Sept. 28, 2010 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
From Chairman Mike Bullock: A Policy grievance has been written by the Union for all employees concerning management’s decision to run line time longer than 11.0 hours.
From Community Services: The Make-A-Wish event last Thursday exceeded everyone’s expectations, especially the family. The generosity and genuine affection of this workforce was apparent to everyone who was involved and comments like “overwhelming” and “unbelievable” were heard at every stop along the way. There are too many people to thank to list here but you need to know that you have touched people’s lives in a way that they will never forget. Be proud of yourselves. You have set a new standard for Make-A-Wish events.(for the record, the gifts filled the family’s Dodge Durango and a Chevy Suburban)
Part two of Detroit Free Press interview with UAW President Bob King :
Q: Paint a picture of what bargaining does look like if pattern bargaining is reduced.
A: Between Ford and General Motors and Chrysler, you do have to keep fairness. ... Overall, we are not going to put one company at a disadvantage to the other companies. That wouldn't be right. That wouldn't be fair. What we don't have the ability to do right now is to make sure that that pattern stays throughout the whole industry.
Q: Across most of America, when you say 'UAW' you conjure a lot of negatives. I wonder if you could paint a picture of how you would like to see the union thought of.
A: I want to create and build all of the documentation in the world that (shows) ... if they are a UAW employee, you know that you are going to get the best quality possible ... that is, long-term, what will give us the greatest security and the greatest stability to get good contracts and good wages and benefits for our membership? ...
So the people attack the labor movement and say we are holding competitiveness back -- I don't think that is accurate. ...I would say to those folks, why are you recommending continuing hundred-thousand-dollar tax breaks to people making millions a year and not putting the money into the infrastructure? It's wrong.
Q: You are working a little bit in Mexico with the labor unions at the (Johnson Controls) plant there, so I was wondering if you would talk a little about that and how much resources the UAW has to dedicate to your big dream of global economic justice?
A: We will be doing more internationally. We are in some exciting planning now about, how do we do that? We will be rolling that out hopefully in the next 30 days.
We are setting up some meetings ...with people who have spent a lot of time in China ... I'm afraid the labor effort could get crushed if there is not outside support.
Q: A year after the government rescue and the bankruptcies, walk us through your verdict.
A: I'm very appreciative of President Obama and the Democratic leadership. It was not the politically popular thing to do. ... He invested in American companies and American workers. And that investment is paying off.
I don't know how you ever recoup the loss to the communities, the families, all of the jobs that we lost ... The way you learn from that is you make sure you don't get back into the same box or the same downward cycle ... The challenge is to make sure that as volumes increase, as new capacity is needed, it is built in the U.S. -- not other places.
Q: For UAW membership today, is job security the trump issue?
A: I think clearly that is the biggest thing. ...Job security, getting investment in our facilities, pushing forward on the newest technology -- all of those things are important.
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