European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 7, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By the lure of new Industry incentives and non Union work pools is drawing japanese automakers toward Middle America. Above an inspector at the Honda of North America Plant in Marysville Ohio. Pools of . Autoworkers preferring to train novices. Whatever the reason communities such As Bloomington Normal thriving White Collar towns that Are worlds apart from gasping for survival Blue Collar cities like Detroit Are becoming motor capitals. It s just a different culture said Bloomington mayor Jesse smart. This whole City is like a big neighbourhood. And with modern Auto plants being clean it s not smokestack anymore it s compatible with  in Bloomington Normal insurance farming and Academia Are big. Urban blight crime and unemployment Are not. Bloomington Normal 4 percent minority had a 4.1 percent unemployment rate in october. Detroit 65 percent minority had a 10.1 percent jobless level. Studies have shown Black men have been devastated by Industrial decline. In the Detroit area 52 percent of Black men in heavy manufacturing production lost their jobs from 1979 to 1984, according to a study by Michigan state s Hill. Nationwide about 27 percent of Blacks lost their heavy manufacturing jobs in the. Same period said the study based on equal employment Opportunity commission reports. Future prospects Are even bleaker. A 1988 study concluded japanese behaviour with regard to site location and hiring practices heightens rather than eases the dilemma of Blacks who Are being rapidly displaced from their traditional american  the study by University of Michigan professors Robert Cole and Donald Deskins said although they had no Concrete evidence they believe avoidance of Blacks is one Factor for the japanese in determining Plant Sites. I think it s a Factor Deskins said. I can t say this is their  the study found while Blacks comprise 11 percent of the civilian labor Force they represent 17.2 percent of workers at the big three . Automakers. In contrast the study said Mazda motor manufacturing Usa corp s Plant in Flat Rock mich., has a potential Black labor Pool of 29 percent and Honda of America manufacturing inc., in Marysville Ohio has one of 10.5 percent. Company officials say their Black workforce is 15.1 percent and 5.1 percent respectively. Honda spokesman Roger Lambert disagreed with associated Pressw Ith a College Campus and Fertile Fields Normal iii., is a Patch of raid America where students learn and Farmers earn Side . But Corn country has a new face producing a new crop cars. Last fall the tranquil town of Normal and its twin City Bloomington joined a growing number of smaller Midwest locales with japanese associated plants that Are shaking up the Auto Industry. The increasing japanese presence in America s midsection plants in Ohio Michigan Kentucky Tennessee one planned for Indiana and Chrysler Mitsubishi in Normal is creating work and growth in White Rural areas while jobs and Opportunity disappear in heavily minority big cities. Certainly it s a restructuring of the Auto Industry said Richard Hill a Michigan state University Urban affairs and sociology professor. The reorganization. Is definitely detrimental to  the trend has aroused concern in a business that s already lost thousands of Blue Collar jobs raised questions about potential Bias and worried Blacks who be Long regarded the Auto Industry As a stepping Stone to a better life. Auto shops were really the Bridge that brought Black people from the lower class to the Middle class said Joe Wilson former head of a United Auto workers local at a closed Detroit Plant. What Are you going to do for the people left behind locked up in the ghetto who have no place to go and no car to get out to Rural areas japanese automakers who be invested $5 billion in .-based facilities in the last decade Point to their affirmative action programs and insist transportation education and the work ethic not race determine location. But some academics also claim the japanese generally avoid unionized areas and towns with Large the calculations and also pointed out the company recruits at Black colleges. Honda however agreed last March to give $6 million to 377 Blacks and women after an Leoc investigation concluded they should have been hired sooner. The Leoc claimed Honda employed discriminatory practices with a 30-mile hiring radius that excluded Columbus Ohio which has the area s largest minority population. Honda which expanded its hiring area before the settlement admitted no wrongdoing. Many japanese associated Auto plants Are close to universities and near interstate 75, dubbed Auto Alley which stretches South from Michigan. Toyota is in Georgetown ky., near the University of Kentucky Chrysler Mitsubishi is in Normal Home of Illinois state University while Subaru Isuzu automotive inc. Is near Lafayette ind., across the River from Purdue. These towns say automakers Are attracted to cheaper land lower taxes open space and a Well educated work Force. Bloomington Normal population 87,718, was appealing because of its Good Highway and rail systems incentives Strong work ethic and schools said g. Glenn Gardner former chairman of Diamond Star motors corp., the firm formed by Chrysler and Mitsubishi. We needed people with very Good communication skills verbal written and Reading he said. Some of the major larger cities have a very difficult time graduating significant numbers of  in Tippecanoe county surrounding Lafayette one in four people 25 years and older has four years of College said Mark Davis president of greater Lafayette Progress inc., a non profit development corporation. What kind of Public education system does Detroit have he asked. What kind of technological capability in terms of College graduates does Detroit have there s no god Given right big cities should be viewed As the automotive centers he said. We Small towns technologically sophisticated centers think we can compete  they do engaging in fierce bidding wars offering free land and water Road and sewer improvements employee training funds and tax abatement. Chrysler Mitsubishi received $88.7 million in state incentives alone including 630 acres of farm land. Nobody Ever offered us a site in Chicago Detroit. Or St. Louis Gardner said. Experts also say japanese automakers prefer areas where unions Aren t Strong. They re afraid wages will be High said Michael Young director of the Center for japanese Legal studies at Columbia University. They re afraid unions will create demands that will make the company  Mazda is atypical it is 25 Miles from Detroit and spokesman Jim Gill said the Only wholly owned subsidiary of a japanese automaker with Law affiliation. If you re going to locate in Michigan Gill said you Best be prepared to Deal with the  Mazda because of its location also has Many former big three employees nearly a fourth of its workers. But Vladmir Pucik International business professor at the University of Michigan said the japanese prefer a relatively inexperienced labor Force so they can train them in the japanese Way of doing things. They want to go somewhere so nobody will say at Ford we did it differently.1" Gardner conceded Chrysler Mitsubishi sought fresh faces. We did t want to have another car Plant that would have 20 years of experience transferred to our Plant he said. We wanted some Green people when it comes to building  but he said any suggestion race was involved in site selection was utter nonsense and any charge we selected a town to stay away from a Union. Is absolutely and unequivocally dead  the Plant was built with a 100 percent unionized labor Force. Bloomington mayor smart says the japanese will be Happy they built there. When you get into any Rural setting people Are not afraid to put in Long hours he said. Here there s a satisfaction in seeing the end result. You re just bred that  tuesday february 1989 the stars and stripes Page 13