Currently, workers from Kansas, USA, are working at the Rüsselsheim site in Germany. They belong to the Fairfax plant in Kansas where the next global midsize cars for the US market will be built.The German plant in Rüsselsheim will also build global midsize cars for the European market. All these cars manufactured in Rüsselsheim as well as in Kansas are based on the same global vehicle architecture which means that production is flexible and could be shifted theoretically from one plant to the other in the future. But it is also a new reality that US workers from the Fairfax plant who belong to the UAW union are working for some weeks in Rüsselsheim because the global engineering work for these cars has been done here in Germany. So General Motors has not only driven the globalization of its vehicles and strategies but alalso the globalization of parts of its worksforce and - of course - of the unions. Recently, the UAW leadership of the UAW-GM department of the UAW visited Rüsselsheim building up an important strategic relationship with the German IG Metall union and the GM Opel General Works Council which is located at the Rüsselsheim site. The exchange of information is less difficult when the company is setting up the contact amongst the workers by itself. What global vehicle architectures really mean - just have a look on the work of UAW GM employees here in Germany. Solidarity forever!

For some information on the UAW local 31 which is responsible for the Fairfax plant, just visit UAWlocal31