State of the Union February 25 2010

Feb. 25, 2010

From Chairman Mike Bullock: Yesterday the conveyor continued to run past line time in main trim. This was due to a PLC issue that would allow the conveyor to continue running at 5:30.This has been corrected. Everyone affected will be paid 11.1 hours.

The announcement of the 3rd shift for Lordstown means an additional 1200 jobs here. Production of the Cruze will begin in the 3rd quarter. Lordstown is in the Midwest Region along with all other Ohio plants as well as all Michigan and Indiana plants. There are currently between 5000 and 6000 laid off GM employees according to GM VP Manufacturing Diana Tremblay.

Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines pulled out of the deal to buy the Hummer brand from General Motors. The price was reportedly $150 million. Tengzhong failed to get clearance from Chinese regulators within the proposed timeframe for the sale. GM plans to wind down the brand. No mention of the fate of the Shreveport plant, which builds the Hummer H3 and H3T.

From Automotive News: The U.S. headquarters of three Japan-based automotive
suppliers -- all of them with ties to Toyota Motor Corp. -- were searched by FBI agents Tuesday in connection with an international anti-trust investigation. The raids are unrelated to the recalls. "The anti-trust division is investigating the possibility of anti-competitive cartel conduct of automotive electronic components suppliers,” said Gina Talamona, deputy director of public affairs for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. "We are coordinating with the European Commission and other foreign competition authorities."

Toyota’s Jim Lentz set new standards for sidestepping questions Tuesday:How many Toyotas will be on the road without a new retrofit to the braking system? "I can't tell you exactly."; What has independent testing of Toyota's electronic throttle-control system shown? "I don't know specifically of the results of the tests."; Please tell me the date that Toyota first heard of incidents of sudden acceleration in its vehicles sold in the U.S. "I don't know the answer to that,"; Please tell me the date on which Toyota commenced the first recall to address this problem in the U.S. "If I don't know the answer to the first one, I don't know the answer to the second one."

Bravo!!