Feb. 28, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
The UAW is holding its annual CAP Legislative Conference this week in Washington DC. President Obama is scheduled to speak to the conference today. Here is a recap of some of yesterday’s events:
Delegates heard from AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker who thanked the UAW for creating a path to the middle class and fighting fervently against efforts to eroded worker gains. Baker told delegates that for her and many Americans, the UAW’s progress in helping secure jobs for Americans is now and has always been an important factor. The UAW, she said, has continued Walter Reuther’s legacy of love for community and country and believing that “we truly are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.”
Known in the political arena as “Gene the Machine” for his tireless work ethic, Gene Sperling addressed UAW delegates on America’s current economic climate. A Washington insider, Sperling is director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy. Appointed by President Obama in January 2011, he formerly served as counselor to the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, starting in 2009. He said that while the economy is making a turnaround, we had to come back from losing 1.1 million jobs to creating 800,000 jobs a month. Sperling added that while this isn’t a modest recovery, it will take time before middle-class working America begins to fully recover. “The UAW is a symbol of U.S. comeback. It is an unquestionable fact that we have a long way to go to heal from this depression we inherited. When you look at what this president did, he will be remembered as the president who took one of the swiftest, most aggressive actions to protect this country against the next great depression,” said Sperling. “The American economy was growing within six months of President Obama being elected – and a year later, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been brought back.”
UAW Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Williams brought delegates up to speed on the union’s demand that workers at transnational auto plants be given the right to decide whether they want a union. “We are at a critical time in the transnational organizing effort. The UAW made a huge commitment to organizing two years ago,” said Williams. “We are working together now like never before. We cannot continue to organize as we have in the past. We have to build alliances and coalitions like never before.” Williams said the UAW wants to make sure all workers – not just UAW members – make good wages and can live a middle-class life. He said the UAW also is focusing on bringing young activists from around the world into the movement to create global solidarity. “To achieve our goals, we have to communicate. We have reached out to workers in every [foreign-owned] facility in the United States and are holding meetings with international allies,” said Williams.
Here is an editorial letter to the Detroit Free Press from UAW President Bob King:
For most Americans, cars are a way to get around. For most of Detroit, they're a way of life. Generations of autoworkers grew up trusting that if we worked hard and played by the rules, we would be able to live the American dream. Not long ago, that way of life almost ended. I have been stunned at the recent debate about what really happened here in 2009. Choices have been scrutinized, other paths imagined, and the road we took to get to this point has been studied from every conceivable angle. That's all fair game. But rewriting facts and denying history are not.
Some say the successes we see today could have happened on their own, as if the credit markets weren't frozen solid and private financiers were banging down our door. That claim is more than just wrong; it's an insult to the men and women of the auto industry, workers and management alike. All made incredible sacrifices and worked tirelessly to keep this industry alive. It's an affront to everyone who never stopped believing that Detroit can, and will, continue to build the best vehicles in the world.
We can't let them mislead the American people about President Barack Obama's bold and decisive rescue of the auto industry, or about the sacrifices our workers made. They deserve the truth. Those trying to attack the president for political gain have ignored this reality. They claim labor got a free pass. Nothing could be further from the truth. Even before the emergency rescue loans, autoworkers made deep concessions to save their companies and keep Detroit alive. From 2005 on, we gave up pay increases, overtime pay and holidays, and agreed to reduced pay and benefits for new hires.
When Obama required more concessions from both labor and management in exchange for the emergency loans, we did the right thing. UAW agreed to freeze wages and benefits, and even agreed to waive for six years our right to strike. We were willing to share the sacrifice to help our industry and this region survive. They did more than survive. Today, the automakers are thriving. General Motors is once again the world's top carmaker. Its $7.6-billion profit in 2011 was its largest ever. The auto industry added more than 200,000 jobs in the last 2 1/2 years, and 2011 was the strongest year of job growth in our industry since 1994.
Demand for American cars is rising, so GM, Ford and Chrysler are running three production shifts a day at many plants. New shifts at GM's Detroit-Hamtramck Plant and Chrysler's Jefferson North Plant mean jobs for thousands more workers in Michigan, the Midwest and across the country. Chrysler was nearly forced to shutter its Sterling Heights Assembly Plant. Now its 2,300 workers are building the Chrysler 200, one of Detroit's hottest-selling new models. They repaid the federal loans years ahead of schedule. Michigan is recovering from the recession at the second-fastest pace in the country.
A stronger Detroit means a stronger nation. More working Michiganders mean more money in our economy, and more local restaurants and shops that thrive and create even more jobs. The president's emergency loans weren't a politically popular decision. But he refused to turn his back on us during Detroit's darkest hour. He stood up for us and more than a million American jobs that depend on the auto industry. If he hadn't, this great American industry and city would have collapsed. End of story. Our state and country would be a very different place without the auto loans. Autoworkers have good-paying American jobs that put food on the table, pay tuition bills, buy homes and keep the American dream alive. I don't have to tell you that cars made Detroit. But no matter what anyone tells you, it's thanks to President Obama that Detroit is still making cars.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
State of the Union February 23, 2012
Feb. 23, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
From Chairman Mike Bullock: Here is More information from the Leadership Meeting in Detroit on February 16: UAW Vice President Joe Ashton's first announcement was the $7000 profit sharing, He announced it is the largest profit sharing check ever for General Motors and the first time it has ever been larger than Ford."These results also prove that President Obama made the right decision to stand with American workers and the domestic auto industry at a time when it was a difficult and unpopular decision. Without the President's bold action, the American auto industry would have collapsed" VP Ashton said. He also commented on the need for GM to add money to the pension fund. The pension fund is currently underfunded by $10 billion. On pensions, VP Ashton said that in 2011 only 16% of Americans have a defined pension as compared to 10 years ago the number was 30%. Mike Grimes, Administrative Assistant to VP Ashton, announced the requisition of 1277 employees for 15 GM plants in the US. These openings will be filled by Area Hire and then Extended Area Hire throughout the country. Backfills for those openings will come from New Hires, where needed. Under the 2011 National Agreement all Guide and Delphi employees will be given two offers to transfer to a GM location, 1 Nationally and 1 regionally. According to AA Grimes all Nationwide offers have been made and only regional offers remain. There are no Local Delphi or Guide plants within our region, so we don't expect any more transfers from Delphi or Guide in the future. Legal Services informed the leadership that as of December 31, 2013, it will be discontinued. All UAW represented employees should use this benefit before that happens, if for nothing else but to have your will drawn up. Benefits Administrator Dean Manship reminded everyone that open enrollment for Optional Life Insurance will be this Spring. Anyone who has Optional Life can move up one level without a health survey. Administrator Manship says that one of the most difficult things his department has to deal with is the updating of beneficiaries, or lack of. He wants to remind everyone to confirm who their life insurance beneficiary is. This can be done by going online at www.gmbenefits.com. Also, a lot of employees are using VR time, when there are open VP days on the calendar. If you know you need a day off in advance use the time off procedure before burning a VR day.
From the Education Committee: The winner of the gift basket is Keith Brooks, security. Also, we still have UAW anniversary shirts for sale in limited sizes. You can contact Donell Jordan in body shop, 1st shift, at column BB-13 if you are interested.
If you completed your 90 days of employment from Jan. 1 – March 5, 2012, there is a free celebration planned for you on March 4 at Cuetopia Sports Bar & Grill. It is located at 11824 West Florissant in St. Louis (314-830-1200). The party will begin at 7:30 pm and feature free entertainment. Please call Rowena at 314-972-0432 or go to column AA-18, body shop 2nd shift, to make reservations. All UAW employees are welcome. Wear your UAW jackets.
