State of the Union October 17, 2011

Oct. 17, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    From Chairman Mike Bullock: Welcome back to the remaining 25 laid off employees that reported today. Next week the remaining 16 return from Fairfax that took the basic relocation. There has been 59 Extended Area Hire employees accepted transfers to Wentzville. They will report on November 7. The seniority dates for these employees are from 1/7/85 ( 6 of these) to 2/14/2000. The corporation has given approval to hire 85 people off the street. They are being called now for Drug and Physical screening. They will tentatively be reporting October 31. The total need for the start up of 2nd shift is 444 employees. The union has requested of the company to change the off Friday in December. Currently the off Friday is December 16. The union requested the company to change the off Friday to December 23. Management has agreed. This will require us to work 3 Fridays in a row, but I thought it better to have the day off before the Christmas Holiday period.
•    Union Meeting is this Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 7:15 am, 1 pm, 3 pm and 15 minutes after the longest first shift line time.
•    Reminder: The deadline to submit your form for flu shots is tomorrow. You can turn them in at the cafeteria in the designated drop box. Drawing will take place Wednesday and shots will begin on Thursday by department.
•    Here is this week’s build information: 33 E-26 vans; 605 cutaways; 351 slider doors; 219 r/h door deletes; 181 15-pass vans; 118 diesels; 335 Onstar; 57 exports; 28 brake deck spare tire; 100 Penske; 71.9% white vans.
•    From Bloomberg: Ford Motor Co. (F) may have dodged its first nationwide strike in 35 years and secured labor peace while the United Auto Workers adds thousands of new members. UAW members at Ford went from voting 53 percent against the proposed contract on the morning of Oct. 14 to 62 percent in favor by yesterday at 8:30 p.m. New York time. The union said 14,845 members at Ford had cast ballots in favor of the labor deal while 9,076 voted against. Ford’s 40,600 U.S. hourly workers will conclude balloting tomorrow. The latest voting results “improve the likelihood of passage, as remaining plants would have to be over 60 percent opposed,” said Brian Johnson, an analyst at Barclays Capital. The UAW was preparing for its first national strike at Ford since 1976. It would have cost Ford $273 million a day in lost revenue and $71 million in daily variable profit, Johnson said. Even bigger, he said, would have been the loss of reputation for failing to reinvent U.S. auto competitiveness. Like General Motors Co. (GM)’s agreement, Ford’s was judged to be cost-neutral.
•    From Automotive News: General Motors plans to shift some production of its Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain from the factories that now assemble the popular crossovers to another plant to alleviate tight supplies, CEO Dan Akerson told Automotive News. Akerson said GM is considering its former Saturn plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., to take on added production of the crossovers, which are now made at the automaker's plants in Ingersoll and Oshawa, Ontario. Akerson also said GM is considering options for extra production of its hot-selling Cruze compact. The car is made at GM's Lordstown, Ohio, plant, which has been running three shifts and Saturday overtime shifts. Akerson did not say which plant could get the added Cruze production. GM officials previously have said that its Lake Orion assembly plant in suburban Detroit would be the overflow plant for the Cruze. In September 2010, it took the unusual step of transporting Equinox bodies built at CAMI about 125 miles to Oshawa for final assembly. Akerson said that arrangement has been an effective stopgap, but it's not a permanent solution. "We've got to fix that. We can't run like that forever," Akerson said. "We've got to bring it to other plants" within the next 12 to 24 months, he said. "We've looked at Spring Hill and we've looked at other plants, too." Akerson's comments are GM's first in public about what might be assembled at Spring Hill since the plant emerged as a centerpiece of the company's new four-year labor contract approved by UAW workers last month. The union said GM agreed to spend $419 million and add about 1,700 jobs at Spring Hill to build two "mid-sized vehicles." Akerson said that GM likely would use Spring Hill as a spillover plant to produce various high-demand vehicles. Idled in 2009 amid GM's bankruptcy restructuring, the facility is one of GM's most technologically advanced factories. "If we open Spring Hill, we're not going to go in there and say 'We're going to produce a couple hundred thousand of one [vehicle] in there,'" Akerson said. "It'll be because we go in and produce 50,000 of this, 25,000 of that." Canadian Auto Workers President Ken Lewenza said GM officials have not confirmed whether they plan to produce some crossovers at Spring Hill. He said he would like assurances that, if GM sends production elsewhere and demand for the crossovers later drops, output would be curtailed at the overflow plant, and not the Canadian facilities.
•    From the Detroit Free Press: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into complaints of engine compartment fires that could affect 36,000 Mini Cooper "S'' models from the 2007 and 2008 model years. The federal safety agency said in documents posted on its website that it has received 12 complaints of fires. Five of the blazes destroyed the cars. Eight fires happened when the engines had been shut off. No injuries have been reported, NHTSA said in documents posted during the weekend. The agency says there's an increasing trend of fires, with most of the complaints coming in the past year. NHTSA opened a preliminary evaluation on Oct. 11 and will try to find the cause of the blazes. Depending on the findings, a recall could be ordered. The fires could affect "S'' models of the Mini Cooper, Cooper Clubman and Cooper Convertible, the agency said.