Workers at Ohios' Mathews Ford Vote to Join UAW

* First auto dealership in Ohio with UAW-represented workforce * Innovative partnership focuses on quality, customer satisfaction and market share growth

TOLEDO, Ohio, Feb. 28 -- An overwhelming majority of workers at Mathews Ford in Oregon, Ohio, just outside Toledo, have voted for UAW representation through a card-check procedure. The 35-person bargaining unit includes auto technicians, service and repair workers, auto body workers and porters. Mathews Ford is the first auto dealership in Ohio with a UAW- represented workforce.

"We're proud to be the first UAW-represented dealership in Ohio," said Jim Hites, an auto technician. "The UAW and Mathews Ford have a long and positive relationship. We believe this innovative partnership with owner Tim Mathews and Mathews Ford management will help everyone at our dealership achieve our mutual goals: increasing new car sales and service work, continued focus and improvement on our highest priority -- customer satisfaction; growing Ford's market share in the Toledo area; and demonstrating how management and labor can creatively work together and grow jobs in our community."

"We're looking forward to working with Mathews Ford, so we can reach out to UAW members and other union members in the Toledo area," UAW Region 2B Director Lloyd Mahaffey and Vice President Bob King, who directs the UAW National Organizing Department, said in a joint statement. "We want to add value and help increase market share by letting our members know they can purchase a top-quality Ford car or truck at Mathews Ford and receive top- quality service and support from their UAW brothers and sisters."

One of North America's largest and most diverse labor unions, the UAW represents 1.2 million active and retired workers, including workers at more than 100 auto dealerships in Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.