October 14, 2013 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
Union meeting is this week: 15 minutes after longest 2nd shift linetime of Tuesday’s shift; Wednesday at 7:15 am, 2:45 pm, and 15 minutes after longest 1st shift linetime.
The Community Services Committee will be having a meeting Thursday, Oct. 17 between shifts in the cafeteria. As always, anyone wishing to become a member is welcome to attend.
We’ve all heard about the new GM Employee Discount: Bigger, Simpler, Better. But is that really true? SOTU did an apples to apples comparison to find out. A 2013 Chevrolet Traverse LTZ stickers at $42,220.
Under the old discount format, there was a “preferred price”, consumer cash and employee vehicle allowance (EVA), with all of this culminating in your employee price. For this vehicle, the preferred price was $40, 278.77. On Sept. 17, the consumer cash amount was $1500 and the EVA was another $1500, resulting in a final price of $37,278.77. This is a total discount of $4942 or 11.7%. This same vehicle now has an employee price of $38,273.99 and comes with $2000 consumer cash for a final price of $36,273.99. That’s a discount of $5947 or 14.1%. Based on this comparison, the answers to all three claims is true. And GM has just announced bonus cash on several 2013 and 2014 vehicles of $600 to $3000 depending on the model. The 2014 Chevy Impala that is currently in the cafeteria is the recipient of $1000 bonus cash. And that Traverse gets another $1000.
This offer is good through the end of the month. More details are available at gmfamilyfirst.com. And remember, temporary employees get the discount along with aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.
From Reuters: Volkswagen AG's top executives are divided over whether and how workers at the company's Tennessee assembly plant should be represented by a union, but ultimately will insist on a formal vote by those employees, a person with knowledge of the VW board's thinking said. While VW's U.S. executives are hostile to the UAW, the eight-member management board may still ask the union to help set up a German-style employee board at the Chattanooga plant, said the person, who asked not to be identified. The top executives feel that any final decision must be approved by the workers in a secret ballot to protect VW's reputation and assuage investors and U.S. politicians, said the source, who did not identify the VW executives. UAW leaders have said such a vote would allow anti-union forces to scare workers into voting against the union. The UAW has said it has support of the majority of the 1,567 hourly workers at the Tennessee plant.
UAW President Bob King told Reuters last month the union, seeking to avoid what it fears would be a divisive election process, would like the German automaker to voluntarily recognize the union as the plant's bargaining unit. Critics argue such an approach would be undemocratic. An employee in the plant's paint shop, Mike Burton, said he has gathered more than 600 signatures from VW Chattanooga hourly employees on an anti-UAW petition. A VW spokesman declined to comment beyond the company's past confirmation of talks with the UAW and that any decision would be made by the employees. VW's U.S. executives have said in the past, however, that the plant workers would need to vote on such a decision. Gary Casteel, director for the UAW region that includes Tennessee, said on Thursday that the union continues to have ongoing discussions with Volkswagen, adding that he has not heard of any decision by the VW management board on whether it will recognize the UAW.
Weekly build options: 43 E-26 vans; 559 cutaways (21%); 421 slider doors; 27 r/h door deletes; 106 15-pass vans; 95 diesels; 28 YF7s; 12 brake deck spare tire; 438 Onstar; 5.16% AWD; .49% tan interior trim; 76 exports (37 Mexico, 31 Israel); 50 CNG vans; 154 Enterprise; 50 AT&T; 113 U-Haul; 43 government; 87.3% white vans.
From Automotive News: As Nissan completes the first redesign of its Titan full-sized pickup, the company hopes to broaden the truck's appeal with more configurations aimed at fleet buyers. But attracting fleet and basic work truck customers will require more of a value pitch this time -- in contrast to the more upmarket focus of the first Titan. "Increased variation is important," says Rich Miller, Nissan's chief product specialist in charge of the next Titan. "The current Titan just didn't hit the work customer as strongly as it should have," Miller says. "We had one engine, a premium V-8. "It's hard for a work truck customer to consider that. They shop price and capability, and usually in that order. When you don't offer a regular-cab, six-cylinder, stripped-down truck, you're out of that market. That's where we need to go in the new generation." It will be an uphill fight. General Motors has become the industry leader in truck product quality, according to J.D. Power and Associates' 2013 Initial Quality Study. And setbacks and delays in the Titan's product schedule have left Nissan holding its place with a pickup that Consumer Reports calls "lackluster" and "dated."
Tom Brune
UAW/GM Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
636-327-2119
No comments:
Post a Comment