Groups Kick-Off Midwest "Green Machines&" Tour to Promote
UAW Jobs and Cleaner Environment
Unprecedented Environmental/Labor Partnership
Joins Together to Support First U.S.-Made Hybrid
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 4, 2004
KANSAS CITY, MO - As the first U.S.-made hybrid SUV was unveiled, a coalition of environmental and labor leaders kicked-off the region-wide Green Machines Tour, bringing together labor, environmental organizations, and the auto industry to promote hybrids and other fuel-efficient technologies.
“This is an exciting time to launch the Green Machines Tour because the first UAW-made hybrid, the Ford Escape Hybrid, will finally be available to U.S. consumers,” said Charles Griffith, Auto Project Director at the Ecology Center.. “The Tour is an educational campaign to showcase hybrids and other fuel-efficient vehicle technologies being made in the nation’s heartland. We want people in the Midwest to know that they can support our UAW workers and buy an environmentally-friendly vehicle.”
The Tour was organized and launched by the Michigan-based Ecology Center.
The introduction of the new Escape Hybrid will make Ford the first domestic automaker to introduce hybrid-electric technology to the mainstream market, and also the first in the popular small SUV segment. The Escape Hybrid will achieve 30 to 36 miles per gallon, or more than a 50 percent improvement over the standard Escape. It will also have extremely low emissions, achieving the California Advanced Technology Partially Zero Emission Vehicle (AT-PZEV) standard.
“The launch of Ford’s Escape Hybrid is bringing together two groups—autoworkers and environmentalists— who have not always seen eye-to-eye in the past,” said Mike Perry, President of UAW Local 249. “But this partnership is more important now than ever. The introduction of U.S.-made hybrids and other fuel-efficient technologies are essential to staying competitive, which will help the industry create and preserve good union jobs. while also protecting the environment.”
The Green Machines Tour’s goal is to increase awareness about American-made vehicles that can help improve fuel economy, as well as promote new policies that encourage investments in new fuel-efficient technologies in the U.S. The Tour will make stopsaround the Midwest to meet with Union members and to encourage consumers to take advantage of new vehicle choices like the Ford Escape Hybrid.
“Ford's new hybrid SUV demonstrates that American ingenuity is the solution to inventing our way out of our oil addiction,” said Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), board member of the Apollo Alliance. “But companies like Ford can't do it alone. We need the American government step up to the plate and make strategic investments to spur private-sector development of clean energy and efficiency technologies like hybrid engines. We need a new Apollo project that will free us from oil and create millions of new jobs over the next decade.”
Members of the labor-environmental coalition organizing the Kansas City Green Machines event include: The Ecology Center, UAW Local 249, Sierra Club, United Steelworkers of America, Apollo Alliance, Burroughs Audubon Society of Greater Kansas City, and The Institute for Labor Studies.
Members of UAW Local 249 will manufacture the Escape Hybrid at the Ford Kansas City Assembly plant, which employs over 5,500 UAW members. The plant produces the Ford F-150 and Mazda Tribute, as well as the Escape. Ford plans to produce approximately 25,000 Escape Hybrids by the end of 2005.
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The Green Machines Tour was launched by the Ecology Center to promote hybrids and other fuel-efficient technologies that create UAW jobs and support a cleaner environment.
The Ecology Center is a Michigan-based nonprofit environmental advocacy organization that works for healthy communities, clean products and clean production. Staff are organized as members of UAW Local 174.
The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of national business, environmental and labor leaders calling for a $300 billion public-private partnership to create three million new energy jobs and free America from oil.
For More Information:
Charles Griffith, Ecology Center,
734-663-2400 x116
Michael Shellenberger, Apollo Alliance,
510-525-9900
Mike Perry, UAW Local 249,
816-454-6333
Green Machines Tour is a project of the
Ecology Center, a nonprofit organization.
117 N. Division · Ann Arbor, MI 48104 · 734.761.3186 ·
info@greenmachinestour.org
The Ecology Center works for a safe and healthy environment where people live, work and play.
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Staff are organized as members of UAW Local 38.
