Thursday, June 30, 2011

State of the Union June 30, 2011

June 30, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

There will be 4 more members recalled Tuesday, July 5. The seniority date to hold the plant is 7-14-2008 with last four of 8000.

Reminder: Tuesday, July 5 is a VR blackout day and the holiday pay qualifying day. Also, today is the final day for submitting referrals, which must be done by 11 pm. If you still need assistance, you can go to personnel at 1st and 2nd break or lunch and you need to have your gmid and password.

The July schedule is out. Tuesday 7/5 is 10.6, Wednesday 7/6 and Thursday 7/7 are 10.7. After that, the daily production schedule is 10.3 for the remainder of the month with Friday 7/22 off.

There will be another PSP auto-enrollment period running now through Friday July 29. You can call 1-800-489-4646 if you wish to opt out but you must do it by 7/29 at 4 pm. The first payroll deduction will occur on August 5 with a 3% contribution rate that can be increased or decreased during the enrollment period. Finally, employees who are automatically enrolled in the PSP will have the opportunity to request to have their contributions refunded, if such request is made within 90 days of their first contribution. You should be getting a letter in the mail with more plan details.

From the Detroit News: President Barack Obama urged Congress to approve the Korea Free Trade agreement, saying it would boost the sale of U.S. vehicles. "You see a whole bunch of Korean cars here in the United States and you don't see any American cars in Korea," Obama said at a news conference today. U.S. carmakers shipped just over 13,000 vehicles to Korea last year — 1.1 percent of all salesthere — while Korean automakers exported 560,000 vehicles to the United States — 5 percent of sales. Of those U.S. exports to Korea, about 7,500 were from Detroit's Big Three automakers. The administration announced a deal in which it would send the Korea Free Trade deal — and free trade agreements with Panama and Colombia along with the extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers displaced by foreign trade. But some Republicans oppose tying approval of the trade deal to extending trade assistance, including Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The trade deal will keep the 2.5 percent U.S. tariff on autos in place until the fifth year. At the same time, Korea will immediately cut its tariff on U.S. auto imports in half, from 8 percent to 4 percent, and fully eliminate that tariff in the fifth year. It also protects U.S. automakers by letting the United States keep its 25 percent trucktariff until the eighth year and then phase it out by the 10th year while Korea eliminates its 10 percent tariff on U.S. trucks immediately.

UAW opposes U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
The UAW and its one million active and retired members have followed closely the negotiation of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia and the subsequent development of the Action Plan to deal with continued violence against labor union members and leaders.
The UAW believes that the negotiation of bilateral and multilateral international trade agreements presents real opportunities to improve the labor and human rights of workers around the world. We commend the Obama administration's strong efforts to strengthen labor and human rights protections in Colombia through the Action Plan and through continuing discussions with Colombia, but we cannot support congressional action on the FTA until:
(1) There is significant progress on the paramount moral issues surrounding the continued violence against unionists.
(2) There is concrete evidence that the perpetrators of these crimes are being brought to justice.
(3) There is an enforcement process for the Action Plan incorporated in either the FTA itself or congressional implementation of the legislation.
Earlier this month, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), with which the UAW is affiliated, released its new Annual Survey on Trade Union Rights, confirming that Colombia remains the most dangerous place on earth for unionists: Last year, 49 people were murdered for their trade union activities - more than the rest of the world combined; 75 additional individuals received credible death threats; at least 2,500 unionists were arrested and thousands more fired from their jobs solely due to union membership.
The Action Plan is not enforceable under the FTA, and the passage of the U.S.-Colombia FTA would seriously weaken the pressure on the Colombian government to fulfill its human rights obligations. The Colombian government has been unambiguously complicit in the abuse of labor and human rights, and the signing of the FTA would undermine workers' rights and the basic principles of freedom and justice.
The UAW will be opposed to the Colombia FTA as long as our brothers and sisters in Colombia continue to be brutally murdered and violently intimidated. We support and will work closely with other American and Colombian unions in the struggle to improve conditions on the ground in Colombia before rewarding the Colombian government and corporations with trade benefits.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

State of the Union June 29, 2011

June 29, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

From the Wall Street Journal: The United Auto Workers union plans to kick off contract negotiations next month with Detroit auto makers, the industry's first labor talks since the U.S. bailout gave union trusts stakes in General Motors Co. and Chrysler LLC. The UAW's national bargaining committee will gather on July 11 to prepare for talks with GM, according to a person familiar with the union's timetable. Other groups are expected to convene later in the month to work out strategies for talks with Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. The union and the auto makers are expected to mark the ceremonial start of the talks on July 27. The union will push the three to commit to building new cars and trucks in the U.S. It plans to ask GM, for instance, to reopen factories in Spring Hill, Tenn., and Janesville, Wis., closed during GM's bankruptcy restructuring, said Joe Ashton, the UAW official leading negotiations with GM. A UAW spokeswoman declined to comment. The UAW has signaled it wants to raise the $14-an-hour entry-level wage agreed to four years ago. It also has said it is open to discussing wider use of profit-sharing plans instead of fixed-pay increases. It also may vie for seats on the boards of the auto companies.

From the Detroit Free Press: TRW Automotiveand the UAW began contract talks this week for workers at a plant in Saginaw that employs about 600 workers. The Livonia-based autosupplier purchased the plant, which makes brake assemblies for General Motors, in 2008 from Delphi, said company spokesman John Wilkerson. The plant is represented by UAW Local 467. Wilkerson declined to comment on the major issues up for negotiation this year. TRW, a maker of brakes, steering, suspension systems and airbags, earned $281 million for the first three months of the year.

From the AP: Toyota Motor Corp. said today it will recall about 82,200 hybrid SUVs in the U.S. due to computer boards with possible faulty wiring. The car giant said the recall will involve Highlander and Lexus brand hybrid SUVs from its 2006 and 2007 lines. The action covers just the vehicles sold in the U.S., with no other models affected. Today's recall involves about 45,500 Highlander Hybrid and 36,700 Lexus Rx 400h vehicles, the company's U.S. subsidiary said in a press release. Toyota said the affected vehicles' hybrid system has a computer board with inadequate soldering that could be damaged during high-load driving. If damage were to occur, the company said the vehicles would either continue to operate under reduced power for a short distance, or coast to a stop.


From Autoobserver.com: In what is likely to be the opening round in a months-long battle to lock in next-generation federal fuel efficiency standards, the Obama administration has floated the idea of setting a 56.2 miles per gallon fleet average requirement for all light vehicles by 2025, a compromise between the 47 mpg the auto industry was asking for and the 62 mpg the environmental community wants to see. The administration is estimating that hiking the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standard to 56.2 miles per gallon from the 35.5 mpg requirement already set for 2016 would add from $2,100 to $2,600 to the initial price of a new vehicle in 2025 – but would result in lifetime fuel savings of $5,500 to $7,000. The initial buyer would have to own the vehicle for at least three years to recoup the initial price premium through fuel savings. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which represents most of the major auto companies active in the U.S., is suggesting that although the 56.2-mpg target represents what is technologically possible, it ignores some potentially high costs. Making cars lighter to improve fuel economy also can make them less safe, said AAM vice president Gloria Bergquist. Raising CAFE to that level also could reduce consumers' choices by forcing the industry to stop making some of the largest and thirstiest vehicles – pickups and SUVs. All that, along with the higher prices automakers would have to charge for such efficiency-optimized vehicles could slash annual sales and further reduce auto industry employment in the process, she added.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

State of the Union June 28, 2011

June 28, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

Reminder: The deadline for the team member referral process is Thursday, June 30 at 11 pm. Once again, this must be done through the mySocrates website at https://mygm.gm.com. If you are having difficulty with the mySocrates website you can call 1-888-337-2400. If you are having difficulty with the referral website you can call 1-800-973-1465. You can also come to personnel at first and second break or lunch time for assistance in completing the process, but you must have your gmid and password.

Unfortunately, Brother Jerry Ploch did not win the Fox 2 St. Louis “Summer R&R in Your Backyard” contest yesterday. However he would like to thank everyone who voted for his entry.

From the Detroit Free Press: The head of General Motors' North American operations says that new contract talks with the UAW will be different from the contentious bargaining of the past. Mark Reuss, GM president for North America, said Monday that the two sides have been talking informally for 18 months about items that can benefit the company and the union. The formal start to the talks is scheduled for July 27. Although he characterized the talks as amicable, Reuss conceded that there will be give-and-take as the company and union stake out their demands. He revealed few details of GM's wish list, although he said the automaker wants its factories to be more flexible so they can change quickly to build modelsthat are in high demand. "Some of the stuff we want is a good thing for the union, and some of the stuff the union wants is a good thing for the company," he said. "Being flexible and agile, for instance, everybody wins."

