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.
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