Visteon Utica Plant and UAW Team Up with Goodwill Industries
5 May 1999
Visteon Utica Plant and UAW Local 400 Team Up with Goodwill Industries To Promote Environmental, Community Stewardship DETROIT, May 5 -- Visteon Automotive Systems and Goodwill
Industries of Greater Detroit have joined forces in a unique partnership that
will help protect the environment while providing work experience for people
with disabilities and other barriers to employment.
Visteon's Utica Plant, which molds and ships approximately 35,000 vehicle
door panels daily, has instituted a closed-loop, post industrial recycling
program with the assistance of employees from Goodwill Industries.
Door panels that do not meet Visteon's stringent quality standards will be
sent to Goodwill Industries for material separation. Goodwill workers, many
of whom are disabled and/or disadvantaged will remove the vinyl from the door
panel substrate and then ship the materials to ACI Plastics, a Flint, Michigan
recycling company where they will be ground into reusable materials. Mytex
Polymers of Jeffersonville, Indiana will sell the ground material to Visteon.
"The employees at Utica have a distinguished record of community
involvement and environmental stewardship," said Frank Remesch, Utica plant
manager. "Our customers and our communities are demanding environmentally-
sensitive manufacturing processes and products and the partnership with
Goodwill Industries helps us provide them. We are also grateful that this
program offers opportunities to those workers who might not normally get
them."
"We are very excited about joining Visteon in this recycling initiative,"
said Delois Whitaker Caldwell, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of
Greater Detroit. "The environmental benefit is obviously important, but this
contract also provides employment experience for people who need some extra
help in moving into the community work force."
In addition to door panels, which make up 60 percent of the plant's
production, Utica also manufactures headliners, bumper fascias, rear lamps,
impact bolsters, package trays and trunk liners. The plant received its ISO
14001 environmental certification last year.
In addition, Utica Plant employees have been very active in establishing a
state-recognized wildlife sanctuary on plant grounds, have annually
participated in Earth Day by passing out tree seedlings, and have organized a
yearly Clinton River cleanup effort.
Utica currently recycles approximately 30,000 pounds of Thermoplastic
Olefins (TPO) per week from bumper and fascia scrap. The Goodwill program is
further evidence of Visteon's drive to become an environmental leader in the
automotive supplier community.
"This is an excellent demonstration of what is possible when companies,
local unions, and non-profit organizations collaborate toward a common cause,"
says Elaine Haas, door trim area manager, and Don Marshall, UAW plant chairman
in a joint statement. "We look forward to this partnership growing and
becoming more diverse in the future."
With a global delivery system consisting of more than 120 technical,
manufacturing, sales and service facilities located in 20 countries, Visteon
is leveraging the talents of its 82,000 employees to deliver innovative,
consumer-driven automotive solutions to its customers.
Mytex Polymers is a general partnership between affiliates of Exxon
Corporation and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation. The Mytex Polymers
compounding site is located in Jeffersonville, Indiana, with an annual
capacity of 75 million pounds. The Mytex product line is marketed and sold in
North America by Exxon Chemical Company's Michigan-based Automotive Business
Unit.
Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit delivered employment services to
over 1,800 people and made 421 job placements during 1998. Goodwill's mission
is to provide people with disabilities and other barriers to employment with
the opportunity to become independent, self-supporting citizens through
training, work experience and employment in the community.