From Huffington Post: General Motors shot back at Newt Gingrich Tuesday, openly mocking his stump speech allegation that the Chevy Volt is an "Obama car" because "you can't put a gun rack in a Volt." "Actually, you can," wrote GM's head of communications, Selim Bingol, on the company's blog. "But the real question is, 'Why would you?'" Gingrich made a stir last week during a speech in Georgia when he observed that the Volt isn't a great car for a gun rack. "We believe in the right to bear arms and we like to bear the arms in our trucks," he said, according to The Detroit News. "That’s like saying, 'You can’t put training wheels on a Harley,'" Bingol said. "There are better places for gun racks and training wheels -- pickup trucks and little Schwinns, respectively. Seriously, when is the last time you saw a gun rack in ANY sedan?"
This month’s Fortune magazine cover has “Toyota” emblazoned in red and states the automaker is “Back on track”. The piece is written by Alex Taylor (don’t call me junior) III, smug automotive pontificator and erstwhile UAW and GM basher. One of the positives he points out in making his case is Toyota’s joint electric vehicle venture with Tesla. That, however, may turn out to be a negative thing. Word is out that Tesla’s electric Roadsters, of which approximately 2200 have been sold, have a tendency to “brick” (Tesla’s word), which is to say that if the battery gets fully depleted, it is basically a brick, and therefore must be replaced at a cost of around $40,000 to the owner, because the “bumper to bumper” warranty does not cover any damage related to "Failure to maintain the Battery at a proper charge level at all times" as a Santa Barbara owner found out the hard way (insurance won’t cover it either). So far there have been 5 instances of such an occurance, and it’s easier to do than you might think. According to Jalopnik, a Tesla Roadster that is simply parked without being plugged in will eventually become a "brick". The parasitic load from the car's always-on subsystems continually drains the battery and if the battery's charge is ever totally depleted, it is essentially destroyed. Complete discharge can happen even when the car is plugged in if it isn't receiving sufficient current to charge, which can be caused by something as simple as using an extension cord. After battery death, the car is completely inoperable. At least in the case of the Tesla Roadster, it's not even possible to enable tow mode, meaning the wheels will not turn and the vehicle cannot be pushed nor transported to a repair facility by traditional means. The amount of time it takes an unplugged Tesla to die varies. Tesla's Roadster Owners Manual states that the battery should take approximately 11 weeks of inactivity to completely discharge. However, that is from a full 100% charge. If the car has been driven first, say to be parked at an airport for a long trip, that time can be substantially reduced. If the car is driven to nearly its maximum range and then left unplugged, it could potentially "brick" in about one week. Many other scenarios are possible: for example, the car becomes unplugged by accident, or is unwittingly plugged into an extension cord that is defective or too long. The Santa Barbara owner took his Roadster out for a drive and then parked it in a temporary garage while his home was being renovated. Lacking a built-in Tesla charger or a convenient power outlet, he left the car unplugged. Six weeks later his car was dead. It took four men two hours to drag the 2,700-pound Roadster onto a flatbed truck so that it could be shipped to Tesla's Los Angeles area service center, all at the owner's expense. As a second Roadster owner discovered, the Tesla battery system can completely discharge even when the vehicle is plugged in. This owner's car was plugged into a 100-foot long extension cord for an extended period. The length of this extension cord evidently reduced the electric current to a level insufficient to charge the Tesla, resulting in another "bricked" Roadster. So what is Tesla bringing to the Toyota joint venture party? From the Toyota press release: “As previously announced, Toyota will pay Tesla approximately $100 million to supply the electric powertrain, which includes the battery, motor, gear box and power electronics for the RAV4 EV. Tesla will build the electric powertrains at its production facility in Palo Alto, California and then ship them to TMMC for final assembly into the vehicle.”
From Chairman Mike Bullock: Here is More information from the Leadership Meeting in Detroit on February 16: UAW Vice President Joe Ashton's first announcement was the $7000 profit sharing, He announced it is the largest profit sharing check ever for General Motors and the first time it has ever been larger than Ford."These results also prove that President Obama made the right decision to stand with American workers and the domestic auto industry at a time when it was a difficult and unpopular decision. Without the President's bold action, the American auto industry would have collapsed" VP Ashton said. He also commented on the need for GM to add money to the pension fund. The pension fund is currently underfunded by $10 billion. On pensions, VP Ashton said that in 2011 only 16% of Americans have a defined pension as compared to 10 years ago the number was 30%. Mike Grimes, Administrative Assistant to VP Ashton, announced the requisition of 1277 employees for 15 GM plants in the US. These openings will be filled by Area Hire and then Extended Area Hire throughout the country. Backfills for those openings will come from New Hires, where needed. Under the 2011 National Agreement all Guide and Delphi employees will be given two offers to transfer to a GM location, 1 Nationally and 1 regionally. According to AA Grimes all Nationwide offers have been made and only regional offers remain. There are no Local Delphi or Guide plants within our region, so we don't expect any more transfers from Delphi or Guide in the future. Legal Services informed the leadership that as of December 31, 2013, it will be discontinued. All UAW represented employees should use this benefit before that happens, if for nothing else but to have your will drawn up. Benefits Administrator Dean Manship reminded everyone that open enrollment for Optional Life Insurance will be this Spring. Anyone who has Optional Life can move up one level without a health survey. Administrator Manship says that one of the most difficult things his department has to deal with is the updating of beneficiaries, or lack of. He wants to remind everyone to confirm who their life insurance beneficiary is. This can be done by going online at www.gmbenefits.com. Also, a lot of employees are using VR time, when there are open VP days on the calendar. If you know you need a day off in advance use the time off procedure before burning a VR day.
From the Education Committee: The winner of the gift basket is Keith Brooks, security. Also, we still have UAW anniversary shirts for sale in limited sizes. You can contact Donell Jordan in body shop, 1st shift, at column BB-13 if you are interested.
If you completed your 90 days of employment from Jan. 1 – March 5, 2012, there is a free celebration planned for you on March 4 at Cuetopia Sports Bar & Grill. It is located at 11824 West Florissant in St. Louis (314-830-1200). The party will begin at 7:30 pm and feature free entertainment. Please call Rowena at 314-972-0432 or go to column AA-18, body shop 2nd shift, to make reservations. All UAW employees are welcome. Wear your UAW jackets.
From Huffington Post: General Motors shot back at Newt Gingrich Tuesday, openly mocking his stump speech allegation that the Chevy Volt is an "Obama car" because "you can't put a gun rack in a Volt." "Actually, you can," wrote GM's head of communications, Selim Bingol, on the company's blog. "But the real question is, 'Why would you?'" Gingrich made a stir last week during a speech in Georgia when he observed that the Volt isn't a great car for a gun rack. "We believe in the right to bear arms and we like to bear the arms in our trucks," he said, according to The Detroit News. "That’s like saying, 'You can’t put training wheels on a Harley,'" Bingol said. "There are better places for gun racks and training wheels -- pickup trucks and little Schwinns, respectively. Seriously, when is the last time you saw a gun rack in ANY sedan?"
