This Saturday, Feb. 15 is the 22nd Annual African-American Heritage Celebration at the Union Hall. Doors open at 6:30 pm and dinner is served at 7 pm. Beer, set-ups and snacks will be provided and with music by DJ “T Gutta”. Come on out and help make this a memorable celebration!
• Management has officially announced that production is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 22 on all shifts. As always, schedules are subject to change.
• Voting begins tomorrow at the VW plant in Chattanooga to determine if employees will be represented by the UAW. As you would expect, union opposition is reaching a fever pitch (and possibly crossing legal lines). State legislators are the latest to muddy the waters, as state Sen. Bo Watson said the automaker has conducted a labor campaign that's "unfair, unbalanced and, quite frankly, un-American." Watson and state House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick said potential financial incentives on any factory expansion are at risk if the United Auto Workers is accepted. If the workers opt for UAW representation, VW would have a "very tough time" securing more incentives from the state legislature, Watson said. According to Automotive News, UAW critics jumped on the lawmakers' claim to persuade workers to vote against union representation. A group called Southern Momentum quickly put out a statement that quoted Mike Burton, a paint-shop employee who leads a coalition of workers opposed to the union. "This confirms exactly what we have been telling people," he was quoted as saying. "A vote for the UAW is a vote against the expansion of the plant, plain and simple." State Rep. JoAnne Favors termed the incentives remark "coercion and intimidation" of employees. She and state Rep. Sherry Jones also were critical of "outside groups" attempting to influence VW workers at the plant. One of these groups is the Center for Worker Freedom, affiliated with anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who has rented 13 billboards in Chattanooga. Among the messages: "The UAW spends millions to elect liberal politicians including Barack Obama." Jones, a Democrat who represents part of Nashville, said the Republican legislators are "threatening employees" with the incentives package. "I've never seen a member of the General Assembly come out against a company who wanted to allow their members an opportunity to organize," she said. Other legislators also weighed in. "In my 20 years on the hill, I've never seen such a massive intrusion into the affairs of a private company," said House Democratic Leader Craig Fitzhugh. "When management and workers agree -- as they do at Volkswagen -- the state has no business interfering."
• From the Detroit News: Nissan Motor Co. on Thursday showed off a concept diesel-powered version of its Frontier mid-size pickup at the Chicago Auto Show and said it will wait for feedback from customers before deciding whether to build it. "It's a technical study. We're going to use social media — Facebook, Twitter, so forth and the blogosphere to find out what people are saying about this truck, 'Do they like it? Do they want it? Should we build it?" and we're going to let them decide for us, basically," said Fred Diaz, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Nissan's U.S. unit. Last month, Diaz said the company was considering building a hybrid version of the next generation Frontier. The demonstration Nissan Frontier Diesel Runner gets an estimated fuel economy increase of 35 percent over the current Frontier V6. “Frontier continues to be a huge success story for us, with more than 60,000 units sold in 2013,” Diaz said. “Nissan has always valued the mid-size pickup segment, and with this technical study project, we are looking to explore what is possible for the next-generation Frontier."
• Speaking of pickup fuel economy, here’s a chart listing each company’s most fuel efficient powertrains for each model (listed as city/hwy/overall).
• As a followup to the article about recalls, here’s a chart listing recalls for each company, comparing the total to number of vehicles sold last year:
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