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.