By DEREK R. SMITH, Kokomo Tribune business writer
LAFAYETTE — Tom Easterday, senior vice president at Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc., expects the plant to attract workers from across Indiana in 2007, when it begins production of the Toyota Camry.
Easterday said more than 40 percent of SIA’s workers already commute from outside Tippecanoe County and more than half the applications from SIA’s last major hiring in the late 1990s were from out of county.
“It is amazing the number of people from Howard County who work here,” he said.
Spokeswoman Ann McConnell said SIA has employees who commute from Kokomo, LaPorte, Bloomington, Marion and Hoopeston, Ill.
SIA is about 45 miles west of Kokomo in southeastern Lafayette. The Camry line is expected to add 1,000 jobs at SIA beginning next year.
Critics say the Camry has a “vanilla” design, but it has been the top-selling vehicle in the nation for eight of the last nine years.
Toyota said it has sold more than 6.5 million Camrys in the United States since its introduction in 1982.
The hiring process for the Camry line has not yet begun.
New workers will be SIA employees, not Toyota employees. SIA employees are known as “associates.”
SIA is a nonunion facility — something that doesn’t sit well with the United Auto Workers.
Easterday said there have been a few attempts to unionize the facility over the years.
“We’ve never had a vote here. Of course, that decision is up to our employees,” he said. “Our position has always been we don’t feel a union is necessary because we provide competitive wages and benefits.”
SIA has been recognized for the safety of its operations, Easterday added.
George Anthony, shop chairman of Kokomo’s UAW Local 292, said plants like SIA intentionally pay a wage close to what a unionized autoworker makes.
“They pay the wages and benefits necessary to keep the union out,” he said, adding if there wasn’t a UAW, nonunion facilities would pay a much lower wage.
Anthony said Japan-based companies like Subaru and Toyota tend to ship most of their parts from overseas and return most of their profits to Japan.
“The majority of the automobiles are just assembled here, that’s it,” he said. “U.S. citizens should realize how important it is to buy U.S.-made products.
“The only reason they have assembly plants here is so they can say it’s a U.S.-made automobile. They’re in it for the profits and the profits only.”
SIA officials say the company is committed to its employees and the community. McConnell said SIA has both a child-development center and recreation center and is active in sponsoring charity events.
Easterday said communication to employees is important at SIA. He said some SIA associates used to work in unionized plants and they’ve found the transition very easy.
“We all wear the same uniform,” he said. “I like to tell people I’m not the one who makes the vehicles. Their job is just as important as mine.”
SIA applicants will be required to file a 10-year work history form at WorkOne offices in Indiana, beginning late this summer.
Easterday said the hiring process will include a skills analysis, work simulation, background checks and interviews.
Employees will hire in at just under $15 an hour, then work their way up over three years to a top current pay of $23.31 an hour.
SIA wants employees with at least six months of manufacturing experience, a qualification that many Kokomoans have.
Kokomo’s largest employers — Chrysler Group and Delphi Corp. — are in the highly competitive automotive industry and local employment levels have fluctuated.
Delphi is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and hundreds of local union workers are expected to take retirement buyouts.
Hundreds of Kokomo Chrysler workers were laid off in January, although some accepted a buyout or transferred, and Chrysler has said it expects to create new local jobs in the second half of the year.
Howard County has had a comparatively high percentage of out-of-county commuters in recent years, but commuting patterns could be changing.
In 2004, Howard County had 14,651 workers — 21.5 percent of its work force — commute from other counties. That is nearly four times as many workers as those who live in Howard County and work elsewhere.
“I expect we’ll get a lot of applications from your area,” Easterday said. “Anytime there’s changes .... people are going to look for comparable jobs in an industry they’re familiar with.”