the office entrance. Inside, a vintage wood teller’s window filled the length of the room, along with a display of smaller art created by the Matlock’s team. Guests knew they were in for something unusual. The tour continued into a museum of repurposed treasures. “I love repurposing things and giving them a new life,” Jeff Matlock said as he showed guests around the room.
A few rooms into the facility, a display of floor-to- ceiling glass cases were filled with heart-shaped boxes. This facility was once the largest maker of candy heart boxes; therefore, even the building itself has been proudly repurposed.
Auto recyclers enjoyed viewing the organized shelving units filled with car parts in the huge warehouse facility, and the vast acres of neatly rowed cars. Many enjoyed an evening walk among the cars, a landscape that was a sight to see. The night of food and friend- ships, with an interesting backdrop was a great success. The next day, attendees were ready to get down to business.
Committee News
The members of the ARA Educational Foundation Board, hosted by ARAEF President Roger Schroder,
Car-Part.com, and Ginny Whelan, the Foundation’s Director, discussed their new platform and exciting new offerings for 2016.
The Foundation has enlisted the help of a new tech- nology company that is already specializing in auto- motive training with automotive dealerships, OEMs, auto service, and equipment, truck and RV dealers (Read the article in November-December 2015 magazine). This new partnership with KPA Online allows ARA University to have more training options in environ- mental health & safety, employee training, human resources, and even sales & finance compliance. There will be more customized training offered to enhance the current training. As of March 1, 2016, subscription rates to
ARAUniversity.org are $110 a month for non-ARA Members and $55 month for ARA members.
Also, ARA University will be reviewing how to incor- porate the ARA Airbag Pro Protocol. “We need to compass that,” says Whelan. “It contains recall tracking capabilities and I’d like to explore how it might help members.” In any case, it is a good time to re-evaluate the whole airbag program to benefit the industry. This year was the first that the ARA University had its own dedicated exposition booth. “We were very pleased with the traffic and interest in ARA University from attendees,” Whelan said. “Everyone was excited at the possibilities for new and improved training. In
30 Automotive Recycling | January-February 2016
fact, we enrolled twelve new companies at the booth.” The Certified Auto Recycler (CAR) committee, chaired by Shannon Nordstrom, Nordstrom’s Automotive Inc., Sioux Falls, SD, reported on their new logo launch that marries the Green Recycled Parts® brand with the CAR logo. “More than just a logo,” Nordstrom says, “it’s a way of doing business.” The committee also made a splash at the convention by providing “Join the Green Team” t-shirts to CAR members to wear, and proudly revealing the “new” award that will be given to CAR Award Winners (see page 35 for a photo of the award). Doug Reinert, Chuck’s Auto Salvage, Douglassville,
PA, reported as Safety Committee Chair that the committee continues to be a source of information to keep workers safe at automotive recycling facilities. They published the Safety Checklist, sponsored by Wells Fargo and available from ARA headquarters, that keeps a facility OSHA-compliant.
Legislative Talk
The hallways were buzzing with talk of recalls and parts numbers.
Peter Muhic, Partner, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP, the legal representative for professional automotive recyclers in the lawsuit against Takata Airbags, and ARA CEO Michael Wilson conducted a session to discuss the legal action.
This is the only suit of the 108 filed that represents professional automotive recyclers,” Muhic says. He emphasized how large the problems are. “The 17 mil- lion vehicles they thought once were affected is actu- ally 34 million,” he affirms. “We are confident in our claims. We expect the judge to be most fair in his decision.” “It is very important that we end up on the right side of this at the end of the day,” Wilson says. “We don’t want consumers worried about what is in your inventory.” Since the convention, the U.S. District Judge in Miami, Federico Moreno, who is overseeing all the Takata airbag class action lawsuits, recently ruled against a motion filed by the Honda Motor Company and Takata Corporation to toss out a class action law- suit by millions of vehicle owners, including the suit filed on behalf of ARA against Takata. The lawsuit, initiated by vehicle owners, alleges that Takata and automakers violated anti-racketeering laws and, as a result of these violations, the owners’ vehicles have lost significant value. Other suits alleging death claims are quietly being settled by Honda. It is report- ed in the trade press that four of the six U.S. death claims have been resolved with the families of those killed by the defective airbags.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64