State of the Union October 7, 2011

Oct. 7, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
•    From Chairman Mike Bullock: The local agreement passed with 82 % production in favor and 61% skilled trades in favor. I want to thank you for the strong “yes” vote and your support throughout this process. We have now secured the future of this plant for many years to come and will have a legacy of leaving it in a better position than when we arrived.
•    With the revelation in the tentative agreement with Ford that the full-sized Transit van will be built in Kansas City and the Econoline will only carry on in cutaway form, the question becomes – what’s the timeline? According to examiner.com, 2200 Kansas City workers have been told that they will be temporarily laid off beginning in April next year for retooling in preparation for the launch of the Transit. However, no launch date was mentioned. The conversion will occur on what is now the Escape line (which is moving to Louisville) as the F-150 will still be produced there. Total investment is estimated at $1 billion, so it would seem that there will be quite a bit of construction. Regarding the Econoline, a lengthy article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer does not reveal an end to production date, saying only that it would cease “sometime during the contract’s duration”. Nor was a launch date for the replacement medium duty and motorhome chassis (currently built in Mexico) given.
•    Information: If you want to check on the status of a referral, call 1-800-973-1465. There are no plans at this time for a second round of referrals. Also, to look up your GM paystub go to this website: https://ipay.adp.com. You will need to register to be able to use this website and the initial password to get the process started is: gm1-pay. Under the terms of the new national agreement, you will no longer receive a paper stub in the mail beginning next year, so you will need to use this website to view your paystubs.
•    From the Detroit Free Press: General Motors has agreed to help pay half the cost of repairing faulty gas gauges in potentially hundreds of thousands of its model year 2005-2007 Chevy Trailblazers, Buick Rainiers, GMC Envoys and Saab 9-7s. The agreement to repair the problematic gauges was made to settle an investigation with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which began a probe into the issue earlier this year. In April, NHTSA opened an investigation into nearly 900,000 vehicles that could have bad gas gauges – causing drivers to unexpectedly run out of fuel, resulting in an engine stall and possible crash.
•    From Edmunds: The fact that GM intends to sell a next-generation midsize pickup – much less build it in the U.S. – is a notable strategic gamble given the segment’s astounding sales decline. The midsize truck market has been on a steady and precipitous slide since 2000, when, according to Edmunds.com data, more than 1 million midsize pickups were sold. By last year, midsize pickup sales plunged by nearly 75 percent to 264,206. Midsize-pickup market share in the U.S. hit a high mark of 8 percent in 1994, but was just 2.3 percent last year. It didn’t help when the once-compact pickups grew to be seven-eights-sized little brothers to fullsize pickups. When product developers decided that bigger would be better, even for “compact” pickups, they unwittingly erased much of the appeal of compact pickups’ smaller footprints and appreciably better fuel economy. And midsize pickups were selling at average transaction prices similar to the entry end of the fullsize range, while their fuel-economy advantages became negligible. As GM gears up to return a new version of an aging nameplate to a fading segment, chief rival Ford has yet to openly reverse what appears to be commitment to staying out. Ford’s midsize Ranger line – in continuous production since its launch in 1983 – is, for now, gone. There is no 2012 Ranger and the truck’s Twin Cities, MN, assembly plant will close as scheduled at the end of this year, said Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans. Meanwhile, Chrysler Group LLC’s Ram division ended production of its midsize Dakota in August.