February 28, 2013 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
· Reminder: Today is the last day to submit a vacation application form. Vacation replacements will be hired based on the amount of vacation time that has been requested.
· The March schedule is out and the daily production target remains unchanged at 272 per shift, 544 a day (excluding team meeting days). There are no Saturdays scheduled for the month of March.
· From the Knoxville News: The United Auto Workers Union is laying the groundwork for a possible third union representation vote at the Nissan plant in Smyrna. Plant employees turned down the union by a 2-1 margin in 2001. A 1989 UAW attempt to organize the plant also failed. The Nashville Tennessean newspaper reported hundreds of Nissan workers attended meetings Tuesday at the Smyrna Town Center, at which union representatives made their case. The UAW message resonated with Michael Thompson of Smyrna, who said he has worked at the plant for a decade. "There's more support for it now than I've ever seen," he said. "I think it's very necessary." Ed Ensley of Mt. Juliet said he has worked at the plant for nearly 28 years and supports a representation election. "Nissan is probably going to make a profit of 7 or 8 billion dollars this year, and we haven't had a raise in over seven years." For Robert Bruhn, who makes a 94-mile round trip from Smithville to work, the issue is fair wages. Bruhn works for Yates Services, which supplies about a third of the plant's workers as temporary employees. UAW Representative Gary Casteel said Smyrna Nissan workers contacted the union and asked for a new drive at the plant, probably because of an effort to organize Nissan's plant in Mississippi. "Workers here have seen all the activity going on around Canton, and they began to ask us to see what we might be able to do in Smyrna," Casteel said. Nissan spokesman Justin Saia said the decision about who represents employees is theirs to make. Saia said the company is aware of the meetings. "I can't speculate on the motives of the UAW," he said. "Nissan employees are well paid and enjoy some of the most secure jobs in the state of Tennessee. Since Nissan has been in Smyrna, employees have chosen to represent themselves in a relationship with the company that is based on transparency and mutual respect."
· From the Benefits Department: Employees who were recently hired or rehired into the hourly workforce will automatically be enrolled in the Personal Savings Plan (PSP) at a 3% contribution rate and they may increase, decrease or cancel this enrollment election at any time by accessing gmbenefits.com or contacting the GM Benefits & Services Center at 800-489-4646. The first payroll deduction into the PSP will occur on April 12, 2013. Employees who are automatically enrolled in the PSP and do not have an election on record for their investment option will have their contributions invested into the Pyramis Active Lifecycle Comingled Pool with a target retirement date closest to the year that the employee will attain age 65. The impacted employees are being mailed an automatic enrollment letter with details and instructions beginning this week. It is important to note that employees may increase or decrease their deferral rate prior to the first contribution. Additionally, employees may cancel this enrollment before it becomes effective as long as they do so by 4 p.m. EST on April 2, 2013. Finally, employees who are automatically enrolled in the PSP will have the opportunity to request to have their contributions refunded, if such request is made within 90 days of their first contribution. The return of such contributions will be adjusted for gains and losses and, therefore, the actual refund may be more or less than the actual contributions. Such employees who wish to request a refund must speak to a Customer Service Associate at the GM Benefits & Services Center by calling 800-489-4646 within the first 90 days following their Automatic Enrollment. After the 90 day period, normal Plan distribution rules are applied to these contributions.
· Consumer Reports came out with their annual pro-foreign car Autos issue rankings yesterday, and their bias seems to have gone to new heights. Nary a domestic brand vehicle was a top pick in a category. You might think pickups would be a good category for us, but CR claimed they had to exclude that category due to the influx of new products – really! For the record, in the brand rankings, Japanese brands took the top 7 spots and all Japanese brands finished in the top 13, with Cadillac leading the way for domestics at #14. A look at Toyota’s Scion brand seems to provide the best evidence of CR bias. Scion finished 7th out of 27 brands. The 2 main components of CR’s ratings are their road test score and the reliability ratings. Scion’s road test score was the second worst of all brands at 61 (only Jeep fared worse). So presumably the reliability of Scion vehicles must be top shelf. Not according to the recent JD Power Dependability study of 3-year-old vehicles. Scion came in 18th, 10 points poorer than the industry average and worse than every GM brand as well as Ford, Lincoln and Ram. In fact, according to JD Power, 4 Japanese brands finished behind all GM brands and below the industry average. How in the name of Akio Toyoda can that be? That’s because JD Power surveys different vehicle owners every year, not the same group year after year.
Tom Brune
UAW/GM Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
636-327-2119
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