This month’s Fortune magazine cover has “Toyota” emblazoned in red and states the automaker is “Back on track”. The piece is written by Alex Taylor (don’t call me junior) III, smug automotive pontificator and erstwhile UAW and GM basher. One of the positives he points out in making his case is Toyota’s joint electric vehicle venture with Tesla. That, however, may turn out to be a negative thing. Word is out that Tesla’s electric Roadsters, of which approximately 2200 have been sold, have a tendency to “brick” (Tesla’s word), which is to say that if the battery gets fully depleted, it is basically a brick, and therefore must be replaced at a cost of around $40,000 to the owner, because the “bumper to bumper” warranty does not cover any damage related to "Failure to maintain the Battery at a proper charge level at all times" as a Santa Barbara owner found out the hard way (insurance won’t cover it either). So far there have been 5 instances of such an occurance, and it’s easier to do than you might think. According to Jalopnik, a Tesla Roadster that is simply parked without being plugged in will eventually become a "brick". The parasitic load from the car's always-on subsystems continually drains the battery and if the battery's charge is ever totally depleted, it is essentially destroyed. Complete discharge can happen even when the car is plugged in if it isn't receiving sufficient current to charge, which can be caused by something as simple as using an extension cord. After battery death, the car is completely inoperable. At least in the case of the Tesla Roadster, it's not even possible to enable tow mode, meaning the wheels will not turn and the vehicle cannot be pushed nor transported to a repair facility by traditional means. The amount of time it takes an unplugged Tesla to die varies. Tesla's Roadster Owners Manual states that the battery should take approximately 11 weeks of inactivity to completely discharge. However, that is from a full 100% charge. If the car has been driven first, say to be parked at an airport for a long trip, that time can be substantially reduced. If the car is driven to nearly its maximum range and then left unplugged, it could potentially "brick" in about one week. Many other scenarios are possible: for example, the car becomes unplugged by accident, or is unwittingly plugged into an extension cord that is defective or too long. The Santa Barbara owner took his Roadster out for a drive and then parked it in a temporary garage while his home was being renovated. Lacking a built-in Tesla charger or a convenient power outlet, he left the car unplugged. Six weeks later his car was dead. It took four men two hours to drag the 2,700-pound Roadster onto a flatbed truck so that it could be shipped to Tesla's Los Angeles area service center, all at the owner's expense. As a second Roadster owner discovered, the Tesla battery system can completely discharge even when the vehicle is plugged in. This owner's car was plugged into a 100-foot long extension cord for an extended period. The length of this extension cord evidently reduced the electric current to a level insufficient to charge the Tesla, resulting in another "bricked" Roadster. So what is Tesla bringing to the Toyota joint venture party? From the Toyota press release: “As previously announced, Toyota will pay Tesla approximately $100 million to supply the electric powertrain, which includes the battery, motor, gear box and power electronics for the RAV4 EV. Tesla will build the electric powertrains at its production facility in Palo Alto, California and then ship them to TMMC for final assembly into the vehicle.”
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
State of the Union February 21, 2012
Feb. 21, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
• From Chairman Mike Bullock: Last week I attended the UAW GM National Council meeting in Detroit. Besides the good news about our profit share payout, there was some other information to pass along. The current UAW/GM headcount stands at 48,357. There are 15 plants that have manpower needs that total 1277 and need to be filled by June 4 of this year. The highest request comes from Lansing Grand River with a need for 575 workers beginning March 5. Since May of 2009, there have been 564 members take a basic relocation package and 6028 have taken the enhanced relocation package (with roughly 880 that will fulfill their 3-year commitment between May and September this year).
• The Women’s Committee is hosting a “Women’s Heart Health” display in the cafeteria Wednesday (all day). There will be popcorn and lots of valuable heart health information, so come on up.
• From the Bangkok Post: Chevrolet intends a near tripling of its local sales to 85,000 vehicles this year, with the new Colorado pickup truck commanding the lion's share. The US-based carmaker sold some 31,000 models of all types last year, up by 58% from 2010. The new pickup truck launched last year will represent 30-40% of total 2012 sales. "The reasons why the Colorado will lead the sales are because one, the pickup truck segment is big, and two it will have a full sales year this year," said Antonio Zara, the vice-president for sales, marketing and after-sales service at General Motors Thailand and Chevrolet Sales (Thailand). He said the industry's overall pickup truck segment will move 400,000 to 500,000 units this year. Chevrolet will introduce the Trailblazer passenger pickup vehicle (PPV) and the Sonic subcompact car locally this year. Both will be built at GM Thailand's plant in Rayong province. The Trailblazer, built on the structure of the Colorado pickup truck, will be displayed at the Bangkok International Motor Show 2012 to be held at Impact Muang Thong Thani from March 26-April 8.(No word on whether the Trailblazer will be built or sold in the U.S.) The same event will also see a sneak preview of the Sonic. Mr. Zara expressed confidence the Trailblazer will not compete with the Captiva sport-utility vehicle (SUV) already available here since the product positioning of both models is different. Mr. Zara said the Trailblazer will come with a 2.5- or 2.8-litre engine, a strength that will enable it to compete with the main players in the PPV market.
• Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has been busier than a cat in a litter box trying to explain his position on the “bailouts” of GM and Chrysler. And the more he talks the more he contradicts himself. Last Thursday he gave a rambling interview to reporters of the Detroit Free Press attempting yet again the square that circle. Here is opinion writer Tom Walsh’s take on that attempt, entitled, “Can Romney Remember What he Believes?”: Mitt Romney must be on the verge of exhaustion from all the verbal contortions and mental gymnastics he puts himself through, trying to make his past words and current positions sound palatable to presidential primary voters. And I'm just talking about his stance on the auto industry bailouts, not scores of other issues. In an interview Thursday with the Free Press editorial board, on a day when General Motors reported making $7.6 billion in 2011 and announced profit-sharing checks of $7,000 per worker for hourly employees, Romney managed to: Celebrate what he called the "wonderful outcome" of GM's turnaround; Take credit for suggesting the idea of managed bankruptcies to restructure GM and Chrysler; Bash President Barack Obama for using taxpayer money to keep GM and Chrysler afloat during the process, and to accuse Obama of handing control of the companies over to the UAW. Like I said, he must be exhausted from trying to twist the facts into a narrative that sounds like he's (a) happy for Detroit autoworkers who still have jobs and are sharing in profits, but (b) also virulently anti-Obama and anti-labor-union, so as to curry favor with the GOP primary voting base. To be specific about the editorial board discussion, Romney feigned surprise and outrage that anyone might conclude from the November 2008 article he wrote for the New York Times, headlined "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt," that, as president, he would have allowed GM and Chrysler to be liquidated. "That is so absurd," Romney said. Rather, he insisted, citing the second-to-last sentence in the op-ed, he would have steered the companies into managed bankruptcies -- but with loan and warranty guarantees, not tens of billions of dollars in bailout cash. And who would have made the big loans that Romney would have federally guaranteed? The private credit markets were frozen in the financial panic of late 2008 and early 2009, leading many experts to conclude that no private lender would have stepped up to finance bankruptcies as huge and risky as those of GM and Chrysler. When I pressed Romney on this point, he insisted that if the U.S. Treasury issued bonds or guarantees, plenty of private lenders would have surfaced. Even if you buy that assumption, Romney's other troubling premise is in his blithely made suggestion that Obama dictated a solution to favor his political allies -- the UAW -- and somehow ignored or subverted the existing bankruptcy process and "rule of law." This is nonsense. U.S. Bankruptcy Judges Robert Gerber and Arthur Gonzalez, in the GM and Chrysler cases, respectively, heard a host of arguments by warring factions -- auto dealers, bondholders, shareholders, etc. -- before ruling on the company restructurings. It's easy to understand Romney's tortured attempts to parse words in such a way as to seem semi-reasonable to an independent voter yet sufficiently anti-Obama and anti-labor for the GOP's staunch right wing. I even had to smile when he tried the old it-was-a-bad-headline excuse, wishing that his infamous 2008 op-ed piece had been titled "How to Save Detroit" instead of "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." One wonders if the exhausted Romney can remember at the end of the day what he actually believes.
• Programming note: ABC’s “Nightline” will air a special report on Apple’s production tonight entitled, “iFactory: Inside Apple”. It will air at 10:30 so set your recorders.
