December 21, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
•From Chairman Mike Bullock: I’ve got a couple of quick items to pass along: I signed off on retaining our temporary employees through February (they were originally scheduled to be laid off this week); and the in-plant eyeglass store is closing and safety glasses will be handled by the Eye Care Center of O’Fallon beginning in January. Also, layoff instruction forms are available at the entrances. Finally, I want to wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday season and we’ll see you back on Jan. 22
•With this being the final edition of the State of the Union for 2012, we thought we’d take a look back at what was a very eventful year. It began with the long awaited return of the second shift and the addition of 430+ employees. December 2011 sales were reported and we sold nearly 11,000 that month. And we booked our first large order for CNG vans – 1200 for AT&T.
February saw the production ramp up continue and the beginning of Friday overtime production on the 2 on, 1 off cadence. The plant hit full line rate at the end of February. We also found out that we would receive a record profit sharing payout of $7000.
In March the overtime continued apace. There were 24 of our skilled trades members who accepted the special attrition package and retired at the end of the month. Unfortunately, we also announced a recall of 6000 vans because of a steering shaft defect.
In April we started the first ever Weight Loss Challenge. Chevrolet unveiled the redesigned Impala, continuing the remake of the Chevy car lineup that began with the Cruze, Malibu and Sonic. Nissan introduced the passenger version of their fullsize van to a collective yawn. In the meantime, a Chevy Express 4500 was pitted against an Econoline 450, each cutaways with identical boxes loaded to the max, in real world testing. ”Frankly, we were very surprised at the large gap in performance between these two trucks,” said Guy Mangiamele, AMCI Director of Vehicle Testing. “As the data clearly shows, the Ford E-450 simply had very little performance reserve at these weights compared to the Chevy 4500. And when you consider the Chevy’s real-world fuel economy advantage in percentage terms, it has cost-of-ownership implications over the lifetime of the vehicle.” On cue, the Express took home the Vincentric Best Fleet Value award for the 5th consecutive year. The month ended with our annual Earth Day, a successful gate drive ($4400) for March of Dimes March for Babies and our best ever torque audit – 100% compliance in every category.
In May we finally had our official groundbreaking ceremony for the new body shop, hosting Gov. Jay Nixon among others and garnering a lot of positive media coverage. Chevrolet announced plans to sell a large rear-wheel drive sedan to be called the SS, which will also double as the NASCAR entry. Van sales once again topped 10,000 units. And GM reported North American earnings of $1.7 billion.
June continued the upward trend of van sales, once again topping 10,000 and rising 33% over the previous year. We hosted nearly 100 upfitter representatives at the plant and gave them and the marketing team a tour of the shop. GM announced that they would be shutting down the Impala assembly line at Oshawa, Canada and move the production to Hamtramck, as well as moving some Equinox production from Canada to Spring Hill as contract talks with the CAW approached.
Van sales peaked in July, coming in just shy of 12,000 – up a whopping 82% and the best result since 2006. The plant passed an ISO recertification audit with only 2 minor non-conformances (other plants were getting 8 or more). GM reported 2nd quarter North American earnings of $2 billion.
In August we acknowledged a milestone of sorts with 5 of our members achieving 45 years of seniority. We finally got to model change and with it the highly anticipated 4 weeks of shutdown. During that time 700+ contractors descended on the plant for major projects in paint, frame schedule and to the conveyors along the 40 aisle. This ultimately wound up being 6 weeks as van sales softened in August and plummeted in September to 4886. And sadly, our longtime Regional Director (and 2250’s first shop chairman) Jim Wells unexpectedly passed away.
October was audit month with both the ISO environmental audit and the UAW-GM Health and Safety audits occurring – both of which turned out very well. GM announced 3rd quarter North American earnings of $1.8 billion. Plant manager John Dansby announced his retirement and Nancy Laubenthal was named as his replacement – the 9th plant manager here since 2000. October van sales recoverd a little but were still down 10% from 2011.
In November, with vital support from the UAW, President Barack Obama was reelected as well as Missouri Governor Jay Nixon and Senator Claire McCaskill. We welcomed back over 8o of our brothers and sisters from Fairfax. November van sales were about the same as October at a bit over 7000. GM announced that the salaried pension plan will be transferred to Prudential in the form of a $25 billion annuity.
Which brings us to December, when we sponsored 155 needy children with the Adopt-A-Child program. Five of our vans were upfitted for wheelchairs and donated to veteran’s hospitals, including John Cochran in St. Louis. The new body shop roof is nearly complete as all of the main columns are in place. Another 4 weeks of downtime awaits as the paint shop will have the other color booth torn apart and rebuilt with state-of-the-art equipment in preparation for the Colorado/Canyon. More conveyor work will occur on the 40 aisle. So let’s enjoy our time off with family and friends over this extended holiday season. Be safe and come back rested and refreshed. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Tom Brune
UAW/GM Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
636-327-2119
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