Reminder: Union meeting is this week. Second shift meeting is 15 minutes after Tuesday’s shift. Wednesday meeting times are 7:15 am, 1:00 pm, 3 pm and 15 minutes after the longest first shift line time.
The annual Good Friday golf tournament will be held this year (April 6) at the Warrenton Golf Course. It is a 3-man scramble with an 11 am shotgun start and the cost is $150 per team and includes dinner after the tournament. Forms are available at the entrances. If you are interested you can contact Steve Waymon at x2350 between 10:30 pm and 7 am, Mike Prescott (Big Z) at the tire room on day shift, or call Bill Chancellor at 636-456-2460. Please make checks payable to Bill Chancellor. Please turn in your entries and money to Steve or big Z by Friday, March 30. All golfers are welcome.
From the Detroit News: Ford says about 1,700 factory workers nationwide will take early retirement offers and leave the company by June 1. Spokeswoman Marcey Evans said Friday that Ford won't replace all of the retiring workers. It will replace some of them by bringing back about 250 laid-off employees. It will also hire some replacements at lower wages. The automaker doesn't provide numbers per plant, Evans said. Ford offered the buyouts to all 41,000 factory workers last fall in an effort to cut its skilled trades and production work forces. It offered skilled trades workers such as electricians and plumbers $100,000 to retire. Production workers were offered $50,000. The company has about 9,000 skilled tradesmen, which it says is too many.
Keeping in mind that our profit share payouts are based on North American profits, of which production is a very good indicator, a report issued by Wards Auto World is worth looking at. For all of 2011, GM produced 1,145,052 cars and 1,943,832 light trucks for a total of 3,088,884 vehicles. Wards forecast for 2012 is 1,370,043 cars and 1,617,988 light trucks for a total of 3,180,553 – an increase of 3%. Light trucks will decline because of the downtime scheduled for the pickup plants as they prepare for the launch of the redesigned Silverado/Sierra. This will be more than offset by increase car production, but as we all know, GM makes more money on trucks than cars. Bottom line: North American profits will struggle to exceed this year’s total and will depend on GM’s ability to maintain pricing power, particularly in cars. The new Malibu should sell at higher prices than the current model, for example. And the Cadillac ATS and XTS are new entries that will have transaction prices comparable to pickups, if not the volume. ( Of course gas prices can render any forecast obsolete)
The LA Times weighed in on the debate about Mitt Romney’s opposition to the auto industry “bailouts”. Here are some excerpts: Mitt Romney has car trouble. No, we're not referring to the notorious 1983 incident in which he forced the family dog to ride in a crate strapped to the top of his station wagon, but a matter likely to hurt him far more with blue-collar voters: his contention that the bailouts of the U.S. automotive industry by both Presidents George W. Bush and Obamawere a bad idea. If a speech last week by Vice President Joe Biden is any indicator, the Obama campaign is going to use the auto bailouts as a sledgehammer against Romney, should the latter emerge as the GOPnominee. Rallying a union crowd in Ohio, Biden slammed Romney for claiming that bailing out the Detroit automakers would turn them into the "living dead." "Gov. Romney's predictions of a living dead? We have now living proof: a million jobs saved, 200,000 new jobs created," Biden said, to cheers. With Romney trying to sell himself as a better steward of the economy than Obama, his demonstrably wrong conclusions about the bailouts are grist for the Obama attack mill. Romney compounds his problem by continuing to insist the bailouts were a mistake… His argument is twofold: The companies should have been allowed to go through a "managed bankruptcy" without government intervention, which would have reduced taxpayer risk. And, because the restructuring that followed the bailouts ended up handing large ownership stakes in GM and Chrysler to the United Auto Workers, "the president gave the companies to the UAW." Both propositions are disingenuous…Had the government failed to act, not only would the two companies likely have been liquidated but they would have taken much of the U.S. auto sector — parts makers and other suppliers — with them, causing devastating job losses. Meanwhile, the UAW ended up with big shares in the automakers because the companies were so deeply indebted to the union. That would have been the outcome even if Romney's bailout-free bankruptcy had taken place… If ever there were an issue begging for a Romney flip-flop, the auto bailouts would be it. By uncharacteristically sticking with a losing position, Romney could be handing the keys to manufacturing states to Obama.
Since Consumer Reports detailed their experiences with the $108,000 Fisker Karma, several owners (there are only 500 or so) are reporting similar and other problems. Examples of complaints include: “My Karma (with less than a thousand miles on it) had a mysteriously worn-down coupling between one of the motors and the wheels. This will require a completely new differential. As of today... my Karma [has been] "in the shop" longer than I have driven the car. And the prospect of having it in the shop for another 2 weeks (or possibly longer) is making me really unhappy...” [From FiskerBuzz.com] “While driving the car, a 2012 Fisker Karma, at 35 mph, the car shut itself off, all lights on the dash illuminated, the brakes did not work, and the steering was impaired, leaving basic directional control only.” [From NHTSA] “So, after leaving the car with my dealer for the last five days, I finally got it back today and really all they did was update my software from [version] 6.12 to 6.14.2. They didn't address ANY of the other issues on the list I sent them last week. They didn't fix the heat shield. They didn't fix the trunk. They didn't fix the body panels. They didn't fix the leather on the passenger seat. Or the wind noise/rattle from the rear window or the driver's window. They didn't even give me floormats!” [From FiskerBuzz.com] “This would be a funny story if it wasn't [that] I picked up [my Karma] last Monday and it broke down on Tuesday morning. It had to be towed back to the dealership. They "corrected" the problem and I got it back today. We will see. Not a good start.” [From ConsumerReports.org] Ever the apologist for all things not GM, Consumer Reports wrote, “In fairness, the challenges Fisker has surmounted in going from a start-up to a bonafide automaker over a short period are monumental. Some birthing pains are not unexpected.” They later conceded that “The Volt proved that all-new, high-tech electrified cars can indeed be reliable.”
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