From Automotive News: UAW President Bob King says a lack of independent labor unions in Mexico explains why auto workers there remain impoverished despite a booming car industry. Many Mexican employers have unions, but they predominantly are "protectionist unions" that work on behalf of companies to hold down compensation and preserve production, King says. These protectionist unions won't hold democratic elections for officers or subject labor agreements to a vote by members, he says. "In Brazil, 36 million people have moved out of poverty in recent years because of what free labor unions have fought for," King says. "You haven't seen that in Mexico." (In contrast to IHS Automotive’s estimate of Mexican autoworker wages and benefits of $3.75 an hour, Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography says the average wage and benefit package for Mexican auto assembly workers is $6.94 an hour. The minimum wage by law in Mexico is about $5 a day.)


Apologies for the glitch-ridden broadcast of the Dan Akerson/Mary Barra town hall meeting yesterday. Here are some excerpts taken from video clips posted on the Socrates website:
o DA: “We’ve made more money in the last year than we did in the prior 10 years and yet our margins are half of what some of our competition is.”
o DA: “The biggest concern is we’re not as productive as our competitors around the globe and we’re going to have to reduce complexity.”
o DA: “We need suggestions. The best ideas come from those who are engaged on a day-to-day basis.”
o MB: “We have the highest rate of engineers that are not working directly on vehicle programs.”
o DA: “We had (around) 30 boards to pass on various decisions – that had just been here for years – that were eliminated (last week).”
o DA: “We’re in the 1st or 2nd inning…This is going to be a long march. But we now have the requisites to drive this company to great. (GM was) More positive in J.D. Power. It’s good but we need it to be great. All great organizations are defined by people.”
o DA: “We’ve got to get better and we’ve got to do it faster”
•    From the Wall Street Journal: Moody’s Investor Service Tuesday cut Toyota Motor Corp.’s senior unsecured long-term credit ratings to Aa2 from Aa3, saying it will take time for Japan’s biggest auto maker to return to “strong profitability” as it tackles the strong yen as well as the effects of the March 11 disasters. In a statement, Moody’s – which in April put Toyota under review for a possible downgrade – warned that a further ratings cut remains a possibility. Toyota’s final ratings “incorporate one notch of support from the country’s banks and government, which are themselves under review for possible downgrade,” the credit rating firm said. “Moody’s expects Toyota will gradually improve its operating profit margin to 3%-5% (in the year ending March 2013), but it may take some time to regain its strong profitability, that is more than 5% operating margin on a sustainable basis.” Standard & Poor’s Rating agency cut its rating on Toyota to AA- just days before the March 11 earthquake, citing “weak profitability.” S&P went on to cut its outlook on all of Japan’s major auto makers to negative late in April in the disaster’s aftermath.

Monday, June 27, 2011

State of the Union June 27, 2011

June 27, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com


In case you were wondering about the lack of JD Power about our van, there is a simple answer – there isn’t any. With passenger vans being the only version that would be sampled, it’s been decided that there just isn’t enough volume to do a statistically valid summary. That said, we do have one good measuring stick in our tool box – warranty data. Being a predominantly commercial vehicle, once again it is a struggle to get an apples-to-apples comparison within GM. But heavy duty versions of the pickups made at Flint and Ft. Wayne have incidents per thousand vehicles 4 to 5 times higher than the van. And our warranty costs for two months in service are the lowest of any truck plant.


This week’s build information: 415 slider doors; 155 r/h door delete; 111 exports; 172 On-Star; 158 Enterprise rent-a-car; 203 diesels; 25 E-26; 106 brake deck spare tire; 127 15 passenger vans; 85.8% white vans; tan interior 1%.

From Automotive News: North American automakers are struggling with a nagging shortage of tires, caused in part by tire plant closings and rising demand for low-volume specialty tires. Automakers are paying much higher prices -- double-digit percentage increases from a year ago -- as tire makers gain pricing power. "We have been bombarded from every side for additional tires, and we can't keep up," said David O'Donnell, Continental Tire's vice president of original equipment in the Americas. "We are at maximum capacity, and all shifts are maxed out." To meet demand, Continental will expand plants in Illinois and Brazil and will build a factory somewhere in North America. But this will take time. The new lines in Illinois and Brazil won't hit full production until 2013, O'Donnell said. Continental is investing $224 million to expand its plant in Mount Vernon, Ill., plus $210 million to expand its plant in Camacari, Brazil. To make things worse, tire makers had been cutting back on North American production capacity before the recession. In 2006 and 2007 alone, four U.S. tire plants were closed, according to TheNew York Times. Plant closures eliminated about 71 million units of U.S. capacity, John Baratta, president of replacement tire sales for the United States and Canada at Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, said in a June article in Automotive News' sister publication Tire Business. Meanwhile, tire manufacturers were opening factories in China that flooded the U.S. market with cheap tires. But in September 2009 the Obama administration slapped a three-year tariff on imported Chinese tires. The tax started at 35 percent of a tire's value declining to 30 percent and 25 percent in the second and third years. The import tax expires in September 2012.

From Cars.com: Despite stagnant sales, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord remain atop this year's American-Made Index. Falling domestic parts content axed Ford's popular Escape and Focus, but the Dearborn, Mich., automaker's redesigned, Chicago-built Explorer hit the ground running and entered the list at fourth place. General Motors fielded three entrants — a feat not seen since the 2009 AMI — with the Chevrolet Malibu and two large crossovers, the Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia. Honda's Odyssey returned for a second year running, moving up a spot to fifth. Toyota's Sienna minivan and Tundra pickup truck both returned this year, as did Chrysler's popular Jeep Wrangler. Detroit's full-size pickups, once a dominant force on the AMI, remain off the chart. The F-150 held a commanding No. 1 spot in the first three years that Cars.com compiled the index, with domestic parts content as high as 90 percent. Alas, today's Michigan- and Missouri-built F-150 bears only 60 percent domestic content rating. Similarly, the Chevrolet Silverado, which held second place for much of the F-150's reign, has just 61 percent domestic content. Chrysler's Ram 1500 pickup's 70 percent domestic content fares better, but it still falls short of the AMI's 75-percent cutoff. Of the top 50 best-selling models so far this year — a group that made up nearly two-thirds of all car sales — only 29 are assembled in part or in whole in the U.S. Others, from the Toyota Prius to the Chevy Equinox, come from elsewhere. What's more, a number of domestically assembled models, like the Alabama-built Hyundai Sonata and Michigan-built Ford Focus, rely heavily on global parts. That trend could continue. In the 2010 model year, the country's top 20 best-sellers averaged a domestic parts content rating of 62 percent. For the 2011 model year, the top 20 averaged 55 percent. Forthcoming models like the redesigned 2012 Ford Focus — a poster car for Ford's global One Ford strategy — have a domestic parts content rating of just 40 percent. Still, Detroit automakers build a majority of the nameplates with high domestic content. For the 2011 model year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 37 models have domestic parts content of 75 percent or higher. Twenty-eight of them are from a Detroit-based brand. A year ago, Detroit brands were responsible for 35 of the 47 models rated 75 percent or higher. In 2010, Automotive News reported that the U.S. auto industry produced some 4.4 million cars from U.S. nameplates in the two neighboring countries. That's a sizable number, given the same industry built nearly 8 million passenger vehicles in the U.S. over the same period. It's cheaper to build in Mexico, and thanks to 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement, it comes with little penalty. Labor rates account for less than 10 percent of overall vehicle cost, Fini says. But within that, the difference is significant. In 2010, Canadian autoworkers averaged $38.77 an hour in U.S. dollars, including benefits. Their U.S. counterparts averaged $33.46. Mexican autoworkers, in contrast, made just $3.75 an hour, IHS Automotive found.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

