State of the Union March 6, 2012

March 6, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

The UAW Community Services committee is holding a raffle, with the proceeds to go for providing Easter Baskets for the homeless and shelters. The top prize is 2 tickets to the St. Louis Blues game on April 6 (these are great seats). Second prize is 2 Cardinals tickets to a weekend game. Third prize is a $100 Cabela’s gift card. Tickets are available now through March 15 and are $5 apiece or 3 for $10 and can be bought from any committee member. The drawing will be held at the March 21 Union meeting.

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.

To find a better February sales result for our van, you would have to go back to 2008. Here is how the rest of the segment shook out:
2012 2011 Change Share
Ford Econoline 10,100 9,723 +3.9% 52.8%
GM 7,383 4,694 +57.3% 38.6%
Mercedes Sprinter 830 712 +11.9% 4.3%
Nissan NV 807 12 --- 4.2%
Ford Transit 2,305 2,152 +7.1% ---

Field supplies reflect the improved sales performance. Overall net stock dropped roughly 500 units to a 42 day supply. Passenger van supplies are just over 600 units and the Chevy has only a 10 day supply, by far the lowest of any GM truck product. Express cargo vans are down to a 37 day supply while cutaways supplies are essentially unchanged.

There’s good news and bad news on the Chevy Volt front. The good news is that the Opel version (Ampera) was named European car of the year at the Geneva Auto Show. The bad news is that the Hamtramck plant where both are produced will go down for 5 weeks beginning March 19. “Even with sales up in February over January, we are still seeking to align our production with demand,” said GM spokesman Chris Lee.

From Automotive News: A startup backed by General Motors said last week that it has developed a breakthrough lithium ion battery that could slash the cost of electric vehicles. Envia Systems said the lighter and more powerful battery cells could reduce by more than half the cost of a battery pack in an EV with a 300-mile electric range. "There is this enormous race going on" to develop higher-density batteries, which are considered the key to making less costly EVs that can go longer distances between charges, Envia CEO Atul Kapadia said in an interview. "What we've done is leapfrog all existing technologies." Envia, of Newark, Calif., said its advanced cathode technology enables its battery to produce 400 watt hours per kilogram, at an estimated cost of $125 per kilowatt hour. Batteries used in EVs today produce 80 to 150 watt hours per kilogram, at a cost of $250 to $350 per kilowatt hour, Envia says. Envia uses manganese and other inexpensive metals to make its battery cells' cathode, which is the electrode from which the current flows. The use of cheaper materials drives down costs. And because the cells store more energy, fewer cells are needed to assemble the battery pack, which further drives down the overall cost. Envia could have the technology in commercial production by 2014, Kapadia said. Kapadia said GM remains Envia's largest investor and is the "most aggressive and most enthusiastic" automaker interested in its battery, although GM does not have contractual rights to the technology. Jon Lauckner, who was named GM's chief technology officer last month, sits on Envia's board of directors.

From the Wall Street Journal: Business groups are urging Congress to let employers put less money into their pension funds, saying that exceptionally low interest rates are forcing them to set aside too much cash. A provision attached to the Senate highway bill would change the formula many large companies, must use to calculate how much to add to their pension funds, potentially shrinking their combined contributions by billions of dollars a year. The business groups argue that with U.S. interest rates near historic lows, companies are diverting money into pension funds that could be otherwise used to hire new workers or make other investments. The AFL-CIO, the nation's biggest labor federation, said it could support changing the pension fund formula if it is paired with protection for the pension plans' participants. "Employers do have a valid concern for realistic funding assumptions and less volatility" said legislative representative Lauren Rothfarb.