State of the Union December 10, 2010

Dec. 10, 2010 www.uawlocal2250.com

Reminder: Tomorrow is the breakfast with Santa (9 am – 11 am) and the Christmas dance (7 pm – midnight) at the Union Hall. Also, today is the last day to buy raffle tickets from the Women’s Committee (drawing to be held at the dance).


The annual Pretrim bakesale is Monday, Dec. 13 at the team center at column T-45. You can bring baked goods by Monday morning if you wish to donate.

GM announced that the sub compact car to be built at Lake Orion will be named the Chevy Sonic. The car will go into production Aug. 1, 2011. Orion will also build the Buick Verano small car, based on the Chevy Cruze platform.

From Automotive News: Ford and Honda have vaulted past Mercedes-Benzto tie for the highest customer retention rate among automotive brands in the United States this year, according to a new study. The two mass-market brands retained 62 percent of buyers this year, J.D. Power and Associates said in its annual Customer Retention Study released today. Ford rose five spots from 56 percent in 2009 while Honda increased one spot from 64 percent last year. Mercedes fell five spots, from 66 percent in 2009 to 59 percent in 2010, J.D. Power said. (GM brands scored as follows: Chevrolet – 52%; Cadillac – 44%; GMC – 43%; Buick – 27%)

From Bloomberg News: A federal judge in California tentatively rejected Toyota Motor Corp.’s bid to dismiss lawsuits claiming deaths and personal injuries caused by unintended sudden acceleration of its vehicles. Lawyers for injured customers and families of those killed in accidents provided sufficient evidence to allow their cases to go forward, said U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana, Calif., in a tentative ruling today. Selna earlier denied Toyota’s motion to dismiss class-action, or group suits claiming economic losses related to sudden acceleration. Toyota said in court filings that the plaintiffs didn’t offer specific allegations of an actual defect and that the company didn’t conceal anything. “Toyota demands a level of specificity that is not required at the pleadings stage,” Selna wrote in his tentative order. “The defect is identified: plaintiffs’ cars suddenly and unexpectedly accelerate and do not stop upon proper application of the brake pedal.” Selna said he wouldn’t dismiss fraud allegations against Toyota related to sudden unintended acceleration, or SUA. “Rather than disclosing the SUA defects to consumers, Toyota often blamed consumers for SUA-related problems,” he wrote.