State of the Union June 23, 2011

June 23, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
•    Starting Monday, if you are still having difficulty completing the online referral process, you will be able to go to the Labor department at breaks and lunch for assistance. You will need your GMIN and password as well as the required information of the person you intend to refer.
•    From the Chaplaincy Committee: Please help us pay tribute and honor to the Marines on Friday, June 24 at lunch time in the Chassis Chapel at column C-42. Come Marines and Armed Forces. All are welcome.
•    From Automotive News: About 125 workers for a critical supplier inside the General Motors Orion Assembly Plant are taking a strike authorization vote today as a means of accelerating contract talks. The workers are employed by LINC Logistics Co. and agreed, by card check, to join the UAW early this spring. So far the UAW has been unable to negotiate a contract with LINC, said Pat Sweeney, president of UAW Local 5960. The local represents hourly workers at Orion and workers from the third-party parts suppliers operating there. The union is fighting for what it calls a "living wage" for LINC workers, who currently earn less than $10 an hour, the UAW's Sweeney said. "We want to get these negotiations behind us and launch this great product," Sweeney said. GM spokeswoman Kim Carpenter said the automaker does not expect the strike-authorization vote and UAW's negotiations with LINC to affect the Sonic launch.
•    From the Detroit Free Press: The UAW has joined a global network of unions that represent Fiatand Chrysler workers across Europe, South America and in Canada, UAW President Bob King said Wednesday. The coalition, formed under the International Metalworkers' Federation, was created to share best practices on issues such as quality and safety. They also intend to work together on broader social issues such as protecting collective bargaining and human rights. "Individual unions still have the responsibility for their individual contracts," King said in an interview with reporters from Turin, Italy. "We've always had a policy that if you sell carsin a country, you should build cars there.” King said the network of unions has sent a letter to Fiat and ChryslerCEO Sergio Marchionne asking him to recognize the new coalition. "All the unions will be helped by better dialogue, better information-sharing and by forming a global platform to discuss common issues," King said. The UAW formed a similar coalition with unions that represent Ford and GM workers globally and has asked those automakers for recognition, King said.
•    From Bloomberg: The UAW is trying to hold its first successful organizing drive at a foreign-car factory in the U.S. To succeed, the union has to convince people like Rocky Long. "I don't see any problems here. I don't see how they could help me out," said Long, who's worked at the Hyundai assembly plant in Montgomery, Ala., for five years. Of the union representatives who came to his home this year, he said, "I really didn't give them the time of day." UAW President Bob King has pledged to organize a foreign automaker this year to expand the union's bargaining power beyond the U.S. companies it has negotiated with for seven decades. King hasn't said which automaker he's trying to organize. Hyundai's lower wages and benefits have given it labor costs of about $44 to $48 an hour, compared with $52 an hour at Toyota's U.S. plants and about $58 an hour at the U.S. factories of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, according to Sean McAlinden, chief economist with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor (Hyundai officials declined to speak about specific pay). Wanda Carter, a Hyundai hourly worker, said she doesn't see a need for a union at the Alabama plant. "Hyundai does the best they can do to work with the Hyundai employees," said Carter, who declined to give her age. She wasn't alone. Workers at another potential UAW target, Volkswagen's new plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., said they were excited just to have a job in the auto industry. There isn't any talk of forming a union, said Terry Young, a line worker. "You don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth," said Young, 34.
•    From the Wall Street Journal: The National Labor Relations Board Tuesday proposed the most sweeping changes to the federal rules governing union organizing elections since 1947, giving a boost to unions that have long called for the agency to give employers less time to fight representation votes. The NLRB's proposals would likely compress the time between a formal call for a vote by workers on whether to join a union, and the election itself. Some companies say cutting the lead time before an election would make it harder for them to build a case for opposing a union, because union campaigns often begin months earlier without an employer's knowledge. Unions praised the proposal, although Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, called the board's step a "modest" one that doesn't address "many of the fundamental problems with our labor laws." Even with more favorable rules, unions could face challenges winning contested elections at a time when even union officials say many workers are more concerned about their own job security. Unions have tried and failed for years to organize workers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and the U.S. operations of big foreign-owned auto makers, among others. On Friday, the United Food and Commercial Workers union lost an election 85-137 at a Target store in Valley Stream, N.Y. The cost of organizing efforts has led unions to seek fewer votes. Last year, unions won 1,036, or 66%, of 1,571 elections conducted by the NLRB, according to the agency. In 1990, unions called for 3,536 elections and won 1,773, or 50%.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

State of the Union June 21, 2011

June 21, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
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GM Payroll Services has successfully implemented ADP iPayStatements at https://ipay.adp.comas the new host for employee paystub information for GM employees paid by Payroll Services in the United States (including ISP paid from the US Payroll Systems). ADP iPayStatements gives you access to your paystub 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, without the need to log into mySocrates. The paystub view previously accessed via Socrates is no longer available. Please note there will be no change to the way your payroll is processed.

ACTION REQUIRED:
The first time you access the site you will need to complete a registration process. If you are an hourly employee, step by step Self Service Registration Instructions were mailed to your address on record, including the Registration Pass Code GM1-Payrequired for registration.
TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL REGISTRATION:

Open a new internet explorer browser window when registering.

GM1-Pay is the only registration code for GM.
If you get a message that says the registration code is not good, close
the window completely, open a new window and try the pass code again.
If you have questions or need assistance with registering please call one of these numbers for assistance: Hourly Payroll Center: 866-245-5957

In spite of high gas prices, last month Americans bought more muscle cars (19,476) -- Mustang, Challenger and Camaro -- than hybrids (17,852). Camaro sales (9,451) led Mustang (6,607) and Challenger (3,418) in May, as they have for the entire year. The hybrid share of U.S. auto sales peaked at 3.6% in July, 2009,Edmunds.com says. Last month, it was 1.6%, depressed also by production cuts for some models due to the Japan disaster, but not enough to account for all the drop. The new conventionally powered cars use various strategies to boost gas mileage to near hybrid levels — without the batteries and electric motors that can add $6,000 on average to a vehicle's cost, according to J.D. Power and Associates. "Even with the fuel savings, it doesn't make sense to buy a hybrid" for many buyers, says Power Senior Manager Mike Omotoso. "This year, we had $4 gas (in many cities) but we saw the introduction of compacts that get 40 mpg. All of these cars are considerably cheaper than hybrids."
Wisconsin’s conservative high court green-lights anti-worker bill
06/20/11
With lightening speed, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided to let stand Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill that takes away public workers’ collective bargaining rights.

The June 14 ruling, issued the same day the case was considered by the justices, tracks the court’s 4-3 conservative majority and overturns a lower court decision that halted implementation of the anti-union, anti-middle class budget bill.

In May, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ruledthat in passing the governor’s budget bill – which includes a measure stripping teachers, nurses and all other public employees (except police and firefighters who supported Walker’s 2010 election) of their bargaining rights – the Republican-controlled legislature violated the state’s open meeting law, and issued a permanent injunction against the bill.

The majority justices found GOP legislators did not violate the constitutional provision that states “all meetings of all state and local governmental bodies shall be publicly held in places reasonably accessible to members of the public and shall be open to all citizens at all times unless otherwise expressly provided by law.”

In her dissenting opinion (pg.37), Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson said the majority justices "make their own findings of fact, mischaracterize the parties' arguments, misinterpret statutes, minimize (if not eliminate) Wisconsin constitutional guarantees, and misstate case law, appearing to silently overrule case law dating back to at least 1891.”

Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites have been protesting at the state Capitol since the budget bill was first introduced in February, and opponents have vowed to fight on. To that end, on June 15 a broad coalition of Wisconsin unions filed a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. The suit charges that the budget repair bill violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution by stripping away basic rights from most Wisconsin public sector employees to bargain, organize and associate to engage in union and political activity.

UAW Region 4 Director Ron McInroy said the Wisconsin Supreme Court decision has more to do with partisan politics than upholding the law. “They are basically sending the message that Governor Walker and the Republicans in the Statehouse can do whatever they want because the rule of law doesn’t apply to them,” McInroy said.

“But the people of Wisconsin who work hard and play by the rules will not be silenced,” he said. “They will have the final say by voting against the Republicans facing recall elections because of their extreme anti-worker, pro-wealthy votes.” Recall elections for six Republican senators will take place July 12.

Monday, June 20, 2011

State of the Union June 20, 2011

June 20, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

Corrections: Tuesday, June 21 is the deadline to withdraw your application regarding the 63B transfers to either body shop (4 temporary openings) or material (1 opening) if you do not want to accept the transfer. Also, the SUB pay provisions for entry level employees were amended in the 2009 agreement. It is now 13 weeks of SUB for employees with 1 to 3 years seniority and 26 weeks for those with 3 or more years seniority.

If you are having trouble with the online referral screen, you may need to disable the popup blockerhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif of your web browser. If popups are not enabled, at least for that website, you will not be able to continue.

This week’s build information: 54 E-26; 308 slider doors; 148 15-passenger vans; 119 exports; 232 On-star; 350 r/h door delete; 212 diesels; 42 government vans; 80 Enterprise rent-a-car; 78% white vans.

Additional need for Ecotec four-cylinder engines used in Chevrolet’s fuel-efficient cars and crossovers, including the all-new 2013 Malibu, is driving $65 million in new investment at plants in New York and Tennessee that will create or retain 163 jobs. In Tonawanda, N.Y., additional capacity is being added for engines used in the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain crossovers. In Spring Hill, Tenn., the engine plant is adding capacity for direct-injection four-cylinder engines to support the acceleration of the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. GM Is investing $32 million that will create or retain 63 positions.

