![\"Honda](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/09\/25\/PDTN\/846e1850-3f01-4a91-9561-cf37778c1f11-marysville_shift.JPG?crop=2095,921,x477,y10&width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>Honda workers – called “associates” – emerge from the Honda Marysville Plant at the end of the 6:30 a.m.-3 p.m. shift. Marysville’s non-union plants haven’t had a work stoppage in 40 years.\u00a0(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n Marysville, Ohio<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 While the United Auto Workers strike against\u00a0General Motors Co. plants stretches\u00a0on, it’s been\u00a0business as usual here at Honda Motor Co.\u2019s Marysville assembly.<\/p>\n Celebrating its 40th year of production this month, the non-union plant has never had\u00a0a work stoppage as it has pumped out two of the most popular vehicles in America:\u00a0the Honda Accord sedan and CR-V SUV.<\/p>\n Honda Marysville is not alone.<\/p>\n Dozens of so-called foreign “transplants\u201d\u00a0\u2014 from Asian mainstream manufacturers to European luxury makers \u2014\u00a0have followed Honda\u2019s model across the United States in recent decades. The influx has transformed America\u2019s auto landscape with a cheaper,\u00a0more flexible, non-union workforce model upping competitive pressure on unionized Detroit.<\/p>\n Today, the Detroit Three automakers are an island of UAW production\u00a0surrounded by foreign transplants that now make up 48% of U.S. vehicle production, according to the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research.\u00a0That’s up from just 17% in 2000. Non-union employment rose from 15% of the industry at the century’s turn to 39%\u00a0in 2013, according to the most recent Automotive News analysis.<\/p>\n \u201cUnions are not dead,\u201d said East Lansing-based economist Patrick Anderson, who noted the strike is costing GM $25 million per day in lost profits. \u201cBut confrontational, obstructionist bargaining as a success strategy is dead. Unions are here to stay only if they are interested in the welfare of their employers as well as their workers.\u201d<\/p>\n The UAW says that non-union plants are at a disadvantage\u00a0because union wages are better, the shops are safer, workers’ rights are better represented and disciplinary actions are covered by a grievance procedure.\u00a0But UAW efforts to organize foreign-owned auto plants in the United States have failed repeatedly, despite promises of contract protections and generally higher pay.<\/p>\n In response to inquiries from The Detroit News, the union said: “As a matter of policy, the UAW does not comment on organizing plans and strategies.” Still, compensation in UAW-represented auto plants trends higher nationwide than non-union shops.<\/p>\n Average hourly wages in non-union transplants run\u00a0between $23 and $25 an hour, according to the Center for Automotive Research, compared to roughly $30 an hour for so-called “legacy” employees at UAW-represented auto plants. Health-care plans and 401(k) programs are common, and bonuses are comparable to UAW-bargained profit-sharing payouts.<\/p>\n Honda\u2019s Marysville is not immune to change. Like the rest of the industry,\u00a0the plant has been whipsawed by changing market forces.\u00a0The Honda Accord \u2014\u00a0the first sedan manufactured here beginning in 1982 \u2014\u00a0is down in sales as consumer\u00a0tastes have shifted to SUVs. But rather than shutter Marysville, as has happened at GM’s sedan-only plant\u00a0in Lordstown, Ohio, Honda has expanded production for its new best-seller, the CR-V SUV.<\/p>\n Honda employs 15,000 people in its facilities across Ohio \u2014\u00a04,700 in\u00a0Marysville \u2014 making it Ohio’s 13th-largest employer, according to\u00a0Cleveland.com<\/a>. By comparison, GM employs 17,000 hourly workers across Michigan.<\/p>\n \u201cHonda has been good to us,\u201d said 32-year Marysville veteran Merrill Eggleston, 59, at the end of his shift in the plant\u2019s weld shop. \u201c… The UAW tried to get in here, but we have always had stable employment.\u201d<\/p>\n Honda\u2019s manufacturing flexibility\u00a0and continued investment here \u2014\u00a0it has opened\u00a0two more plants in the north Columbus area as well as expanded research on autonomous vehicles \u2014\u00a0have grown a loyal workforce.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have a problem here. Which is good because we are privileged to have a job\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Honda could just shut down and move away,\u201d said radiator-and-headlight assembly worker Neal Howard, 49, who has worked here 19 years. \u201cThere is nothing to fight about. We have a good culture here, people just want to work.\u201d<\/p>\n