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%.