From the Detroit Free Press: General Motors will idle U.S. truck plants for two weeks in July as it pares inventory of pickups and prepares the factories for output of 2012 model-year vehicles. GM's Flint assembly in Michigan will shut down for the weeks of July 4 and July 11, said Tom Wickham, a GM spokesman. Production at Ft. Wayne assembly in Roanoke, Ind., also will stop during those weeks, said Orval Plumlee, president of UAW Local 2209, which represents hourly workers among the factory's more than 3,300 employees. The two plants make Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. GM's truck inventory was 288,000 vehicles at the end of May, up from 275,000 on April 30.

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: In Avon Lake, UAW Local 2000 President Tim Donovan declined to discuss goals for this year's contract, saying only that he's going to focus on saving the plant's nearly 1,800 jobs. That plant makes E-Series commercial vans, a highly profitable line for Ford. Employment in Avon Lake has slipped steadily over the past few years as commercial vehicle sales fell during the recession. Sales are up this year, but they're only about half of what they were in better times. In 2007, Ford promised to build a new body shop at Avon Lakeand bring a new product line to the plant. But the contract allowed the company to back out when the economy collapsed. Analysts believe that Ford will either slow production of the E-Series or cut it entirely within the next few years as new fuel-economy requirements make it tougher to sell vehicles powered by massive V-8 and V-10 engines. Instead, they expect it to bring Europe's more fuel-efficient Transit van to this country. Winning the Transit or some other vehicle would guarantee future work in Avon Lake. (FYI – this plant will have a 2-week shutdown in July on top of the week of downtime they had the first week of June)

Friday, June 17, 2011

State of the Union June 17,2011

June 17, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

There are temporary 63B openings in body shop and material – 4 each – to cover sick leaves. The application period expires Tuesday, June 21. Check the entrances for more information.

Wentzville Assembly will be donating a van for the 4th of July parade here in Wentzville. Call President Van Simpson at the Union Hall (327-5796) if you wish to participate.

From the Chaplaincy Committee: To all GM and Facility/Support Group Fathers – Have a Happy and Blessed Fathers Day this Sunday!

Now that referrals are being accepted, there have been some questions about the wages and benefits new entry level employees receive. Starting pay is $14.65 per hour and goes up to $16.28 after 130 weeks. They will get health care coverage in the 8th month of employment and dental coverage after 3 years. Vision coverage for eye exams also kicks in at 3 years and glasses are covered after 5 years. There is a personal retirement plan that provides contributions equal to 6.4% of their hourly rate mulitplied by the number of straight time hours to each employee’s account. They are also eligible for SUB – 26 weeks with 1to 3 years seniority and 52 weeks for 3 or more years seniority and could go an additional 104 weeks after that is exhausted. There is more information in the National Agreement beginning on page 277.

From Automotive News: Citing a market focused on fuel economy, Ford made the surprise announcement last week that next year it will introduce the Focus C-Max hybrid and the C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid. Both vehicles are five-door hatchbacks. The seven-passenger minivan, announced last year for sale in 2012 and also sharing the C-Max name, will not be sold in the United States, Ford said. Besides a concern about fuel economy, an insider said the expected sticker price, estimated around $24,000 to $25,000, would put it head-to-head with the larger Dodge Grand Caravan. The business case was shaky at best. But Ford still has an option on the table: the Transit Connect. The understanding is that the next-gen Transit Connect that arrives in a few years will be assembled in North America (no word on where) and will be a more refined vehicle. The current version comes from Turkey.

The suggested retail price of the all-new 2012 Chevrolet Sonic begins at $14,495 including destination but excludes tax, title, license and dealer fees. Sonic comes with the most standard safety equipment in the sub-compact class, including 10 air bags. Air conditioning, power door locks, remote keyless entry and 15" alloy wheels also are standard. The Sonic, the only sub-compact built in the United States (Lake Orion, Local 5960), is expected to deliver 40 mpg highway with class-leading acceleration when paired with the 1.4L Turbo and six-speed manual transmission. The Sonic is offered in two body styles: a four-door sedan and a five-door hatchback.

From CNNMoney: It's still only a trickle compared to the flood of jobs that America lost to overseas outsourcing in recent decades. But some American businesses are bringing jobs home again. In Louisville, a closed General Electric appliance plant is being renovated to begin producing refrigerators and water heaters now being made overseas. Hiring of about 1,300 union-represented workers is due to begin this fall. A technical support call center for computer back-up firm Carbonite will start taking calls this summer in Lewiston, Maine. By the end of this year, 150 jobs that had been located in India will be shifted to there, with another 100 jobs expected to be added next year. NCR has already hired about 500 workers to build ATM machines and self-service checkout systems at a Columbus, Ga., plant, and it plans to add another 370 jobs by 2014, building products that were formerly produced at plants in China, Hungary and Brazil. For GE, the decision to reopen the Louisville plant, which had been closed for decades, was based on the fact that it's no longer as expensive to hire more workers in the U.S. Jim Campbell, president and CEO of the GE Appliance and Lighting unit, said that when you factor in currency fluctuations and rising wages in emerging markets, "when we look out five to six years, the United States is becoming a lot more attractive." Greater quality was the major factor cited by Carbonite for moving back jobs to the U.S. as well. The company's call center in New Delhi, India was having turnover of 100% or more each year, said Tom Murray, the company's vice president of marketing. Peter Dorsman, the senior vice president of Global Operations at NCR said when NCR looked at the cost of shipping products that weigh more than a ton each, as well as the need to have the plant close to the engineering staff and customers in order to constantly improve the machines, it decided to build the Georgia plant.

Just days after Mazda announced they were abandoning production of the Mazda 6 midsize sedan at a joint venture plant with Ford (Mustang) in Flat Rock, Michigan (UAW Local 3000) comes word that they will build a new $500 million plant in Mexico to produce the sedan along with the Mazda 2 subcompact and Mazda 3 compact cars. Capacity will be 140,000 units and will eventually employ 3000 workers. Ford has not divulged their plans for the Flat Rock facility, but with Mustang sales around 75,000 annually, clearly something has to change.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

State of the Union June 15, 2011

June 15, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    Union meeting is today at 7:15 am, 1 pm, 3 pm and 15 minutes after the longest first shift line time. Maximum line time today is 11.0.
•    The final day for donations to the canned food drive is Thursday, June 16. Yesterday, $766 was collected in pre-trihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifm, trim and chassis, a great result! We are hoping to have people on the floor in the remaining departments to collect today and tomorrow. As always, thanks for your generosity.
•    From the Chaplaincy Committee: There will be an in-plant memorial for Duane “Cadillac” Johnson in stamping this evening at lunch time, 6:30 pm, on second shift. It will be held at the bleachers located at column V-8. All are welcome.
•    Here are some excerpts from a Detroit News editorial by UAW President Bob King: “The revival of the U.S. auto industry is a testament to the effectiveness of choosing the moderate and pragmatic path. The choice confronting President Obama was whether to step in to prevent the demise of the auto industry or to accept the collapse of an industry critical to millions of workers, and to our national security…Some Republican politicians attacked him, and some still insist that we should have abandoned General Motors and Chrysler…Thanks to President Obama's courageous decision, and thanks to the willingness of business and labor to embrace change and work together, and thanks to the substantial sacrifices of auto workers, suppliers, dealers and shareholders, a turnaround is taking place…According to the Center for Automotive Research, without the auto industry rescue, there would have been a loss of 3 million jobs within three years. Only one-quarter of those jobs would have been lost at auto manufacturers. This would have translated to a loss to the U.S. treasury of $156 billion…President Obama put his faith in American businesses and workers, and we are committed to honoring this faith by contributing in every way we can to the success of the American auto industry…A skeptical public is looking to labor and business to see whether we have learned any lessons; whether we choose to return to business as usual or instead are committed to a new way of cooperating to succeed in the globally competitive world…The true path to job security is by producing the best quality products at the best value for our customers. We are committed to working with employers in a spirit of mutual respect, trust and common goals.”
•    From the Detroit News: Sharply higher fuel efficiency standards by 2025 could force vehicle prices up by nearly $10,000, reduce sales by 5.5 million vehicles annually and eliminate more than 260,000 jobs, according to a study by the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research. The center's study, released Tuesday, predicted it will cost between $3,744 and $9,790 per vehicle to develop and produce cars that meet a range of between 47 and 62 mpg — a span being considered by federal regulators — by 2025. That's far higher than the $770 to $3,500 per vehicle estimate issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. If each automaker is required to reach a fleetwide average of 62 mpg, and gas costs $3.50 in today's dollars, 5.5 million potential buyers would evaporate from the 2025 car market, the study found; the reduced demand, it said, would cost 260,000 jobs. The two government agencies and California plan to propose fuel efficiency standards and tailpipe emissions limits for the 2017-25 model years in September. The EPA and NHTSA will finalize the new requirements by July 2012, after getting public comment. The agencies are considering annual increases in fuel efficiency ranging from 3-6 percent between 2017 and 2025, translating to a fleetwide average of 47-62 mpg by the end of the period. The fleetwide average has been set at 34.1 by 2016.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

