August 5, 2010 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
Here is the monthly sales report from Marketing Manager Andrew Reyntjes:
We exceeded our targets thanks to a very strong Fleet month for Express. Our Express Fleet performance made up for the 612 unit miss in our Retail objectives. This really isn't that surprising as the order banks have been filled with sold Fleet orders for a few months now and pretty-much only Retail Sold orders have made it to dealers. Dealers have been having trouble getting stock units for their dealership either through lack of allocation through the turn and earn process or availability of timely production due to the back up of profitable commercial Fleet orders. Shortly we are going to see our new diesel engine reach customers after the majority are transformed into Ambulances and Shuttle Buses. We are hopeful that this environmentally friendly segment exclusive will help us conquest additional sales particularly with first responders and various local and municipal governments. Our plans for the rest of the year will look to grow sales to small businesses (Retail Sales) as we expect some seasonal decline in Fleet orders. We have a number of initiatives planned to target specific vocational groups as well as allow many dealers the opportunity to obtain an allocation of a van for their dealerships stock. We are also fortunate to be involved with a variety of Chevrolet events and initiatives that will help Express benefit from the divisional halo. Our recent participation in the Chevrolet display at the Brickyard 400 was very successful. Gradually we are closing the share gap to Ford this year as the impact of the large U-Haul win for Ford at the beginning of the year dilutes over time. We have made some significant Fleet deals with large commercial customers and continue to do so in a profitable manner.
Part 3 of UAW President Bob King’s speech:
The 21st-century UAW also has adopted a more constructive and positive approach to the issue of global trade. Many people forget that Walter Reuther was an internationalist who favored trade, but who also stressed the need for trade to take place on an equitable basis, so that corporations could not use low wages, poor working conditions and repression of unions to their competitive advantage.
Our once-vibrant cities have felt the pain and dislocation of globalization, and the needs of our communities are legitimate and must be addressed. We can only address these needs effectively if we have strategies that fit the new global world we live in. Looking back and wishing for days gone by is a road to nowhere. We must engage constructively and creatively with the realities of globalization. Our commitment to our core values has not changed. Our strategies to achieve these core values must change to be effective in the new world we live in. Globalization has improved the living standards of hundreds of millions of people in developing countries. As evidenced by the recent labor actions in China, Mexico, and Bangladesh, workers around the world want the same thing — a decent wage, good working conditions, and the right to organize free unions. The interests of American workers are intricately interwoven with the aspirations of the world’s poor. Just as the 20th-century UAW helped build the American middle class, the 21st-century UAW must contribute to the goal of creating a global middle class. This is the essence of our heritage of fighting for social justice. It is also our core belief that unions are an essential feature of every democratic society. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently delivered an important policy address on the subject of civil society. She pointed out that democracy is a three-legged stool, the three legs of which are elections, free markets, and civil society. Civil society includes such institutions as the free press and free labor unions. Elections alone, and capitalism alone, do not ensure democracy, for corporate actions left unchecked by a free press or by free unions can result in corporate domination of the political process and massive, destabilizing divisions between rich and poor. No democracy on Earth can thrive and prosper without democratic unions. The notion of huge multinational corporations with carte blanche — no union to hold them accountable, no union to enforce safety and environmental standards, no union to speak for workers on the job or in the public arena — raises the specter of an Earth laid waste for the benefit and profit of a privileged few who can dominate not only the marketplace but also the political process. Both the free press and free unions depend upon the right of free speech and freedom of association, which in this country are enshrined in the First Amendment to the Constitution. The right to organize unions is the First Amendment for workers. In the United States, this right does not exist for private sector workers. Many corporations in this country beginning in the 1970s adopted a scorched earth policy to destroy unions. Their clearly stated aim was to operate "union-free", to rid this nation of this critical leg of democracy. They began hiring anti-union consultants who with very little effort found ways to render the National Labor Relations Board election process a complete farce and sham. Labor Board elections bear no resemblance to real democratic elections. Management fires or threatens to fire workers who get involved in union organizing campaigns. Workers are required to attend mandatory meetings where they are told that their company is likely to close if they choose to unionize. Supervisors apply pressure to individuals, making sure that people know their jobs and futures are at stake. Derogatory, divisive and inflammatory comments about unions are constant. It doesn’t matter whether these threats are legal or not, since there are no meaningful penalties in the law. The entire goal is to create insecurity and a climate of fear.
Democracy cannot coexist with fear.
(fourth and final part tomorrow)
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