November 20, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
From Chairman Mike Bullock: I want to wish everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving with your families and friends. We certainly have a lot to be thankful for here as the body shop for the Colorado/Canyon continues to go up and President Obama prepares for a second term. I would like to encourage everyone to check out the UAW Local 2250 facebook page. Finally, I want you to join in solidarity with Wal-Mart workers nationwide by boycotting Wal-Mart on Black Friday. These workers are counting on our support as they take a stand against the abuses they have been subjected to with low wages, erratic work schedules and meager benefits (see message from UAW International below).
The Civil Rights Committee is having a meeting for all members on Monday, Nov. 26 between the shifts at 3 pm at the Union Hall.
The Chaplaincy Committee would like to wish everyone a Blessed, Safe and Happy Thanksgiving this year.
As you head out to do your Christmas shopping this weekend, remember to make an effort to buy Union and American. There are numerous websites dedicated to informing the patriotic shopper what items are Union-made and American-made. Just google either term for guidance. The UAW website also has information about which products are UAW made. You might be surprised at what you find on the list – Folgers coffee or Planters peanuts anyone?
From the International Union UAW: Workers at Walmart are planning mass actions around the country on Black Friday to stand up to their employer and live better, forcing the company to recognize their organization and collaborate with them on important issues from wages to scheduling to healthcare. As the largest private sector employer in the United States, Walmart has enormous power to set the trends not just for the retail and service industries, but for the economy as a whole. Wages and working conditions set at Walmart have a ripple-effect throughout all jobs: low wages, limited access to health care and no retirement security. While the Walton family has the same wealth as the bottom 42 percent of American families combined, they pay Walmart associates an average of $8.81 an hour. UAW brothers and sisters , Walmart workers need your help! This will be the first direct action many Walmart workers take, and they will need support in their communities and around the country to back them up. So let’s gear up and support Walmart workers across this country by joining with them in actions on Black Friday. This is a tough fight, but if we all work together in solidarity and we use creative, nonviolent actions to support the workers' fight, Walmart will be persuaded to change the way it treats its workers.
From Wards Auto (by Drew Winter): I recently blogged about some of the auto industry’s biggest boondoggles of the last 25 years and asked readers to contribute their thoughts. My email bulged with suggestions, especially related to the Detroit Three.
Many mentioned General Motors’ misguided attempt to reinvent itself with Saturn and ill-advised investments in Fiatand Saab. Plus, there were vehicles such as the infamous Pontiac Aztek and the entire Hummer brand. Others mentioned questionable adventures at Ford, such as its purchase of Jaguar and Volvo, and numerous bad cars going back to the 1970s including the Pinto subcompact and Mustang II.
Readers also pointed to head scratchers at Chryslersuch as the TC by Maserati, a gussied up K-car with a Maserati badge; the odd-looking Plymouth Prowler; and the disastrous “partnership” with Daimlerthat ended in divorce.
But to ferret out the absolute worst mistakes Detroit has made in recent history, I look to professional automotive observer and author Maryann Keller. She has been enormously influential since the early 1980s. After a 28-year career as one of Wall Street’s top auto analysts she now runs her own company, Maryann Keller & Associates. She is as tough and insightful as ever. During a recent speech to the Society of Auto Analysts, Keller unleashes her own list of auto industry blunders, and her choices make most of the items above look like minor glitches.
Detroit auto makers wasted at least $50 billion during the past two decades in failed efforts to impress Wall Street and raise their stock prices, she says. That incredible figure includes stock buybacks, excessive dividends and diversification efforts, all of which could have been spent making better products. GM alone doled out $20 billion from 1986 to 2000 on stock buybacks and actually borrowed money it did not have to pay dividends from 2005 to 2008.
Ford kissed off half the cash it had on hand in 2000 creating a special dividend of $10 per share, Keller says. GM and Ford also wasted billions buying rental-car companies that hid excess production capacity and threw away billions more for e-commerce efforts that looked sexy during the Internet bubble economy but ultimately yielded zip in revenue and profits. Also on her list are the names of financial-services companies, vehicle retailers, recyclers, junkyards and mortgage companies. All were purchased in an effort to add glamour and growth to auto maker bottom lines, but they did neither.
Of course, these strategies did not look quite so boneheaded at the time. In the late 1990s, auto companies were considered old-fashioned. No matter how many vehicles they sold and how much cash they raked in, their stock prices looked weak compared with the soaring value of technology and Internet stocks. So auto makers tried to redefine themselves as something other than companies that built and sold cars and trucks.
And this was the Detroit Three’s biggest mistake ever: They tried to be something other than vehicle manufacturing companies. When they focused on being banks and mortgage lenders and impressing Wall Street, they took their eye off the ball of their core business. Design faltered, quality slipped and market share skidded. Disaster ensued. Ford was first to see the error of its ways and avoided bankruptcy. GM and Chryslerwere not so lucky.
But as Keller points out, “Wall Street didn’t make these decisions; the CEOs did.”
I currently am testing vehicles for Ward’s 10 Best Engines and as a judge for the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards. Detroit’s new products such as the Cadillac ATS, Ford Fusion and Dodge Dart are terrific. Detroit auto makers clearly have their eye back on the ball. It shows in vehicle sales numbers, on their bottom line and their stock price. Let’s hope they never again try to be something they are not.
Tom Brune
UAW/GM Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
636-327-2119
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