State of the Union April 15, 2010

April 15, 2010
There will be 16 more members called back Monday, April 19. The new seniority date to hold the plant is 12-16-1996. The number of members still laid off is 242.
•    From the Detroit Free Press: UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Wednesday that he is hopeful the UAW can reverse its declining membership as the economy recovers and the nation's labor laws are changed. Many Americans still want to join unions, Gettelfinger said, but U.S. laws make it difficult to organize. Employers can delay certification votes and even threaten workers with recriminations or even firing. In 2007, he said 58,000 U.S. workers voted to join a union. Two years later, 37% of those workers were still without a labor contract with their employer.
•    Toyota has now halted global sales of the Lexus GX460. In addition, they are testing all of their SUVs for the same problem. For their part, Consumer Reports says that the Lexus was the only SUV they tested that skidded sideways, including the Toyota 4Runner. The GX460 is nothing more than a 4Runner with a Lexus grille and a nicer interior. Oh yeah, it also costs $20,000 more. Yet obviously something is amiss in the electronic stability control, which performed just fine in the 4Runner.
•    From the NY Times: In response to a recent warning from Consumer Reports that the 2010 Lexus GX 460 is not safe to drive, Toyota engineers asked the magazine if they could use its test track to perform its own tests. Consumer Reports declined.
•    And finally, the best Toyota-related line, from Jesse Snyder of Automotive News in his column “Toyota’s ‘automatic’ status is slip-sliding away”: “Without that bulletproof quality reputation, what exactly is the reason to buy a Toyota?”