• From Chairman Mike Bullock: It has come to the attention of the Union that the Medical Department has been requiring some employees to give urine samples that were not required to do so by the contract. NO employees should give a urine sample without first speaking to their Union Representative or calling 636-327-2250. Any employees who have given a urine sample in the previous six months should contact their Union Representative.
All employees have the right to have their Union Representative present during any interviews with the Plant Doctor. The Union recommends that all employees have their Union Representative present for interviews with the Plant Doctor.
Your elected bargaining committee is participating in a 2 day SWE 2 workshop in the mezzanine. Every team leader and employee here at Wentzville Assembly Center may be going through this training eventually. By going through SWE 2 the committee was able to provide input in changes they wanted in the program before being rolled out to the membership. To clear up the major concern on the floor, your committee has not agreed to rotation. Rotation is voluntary at Wentzville Assembly Center. The language in our local contract says: “The Parties encourage and will support those teams that decide to rotate jobs voluntary. “ (Local Demand 106.)
In case you hadn’t heard, the US Government sold the last of their GM stock Monday. Here are President Barack Obama’s comments: "When I took office, the American auto industry -- the heartbeat of American manufacturing -- was on the verge of collapse. Two of the Big Three -- GM and Chrysler -- were on the brink of failure, threatening to take suppliers, distributors and entire communities down with them. In the midst of what was already the worst recession since the Great Depression, another one million Americans were in danger of losing their jobs.”
"As President, I refused to let that happen. I refused to walk away from American workers and an iconic American industry. But in exchange for rescuing and retooling GM and Chrysler with taxpayer dollars, we demanded responsibility and results. In 2011, we marked the end of an important chapter as Chrysler repaid every dime and more of what it owed the American taxpayers from the investment we made under my Administration's watch. Today, we're closing the book by selling the remaining shares of the federal government's investment in General Motors. GM has now repaid every taxpayer dollar my Administration committed to its rescue, plus billions invested by the previous Administration.”
"Less than five years later, each of the Big Three automakers is now strong enough to stand on its own. They're profitable for the first time in nearly a decade. The industry has added more than 372,000 new jobs -- its strongest growth since the 1990s. Thanks to the workers on our assembly lines, some of the most high-tech, fuel-efficient cars in the world are once again designed, engineered, and built right here in America – and the rest of the world is buying more of them than ever before.”
"When things looked darkest for our most iconic industry, we bet on what was true: the ingenuity and resilience of the proud, hardworking men and women who make this country strong. Today, that bet has paid off. The American auto industry is back. For our autoworkers and the communities that depend on them, the road we've taken these past five years has been a long and difficult one. But it's one we've traveled together. And as long as there's more work to do to restore opportunity and broad-based growth for all Americans, that's what we'll keep doing to reach the brighter days ahead."
A research study issued today by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) suggests that the automotive bailout provided massive benefits to the U.S. economy and prevented a much more severe economic downturn. The study, “The Effect on the U.S. Economy of the Successful Restructuring of General Motors,” sought to evaluate the public benefits of government assistance to GM and Chrysler. Among the study’s findings:
- The shutdown of GM and Chrysler would have reduced U.S. employment by 2.6 million jobs in 2009 and reduced U.S. personal income by $285 billion in 2009 and 2010.
- The U.S. government saved or avoided the loss of $105.3 billion in transfer payments and the loss of personal and social insurance tax collections, far more than any anticipated shortfall in TARP investment returns.
- The U.S. government bailout of General Motors spared 1.2 million jobs in 2009 and preserved $39.4 billion in personal and social insurance tax collections in 2009 and 2010.
- Almost 600,000 existing GM and Chrysler retirees would have certainly seen their company pensions delayed and reduced and their retiree health benefits cancelled had GM and Chrysler closed permanently. The economic impact on the retiree states in the Midwest, Arizona and Florida would have been catastrophic.
While CAR projects that much of U.S. auto manufacturing employment would have recovered without U.S. government intervention by 2011 or sometime thereafter, there would have been a decided shift in the location of this employment to the southern portion of the United States resulting in severe effects for upper Midwest states such as Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.
“It is important to note, that these companies are now poised to operate profitably even at lower levels of production and sales, for years to come,” wrote CAR researchers Sean McAlinden and Debra Maranger Menk. “CAR is confident that in the years ahead, this peacetime intervention in the private sector by the U.S. government will be seen as one of the most successful in U.S. economic history.”
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