• From Chairman Mike Bullock: Last week I attended the UAW GM National Council meeting in Detroit. Besides the good news about our profit share payout, there was some other information to pass along. The current UAW/GM headcount stands at 48,357. There are 15 plants that have manpower needs that total 1277 and need to be filled by June 4 of this year. The highest request comes from Lansing Grand River with a need for 575 workers beginning March 5. Since May of 2009, there have been 564 members take a basic relocation package and 6028 have taken the enhanced relocation package (with roughly 880 that will fulfill their 3-year commitment between May and September this year).
• The Women’s Committee is hosting a “Women’s Heart Health” display in the cafeteria Wednesday (all day). There will be popcorn and lots of valuable heart health information, so come on up.
• From the Bangkok Post: Chevrolet intends a near tripling of its local sales to 85,000 vehicles this year, with the new Colorado pickup truck commanding the lion's share. The US-based carmaker sold some 31,000 models of all types last year, up by 58% from 2010. The new pickup truck launched last year will represent 30-40% of total 2012 sales. "The reasons why the Colorado will lead the sales are because one, the pickup truck segment is big, and two it will have a full sales year this year," said Antonio Zara, the vice-president for sales, marketing and after-sales service at General Motors Thailand and Chevrolet Sales (Thailand). He said the industry's overall pickup truck segment will move 400,000 to 500,000 units this year. Chevrolet will introduce the Trailblazer passenger pickup vehicle (PPV) and the Sonic subcompact car locally this year. Both will be built at GM Thailand's plant in Rayong province. The Trailblazer, built on the structure of the Colorado pickup truck, will be displayed at the Bangkok International Motor Show 2012 to be held at Impact Muang Thong Thani from March 26-April 8.(No word on whether the Trailblazer will be built or sold in the U.S.) The same event will also see a sneak preview of the Sonic. Mr. Zara expressed confidence the Trailblazer will not compete with the Captiva sport-utility vehicle (SUV) already available here since the product positioning of both models is different. Mr. Zara said the Trailblazer will come with a 2.5- or 2.8-litre engine, a strength that will enable it to compete with the main players in the PPV market.
• Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has been busier than a cat in a litter box trying to explain his position on the “bailouts” of GM and Chrysler. And the more he talks the more he contradicts himself. Last Thursday he gave a rambling interview to reporters of the Detroit Free Press attempting yet again the square that circle. Here is opinion writer Tom Walsh’s take on that attempt, entitled, “Can Romney Remember What he Believes?”: Mitt Romney must be on the verge of exhaustion from all the verbal contortions and mental gymnastics he puts himself through, trying to make his past words and current positions sound palatable to presidential primary voters. And I'm just talking about his stance on the auto industry bailouts, not scores of other issues. In an interview Thursday with the Free Press editorial board, on a day when General Motors reported making $7.6 billion in 2011 and announced profit-sharing checks of $7,000 per worker for hourly employees, Romney managed to: Celebrate what he called the "wonderful outcome" of GM's turnaround; Take credit for suggesting the idea of managed bankruptcies to restructure GM and Chrysler; Bash President Barack Obama for using taxpayer money to keep GM and Chrysler afloat during the process, and to accuse Obama of handing control of the companies over to the UAW. Like I said, he must be exhausted from trying to twist the facts into a narrative that sounds like he's (a) happy for Detroit autoworkers who still have jobs and are sharing in profits, but (b) also virulently anti-Obama and anti-labor-union, so as to curry favor with the GOP primary voting base. To be specific about the editorial board discussion, Romney feigned surprise and outrage that anyone might conclude from the November 2008 article he wrote for the New York Times, headlined "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt," that, as president, he would have allowed GM and Chrysler to be liquidated. "That is so absurd," Romney said. Rather, he insisted, citing the second-to-last sentence in the op-ed, he would have steered the companies into managed bankruptcies -- but with loan and warranty guarantees, not tens of billions of dollars in bailout cash. And who would have made the big loans that Romney would have federally guaranteed? The private credit markets were frozen in the financial panic of late 2008 and early 2009, leading many experts to conclude that no private lender would have stepped up to finance bankruptcies as huge and risky as those of GM and Chrysler. When I pressed Romney on this point, he insisted that if the U.S. Treasury issued bonds or guarantees, plenty of private lenders would have surfaced. Even if you buy that assumption, Romney's other troubling premise is in his blithely made suggestion that Obama dictated a solution to favor his political allies -- the UAW -- and somehow ignored or subverted the existing bankruptcy process and "rule of law." This is nonsense. U.S. Bankruptcy Judges Robert Gerber and Arthur Gonzalez, in the GM and Chrysler cases, respectively, heard a host of arguments by warring factions -- auto dealers, bondholders, shareholders, etc. -- before ruling on the company restructurings. It's easy to understand Romney's tortured attempts to parse words in such a way as to seem semi-reasonable to an independent voter yet sufficiently anti-Obama and anti-labor for the GOP's staunch right wing. I even had to smile when he tried the old it-was-a-bad-headline excuse, wishing that his infamous 2008 op-ed piece had been titled "How to Save Detroit" instead of "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." One wonders if the exhausted Romney can remember at the end of the day what he actually believes.
• Programming note: ABC’s “Nightline” will air a special report on Apple’s production tonight entitled, “iFactory: Inside Apple”. It will air at 10:30 so set your recorders.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
State of the Union February 16, 2012
Feb. 16, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
• This year’s profit share amount will be $7000 and paid out on March 2 (see joint letter from UAW Vice President Joe Ashton and GM Vice President of Labor Relations Cathy Clegg on back). Remember, this is based on North American profits, which will be different than the total profits that you will hear about ($7.6 billion). You must have at least 1850 compensated hours to receive a full payout. If you had less than 1850 hours your payout will be based on the percentage of your compensated hours compared to 1850. For example if you had 1500 hours you would receive 81% of a full share, or $5670. There will be no 10% profit share diversion to the VEBA.
• Also included in the financial results was the status of the pension fund. At the end of 2011, U.S. pension funding status stood at 88%, with a $13.3 billion shortfall. That compares to 89% funding status and an $11.5 billion deficit. Investment returns for 2011 came in at 11.1%.
• In case you missed it, Rock Center with Brian Williams on NBC did a feature on Flint Assembly and the addition of the third shift there and the positive impact on the economy and workers’ lives. To watch the entire video you can go to rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com and click on: The graveyard shift: ‘I feel like I’m back on track’ video box.
• Here is UAW President Bob King’s response to Mitt Romney’s latest editorial: "Mitt Romney is the last person who should be talking about the recovery of the US auto industry. He can try and rewrite history as much as he wants, but when we were at our darkest hour, Mitt Romney turned his back on the industry, their workers and the people of Michigan and in other places where Americans depend on the auto industry. He likes to say he is from Michigan, but no Michigander would advocate the bankruptcy of Detroit, talk down about auto workers and see the recovery of its economy as politically damaging to their campaign. Let me be clear: the success you're seeing in the auto industry today - the new jobs, the increased market share, and even the existence of the auto show in Detroit last month - none of this would have happened if Mitt Romney had his way. President Obama and Democrats stepped in and provided emergency loans to allow the auto industry to restructure and rebuild and the people of this nation, where there was no private financing available, and Michigan know that."
February 16, 2012
Message from Joe Ashton and Cathy Clegg
Dear UAW-GM Team Members,
Your dedicated work over the past year has contributed to GM’s strong 2011 business results announced today. Consistent with this performance and the terms negotiated in the National Contract, we’re pleased to announce this year’s profit sharing payout. Eligible UAW-GM team members who worked the entire year (1,850 compensated hours) will receive approximately $7,000 on March 2, 2012. Employees on roll as of December 31, 2011 who worked only part of the year will receive a pro-rated amount based on the number of hours worked.
This payout is another great example of how we are sharing GM’s success with employees. It’s a nice follow up to the Quality Performance Bonus of $250 that UAW-GM team members received last December for achieving the model year to date IPTV (Incidents per Thousand Vehicles) performance target for North America.
