State of the Union May 8, 2012

May 8, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

From the Benefits Department: We have been made aware that some members have gone to Walgreens and used the Take Care Health Care Clinics. Be advised that this is not a contract benefit. Also, the following is a message regarding preventive health care services: If you own a car, you know that routine maintenance will make it last longer. If you own a house, you know that you need to do annual checks of the heating and cooling system. In fact, any machinery that you own needs regular checkups.

How about your body?

It may not look like the equipment underneath the hood of your car or in your furnace room, but the parts of your body need regular attention and tune-ups too. Routine medical care and preventive screenings can help you understand what’s right and what’s not. Don’t base your decision regarding whether to get preventive services on how you feel now. Take action based on your long term health and well-being.

Your GM health care benefits include coverage for the following in-network preventive exams and screenings at no cost to you, based on your age, gender and risk:

o Health maintenance exams
o Gynecological exams
o Well baby and child exams
o Immunizations for adults and children as recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
o Routine services such as cholesterol testing, colon, cervical and breast cancer screening services
For a complete list of preventive services or more detail on services mentioned above, contact your health care carrier at the number on the back of your GM Health Care ID card.

Take time today to invest in a healthier you tomorrow!

Weekly build options: 46 E-26 vnas; 831 cutaways (31%); 574 slider doors; 281 r/h door deletes; 150 15 pass vans; 22.5% 07 loop; 198 Onstar; 66 diesels; 53 brake deck spare tire; .6% tan interior trim; 206 exports (141 Saudi Arabia); 221 Enterprise rent-a-car; 95 Budget; 95 Penske; 60 U-Haul; 37 government vehicles; 80.4% white vans.

The annual May Day Annie Malone Parade is Sunday, May 20. Those wishing to ride in vehicles – help pass out beads – help decorate: We meet at Belhmann Buick GMC, 820 McDonnell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63042 at 10:30 am the day of the parade and plan on departing for the staging area no later than 10:45. Those that would like to ride on the Chairman’s Fire Truck can locate us in the staging area located on Market Street between Compton Ave. and Jefferson Ave. We will not know our exact location until closer to the 20th and will let you know when we find out. It should be noted that the only vehicles allowed in the staging area must have entry stickers. There is on street parking in the downtown area and some near the staging.

From Automotive News: General Motors executives have insisted for months that they're not about to sacrifice profits by discounting vehicles to lift market share. GM's first-quarter results signal that they're walking the walk. The automaker resisted loading on incentives during the January-March period, despite sliding U.S. market share, which finished the quarter at 17.5 percent, vs. 19.6 percent for all of 2011. The result: GM's North American profits surged 35 percent, to $1.69 billion (which equates to $1500 in profit sharing). GM said its average transaction price per vehicle in the United States rose $300 in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, while its average incentive fell $380. "This discipline you're seeing with respect to pricing and incentives ... it bodes well," GM CEO Dan Akerson said. He said new vehicles such as the Chevrolet Sonic are being sold with more features and content, allowing GM to "hold price and get a premium." Akerson added, though, that it hasn't been easy for GM to hold the line on incentives. "Sometimes it's difficult to remain as disciplined as we have been when you look at the activity of some of our competitors," he said. Even so, a presentation GM prepared for analysts showed that GM's first-quarter incentive spending was about 9 percent higher than the industry average when measured as a percentage of average vehicle-transaction prices.

Proving that audacity and selective memory are 2 things that are not in short supply in Mitt Romney comes this article from the Detroit News: Campaigning in the backyard of America's auto industry, Mitt Romney re-ignited the bailout debate by suggesting he deserves "a lot of credit" for the recent successes of the nation's largest car companies. That claim comes in spite of his stance that Detroit should have been allowed to go bankrupt. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told a Cleveland television station on Monday that President Barack Obama followed his lead when he ushered auto companies through a managed bankruptcy soon after taking office. "I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy, and finally when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet," Romney said in an interview inside a Cleveland-area auto parts maker.
"So, I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry has come back." The course Romney advocated differed greatly from the one that was ultimately taken. GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy on the strength of a massive bailout that Romney opposed. Neither Republican President George W. Bush nor Democratic President Barack Obama believed the automakers would have survived without that backup from taxpayers. Romney opposed taxpayer help. "If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye," Romney wrote in a November 2008 opinion article in the New York Times. "It won't go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed."

Tom Brune UAW/GM Communications Coordinator Wentzville Assembly 636-327-2119