State of the Union June 14, 2011

June 14, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    From Chairman Mike Bullock: Unfortunately, due to the chassis breakdown on June 1, we will have to make up 130 units of lost production. The breakdown occurred at 2 pm that afternoon and was not repaired until 10 pm that night. While the lost production time was less than 4 hours, the contract language does not specify production time in defining a breakdown. The National Agreement states that limitations on overtime “shall be suspended in any plant whose operations are interrupted by emergency situations, such as single breakdowns of four hours or more” and that “management’s right to suspend such limitations for the purpose of making up lost production is, however, in the case of breakdowns, limited to production lost as the result of single breakdowns of four or more hours” (page 244) The International Union has confirmed that we are required to make up the lost production. However, for the rest of June, NOline time will be longer than 11.2.
•    Union meeting is this Wednesday, June 15 at 7:15 am, 1 pm, 3 pm and 15 minutes after the longest first shift line time.
•    GM announced yesterday that they will invest $20 million in machinery and equipment for its Fairfax Assembly plant to add future technologies and improvements to the Buick LaCrosse including eAssist, a light electrification technology that will boost highway fuel economy by 25 percent over the current model. GM also announced last Friday that they would invest $47 million into its Defiance powertrain plant to purchase tooling and equipment to increase production of components for the Ecotec 1.4-liter engine and the next generation of small block car and truck engines.
•    From Reuters: General Motors Chief Executive Daniel Akerson has reassured the head of its European arm, Opel, that the U.S. carmaker was not in talks to sell it to a rival, according to a German newspaper. Akerson made the assurances in a phone call with Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke, Handelsblatt daily reported, citing a person familiar with the situation. GM dropped plans to spin off Opel in 2009 after months of negotiations to sell it, and embarked on a drastic restructuring to get the unit, which lost $1.6 billion last year, back on track. German media reported last week that GM was considering putting Opel back up for sale, with Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen and China's Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) possible buyers.
•    From Automotive News: Toyota and Honda reported lower inventory for the third straight month in June as they continue to recover from parts shortages caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.'s inventory has plummeted by nearly 50 percent since March 1, falling to 198,900 vehicles on June 1, from 384,200 on March 1. American Honda's inventory of 137,500 vehicles on June 1 was down from 258,000 before the quake, a 47 percent drop. Toyota has said its production in Japan would return to 90 percent of prequake levels and North American production would hit 70 percent of normal output by July 1. Honda said this month that production at its two Japanese plants, and North American production of all models except the Civic, would return to normal this summer. Combined, the Detroit 3 had 1.3 million units of inventory on June 1, a 59-day supply. That was virtually the same as the prequake figure of 62 days as of March 1.
•    From the Detroit News: Honda's profit for the fiscal year through March 2012 is expected to plunge 63.5 percent as vehicles sales slipped amid a parts shortage caused by the quake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. Honda is projecting a profit of 195 billion yen ($2.4 billion) for the current fiscal year, down sharply from 534 billion yen recorded the previous fiscal year. Last week, Toyota, the world's No. 1 automaker, said its annual profit for the fiscal year through March 2012 will dive 31 percent. Toyota forecast a 280 billion yen ($3.5 billion) profit for the fiscal year through March 2012, down from 408 billion yen for the previous fiscal year.
•    With talk of up to 62 mpg future federal fuel economy requirements, use of aluminum parts in new vehicles is getting further attention. Pickups in particular are expected to be a target for increased use. Currently the Silverado uses aluminum prop shafts, transfer cases, transmission housings, wheels, control arms and -- depending on the choice of powertrain -- aluminum engine blocks and cylinder heads. GM decides whether to use aluminum on a part-by-part basis, said Tim Asoklis, chief engineer of GM pickups. "You have to use aluminum strategically," Asoklis said. Otherwise, he said, "we'd price ourselves out of the market."
•    From Bloomberg: Nissan Motor Co. is aggravating the customers it needs most. Nissan, which wants to become the top seller of electric cars, repeatedly delayed deliveries to some U.S. buyers who reserved the first 20,000 Leafplug-in hatchbacks, according to interviews with customers. They said Nissan unexpectedly dropped some from the waiting list temporarily, asking that they reapply if they couldn’t prove they’d arranged installation of home- charging units that can cost more than $2,000. “My delivery date kept jumping around, from April to ‘pending’ to May to June to July,” said Marc Fishman, a 42- year-old movie sound editor from Burbank, California. He said Nissan canceled the first order he placed, in September 2010, without explanation and gave him conflicting information after he reordered the next month. The company expected “challenges” with its first electric car and first “built-to-order” model sold via the Internet in the U.S., said Brendan Jones, manager of Leaf sales in the country. On Nissan’s consumer website, people thinking about owning a Leaf are guided through a “suitability analysis,” Jones said. “It asks you, how much do you drive, do you have a garage?” he said. “Do some self-analysis before proceeding.” While anyone can reserve a Leaf for a $99 fee, for now Nissan lets people actually place orders in only seven states: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Tennessee, Texasand Washington. “I expected the Leaf as early as December last year, and no later than March this year, so it is disappointing,” said David Radzieta, a computer systems analyst in Hueytown, Alabama, who made his reservation in July 2010. In Burbank, Fishman said he’s frustrated because his chance of getting a $5,000 electric car rebate from California has been put at risk. The program, funded by vehicle registration fees, may run out of money in July.

State of the Union June 13, 2011

June 13, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    Union meeting is this Wednesday, June 15 at 7:15 am, 1 pm, 3 pm and 15 minutes after the longest first shift line time.
•    This week’s build information: 367 slider doors; 53 E-26; 494 r/h door delete; 131 Enterprise Leasing; 84 exports; 204 diesels; 280 On-star; 503 special paints; 69.8% white vans.
•    From the Wall Street Journal: The United Auto Workers union is open to discussing wider use of profit-sharing plans instead of fixed pay increases for its members, a key shift as the union nears contract talks with Detroit auto makers. UAW President Bob King said in an interview Thursday that the union will broach the subject when formal negotiations with Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC start in late July. "It would be an advantage if you can guarantee to the [Detroit] companies certain things on fixed costs so that they would remain competitive," Mr. King said. He acknowledged that greater use of profit-sharing plans entails risk for his members. "When you're successful, that's good. But if you're sharing more of the risk, you need to have more of the upside."
•    Auto news briefs: An Ohio state court awarded $2 billion in damages to commercial truck dealers who sued Ford Motor Co., saying that a program that offered unpublished discounts effectively overcharged some dealers. Ford is appealing the decision; Ford also announced that they will not be building a 7-passenger version of the C-Max minivan for the U.S. They will instead build only hybrid versions of the 5-passenger model in the Wayne assembly plant in Michigan. It had been rumored that the Ford plant in Clay County, Missouri would get the C-Max. There has been no official word on what product that plant will build; Chevrolet dealers in all 50 states can now take orders for the Volt. The Volt is now available in six different models, rather than three, with the lowest listed at $39,995, or about $1,000 less than the 2011 price. The high-end model with leather, backup camera and navigation system is $46,265.
•    From Wards Auto: The annual labor-management negotiations are under way in the Korean auto industry, and this year includes high-stakes bartering as the unions ask for tens of thousands of dollars in bonus compensation. Hyundai held the first bargaining session with its workers union June 8, kicking off what some analysts predict could become a turbulent summer. The union is raising the ante this year, reportedly seeking a 7.2% wage increase and a bonus of about 8-months pay. The bonus, alone, could amount to 32 million-43 million won ($30,000-$40,000) or more per worker. Last year, the union settled for a 4.87% wage increase, 3-months pay as a performance bonus, a one-time special bonus of 5 million won ($4,600) and 30 shares of Hyundai common stock – currently valued at 238,000 won ($220) per share.

Final part of UAW President Bob King’s speech to the Detroit Area Chamber of Commerce:
Federal labor laws in the United States do not protect the right of workers in the private sector to join unions. Employers can with impunity create a climate of fear by implying dire consequences if workers choose to form a union. It is vital that progressive and moderate voices in the business community speak out against union-bashing extremism and the terrifying vision of a union-free America. An America without unions is an America with no middle class. An America with no unions and no middle class is an America that is no longer the beacon for democracy and freedom in the world.

