State of the Union May 11, 2011

May 11, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

From Chairman Mike Bullock: I want to thank everyone who supported me in my re-election. The turnout was outstanding with 92% of you returning to vote. I am honored to serve a second term as your chairman and I pledge my efforts to unifying your committee to work for you. I heard your concerns loud and clear and will continue our work toward the return of the second shift and landing the new product that will secure our future here. Together we will succeed. Once again, Thank You!

There will be a Veterans Committee and a Women’s Committee meeting this Thursday, May 12, at the Union Hall after first shift.

The Annie Malone Parade is this Sunday, May 15 at 1 pm. This year’s theme is “…more than a parade, we give HOPE TO CHILDREN AND FAMILIES”. The parade route starts at 20th & Market and heads east on Market to Broadway. Those who wish to participate must meet at the parking lot of Behlmann Buick, GMC at Hwy. 270 and McDonnell Blvd in St. Louis County NO LATER than 10:15 am. Vehicle decorating is between 11:30 am and 12 noon inside the staging area (admittance by sticker only) We will be in section A-2. There is only space for 25 participants so please arrive early to reserve a seat. For questions or detailed directions call Dan Williams at (314) 616-2271.

From Bloomberg: General Motors Co. (GM) will invest $2 billion in plants in eight U.S. states as it works to boost production and market share. GM said the rest of the investment, which would create or save 4,000 jobs at 17 facilities, depends on completing local tax deals and will be announced in the coming months. GM is growing less than two years after declaring bankruptcy in June 2009. The Detroit-based automaker’s U.S. market share increased to 19.6 percent through April from 18.7 percent in the same period last year, according to Autodata Corp., in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. “It’s not only good for GM, it’s good for the United States of America,” Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson told workers today in Toledo. “We’re committed to investing in the manufacturing infrastructure of this country.”
GM’s investment during the next year will support more than 28,000 U.S. jobs when including indirect employment at suppliers and work created from those employees spending their earnings, according to the Center for Automotive Research. Those jobs will contribute almost $2.9 billion to U.S. gross domestic product, the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based research group said today in an e-mailed statement. The United Auto Workers union has 1,357 members on layoff waiting for jobs at GM, UAW Vice President Joe Ashton told reporters at the event. Akerson said that once those workers are recalled, GM will start hiring people to fill the remainder of the 4,000 jobs. The union will discuss bringing new products to plants in Janesville, Wisconsin; Shreveport, Louisiana, and Spring Hill Tennessee, all of which have either slowed output or been idled, Ashton said. ‘‘That will be discussed at the table,” Ashton said. “We’re hoping. It will depend on sales volume.” The UAW also will negotiate to get more cash put into a trust set up by GM to pay for retirees’ medical benefits, he said. GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC all have funds called Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Associations that are seeded with cash and securities to pay benefits. “I’m sure that will be part of the discussion,” he said.
•    Opinion writer E. J. Dionne recently wrote a piece defending the auto industry “bailout”. Here are some excerpts: Far too little attention has been paid to the success of the government’s rescue of the Detroit-based auto companies, and almost no attention has been paid to how completely and utterly wrong bailout opponents were when they insisted it was doomed to failure. “Having the federal government involved in every aspect of the private sector is very dangerous,” Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) told Fox News in December 2008. “In the long term it could cause us to become a quasi-socialist country.” I don’t see any evidence that we have become a “quasi-socialist country,” just big profits. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) called the bailout “the leading edge of the Obama administration’s war on capitalism,” while other members of Congress derided the president’s auto industry task force. “Of course we know that nobody on the task force has any experience in the auto business, and we heard at the hearing many of them don’t even own cars,” declaredRep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) after a hearing on the bailout in May 2009. “And they’re dictating the auto industry for our future? What’s wrong with this picture?” What’s wrong, sorry to say, is that you won’t see a news conference where the bailout’s foes candidly acknowledge how mistaken they were.