Laid off UAW 1183 workers with a suggestion for the industry. Copyright 2009 Washington Post

Regional Economy

A Message from Laid Off Auto Workers

In January of 2009, President-elect Barack Obama got a message while passing through Newark, DE.
The people holding the signs in the picture in the header are members of UAW 1183. They had just been laid off work the month before, from the Damiler-Chrysler Newark Assembly plant, which can be seen to the left in this picture of the president and Vice-president on the train.
The closed plant made only SUVs, and now it seems that the workers had a better strategic sense of the correct production future for the company than did the management.










Auto Port Inc.

Photo credits: (C) 2010 University of Delaware

Auto Port Inc. is a high volume auto-conversion facility located in New Castle, DE that builds V2G capable vehicles. The picture above shows serial production of eBoxes at Auto Port. The smaller photo shows technology licensed from UD that makes these EVs “Grid Integrated Electric Vehicles.” Below is the ribbon-cutting for the 1st completed eBox.




Cutting the ribbon are Roy Kirchner (President, AutoPort), Jack A. Markell (Governor of Delaware), and Hallie Reese (VP of Safety and Strategic Services at Pepco Holdings, Inc.).  Other company and state officials, and the assembly workers, are in the background.  Inset shows the completed vehicle driving out past the cut ribbon.  Photo credit: (C) 2009, University of Delaware.