Just as the UAW has chosen fundamental change and a vision of cooperation between government, business and labor, I urge you in the business community to partner with the UAW of the 21st century, to reject ideology and to embrace pragmatism, moderation and the search for common ground and common good for all in society.

Let us work together to build a prosperous Michigan. Let us work together for a strong middle class. Let us work together to create good jobs and to rebuild our manufacturing sector. Let us work together to rebuild infrastructure and invest in research and development. Let us work together to provide dignity and security to our elderly. Let us work together to build a strong public education system and preserve our world-class public universities. Let us work together – government, business and labor – to find creative and pragmatic solutions to our economic challenges. This is the Michigan way, and this is the American way.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

State of the Union June 9, 2011

June 9, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    Reminder: There are two deadlines today: resolutions for the local agreement (see your committee person) and jacket sizes (see your team leader or Pat Workman at Suggestions, or call x 2308).
•    Reminder: The Women’s Committee and the Veterans Committee meetings are today after first shift at the Union Hall.
•    GM will invest $49 million to purchase tooling and equipment for the Bedford powertrain plant to produce components for a recently announced 8-speed transmission and a future small engine program. The investment will create or retain 91 jobs. “The all-new 8-speed transmission will improve fuel economy in a number of future vehicles,” GM Manufacturing Manager Arvin Jones said Wednesday. "And, the new gasoline engine, which will be offered in displacements from 1.0 liters to 1.5 liters, is key to fuel economy leadership in the small four-cylinder engine segment."
•    For one month at least, US auto sales outpaced China’s. May sales declined to 1.04 million vehicles (this excludes heavy trucks and buses) in China versus 1.14 million last May. U.S. sales for May came in at 1.06 million vehicles. GM’s China sales declined 2.7% to 190,674 (GM sold 221,192 vehicles in the U.S. this May).
•    The 2012 Buick LaCrosse with eAssist™, which is expected to deliver 25 percent better highway fuel economy than the current model, will be priced starting at $29,960 before an $860 destination charge. LaCrosse with eAssist uses a variety of advanced technologies and body enhancements to deliver up to 37 mpg highway fuel economy, better than the Lexus HS Hybrid and Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. eAssist will be the standard powertrain for LaCrosse, which will be built at the Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas City, Kan.
•    From Automotive News: Prisoners, dead people and children qualified for a 2009 tax break to spur car buying, according to a U.S. report today that criticized the Internal Revenue Service for misapplying the refund in some cases. Among the fraudulent claims, 439 were prisoners, who deducted $955,843 in sales tax for the purchase of vehicles in 2009 "even though they were in prison for a full year in 2009 when the vehicle was purportedly purchased," the report said. Another $36,490 in claims were allowed for people who were dead before the before the deduction's short life, from mid-February 2009 to the end of that year, it said. The watchdog also found that 18 people under the age of 15 got $31,139 in QMV deductions.

Part 4 of UAW President Bob King’s speech to the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce:

Just as the UAW has made the choice to embrace fundamental change and has committed to working cooperatively with business, you in the business community are also facing a choice. This is a watershed moment for Michigan business. One choice is to work with those such as the UAW who want to engage in a moderate, inclusive and pragmatic approach that affirms a social compact between all segments of Michigan society. The other choice is to follow the extreme agenda of the right wing that embraces ideology and divisiveness. It is my fervent belief that the more moderate, creative problem-solving approach is not only more just and compassionate, but also more favorable to the growth of both large and small business.

Let’s look at the right-wing Republican agenda and its negative impact on business. One of its tenets is to drastically cut taxes on high earners and corporations at the expense of public education, public services and investment in infrastructure. The problem is, without strong education at both K-12 and the university level, we will not produce an educated and skilled labor force to compete in a global economy. Without good public services, we cannot attract business to our region. Without investment in infrastructure, our transportation system, electrical power system and communication system cannot support business growth.

The mantra to reduce taxes is a religion to many extreme Republicans, but this ideology gets in the way of practicality and hard facts. The truth about taxes is that corporate income taxes as a share of revenue on a federal level have dropped dramatically over recent decades. If corporations paid at the same rate today as they did in the 1950s, there would be over $500 billion dollars in additional federal revenue. The average federal income tax paid by the highest earners has also dropped, from almost 30 percent in 1995 to 16.6 percent in 2007.

The Republican budget proposal that passed the House of Representatives imposes devastating cuts in Pell grants for low-income college students, while at the same time cutting taxes yet more for the wealthy. If capital gains on the 400 highest earners were taxed at 35 percent, it would have brought in an additional $18 billion in revenue – enough to provide Pell grants to more than three million students who otherwise could not afford a college education.

A moderate and pragmatic approach to the budget would not sacrifice education. A moderate, pragmatic and inclusive approach to budgets would recognize that we can foster the creation of millions of good jobs through investments in infrastructure and education.

Another tenet of the right-wing agenda is to silence the voices of workers in the public sector by destroying collective bargaining rights. Again, I call upon our partners in the business community to reject this divisive ideological agenda that targets the unions of teachers, firefighters, nurses, police and state workers. Instead, let us all work together to make necessary changes and to find common solutions that bring prosperity to our communities.

There is no example in history of a middle-class democracy that exists without free, independent unions. The right to have a union is a fundamental human right. Indeed, our democratic economic competitors – Japan, Korea, Germany – all acknowledge the role of unions in their societies, at the same time as they provide universal health care and retirement security. Businesses should re-examine their instinctive negative reaction to the notion of unionization.
Nothing in this message is intended to constitute an electronic signature unless a specific statement to the contrary is included in this message.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

State of the Union June 6, 2011

June 6, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    Reminder: Resolutions for the Local Agreement can be submitted through Thursday, June 9. You can get submission forms from your committee person or at the Work Center and return the completed forms to the same.
•    Build information from this week’s schedule: 366 slider doors; 105 E-26 models; 151 exports; 284 Enterprise Rent-A-Car units; 324 RH door deletes; 76.6% white vans.
•    All jacket sizes must be turned in by this Thursday, June 9. See your team leader or group leader if you have not been asked for your size. All jacket size sheets should be turned in to Pat Workman at Suggestions.
•    From Automotive News: General Motors’ executives have discussed buying shares from the U.S. Treasury Department to reduce the government’s 33 percent stake in the automaker, three people familiar with the matter said. GM is weighing uses for its cash, such as shoring up its underfunded pension plan, paying off debt and funding new vehicle programs, the people said. “In terms of uses of cash, we have clear, immediate priorities which include further strengthening our balance sheet and fully funding our pensions,” Jim Cain, a GM spokesman, said in a telephone interview. “Our objective is to fund our operations with cash and then return any excess cash to our shareholders. Nothing has been ruled in or out.”
•    Chevy news briefs: The Volt became the first electric vehicle to earn a five-star overall vehicle score for safety as part of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s New Car Assessment Program; For May, fuel-efficient, four-cylinder vehicles – including Cruze, Equinox and Malibu – accounted for 51 percent of Chevrolet retail sales. That is up from 36 percent in May a year ago, and doubles the rate of four-cylinder sales five years ago; Nearly 51 percent of Cruze buyers are new to Chevrolet, either trading in a non-GM vehicle or purchasing outright – suggesting they were either adding a vehicle to the household or that the Cruze was their first new car. For 2011, Cruze has brought more than 40,000 of these “conquest” buyers – second only to the Silverado full-size pickup for attracting new customers to the brand.
Part one of UAW President Bob King’s speech to the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce:
Thanks to the courageous decision of President Obama to save the American auto industry, and thanks to the willingness of business and labor to embrace change and work together, and thanks to the substantial sacrifices of our members, suppliers, dealers and all stakeholders, there has been an amazing revival of this vital American industry.