In 2011, our efforts helped make GM a stronger company, which benefitted our customers, employees and the many others who depend on our success. Over the course of the year, GM announced facility investments in the U.S. totaling over $3.6 billion and more than 9,500 created or retained jobs. In the end, it’s about the terrific vehicles we produce and their success in the marketplace. That’s why our work across many plants in support of launches including LaCrosse e-Assist, Verano, Sonic and Malibu Eco remains so important.
We have an action-packed year ahead of us and an outstanding opportunity to build momentum. While we’ve played a key role in GM’s comeback story, the game has really just begun. Through collective teamwork and a continuous improvement mindset, we can strengthen our position in the industry and help ensure the company’s long-term success.
Congratulations, and thanks very much for your efforts.
Joe Ashton Cathy Clegg
UAW Vice President Vice President – GM Labor Relation
• This year’s profit share amount will be $7000 and paid out on March 2 (see joint letter from UAW Vice President Joe Ashton and GM Vice President of Labor Relations Cathy Clegg on back). Remember, this is based on North American profits, which will be different than the total profits that you will hear about ($7.6 billion). You must have at least 1850 compensated hours to receive a full payout. If you had less than 1850 hours your payout will be based on the percentage of your compensated hours compared to 1850. For example if you had 1500 hours you would receive 81% of a full share, or $5670. There will be no 10% profit share diversion to the VEBA.
• Also included in the financial results was the status of the pension fund. At the end of 2011, U.S. pension funding status stood at 88%, with a $13.3 billion shortfall. That compares to 89% funding status and an $11.5 billion deficit. Investment returns for 2011 came in at 11.1%.
• In case you missed it, Rock Center with Brian Williams on NBC did a feature on Flint Assembly and the addition of the third shift there and the positive impact on the economy and workers’ lives. To watch the entire video you can go to rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com and click on: The graveyard shift: ‘I feel like I’m back on track’ video box.
• Here is UAW President Bob King’s response to Mitt Romney’s latest editorial: "Mitt Romney is the last person who should be talking about the recovery of the US auto industry. He can try and rewrite history as much as he wants, but when we were at our darkest hour, Mitt Romney turned his back on the industry, their workers and the people of Michigan and in other places where Americans depend on the auto industry. He likes to say he is from Michigan, but no Michigander would advocate the bankruptcy of Detroit, talk down about auto workers and see the recovery of its economy as politically damaging to their campaign. Let me be clear: the success you're seeing in the auto industry today - the new jobs, the increased market share, and even the existence of the auto show in Detroit last month - none of this would have happened if Mitt Romney had his way. President Obama and Democrats stepped in and provided emergency loans to allow the auto industry to restructure and rebuild and the people of this nation, where there was no private financing available, and Michigan know that."
February 16, 2012
Message from Joe Ashton and Cathy Clegg
Dear UAW-GM Team Members,
Your dedicated work over the past year has contributed to GM’s strong 2011 business results announced today. Consistent with this performance and the terms negotiated in the National Contract, we’re pleased to announce this year’s profit sharing payout. Eligible UAW-GM team members who worked the entire year (1,850 compensated hours) will receive approximately $7,000 on March 2, 2012. Employees on roll as of December 31, 2011 who worked only part of the year will receive a pro-rated amount based on the number of hours worked.
This payout is another great example of how we are sharing GM’s success with employees. It’s a nice follow up to the Quality Performance Bonus of $250 that UAW-GM team members received last December for achieving the model year to date IPTV (Incidents per Thousand Vehicles) performance target for North America.
In 2011, our efforts helped make GM a stronger company, which benefitted our customers, employees and the many others who depend on our success. Over the course of the year, GM announced facility investments in the U.S. totaling over $3.6 billion and more than 9,500 created or retained jobs. In the end, it’s about the terrific vehicles we produce and their success in the marketplace. That’s why our work across many plants in support of launches including LaCrosse e-Assist, Verano, Sonic and Malibu Eco remains so important.
We have an action-packed year ahead of us and an outstanding opportunity to build momentum. While we’ve played a key role in GM’s comeback story, the game has really just begun. Through collective teamwork and a continuous improvement mindset, we can strengthen our position in the industry and help ensure the company’s long-term success.
Congratulations, and thanks very much for your efforts.
Joe Ashton Cathy Clegg
UAW Vice President Vice President – GM Labor Relation
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
State of the Union February 14, 2012
Feb. 14, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
Reminder: Union meeting is tonight, 15 minutes after longest 2ndshift line time, and tomorrow at 7:30 am, 1:30 pm, 3 pm and 15 minutes after longest first shift line time.
In a couple of weeks you will receiving an information and sign up packet for life insurance. During the enrollment period – March 5 through March 16 – you will be able to either enroll or increase your coverage one level without proof of good health. You will be able to enroll through the mail or online at gmbenefits.com. Read your packets carefully for all the necessary instructions you need to take advantage of this offer. Also, there will be a 4 month payment holiday for enrollees from June through September.
The Education Committee would like to thank everyone for their support and congratulate all the winners in the drawing. Consolation prizes will be awarded tomorrow at lunch time during both shifts in the cafeteria. A list of winners (there are many) will be posted in the cafeteria as well. To claim your prize, please bring your ID or ticket stub.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, having fallen behind rival Rick Santorum in Michigan polling, has authored a sequel to his 2008 NY Times op-ed, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”. No, he is not apologizing for wanting to throw us under the bus. Rather, it is a defensive piece of revisionist history claiming he was right all along. Says Mitt: “Three years ago, in the midst of an economic crisis, a newly elected President Barack Obama stepped in with a bailout for the auto industry (actually GW Bush stepped in first). The indisputable good news is that Chrysler and General Motors are still in business. The equally indisputable bad news is that all the defects in President Obama's management of the American economy are evident in what he did.” Huh? “Before the companies were allowed to enter and exit bankruptcy, the U.S. government swept in with an $85 billion sweetheart deal disguised as a rescue plan. By the spring of 2009, instead of the free market doing what it does best, we got a major taste of crony capitalism, Obama-style. Thus, the outcome of the managed bankruptcy proceedings was dictated by the terms of the bailout. Chrysler's "secured creditors," who in the normal course of affairs should have been first in line for compensation, were given short shrift, while at the same time, the UAWs' union-boss-controlled trust fund received a 55 percent stake in the firm.”
Let’s let veteran auto industry journalist Justin Hyde, who covered the crisis start to finish for the Detroit Free Press, tackle this claim: “Chrysler's secured creditors were a group of Wall Street banks — including J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs — and investment firms, some of whom had bought the company's secured bonds in the months ahead of bankruptcy hoping to cash in. They could have rejected the government's offer of 28 cents on the dollar in cash for their $6.7 billion in bonds and paid to liquidate Chrysler themselves, but decided that not only would they come out even further behind, they'd also be blamed for destroying an American automaker. (GM's secured creditors − also mostly Wall Street banks — were paid in full, and endorsed the Obama bankruptcy plan.) As for the "union-boss-controlled trust fund," that's what's known as a VEBA trust that now pays the health care of 426,409 retirees from GM, Ford and Chrysler — and in return, owns all future health-care obligations from the companies for those retirees. With this, Romney appears to argue that before hundreds of thousands of UAW retirees got health care, Wall Street should have been made whole.” If you wish to read the entire diatribe, you can go to the Detroit News website.
