Nov. 21, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
Reminder: This Wednesday, Nov. 23, is a holiday qualifying day and a VR blackout day. Monday, Nov. 28 is a VR blackout day.
Last break this week will run from 2:30 to 2:34 and no line time will be longer than 9 hours. Also, the uniform store will be open Wednesday from 8 am to 4 pm to handle the extra demand.
This week’s build information: 48 E-26 vans; 562 cutaways; 124 15-pass vans; 24.1% 07 loop; 221 slider doors; 111 r/h door deletes; 78 diesels; 176 Onstar; 59 exports, 16 brake deck spare tire; 46 U-Haul; 45 Penske; 81% white vans.
From Automotive News: Chevrolet's upcoming mid-sized pickup will give owners nearly the same capability as a full-sized light-duty pickup but with lower operating expenses. "You may have 85, 90 percent of what a big pickup will do" in terms of capability, said Mark Reuss, General Motors North America president, during an interview at the Los Angeles auto show. Many truck owners do not need a full-sized pickup's capability, Reuss said. Last month GM announced that a redesigned Colorado pickup would be offered in the United States. The mid-sized model will replace the current Colorado pickup, a compact, and it will be assembled in Wentzville, Mo. The truck is based on GM's new global, body-on-frame, rear-wheel-drive, mid-sized platform. It is slightly longer and wider than the Colorado, but the company has not disclosed dimensions. The truck is a response to new federal regulations that require vehicles to have better fuel economy and lower emissions. Speaking of the mid-sized pickup, Reuss said that "rather than putting full-blown four-mode hybrids or two-mode hybrids into large pickup trucks and trying to get efficiency out of it, which is extremely expensive, we can do things with lower displacement, hybridization, alternate fuels." Reuss described the new Colorado as a "very, very nice mid-sized pickup that is really cheap to run." Reuss would not say whether GMC will market a similar model. But if GM did replace the GMC Canyon, the pickup would have separate sheet metal, different price points and models. "If we did that it would be a different approach than a Chevrolet," he said. Compact and mid-sized pickups accounted for 16.5 percent of the total U.S. pickup market in 2010, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
General Motors is recalling 1,798 early model 2012 Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana full-size vans in the United States because the second stage of the passenger air bag may fail to deploy in a severe crash. The issue is missing propellant in some air bags that could prevent the air bag from deploying as designed. The air bag supplier told GM about the issue after another manufacturer it supplies had a similar issue. The suspect GM vehicles were produced in a four-month period from June to October. GM knows of no reports of complaints, crashes or injuries resulting from the condition. Dealers will replace the passenger air bag for free in the recalled vehicles.
General Motors will invest $61 million to bring its idled Spring Hill assembly plant back to life as one of the world’s most-flexible manufacturing facilities capable of building any GM car or crossover based on customer demand or manufacturing need. The investment will create 594 hourly jobs and 91 salaried positions for the flexible operation scheduled to begin with the hot-selling Chevrolet Equinox in the second half of 2012. The additional production will supplement Equinox production in Canada, the main assembly sites of the midsize crossover vehicle and its sibling the GMC Terrain. The Equinox has been so popular – U.S. sales were up 18 percent in October – that GM has increased production three times since it went into production in 2009. GM also announced Monday a second investment of $183 million for future midsize vehicles to be built at Spring Hill, located about 40 miles south of Nashville. Timing was not announced, but that investment is expected to create an additional 1,090 hourly and 106 salaried positions. “Spring Hill has a history as one of GM’s most innovative and flexible plants,” said Cathy Clegg, vice president of GM Labor Relations. “We’re pleased that, working together with the UAW, we were able to build on that history and develop a plan to resume production at Spring Hill.” "Our number one priority in auto negotiations this year was jobs," said UAW President Bob King. "We asked the company to bring jobs back to America , and that’s what this collective bargaining agreement represents. Together, we are bringing 1,800 jobs to Tennessee, and a total of 6,400 new GM jobs, which translates to nearly 60,000 good, auto-related jobs in the United States." Equinox production is only the start for Spring Hill Flex. Operators will be capable of building a variety of products on a range of platforms – covering for plants being retooled for new products and also allowing real-time reaction to sales spikes in a given car or crossover. "The re-opening of Spring Hill is a testament to the value of collective bargaining," said UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, who directs the union's General Motors Department. "Collective bargaining works for companies, for workers and for America. Collective bargaining is what brought good jobs to Tennessee. It is what built our middle class. It is how workers and communities have a voice in corporate decision-making. Bargaining is what gives the working class a seat at the table."
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