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.