From the Detroit News: United Auto Workers President Bob King used the anniversary of the Flint sit-down strike on Friday to call for "direct action" — including nonviolent civil disobedience — to take back America from the "right-wing Republicans" and "one-percenters" he says have hijacked this democracy. Seventy-five years after workers took over General Motors' factories and forced the company to sign its first national contract with the union, King said the same sort of militancy is needed to stop what he called a rollback of workers' rights and civil rights. "It will take direct action. It will take us being willing to face arrest. It will take us being willing to be part of marches and demonstrations," King told a crowd of some 500 cheering union members gathered at the UAW Local 651 to mark the anniversary of the end of the 1937 strike. He said corporations such as GE are making billions and paying little or no taxes while middle-class Americans are losing their homes. "It's immoral!" King shouted. "We should be so outraged at the injustice in America!” King said the UAW is joining with other unions, including the Service Employees International Union, members of Occupy Wall Street and others to create a new "movement for social justice" that will employ the tactics of the civil rights movement to fight against what he called "corporate greed" and attacks on labor. "In April, we're going to be part of a broad coalition that's going to be training our membership and anybody who cares about justice in this society in nonviolent direct action," King said. Their first mission, he said, will be to demonstrate at the GE shareholders meeting in Detroit on April 25. King also said the UAW must do everything in its power to re-elect President Barack Obama and oust Republicans. "They are attacking democracy in America and they are attacking us in the labor movement," he warned. "But electing President Obama, electing (U.S. Sen.) Debbie Stabenow, electing all these other Democrats is nowhere near enough."
Reminder: Union meeting is tonight, 15 minutes after longest 2ndshift line time, and tomorrow at 7:30 am, 1:30 pm, 3 pm and 15 minutes after longest first shift line time.
In a couple of weeks you will receiving an information and sign up packet for life insurance. During the enrollment period – March 5 through March 16 – you will be able to either enroll or increase your coverage one level without proof of good health. You will be able to enroll through the mail or online at gmbenefits.com. Read your packets carefully for all the necessary instructions you need to take advantage of this offer. Also, there will be a 4 month payment holiday for enrollees from June through September.
The Education Committee would like to thank everyone for their support and congratulate all the winners in the drawing. Consolation prizes will be awarded tomorrow at lunch time during both shifts in the cafeteria. A list of winners (there are many) will be posted in the cafeteria as well. To claim your prize, please bring your ID or ticket stub.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, having fallen behind rival Rick Santorum in Michigan polling, has authored a sequel to his 2008 NY Times op-ed, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”. No, he is not apologizing for wanting to throw us under the bus. Rather, it is a defensive piece of revisionist history claiming he was right all along. Says Mitt: “Three years ago, in the midst of an economic crisis, a newly elected President Barack Obama stepped in with a bailout for the auto industry (actually GW Bush stepped in first). The indisputable good news is that Chrysler and General Motors are still in business. The equally indisputable bad news is that all the defects in President Obama's management of the American economy are evident in what he did.” Huh? “Before the companies were allowed to enter and exit bankruptcy, the U.S. government swept in with an $85 billion sweetheart deal disguised as a rescue plan. By the spring of 2009, instead of the free market doing what it does best, we got a major taste of crony capitalism, Obama-style. Thus, the outcome of the managed bankruptcy proceedings was dictated by the terms of the bailout. Chrysler's "secured creditors," who in the normal course of affairs should have been first in line for compensation, were given short shrift, while at the same time, the UAWs' union-boss-controlled trust fund received a 55 percent stake in the firm.”
Let’s let veteran auto industry journalist Justin Hyde, who covered the crisis start to finish for the Detroit Free Press, tackle this claim: “Chrysler's secured creditors were a group of Wall Street banks — including J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs — and investment firms, some of whom had bought the company's secured bonds in the months ahead of bankruptcy hoping to cash in. They could have rejected the government's offer of 28 cents on the dollar in cash for their $6.7 billion in bonds and paid to liquidate Chrysler themselves, but decided that not only would they come out even further behind, they'd also be blamed for destroying an American automaker. (GM's secured creditors − also mostly Wall Street banks — were paid in full, and endorsed the Obama bankruptcy plan.) As for the "union-boss-controlled trust fund," that's what's known as a VEBA trust that now pays the health care of 426,409 retirees from GM, Ford and Chrysler — and in return, owns all future health-care obligations from the companies for those retirees. With this, Romney appears to argue that before hundreds of thousands of UAW retirees got health care, Wall Street should have been made whole.” If you wish to read the entire diatribe, you can go to the Detroit News website.
From the Detroit News: United Auto Workers President Bob King used the anniversary of the Flint sit-down strike on Friday to call for "direct action" — including nonviolent civil disobedience — to take back America from the "right-wing Republicans" and "one-percenters" he says have hijacked this democracy. Seventy-five years after workers took over General Motors' factories and forced the company to sign its first national contract with the union, King said the same sort of militancy is needed to stop what he called a rollback of workers' rights and civil rights. "It will take direct action. It will take us being willing to face arrest. It will take us being willing to be part of marches and demonstrations," King told a crowd of some 500 cheering union members gathered at the UAW Local 651 to mark the anniversary of the end of the 1937 strike. He said corporations such as GE are making billions and paying little or no taxes while middle-class Americans are losing their homes. "It's immoral!" King shouted. "We should be so outraged at the injustice in America!” King said the UAW is joining with other unions, including the Service Employees International Union, members of Occupy Wall Street and others to create a new "movement for social justice" that will employ the tactics of the civil rights movement to fight against what he called "corporate greed" and attacks on labor. "In April, we're going to be part of a broad coalition that's going to be training our membership and anybody who cares about justice in this society in nonviolent direct action," King said. Their first mission, he said, will be to demonstrate at the GE shareholders meeting in Detroit on April 25. King also said the UAW must do everything in its power to re-elect President Barack Obama and oust Republicans. "They are attacking democracy in America and they are attacking us in the labor movement," he warned. "But electing President Obama, electing (U.S. Sen.) Debbie Stabenow, electing all these other Democrats is nowhere near enough."
Thursday, February 9, 2012
State of the Union February 9, 2012
Feb. 9, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
From Chairman Mike Bullock: Vacation application instructions have been finalized and are available. If you do not have a copy, ask your group leader. Read them carefully. The rules regarding Thursdays/Fridays are the same as last year and are spelled out in the instructions. One positive agreement is that Entry Level members who have 100 hours or less will not be forced to use their VR time for mandatory vacation coverage. As we did a couple of years ago, the negotiated day off for Veterans Day observance will move from Nov. 16 to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This is no disrespect intended to our Veterans (and Veterans Day is Nov. 11 every year) but by moving the day off (as many other plants did), 2nd shift members will have time to travel or prepare for family gatherings on Thanksgiving.
Good News: The jackets are finally in! We are in the process of taking inventory to confirm the order. The plan is to begin distribution on Monday, Feb. 13. Sign-up sheets for each team will be given to the team leaders, who will have team members sign by their name. The team leaders will then take the sheets to the office behind the eyeglass store at column A-40 to pick up their team’s jackets. No jacket will be handed out without a signature. If you are absent the day your team’s jackets are picked up you can come and pick your jacket up. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
The Education Committee is selling white T-shirts this week for $20 each. This year is the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the UAW and next Monday, Feb. 13 will be “White Shirt Day” to commemorate the anniversary. The committee is still selling raffle tickets to raise funds for educational literature for Union members. The prize is a large his/hers gift basket and tickets are $5 each or 3 for $10. Drawing will be held Feb. 13th.
From Reuters: The head of the United Auto Workers, Bob King, will join the supervisory board of General Motors Co's struggling unit, Opel, in March, marking the fourth new appointment to come out of Detroit recently, a German newspaper reported late on Monday. Handelsblatt wrote that King would be the first U.S. union representative elected to a German carmaker's board in five years after the UAW gave up its seat on Daimler AG's board following the sale of Chrysler. In November and in January, GM appointed three U.S.-based top executives to Opel's board and named Vice-Chairman Steve Girsky as head of the board in an attempt to stanch losses at the subsidiary.
