State of the Union December 15, 2011

Dec. 15, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

•    Reminder: There will be a meeting at the Union Hall today after first shift for members who transferred from Indianapolis and Messena. Remember to bring copies of the transfer paperwork you signed when you came to Wentzville.
•    The Red Cross blood drive will be tomorrow beginning at 9:30 am in the tour holding room. If you signed up to donate you should have been told when you are scheduled to give blood. If you haven’t you should see your group leader.
•    Last week the QNPM Spare Parts Team (Ken Phillips and Don Elam of the UAW and Marcus Sims and Jeanne Henderson of GM) performed an analysis of Wentzville’s spare parts operation. The team came away very impressed with the work done here and said that Wentzville is the company benchmark in many aspects of spare parts. Here are some of the analysis highlights:
o The 2008-10 time period shows a $790,000 average decrease in spare parts spending compared to the 2004-06 time frame.
o Spare parts storage area has been reduced by 16,620 square feet while storage locations have increased from 87 to 105 indicating quicker/easier access to parts throughout the plant with a smaller footprint
o Identified potential savings in the next 2 years of $677,883
o Excellent job of storing and labeling spare parts as well as creating a database so the location of parts could be found on any computer in the plant, saving time and inventory expense.
•    Wentzville Assembly received recognition from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for achieving the Energy Star Challenge for Industry, which recognizes plants that achieve a 10% reduction in energy intensity within 5 years. In fact, our reduction was 22.49%! All the little things like turning off TV’s, lights, computers etc. have added up to make a big difference.
•    Everyone should be receiving a letter in the mail regarding the changes to FMLA this week. These changes will be effective Jan. 3, 2012. On back is the flow chart explaining the new process. If you have any questions prior to Jan. 3 you should contact Labor Relations.