State of the Union June 7, 2011

June 7, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    Reminder: Applications are now being accepted for the 2011 Black Lake Summer Scholarship Session. The dates for these family sessions are July 10-15, July 17-22 and July 24-29. They begin on Sunday evening and conclude on Friday morning. Participants will fly into Detroit on the day before, stay at a hotel and take a chartered bus to Black Lake the next morning. All travel expenses will be paid but there will be no lost time. Applications are available at the Union Hall and the deadline is this Friday, June 10.
•    GM will invest $130 million to build an enterprise data center at its Technical Center campus in Warren, Mich., adding 25 high-tech jobs and expanding and renovating a former administrative building. Design is under way on the renovation and construction, with the final phase scheduled for completion in 2015.
•    From the Wall Street Journal: General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Akerson is expected to say Tuesday that GM has cut its pension shortfall in half since 2009, leaving the auto maker's plan 90% funded, according to people familiar with the matter. The fund was underfunded by $17.1 billion at the end of 2009 and the obligations have been a major concern for investors in the company.
•    From Automotive News: Fiat S.p.A is in no rush to buy the remainder of Chrysler from a UAW trust fund and cannot be forced to launch a Chrysler IPO until 2013, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said yesterday. The Italian carmaker has increased its stake in Chrysler to 52 %. The UAW retiree health care trust fund, or VEBA, holds a 45.7 percent stake in the Detroit-based carmaker. Fiat also agreed to pay $75 million for the right to buy all of VEBA's stake for a capped "threshold amount" -- which was set at $4.25 billion in 2009, increasing at a 9 percent annual interest rate, so analysts say it has now risen to around $5 billion.
•    From the Detroit News: Mazda Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. said Monday they were in talks about the future of their joint Flat Rock plant as the Japanese automaker announced it wouldn't build its next-generation midsize carthere. Mazda didn't disclose its intentions regarding its troubled venture with Ford, but said the model that will replace the Mazda6 will be produced in Japan. A spokeswoman for Ford said the Flat Rock facility is "a critical plant" in the Dearborn automaker's manufacturing network. "Ford is currently working with Mazda and the United AutoWorkers to study options for the plant after Mazda6 production is moved," said Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans. The Flat Rock plant employs around 1,700 workers producing Ford Mustangs as well as Mazda6 sedans. But last year, the plant was operating at less than half of its capacity.
Part 2 of UAW President Bob King’s speech to the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce:
On behalf of the UAW, I can state that our union has learned many lessons from the crisis in the auto industry, and we have decided to adopt fundamental, radical change. We have reinvented our union. We have recognized that we can no longer take the same approaches we took 20, 10 or even five years ago. We are calling our new approach the “UAW of the 21st century.”

We no longer live in the same world in which the UAW grew up 75 years ago. The 20th century UAW existed in an era of a national industrial economy and a national marketplace. The 21st century UAW recognizes that auto companies face critical challenges in a global marketplace, and it is our mission to create conditions that will enable our employers to compete and succeed in order to best represent our members.

The 20th century UAW tried to find ways to achieve job security, such as job banks, that in the end did not achieve the result we were seeking. The 21st century UAW knows that the only true path to job security is by producing the best quality product, the safest product and the longest lasting product, at the best price.

Simply put, our highest priority is to join with our employers to produce the best quality products at the best value for consumers.

The 20th century UAW fell into a pattern with our employers where we saw each other as adversaries rather than partners. Mistrust became embedded in our relations, and as a result we signed onto ever more lengthy and complicated contracts with work rules and narrow job classifications that hindered flexibility and promoted a litigious and time-consuming grievance culture. The 21st century UAW seeks and expects a partnership with employers based on mutual respect, trust and common goals. In a global economy, flexibility, innovation and teamwork are paramount.

The 20th century UAW joined with the companies in a mindset that it was the company’s job to worry about profits, and the union’s job to worry about getting the workers’ their share. The 21st century UAW embraces as our own the success of our employers in order to achieve the economic and social success of our members, their families and our communities.

The 20th century UAW was not primarily focused on the needs of consumers, and we failed to champion forcefully or effectively enough the goals of preserving our environment for future generations through green manufacturing and green products.

The 21st century UAW makes as a priority the interests of consumer safety, energy efficiency and environmental protection.

The 20th century UAW reacted with hostility and resistance to the historic changes brought about by the globalization of the economy. The 21st century UAW is adopting a more nuanced and constructive approach to global trade and global development. We are committed to becoming citizens of the world and achieving trade that spreads prosperity and lessens poverty. We are also committed to saving and growing the American industrial base with good jobs in the United States.
Nothing in this message is intended to constitute an electronic signature unless a specific statement to the contrary is included in this message.

State of the Union June 8, 2011

June 8, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    Reminder: Jacket sizes are due tomorrow. If you haven’t been asked for your size, see your team leader. All forms should be turned into Pat Workman at Suggestions. If you have any questions you can call Pat at x2308.
•    There will be a Women’s Committee and a Veterans Committee meeting on Thursday, June 9 after first shift at the Union Hall.
•    Applications are currently being accepted for co-chairperson of the Education Committee. They are available and can be turned in at the Union Hall. Deadline is next Wednesday, June 15.
•    Reminder: Resolutions for the Local Agreement can be submitted through Thursday, June 9. You can get submission forms from your committee person or at the Work Center and return the completed forms to the same.
•    General Motors held the first shareholder meeting since bankruptcy yesterday. CEO Dan Akerson chaired the meeting and said among other things:
o We are creating a fortress balance sheet, which gives us freedom to operate. We had $36.5 billion of available liquidity with only $5 billion of debt on March 31.”
o “We have the right mix of existing GM passion and expertise with outside perspective. We are attracting talent from our competitors inside the auto industry and outside it as well.”
o “We’re gaining market share — 11.5 percent global share in the first quarter of 2011, up nearly half a point year over year. Significantly, our retail share was 17.7 percent, compared to pre-Chapter 11 in May 2009 when it was 14.9 percent, for our four brands."
o The most recent average transaction price we have is just over $29,500, about $1,100 above the industry average. That is the highest in the industry among full-line manufacturers.”
•    From Automotive News: Is Nissan's latest electric vehicle safety net reassuring or more unnerving? The idea: a rescue truck that speeds to the aid of EVs with dead batteries. Bolted to the back of the 5-ton diesel truck is a 29-kilowatt diesel-slurping generator to recharge the rides. How's that for green?


Part 3 of UAW President Bob King’s speech to the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce:

Out of the ashes of the cataclysm of 2008 and 2009, a new, more visionary and stronger UAW is being born. The 21st century UAW views management not as our adversaries or enemies, but as partners in innovation and quality. Our relationship with employers is built upon a foundation of respect, shared goals, and a common mission, and a mutual social responsibility to create good, secure, middle-class jobs here in our communities in the United States.

This commitment to fundamental change is not just a tenet of my administration but is permeating the entire culture of the UAW. Our internal educational resources are devoted to nurturing this new mindset. I can tell you that there is no group of people more committed to the success of the auto industry than the union and our members working in the auto industry. Workers know that the success of their employers is in their own essential long-term interest. They won’t be jumping ship to grab onto a golden parachute. They are in this for the long haul. They are ready, willing and able to do what it takes to make their companies successful. Our members are energized by the new paradigm and welcome their enhanced opportunities to contribute to our companies’ success.

At GM, for example, our quality network promotes teamwork and invites total workforce involvement and continuous improvement. A Lordstown, Ohio, employee saved the company almost $200,000 by suggesting an alternative windshield sealer operation. Team members in Pontiac, Michigan, achieved more than $1.2 million in savings with suggestions to add plastic protection to a sensor.

At Chrysler, a sprayer in the paint shop – also a shop steward – devised a training video to systematize training for a new shift and volunteered for a split shift to assist with the training.
At Ford it was UAW members on the assembly line at the Chicago Assembly Plant that identified quality problems and advocated strongly for important process and training changes with the Taurus launch that created the best quality launch ever for Ford up to that time.

At Mitsubishi UAW members’ proven track record of world best productivity and quality convinced top management in Japan to award their newest vehicle platform to our UAW facility in Normal, Ill., over numerous other global sites competing for this platform. There are many, many more examples of such creative and innovative contributions by our members. Management will attest to the fact that the UAW is adding value to our enterprises.

At Ford, GM, Chrysler and Mitsubishi, the UAW has demonstrated our commitment to quality, teamwork, flexibility and innovation. We have forged a new culture that emphasizes trust, openness, cooperation and creative problem-solving. Our members have found millions of hours of annual savings. We are contributing to product development and innovative workforce solutions. We have taken the lead in workforce training and development. Layers of management have been eliminated because the workers are dedicated to creatively managing their own processes. Many facilities only have one main production classification, and an observer coming into a facility would not be able to tell who belongs to management and who is a union member. At one UAW GM facility there are no line supervisors, and UAW members take full responsibility for their operations.

Friday, June 3, 2011

State of the Union June 3, 2011

June 3, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

Resolutions for the Local Agreement can be submitted through Thursday, June 9. You can get submission forms from your committee person or at the Work Center and return the completed forms to the same.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

On the heels of the best sales month for vans since late 2008, field supplies fell. Total stock fell 1459 units for a 76 day supply and net field stock dropped 1829 to stand at a 45 day supply. There are only 666 (!) passenger vans in net field stock – and over 3000 dealers’ lots available. Oddly enough, 91.3% of Express passengers vans were fleet deliveries while only 22.6% of Savana passenger vans were fleet. On the cutaway side, fleet sales were 82.9% for the Chevy and 96.3% for GMC. Cargo vans were 68.3% fleet for Chevy and 58.5% for GMC. For the month, total cutaway sales were roughly double both last May’s total and this May’s passenger van total – a reflection of large upfitter deliveries typical of this time of year. Overall GM field supplies stood at 611,271 with trucks at a 105 day supply and cars at a 61 day supply (for comparison, Toyota has around 191,000 vehicles total in stock). GM President Mark Reuss told the Wall Street Journal that there are no plans to raise truck incentives to reduce inventory.