From Automotive News: Chrysler Group hourly and salaried workers will receive profit-sharing and performance bonuses on Friday, just nine days after the automaker reported a $183 million profit for 2011. The company’s 23,000 hourly workers will receive an average of $1,500 each, while salaried bonuses will vary. The payment to hourly workers is based on a formula negotiated last fall with the UAW and is double the amount paid to employees last year.
From Wards Auto: The styling of General Motors’ next-generation large pickups and SUVs “won’t be wildly different” from those currently in showrooms, says the auto maker’s design chief Ed Welburn. According to WardsAuto data, large pickups, SUVs and luxury SUVs accounted for 1.8 million U.S. sales and 14.1% of the 2011 market, down from 2.8 million deliveries and a commanding 17.6% share in 2007. GM maintains the lion’s share of sales in those segments. Last year, the auto maker delivered 799,318 large pickups and SUVs for a market-leading 44.3% share. Trucks such as the Chevy Silverado pickup and Tahoe SUV will continue to play a big role in GM’s business, evidenced by the $1.13 billion the auto maker will invest over the next several months to accommodate assembly of its next-generation large pickups and SUVs at plants in Arlington, TX; Flint, MI; and Fort Wayne, IN. On top of that, GM will make a $1.1 billion powertrain manufacturing investment to improve the fuel efficiency of its trucks with an advanced 8-speed transmission and a new small-block V-8 engine featuring upgrades such as gasoline direct injection and lightweight aluminum. The auto maker will pump another $260 million into its casting and component-making sites for the new V-8, which also will see duty in some GM sports cars. GM plans to stagger downtime throughout this year in preparation for the 2013 arrival of its new pickups and SUVs, which likely will bow as ’14 models. Welburn is mum on most details about the new light trucks, saying only that GM will stick with a proven mix of tough-looking, but not overly aggressive exteriors, and comfortable interiors. “Clean design ages far more gracefully than some very expressive design,” Welburn notes, attributing that strategy to the longevity of the current models, which have been on the market since 2007. Welburn warns against drawing a connection to next-generation models from the handful of concept trucks the auto maker has shown in recent years, such as 2003’s Chevy Cheyenne or last year’s accessory-laden GMC Sierra All-Terrain HD. “You can expect something much better than any of those concepts,” Welburn says of the half-ton trucks. “They should not be allowed to be in the same photograph with what we have coming.” Welburn admits his group faces increased responsibility for helping GM meet strict new fuel-economy and emissions regulations in markets around the world. Designing a more aerodynamic car draws the highest priority, he says, but mass-reduction ranks a close second. “I love big wheels on a car,” he says. “Go up another size and they look even better. “But if you can shrink-wrap the vehicle, make it a little smaller, we can go down a wheel size and get some mass out of the vehicle,” Welburn adds. “Mass reduction and aero, neither one is easy, but they are both fun challenges.”
From Chairman Mike Bullock: Vacation application instructions have been finalized and are available. If you do not have a copy, ask your group leader. Read them carefully. The rules regarding Thursdays/Fridays are the same as last year and are spelled out in the instructions. One positive agreement is that Entry Level members who have 100 hours or less will not be forced to use their VR time for mandatory vacation coverage. As we did a couple of years ago, the negotiated day off for Veterans Day observance will move from Nov. 16 to the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This is no disrespect intended to our Veterans (and Veterans Day is Nov. 11 every year) but by moving the day off (as many other plants did), 2nd shift members will have time to travel or prepare for family gatherings on Thanksgiving.
Good News: The jackets are finally in! We are in the process of taking inventory to confirm the order. The plan is to begin distribution on Monday, Feb. 13. Sign-up sheets for each team will be given to the team leaders, who will have team members sign by their name. The team leaders will then take the sheets to the office behind the eyeglass store at column A-40 to pick up their team’s jackets. No jacket will be handed out without a signature. If you are absent the day your team’s jackets are picked up you can come and pick your jacket up. Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
The Education Committee is selling white T-shirts this week for $20 each. This year is the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the UAW and next Monday, Feb. 13 will be “White Shirt Day” to commemorate the anniversary. The committee is still selling raffle tickets to raise funds for educational literature for Union members. The prize is a large his/hers gift basket and tickets are $5 each or 3 for $10. Drawing will be held Feb. 13th.
From Reuters: The head of the United Auto Workers, Bob King, will join the supervisory board of General Motors Co's struggling unit, Opel, in March, marking the fourth new appointment to come out of Detroit recently, a German newspaper reported late on Monday. Handelsblatt wrote that King would be the first U.S. union representative elected to a German carmaker's board in five years after the UAW gave up its seat on Daimler AG's board following the sale of Chrysler. In November and in January, GM appointed three U.S.-based top executives to Opel's board and named Vice-Chairman Steve Girsky as head of the board in an attempt to stanch losses at the subsidiary.
From Automotive News: Chrysler Group hourly and salaried workers will receive profit-sharing and performance bonuses on Friday, just nine days after the automaker reported a $183 million profit for 2011. The company’s 23,000 hourly workers will receive an average of $1,500 each, while salaried bonuses will vary. The payment to hourly workers is based on a formula negotiated last fall with the UAW and is double the amount paid to employees last year.
From Wards Auto: The styling of General Motors’ next-generation large pickups and SUVs “won’t be wildly different” from those currently in showrooms, says the auto maker’s design chief Ed Welburn. According to WardsAuto data, large pickups, SUVs and luxury SUVs accounted for 1.8 million U.S. sales and 14.1% of the 2011 market, down from 2.8 million deliveries and a commanding 17.6% share in 2007. GM maintains the lion’s share of sales in those segments. Last year, the auto maker delivered 799,318 large pickups and SUVs for a market-leading 44.3% share. Trucks such as the Chevy Silverado pickup and Tahoe SUV will continue to play a big role in GM’s business, evidenced by the $1.13 billion the auto maker will invest over the next several months to accommodate assembly of its next-generation large pickups and SUVs at plants in Arlington, TX; Flint, MI; and Fort Wayne, IN. On top of that, GM will make a $1.1 billion powertrain manufacturing investment to improve the fuel efficiency of its trucks with an advanced 8-speed transmission and a new small-block V-8 engine featuring upgrades such as gasoline direct injection and lightweight aluminum. The auto maker will pump another $260 million into its casting and component-making sites for the new V-8, which also will see duty in some GM sports cars. GM plans to stagger downtime throughout this year in preparation for the 2013 arrival of its new pickups and SUVs, which likely will bow as ’14 models. Welburn is mum on most details about the new light trucks, saying only that GM will stick with a proven mix of tough-looking, but not overly aggressive exteriors, and comfortable interiors. “Clean design ages far more gracefully than some very expressive design,” Welburn notes, attributing that strategy to the longevity of the current models, which have been on the market since 2007. Welburn warns against drawing a connection to next-generation models from the handful of concept trucks the auto maker has shown in recent years, such as 2003’s Chevy Cheyenne or last year’s accessory-laden GMC Sierra All-Terrain HD. “You can expect something much better than any of those concepts,” Welburn says of the half-ton trucks. “They should not be allowed to be in the same photograph with what we have coming.” Welburn admits his group faces increased responsibility for helping GM meet strict new fuel-economy and emissions regulations in markets around the world. Designing a more aerodynamic car draws the highest priority, he says, but mass-reduction ranks a close second. “I love big wheels on a car,” he says. “Go up another size and they look even better. “But if you can shrink-wrap the vehicle, make it a little smaller, we can go down a wheel size and get some mass out of the vehicle,” Welburn adds. “Mass reduction and aero, neither one is easy, but they are both fun challenges.”
