Portland observer., August 30, 2000, Page 6, Image 6

Page .16
August 30, 2000
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Ford names new minority retailers
Increased competition means
local em ployers must adopt
innovative benefits
• Ford Motor Company s newest
class o f Minority Retailers to
Enter the Retailing World
CONTRIBUTED STORY
E O R jM fU R I L A m U B S E R Y E R
EU r T he P ortland O bserver
Deborah Tompkins, founder and
president o f T om pkins Benefit
Group, a Portland niche firm that
creates and manages customized
em ployee benefit packages for-
em ployers, forecasts increased
growth in the employee benefits
arena based on current trends.
*In the Portland area, the cost o f
providing the same benefits as a
year ago has increased by about 11
percent, while the cost o f salaries
has o n ly in c re a se d by th re e
percent,” said Tompkins, a 22-year
veteran o f the insurance and benefits
industry. “That’s a real issue for
em ployers. T h e y ’re finding it
increasingly difficult-and expensive
- to lure and retain good employees
T hey’ve spent the past two years studying business and
retail theory in classrooms, as well as working with real
customers in Ford Motor Company’s newest class o f minority
dealer candidates to enter the automotive retailing world.
The 13 men and women receiving their diplomas on Aug. 18
are the first class to graduate from Ford M otor Com pany’s
Minority Retailer Development Program since the program
was redesigned in 1998.
“ W e’re very proud o f our dealer graduates, and have great
confidence in their future success,’’said Elliott Hall, Ford
Motor Company vice president o f Dealer Development.
“This is a very exciting time to be entering the automotive
retail world, and we believe our Minority Retailer Development
Program has positioned these candidates to compete very
well in today’s marketplace”.
Students in the Minority Retailer Development Program
undergo an extensive two-year training program designed to
expose them to all aspects o f the automotive retailing business.
The August2000 class o f graduates will be the 2 8 th graduating
class to complete the MRDO program since it began in 1974. Ford
Motor Company has the largest num ber o f minority dealers in the
country, with 378 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury minority dealers
operating throughout the U.S.
in such a tight labor market.”
Linder su c h c o n d itio n s , the
importance o f employee benefits
b ec o m e s
h e ig h te n e d ,
said
Tompkins. She explained that with
the labor squeeze in Portland, fueled
in part by a booming Internet start­
up industry, employers are coming
up with creative new ideas for
benefits. Tompkins herself is a firm
believer in so-called “quality oflife”
benefits. She cites quarterly staff
parties and even a shopping trip to
Nordstrom as examples o f benefits
h e r c o m p a n y has o ffe re d its
employees.
“An employer has to create a culture
that fits his or her em ployees.
Essentially, they need to create a
community. No stock options in the
w orld can m ake up for th a t,”
Tompkins pointed out.
Tolerance from page 4
questions some Protestants had about his Roman Catholicism.
Oh, yes, to be sure, the Liberman selection galvanized, at least for
the moment, some o f the forces o f anti-Semitic intolerance- be it the
kind that is deliberate and some o f the hard-core, or the kind that
is largely bom o f a reflexive bigoted ignorance.
We should not be saddened or dismayed by these outbursts o f
intolerance. We should be energized by it, as the leadership o f the
National Association for the Advancement o f Colored People
obviously was in disciplining the head o f their Dallas, Texas
chapter for his bigoted references to Jewish Americans.
The NA A C P’ s quick, forceful response underscores what happens
when people, a group, an entire society stand up for tolerance, as
American society has done significantly since the early I960’ o f
John F. Kennedy and the Civil Rights Movement.
For one thing, such unabashed support for inclusiveness makes
clear what bigotry is: a stinking venom under the cover o f anonymity
the internet provides.
Most o f these people w on’t dare make such remarks in the open,
whether in a public forum, or around the water cooler at work, or
even with most o f their friends because they know those remarks
would stamp them as backward, as afraid o f the rich diversity o f the
American present and the future.
So, regardless o f party affiliation, we can all take heart from the
recent actions on both sides o f the m ajor-party divide.
On the one hand, the Republican convention opened with such
substantive high-profile African A m ericans as Gen. Colin Powell,
and George W. Bush’s chief foreign policy adviser, Condoleeza
Rice.
And, on the other Democratic Party has pushed the top o f its ticket
past the boundaries o f conventionality.
Some would say both actions are ju st so much political jockeying.
If so, I say it’s the kind ofjockeying America could use a lot more
of.
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