Sept. 16, 2010 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
From Chairman Mike Bullock and President Dan Howell: We would like to thank everyone for their huge support of strike assistance raffle for members of UAW Local 1887. A total of $2614 was raised and a check for that amount will be sent out today. The winners are: 1st place – Doug Dunahee; 2nd place – Brent Robinson; 3rd place – Ron Utlaut. This was a great show of solidarity and generosity!
From the Nashville Tennesseean: General Motors will spend up to $500 million to build a new assembly line for its next-generation Ecotec four-cylinder engine at its Spring Hill, Tenn., manufacturing complex, and recall about 400 laid-off workers to make the engines, a source with knowledge of the plan said Tuesday. A news conference has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday at the plant for GM to announce the plans, the source said. GM officials declined to confirm the information, but spokeswoman Kim Carpenter said a media advisory about a coming event would go out on Wednesday. GM furloughed about 2,000 workers at the plant late last year when assembly of the Chevrolet Traverse crossover utility vehicle was moved to Lansing, Mich. But 1,045 workers remain employed there, including 899 hourly and 146 salaried, building engines and operating a metal-stamping facility that makes body panels for the Traverse. About 400 of those workers assemble the current Ecotec engines on two separate lines, but that number would double when the third line opens, the source said.
From the LA Times: Toyota Motor Corp. has acknowledged that a software bug in the device used to read its black boxes produced faulty data, only months after the automaker touted information from the recorders to suggest that human error caused sudden acceleration. The automaker said it spotted and fixed the problem — which could give incorrect information on speed — in June and that it did not affect readings for pedal and brake application, crucial keys to determining potential causes of sudden acceleration. (of course)
"You can't rely on event data recorders to determine whether there has been a sudden acceleration event," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. "We can't take Toyota at face value that the EDR is accurate enough to clear them of responsibility for sudden unintended acceleration." In early April, Toyota downloaded data from an EDR in a crashed 2007 Tundra (whose driver lost his life) using the uncorrected software, resulting in what the company now says was erroneous data. Specifically, the readout indicated that the pickup slowed by 177 mph upon impact, a speed Toyota now admits is impossible. It wasn't until June that a software upgrade was provided to NHTSA, Toyota's Michels said. He said the company had reread the data from the Tundra and that it now showed a change of velocity of 1.4 mph.(Sorry, but if a Tundra can’t protect you from fatal injuries with what amounts to a slight brake application, they have much more serious issues)
From the International Union UAW: After nearly a month of imprisonment, Ms. Kalpona Akter, director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, Mr. Babul Akhter, director of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation, and Mr. Aminul Islam organizer for BCWS’s district office in Savar have been granted bail and will be released from prison. They still face charges, but they have tremendous international solidarity and an excellent team of attorneys. Fearing that Bangladesh’s 3.5 million mostly young women workers would continue their struggle for a 35-cent-an-hour minimum wage, the powerful Bangladesh Garment and Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) filed trumped up charges against the union leaders for supposedly fomenting worker violence--including “use of explosives” to damage garment factories. But another very important and progressive trade union leader, Mr. Montu Ghosh, legal advisor to the Garment Sramik Trade Union Kendra, remains imprisoned. We need to redouble our efforts to free Mr. Ghosh. It was a major international effort which led to the release of Kalpona, Babul and Aminul. Labor played a huge role. You can write the Bangledesh Embassy by going to www.nlcnet.organd clicking on the “Free Imprisoned Trade Union Leader” link on the right.
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