Thursday, February 2, 2012
State of the Union February 2, 2012
Feb. 2, 2012 online at
Our van sales took an alarming drop from December, falling by over 50%. But we need to keep in mind that January sales are always the worst of the year, and with the high concentration of cutaways we built (the sales of which are typically booked later in the year) this is not indicative of a pullback in the van market. As you will see, no one tore it up in January:
2012 2011 Change Share
Ford Econoline 6,786 7,979 - 15% 49%
GM 5,370 5,991 - 10.4% 38.8%
Mercedes Sprinter 924 875 + 5.6% 6.7%
Nissan NV 756 --- --- 5.5%
Ford transit 2,154 2,072 + 4% ---
With the weak sales, our field supply as measured in days supply was up – even though the total was down 451 units. It now stands at 58 days vs. 33 last month. Cargo van supplies are down over 800 units and passenger vans are down 102 units.
• From Automotive News: As President Barack Obama planned a visit to the Washington Auto Show for Jan. 31, non-U.S.-based automakers including Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. hustled to show off for him. On about two days’ notice, they flew in executives from as far away as California. They trucked in their most fuel- efficient vehicles, as requested by White House staff. Obama walked in, strolled past cars made in the U.S. by foreign companies and spent much of his half-hour tour being photographed with a Dodge Dart, a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, a Chevrolet Silverado pick-up, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, a Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, a Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid and a Chevrolet Malibu. Representatives of Honda, Kia Motors Corp., Mercedes-Benz and other automakers waited in a “bullpen” to be called upon to answer Obama’s questions about their vehicles. None were, said Michael Stanton, CEO of the Association of Global Automakers. "Many of our members bent over backwards to meet the request from the White House,” Stanton said. “We were just terribly disappointed that the president refused to recognize the commitment that our members and others have made to the manufacturing base of the United States.” (1,2,3 – Aaawwwww)
New fuel, emissions rules will generate jobs
By Bob King
This is an exciting time to be involved in the American automobile industry. After coming perilously close to the brink of disaster during the global financial crisis, the industry is coming back strong.
The last year has brought solid gains in sales and employment and we're seeing an unprecedented pace of new product introductions. Detroit's Big Three are more competitive than they have been in years and are beginning to show the kind of profitability we believe can be maintained. UAW members in the auto industry have expressed clear priorities to their elected leadership: Long term job and income security. The 21st-century UAW understands that job security ultimately comes from providing customers the highest quality and best value vehicles.
One clear priority of consumers today is for more fuel-efficient vehicles. UAW members and Chrysler, Ford, and GM are committed to producing the most fuel efficient vehicles for customers.
Improvements in fuel economy are important for reasons beyond the need to meet customer demands for relief at the gas pump. The auto industry has a significant role to play in reducing our demand for imported oil and solving the problem of climate change. The UAW understands the threat to the well being of Americans these problems pose.
That is why, along with auto industry, environmentalist and energy-security groups, the UAW is strongly supportive of the Obama administration's formal proposal to extend fuel-efficiency and tailpipe emissions rules to 2025.
These proposals were developed after extensive discussions and data sharing between government experts, auto industry executives, environmentalists, and the UAW. We think the Obama administration was wise to seek as much information as possible from all these stakeholders before crafting regulations.
The UAW was actively involved in this process, and we believe it resulted in proposed regulations that are sensible and achievable. We are especially pleased that the proposal recognizes the complexities of the auto market and the wide variety of products that customers want.
The drive to improve fuel economy is already paying off in jobs, with significant investments for the production of fuel-saving technology in UAW-represented plants in the domestic auto industry.
The simple equation for understanding how this job creation occurs is that the new technology required to increase fuel economy and reduce tailpipe emissions represents additional content on each vehicle, and bringing that additional content to market requires more engineers and more production workers.
The UAW believes that the fuel-economy and tailpipe pollution proposals put forward by the Obama administration deserve the support of everyone who has a stake in the ongoing revival of the auto industry. We are on our way to a greener, more successful future, and producing cleaner, more efficient vehicles in the United States will be a key part of that success.
Our van sales took an alarming drop from December, falling by over 50%. But we need to keep in mind that January sales are always the worst of the year, and with the high concentration of cutaways we built (the sales of which are typically booked later in the year) this is not indicative of a pullback in the van market. As you will see, no one tore it up in January:
2012 2011 Change Share
Ford Econoline 6,786 7,979 - 15% 49%
GM 5,370 5,991 - 10.4% 38.8%
Mercedes Sprinter 924 875 + 5.6% 6.7%
Nissan NV 756 --- --- 5.5%
Ford transit 2,154 2,072 + 4% ---
With the weak sales, our field supply as measured in days supply was up – even though the total was down 451 units. It now stands at 58 days vs. 33 last month. Cargo van supplies are down over 800 units and passenger vans are down 102 units.
• From Automotive News: As President Barack Obama planned a visit to the Washington Auto Show for Jan. 31, non-U.S.-based automakers including Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. hustled to show off for him. On about two days’ notice, they flew in executives from as far away as California. They trucked in their most fuel- efficient vehicles, as requested by White House staff. Obama walked in, strolled past cars made in the U.S. by foreign companies and spent much of his half-hour tour being photographed with a Dodge Dart, a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, a Chevrolet Silverado pick-up, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, a Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1, a Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid and a Chevrolet Malibu. Representatives of Honda, Kia Motors Corp., Mercedes-Benz and other automakers waited in a “bullpen” to be called upon to answer Obama’s questions about their vehicles. None were, said Michael Stanton, CEO of the Association of Global Automakers. "Many of our members bent over backwards to meet the request from the White House,” Stanton said. “We were just terribly disappointed that the president refused to recognize the commitment that our members and others have made to the manufacturing base of the United States.” (1,2,3 – Aaawwwww)
New fuel, emissions rules will generate jobs
By Bob King
This is an exciting time to be involved in the American automobile industry. After coming perilously close to the brink of disaster during the global financial crisis, the industry is coming back strong.
The last year has brought solid gains in sales and employment and we're seeing an unprecedented pace of new product introductions. Detroit's Big Three are more competitive than they have been in years and are beginning to show the kind of profitability we believe can be maintained. UAW members in the auto industry have expressed clear priorities to their elected leadership: Long term job and income security. The 21st-century UAW understands that job security ultimately comes from providing customers the highest quality and best value vehicles.
One clear priority of consumers today is for more fuel-efficient vehicles. UAW members and Chrysler, Ford, and GM are committed to producing the most fuel efficient vehicles for customers.
Improvements in fuel economy are important for reasons beyond the need to meet customer demands for relief at the gas pump. The auto industry has a significant role to play in reducing our demand for imported oil and solving the problem of climate change. The UAW understands the threat to the well being of Americans these problems pose.
That is why, along with auto industry, environmentalist and energy-security groups, the UAW is strongly supportive of the Obama administration's formal proposal to extend fuel-efficiency and tailpipe emissions rules to 2025.
These proposals were developed after extensive discussions and data sharing between government experts, auto industry executives, environmentalists, and the UAW. We think the Obama administration was wise to seek as much information as possible from all these stakeholders before crafting regulations.
The UAW was actively involved in this process, and we believe it resulted in proposed regulations that are sensible and achievable. We are especially pleased that the proposal recognizes the complexities of the auto market and the wide variety of products that customers want.
The drive to improve fuel economy is already paying off in jobs, with significant investments for the production of fuel-saving technology in UAW-represented plants in the domestic auto industry.
The simple equation for understanding how this job creation occurs is that the new technology required to increase fuel economy and reduce tailpipe emissions represents additional content on each vehicle, and bringing that additional content to market requires more engineers and more production workers.
The UAW believes that the fuel-economy and tailpipe pollution proposals put forward by the Obama administration deserve the support of everyone who has a stake in the ongoing revival of the auto industry. We are on our way to a greener, more successful future, and producing cleaner, more efficient vehicles in the United States will be a key part of that success.
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