June 26, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
Reminder: Union meeting is after 2nd shift tonight and Wednesday at 7:15 am, 1 pm, 3 pm, and 15 minutes after the longest first shift line time.
Workers at a Flex-N-Gate auto parts plant in Puebla, Mexico owned by billionaire industrialist and NFL owner Shahid Kahn won the right to free association inside their workplace after a 12-hour job action on June 20. UAW members at Flex-N-Gate plants in the U.S. took action to support the Mexican auto workers, hand-delivering a copy of worker demands, including the reinstatement of fired union activists, to their plant managers. "Auto workers in Mexico have the same concerns we do, including safe working conditions, fair treatment, and a voice on the job" said Kathy Morgan, bargaining chair for UAW Local 2270 at Flex-N-Gate's Ventra Evart plant in Evart, Michigan. "If we don't speak up when Flex-N-Gate mistreats workers in Mexico, we're going to pay a price sooner or later. Because whatever they get away with there, they're going to try here." "Right now I feel proud because we achieved something that we wanted, a victory for our rights and for justice," said Mario Lopez Espinoza, a member of the worker organizing committee at the Flex-N-Gate plant in Puebla. "We fought for something and we won -- and I believe if we stand together with workers in the U.S., we can improve conditions for everybody." The dispute, widely covered in the Mexican news media, centers around workers' demands for a free and fair vote on union representation. The Confederacion de Trabajadores de Mexico (CTM), an arm of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), claims to represent workers at the Puebla Flex-N-Gate plant, but workers say they never voted for CTM and have never seen a copy of any contract. The organization, they say, collects dues without taking any action on issues such as hazardous dust inside the plant, low pay and excessive use of temporary workers. The average Flex-N-Gate worker in Puebla earns about 1,200 pesos a week, or $100. Ten workers were recently fired for complaining about the lack of representation.
GM is offering and extra $500 Independence Day cash on certain 2012 like the Chevy Cruze, Buick Enclave and Chevy Silverado. This is in addition to the employee vehicle allowance, consumer cash and your preferred pricing. Full size pickups get a total of $7000 cash back with this offer. But you need to act as this offer ends July 2.
From Automotive News: The U.S. auto market is rebounding, but a new survey by AlixPartners argues that the auto industry might as well forget about "pent-up demand." The report, released today, predicts U.S light vehicle sales of 14.3 million units this year, up from 12.8 million units in 2011. However, the report predicts U.S. sales will stay below 16 million units through 2015 -- and that it's not just a lagging economy that will hold sales below previous highs. There were 5 million fewer American motorists in 2010 than expected, given the nation's population growth, according to AlixPartners, a financial advisory firm based in suburban Detroit. The report compared the percentage of American adults with licenses in 2010 to that of 2000. John Hoffecker, a managing director of AlixPartners LLP, attributes much of this shortfall to aging Baby Boomers, who are less likely to drive than their peers were a decade ago. "Boomers are driving less than other people their age were in 2001," Hoffecker told Automotive News. "A smaller percentage of people are driving. The number of miles driven also has flattened out and we don't see it going back up." Moreover, younger Americans -- dubbed Millennials -- appear to be less enthusiastic about car ownership than their peers a decade ago. The AlixPartners report dubbed this contingent "Generation N," as in "neutral about driving." In general, the survey compares the North American auto industry favorably to Europe's auto industry, which is sliding into another recession. The report notes that automakers in North America shut down 18 plants since 2007, thus unloading unneeded capacity and clearing the way for a subsequent rebound. As a result, North American plants are running at 89 percent of capacity, according to AlixPartners. By contrast, European automakers shut down only three assembly plants since 2010. Now, about 40 of 100 assembly plants in Europe are operating below 75 to 80 percent of capacity. Likewise, North American automakers are not repeating some of the mistakes of the past, such as over-producing vehicles, then dumping them into daily rental fleets. Fleet sales currently account for 20 percent of total U.S. light-vehicle sales, below the long-term average of 24 percent. Concludes Hoffecker: "The industry is acting in a good, rational way to build production… and meet natural demand. Automakers in the U.S. are in much better shape than they were before 2008."
From Reuters: A German union leader said on Tuesday General Motors appears willing to invest in growing its European arm Opel, a tentative sign that GM and powerful German labour leaders are making progress in talks over restructuring. "We have the impression that there is a learning process at GM," said Armin Schild, the head of union IG Metall for the region that is home to Opel's headquarters. Opel's supervisory board, in which labour representatives play a key role, is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss management's mid-term business plan that should turn the loss-making unit around. "The business plan must reflect the aim to gain market share in Europe over the long term," Schild continued, adding that the union was well aware how difficult this would be given its expectation that the western European car market would continue to shrink in the foreseeable future.
Tom Brune
UAW/GM Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
636-327-2119
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