State of the Union October 10, 2011

Oct. 10, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    Here is this week’s build information: There are no E-26’s; 196 slider doors; 389 cutaways; 18 15-pass vans; 121 diesels; 74 r/h door delete; 87 exports; 66 brake deck spare tire; 19 Onstar; 332 compressed natural gas (CNG) vans for AT&T; 154 Enterprise rent-a-car; 90.9% white vans.
•    From Bloomberg: General Motors Co. is delaying plans to add a second shift at the factory that makes Chevrolet Volt electric cars. The company said Friday it has found ways to make one shift more efficient, so it can produce the same number of cars as two shifts. Spokesman Chris Lee says GM still will add 300 workers at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant -- but not a second shift -- by the end of this year to make more Volts. A second shift will be added, though, but not until the last half of 2012, when the plant starts building the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu midsize sedan in addition to the Volt. "This decision will significantly reduce costs, and has no impact on the plant's ability to make 60,000 Volts and Amperas," Lee said in a statement. "This approach is just a more efficient way to make the same number of vehicles." GM engineers figured out a way to clear several bottlenecks that were slowing down the Volt plant and increase its assembly-line speed, the company said. GM plans to add more than 200 jobs when the second shift arrives next year. The plant, which straddles the border between Detroit and the enclave of Hamtramck, now has about 1,000 workers. GM said in May that it would get another 2,500 jobs when second and third shifts are added. In addition to the Malibu and Volt, the plant is expected to build the new version of the Chevrolet Impala, a large front-wheel-drive sedan, for the 2013 model year. GM has said it will invest $69 million for equipment at the plant. The plant stopped making two other big cars at the factory, the Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne, in June. To accommodate the increased Volt production, GM will add a second shift at a plant that assembles Volt battery packs. The plant in Brownstown Township, Mich., south of Detroit, got 30 more workers who will start making battery packs this month, Lee said.
•    From Automotive News: UAW and Chrysler negotiators continued bargaining this morning on a new wage and benefit agreement covering 23,000 workers ahead of a meeting today with union officials. "UAW Chrysler Negotiating Team is up and working," the union bargaining team said on its UAW-Chrysler Facebook page at about 5:00 a.m. local time. "It will get done, and it will get done right," the UAW bargaining team said on Facebook page Sunday morning. "If it takes a few more hours, a few more days, a few more weeks, your team will still fight on." If the UAW fails to reach a new labor accord with Chrysler Group by Monday, local union representatives called to Detroit will hear about "the dangers of going to arbitration," said a source familiar with negotiations.
Collective bargaining critical for America
By Bob King
The UAW recently reached agreements with both Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. that will create thousands of good jobs for American workers.
Working with the UAW, these companies agreed to bring production jobs back from Mexico, China, Japan and other nations — welcome news for communities from Tennessee to Indiana, Missouri to Michigan. These agreements illustrate the critical and positive role that collective bargaining plays in strengthening our middle class.
When the UAW bargaining teams sat down with management, their primary goal was jobs — to protect the jobs of our members; bring jobs back to the United States; and create new jobs. These agreements call for the creation of 6,400 more jobs at GM and 12,000 jobs at Ford.
Since each auto manufacturing job creates or supports another 10 jobs in other businesses, the two agreements at Ford and GM are helping to create nearly 170,000 jobs for Americans. The new investments in American plants and the transfer of work from factories abroad to our own communities will lift local economies during these difficult times.
In recent years, the right wing has demonized the process of collective bargaining. While targeting public sector workers, they have also attacked the right of private sector workers to organize and bargain. The right wing view is that bargaining is destructive to our economy or even un-American. Nothing could be further from the truth. Collective bargaining created the American middle class in the first place, and if we are to restore our middle class, it will be through expanding bargaining throughout our economy.
Collective bargaining is the vehicle through which working people have a voice at work. Too often without countervailing input, executives make decisions based on short-term profit seeking, not on what's best for the company or our nation, in the long term. No one has a stronger self-interest in the success of the company than the workers. CEOs come and go, often with lucrative golden parachutes; managers pursue their own career advantages; stockholders buy or sell to make the most money; but the workers are here for the long-run and have the most at risk if the company fails.
Through collective bargaining, workers have a check and balance on short-term corporate profit-seeking. This balance benefits not only workers but also our communities and even the company's shareholders.
Collective bargaining works. The UAW has demonstrated that by giving workers a voice, we can create jobs, rebuild the American manufacturing sector and restore the American middle class.