Some other interesting facts from May sales: The Malibu was the best selling car for the month, topping Camry, Accord, Fusion, Altima etc. (You’d probably have to go back to the Corsica/Beretta era as the last time GM had the best-selling car in the industry) The Cruze outsold the Corolla, Civic and Focus. The Camaro trounced the Mustang 9451 to 6607. Additionally, 8 of the top 10 selling vehicles in the US were domestic brands.

In mid-June for GM employees paid by Payroll Services in the United States (including ISP paid from the US Payroll Systems), access to your online pay check stubs will move to a new service, ADP iPayStatements. Moving to this new service will allow you to view your paystub whenever and wherever it’s convenient, 24 hours a day/7 days a week using an internet link. There will be no change to the way your payroll is processed. When this change takes place, the payroll history available to you will date back to 12/31/2010. If you need copies of pay statements older than the 12/31/2010 statement, please take the time now to print out your statements. History statements older than 12/31/2010 will no longer be available online after June 18, 2011. Watch for more information, including how to access the new service.

From Autoweek: As proof that there's a group of enthusiasts for just about everything, owners of the lowly Ford Pinto are taking to the roads in celebration of the car's 40th birthday. Pinto owners are driving from Denver to the Carlisle Ford Nationals in Pennsylvania this week, a journeyof approximately 1,600 miles. The group toured Fort Riley in Kansas on Memorial Day, then went on to take laps around the Kansas Speedway and, later in the trip, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The group took several spins around that track at speeds that organizers claimed approached 95 mph (ed. – personally, the only way my ’74 Pinto could go that fast is if you dropped it from a plane).

GM President Mark Reuss recently gave an interview to Automotive News. Here are some excerpts:

Where do you see this year's sales shaking out?

Our production schedules remain pretty flat and constant with around a 13 million-unit [seasonally adjusted annual rate]. I can't predict what's going to happen with the people we compete with here, but that's how we're operating the business. We'll continue to be very agile around things that we run out of or get short of. The mix I think is changing faster than any of us can comprehend.

Is GM commanding more money than in the past for small cars such as the Cruze?

The average transaction price is always a great indicator. Last month [the Cruze] was $2,000 to $3,000 over Corolla and Civic. Granted, those are older products. These small cars, they're heavily contented and great cars to drive. So we're seeing a difference in small-car content buying, and we're seeing a lot of people come to Cruze.

How different will the GMC and Chevy truck lineups be?

We probably have taken a very siloed, two-company, two-brand approach to trucks to take on our competition that has one. When you do that, and you don't do it right, and you've got price overlap and identical incentives and go-to-market strategies, then you're going to get dilution. I think we can do premium Chevrolets and we can take GMC and move it even further up.

Explain what GM has been doing on incentives.

If you look at GM over the last calendar year, we were about $200 [incentives per vehicle] below the industry. That's pretty disciplined. If you look at any one or two months over that year, you'll see us slightly above or below the industry because we're turning different model years. We're not going to be totally predictable for our competition. But we're going to be very responsible from a price retention standpoint. I think if you look at the data, you'll see that General Motors has the highest average transaction prices in the industry.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

State of the Union June 1, 2011

June 1, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

Applications are now being accepted for the 2011 Black Lake Summer Scholarship Session. The dates for these family sessions are July 10-15, July 17-22 and July 24-29. They begin on Sunday evening and conclude on Friday morning. Participants will fly into Detroit on the day before, stay at a hotel and take a chartered bus to Black Lake the next morning. All travel expenses will be paid but there will be no lost time. Applications are available at the Union Hall and the deadline is Friday, June 10.

Reminder: The Blessing of the Bikes is today 15 minutes after the longest first shift line time and will be held at the arch in the front of the plant. You don’t need your bike to attend.

From BusinessFleet: General Motors gathered its fleet friends and family together in Palm Springs this week to show off its product and give a glimpse into the future. As you might expect at a fleet preview, GM reiterated that "fleet business is good business." But the numbers back up the talk: GM's sales to commercial fleets are up 8 percent year over year, while fleet sales represent 25 percent of total U.S. sales. GM pointed out that sales to small businesses were up 30 percent in the first quarter. GM expects overall fleet sales for the industry to remain steady at 2.5 million vehicles for each of the remaining three quarters of 2011. GM is jumping into factory-direct liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, or propane autogas) offerings on the 2012 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana cutaway 3500 and 4500 vans. The vans will be produced at GM's Wentzville, Mo., plant. GM will be taking orders for the fourth quarter of this year. (The new LPG offering complements GM's versions of its compressed natural gas vans on the market now.)
•    From the Wall Street Journal: Japan's auto sales slumped 38% from a year earlier in May, hammered by a shortage of parts as a result of the March 11 earthquake. But the sales drop was less than the record plunge in the previous month (down 51%), as car makers were able to operate domestic plants for the whole month for the first time since the disaster. Sales of Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles plummeted 57% to 48,733 in May, with those of the luxury Lexus brand down 5.3% at 1,789. The weak numbers came out the same day Toyota announced a global recall of about 140,000 vehicles, including 106,000 first-generation Prius hybrids, in the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Germany and elsewhere. Nissan Motor Co.'s sales dropped 16% to 28,037, and Honda Motor Co.'s sales tumbled 35% to 21,294.
•    From Mlive: General Motors says it will invest $88 million in a Cadillac factory in Lansing, Michigan. The company says the investment won't create any new jobs but will equip the plant to make a new model. The factory now has 971 workers and makes the Cadillac CTS sports sedan. GM wouldn't identify the new model, but the CTS is due to be revamped soon. Previously GM announced in October that it will spend $190 million to build a new small Cadillac at the Lansing Grand River plant, adding 600 jobs and a second shift.
•    From Bloomberg: Ford's assembly plants in Avon Lake, Ohio, and Flat Rock, Mich., are likely targets (for closure) because of weak sales of vehicles made there, said Sean McAlinden of the Center for Automotive Research and Robert W. Clark, who negotiated national bargaining agreements for the automaker for more than 30 years before retiring in 2002. Mazda Motor Corp. said in February it may pull out of the Flat Rock plant, where it has been a partner with Ford since the 1980s. The factory, which opened in 1987, makes the Ford Mustang sports car and Mazda 6 sedan, both of which have been losing market share. GM's Chevrolet Camaro snapped the Mustang's 24-year run as the top-selling sports car in 2010. Ford's Avon Lake plant makes the Econoline van, which may lose sales to the Transit Connect electric delivery van the automaker plans to build in the U.S. Ford said in January it would invest $400 million in its Claycomo, Mo., plant, which may build the Transit, consultant Michael Robinet of IHS Automotive said at the time. Ford has no announcements planned on the Avon Lake plant, and "it would be far too premature to comment on future product plans" there, Marcey Evans, a Ford spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. She declined to comment on Flat Rock.
•    From the Detroit Free Press: Ford has increased prices on its 2011 models by an average of $124, or 0.4%, the third price increase since January as the automaker tries to offset rising prices for steel, plastic and other materials. The increase was communicated to dealers last week, according to Ford spokesman Todd Nissen. It comes after a similar increase in April, which also averaged 0.4%, or $117 per vehicle, and another one in January. “This brings our average price increases this year to 1.3%, or $375 on average,” Nissen said, adding that the average price increase for all automakers in the U.S. is about 1%. General Motors last month raised prices by an average of 0.4%, or $123 for the average 2011 model. Steel and aluminum prices remain at or near three-year highs. An average carcontains about 325 pounds of aluminum, and because aluminum refining requires so much electricity, the cost of coal also has an impact on the cost of aluminum.
•    May sales numbers are starting to come out. General Motors reported 221,192 total sales in May, including a 9 percent increase in retail sales compared to May 2010. Total sales declined 1 percent on lower fleet volume. During the month, total sales of GM passenger cars increased 13 percent. Total crossover sales declined 1 percent, while retail sales were up 17 percent compared to last year’s May. Total combined sales of Chevrolet Silverado and Avalanche, and GMC Sierra decreased 14 percent; with retail sales down 17 percent versus a year ago. Van sales came in at 8954, a 15.7% increase over last year and the highest monthly total this year. More to come tomorrow.