacted by automotive dislocations.

“NELP is eager to work closely with Michigan communities and workers who have provided so much to America,” said Bruce G. Herman, executive director of NELP. “Their contributions have been the fuel of our economic engine, and now it’s time to re-focus that energy to support Michigan and spur new economic growth.”

NELP will work with its national partner, the Workforce Alliance, to identify opportunities for coordinated reform efforts in Michigan and in Washington, D.C., that can bridge TAA, workforce development and higher education programs to encourage a more significant network of relief and industry-targeted retraining for newly laid-off workers.

The Center for Automotive Research, a nonprofit research organization, conducts a wide variety of research related to the automobile industry and society. It develops new methodologies, forecasts industry trends, advises on public policy and sponsors the largest annual industry conference in North America — the Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City. For more information, visit www.cargroup.org.

NELP, a nonprofit with more than 35 years of experience working on employment issues for low-wage workers, is a leading intermediary offering both national expertise and state-by-state technical assistance in employment law. NELP’s staff has expertise in unemployment compensation, job training, discrimination law, contingent work, family and medical leave, and employment discrimination. For more information visit www.nelp.org.

The C.S. Mott Foundation, established in 1926 in Flint, by an automotive pioneer, is a private philanthropy committed to supporting projects that promote a just and sustainable society. It supports nonprofit programs throughout the U.S. and, on a limited geographic basis, internationally. The Foundation, with year-end total assets of approximately $2.46 billion, made 549 grants totaling about $123 million in 2005. For more information, visit Mott.org.

For more information, contact:
Lisa Hart
Vice President-Operations
Center for Automotive Research
734-929-0465

Bruce Herman
Executive Director
National Employment Law Project
212-285-3025, ext. 207

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Charles Stewart Mott Foundation^® | Mott Foundation Building, 503 S. Saginaw Street, Suite 1200, Flint, Michigan 48502-1851

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