March 8, 2013 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
We have been informed that, as of now, the production lost last week will not be made up and there is no scheduled overtime for April. As always, production schedules are subject to change.
The annual Good Friday golf tournament will be March 29 at the Warrenton Golf Course. It is a 3-person scramble with a 10 am shotgun start. Cost is $50 per person/$150 a team and includes a meal (pork chops or fish) and optional skin game. If you are interested contact Bill Chancellor at 636-456-2460, Mike “Big Z” Prescott on 1st shift at the west dock or Steve Waymon, night shift at x2350 or 636-358-2409. Entry forms are also available at the entrances.
The Women’s Committee is looking for volunteers to help stuff Easter eggs next Wednesday, March 13 beginning at 2 pm at the Union Hall. There are 1500 eggs to stuff for so any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. The Easter Egg Hunt will be Saturday, March 16 at the Union Hall. Doors open at noon, and the Easter Bunny will be there from 12:30 – 2 pm. The hunt will begin promptly at 2 pm. There will also be hot dogs and soda so bring the kids/grandkids out for all the fun.
The Wentzville Hotline (1-877-571-0776) will be running the following message that will change as events warrant: “You have reached the GM Wentzville Employee Hotline. All shifts are to report as scheduled. We will update any changes in operations as they occur. Thank you for calling the GM Wentzville Employee Hotline.” You are encouraged to call the hotline to make sure it is working properly. Stickers for your badges with the hotline number should be available soon.
The Community Services Committee is having a raffle with the proceeds to go for providing Easter for the homeless and shelters. Being raffled off are: 1st prize - 2 St. Louis Blues tickets; 2ndprize – 2 St. Louis Cardinals tickets; and 3rd prize – a $100 QT gas card. Tickets are $5 apiece or 3 for $10 and are available from any committee member. The drawing will be held March 18. There will also be containers at the entrances to collect non-perishable food items for area food pantries. Thanks in advance for your support.
Be advised that the recently announced Down Payment Assistance program that provides up to $500 match of your down payment applies only to active employees, their spouse, same-sex domestic partner or dependent children under age 25 residing in the same household (same address) and must be combined with your employee discount. Offer expires April 1, 2013.
Reminder: This weekend is the beginning of daylight savings time so remember to set your clocks forward 1 hour Saturday night.
From the Detroit Free Press: Ford will unveil its new Transit chassis cab at the NTEA Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, offering commercial truck customers an option they never had with the outgoing E-Series commercial van. The E-Series, which has dominated the segment with 50% of market share, will be discontinued in mid-2014. Ford has already stopped making cutaways of the light-duty E-Series, but will continue to make cutaways of the big 350 and 450s in Ohio for the rest of the decade. The U.S. commercial truck market, which bottomed out at 383,000 in 2009, rebounded to 620,000 last year and is forecast to grow as high as 667,000 this year. It is benefiting from an improving housing market and pent-up demand. The average vehicle is more than 11 years old. Many of them need to be replaced. Chassis cabs are a passenger compartment and frame that buyers turn into custom cargo delivery or utility vehicles with the addition of an aftermarket body. Cutaways leave the back of the passenger compartment open to add a specialty body to make it into a shuttle van or school bus. The chassis cab and cutaway will be offered in three wheelbases and with a choice of a 3.7-liter V6, a 3.5-liter V6 EcoBoost engine or 3.2-liter diesel.
From Automotive News: Ford's compact Ranger pickup is gone, but for many dealers it's not forgotten. "I think there's definitely a need," said Martin Gubbels, owner of Big Sky Ford-Lincoln in Torrington, Wyo., who said he has many customers who would love a pickup smaller than the F-150. Gubbels recently took a 2011 Ranger with 6,500 miles in trade and says it's worth as much now as it was when new. "There's a message right there," he says. Ford "gave up a nice little chunk of market share they were once dominant in." Doug Scott, Ford truck marketing manager, says Ford understands dealer concerns and is keeping an eye on the segment. "There is a market for what we would consider a true compact, a truck that is significantly smaller and more affordable and has significantly better fuel economy than what you find in the full-size truck category. "I would argue there aren't any true compacts in the market today," he says. "The challenge is to deliver that product with a good business case." He said Ford continues to evaluate the market. Ford introduced a global Ranger pickup in 2011, the same year the U.S. Ranger went away. The pickup was developed overseas, is built in Thailand, and is sold in 188 markets -- but not the United States. Ford has no plans to bring it to the United States and has told dealers that for now it will stick with its strategy of selling just the F-150 pickup. "The global Ranger is 90 percent of the size of an F-150," says a Ford spokesman. "It's a big truck." A 2013 F-150 XL Super Crew, powered by a 3.7-liter V-6, matches the 19 combined mpg rating of the 4.0-liter V-6 2013 Toyota Tacoma small pickup, according to Edmunds.com. But the 2013 four-cylinder Tacoma gets 19 mpg city and 24 mpg highway. Ford dealers are interested in the global Ranger's diesel engine lineup, which includes a 3.2-liter five-cylinder and a 2.4-liter four-cylinder. The 3.2-liter, used in the Transit commercial van to be sold in North America, is on some dealers' wish list for the F-150. In 2012, compact pickup sales totaled 264,197 units, down from 1.2 million in 1994, when Ford led the segment with 344,744 Ranger sales. With the departure of Ford and Dodge in 2011, Toyota and General Motors were left as the last major players offering small pickups. The Tacoma's already dominant share of the segment shot up from 38 percent in 2011 to 54 percent in 2012. GM stopped building the compact Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon last August, and a redesigned compact pickup is expected next year. Tom Libby, automotive forecast analyst for Polk, says there's every chance the segment could rebound, leading Ford to jump in again. "The entire industry is moving down in terms of size. The segments that are losing share have been the segments that have big vehicles: large SUVs and full-size luxury cars, for example," he says. "If that trend continues, and it will because of CAFE, that segment could level off and begin to gain."
Tom Brune
UAW/GM Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
636-327-2119
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