A couple of weeks ago, Kansas City Business Journal reporter James Dornbrook was attempting to cover Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s signing ceremony for the Missouri Automotive Manufacturing Jobs Act, which includes $100 million in potential incentives for Ford Motor Company.

Here’s his story about the incident.

I drove to the event and parked in the lot at the UAW Local 249’s union hall, which is near Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant. But a union member promptly told me that I was not welcome there. I needed to park somewhere else.

“We don’t allow THAT in our parking lot,” he said, pointing to my Toyota Camry.

This concerned me on several levels, the first being that the Local 249 union hall is right off of Highway 69, basically in the middle of nowhere, so there isn’t exactly a plethora of parking options outside of its lot.

I told this guy I was with the media, there only to cover the bill signing. It didn’t change his mind.

I asked for his name. He didn’t give it.

I asked him if he wanted coverage of the bill signing (which would allow the funneling of Missouri taxpayer money — including mine — to the plant to help retain jobs such as his), because if I can’t park, I have to leave. He said, “I’m willing to help you trade that in for a new Ford today, but you can’t park that car there.”

I mentioned that I’ve written at least a dozen stories about how the Claycomo plant could be in danger of closure as Ford realigns its production operations in the United States and around the globe.

The fact is, in February 2009, I was one of the first to report that Ford’s Kansas City plant could be in danger of closure — a possibility that the new legislation hopes to mitigate. In the story I wrote, UAW Local 249 president Jeff Wright said he hadn’t heard anything about the possible plant closure.

None of that mattered to this guy. In the end, I conceded and parked on the shoulder of the busy highway outside the 10-foot fence of the UAW parking lot and made the lengthy hike in the baking sun to the front door of the union hall.

I covered the event, wondering the whole time about the fate of my car. As I left, the guy still was in the parking lot. He waved and said, “Thanks for coming.” I waved back, but didn’t say anything because I still was irked by the slight.

When I got back to the office, I did some research. My Toyota Camry was built in Georgetown, Ky. — by American auto workers. In fact, my Kentucky-built Toyota Camry has more American-made parts in it than the Claycomo-built Ford F-150, which recently got knocked off the Cars.com American-made Index’s top 10 list. The domestic parts content of the F-150 dropped to 55 percent; the index requires vehicles to have at least 75 percent of parts produced in the United States. The car that dethroned the F-150 on this list: the Toyota Camry.

I’m a Ford fan. It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that it’s workers are members of the UAW, I just like the product. That aside. the arrogance of the UAW ultimately be their end. Maybe they should look at what happened to the Teamster’s Union within the trucking industry.

From the UAW’s web site:

UAW President Bob King used the blog post to create a teaching moment not only for the reporter who wanted to park his Toyota Camry in Local 249’s parking lot, but for those who think simply buying a car made in the United States is as helpful to American workers and the U.S. economy as is buying a UAW-made car.

Here is UAW President Bob King’s response to that post. He outlines why driving a Toyota Camry isn’t the same as driving a UAW-made vehicle:

You can read his patently ridiculous response here.

Hat tip: Abdul-Hakim Shabazz

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 2nd, 2010 at 12:30 pm and is filed under Unions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.