February 7, 2014 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
By now you’ve all heard that our profit sharing payout this year is $7500. To get the full amount you will need to have 1850 hours last year. Any amount less than that will be prorated (for example, if you had 1500 hours you would get 81% or $6075). Remember, if you have a PSP account you can defer up to 100% of the amount. You must elect to do so by 4 pm EST, next Thursday Feb. 13. You can do so by going to gmbenefits.com or by calling 1-800-489-4646 (8:30 am – midnight EST). Profit sharing payment will be Friday, Feb. 28.
Congratulations to the following members who were elected to the Elections Committee (listed in order of votes received): Beverly Marsha Steele, Lisa Bargaineer, Elaine Silinzy, Traci E. Jones-Hamlin, Marva Ali, Darline Taylor and Kelly Seddens Poole.
There will be a Civil Rights Committee meeting next Tuesday, Feb. 11 in the cafeteria between shifts (not the Union Hall) due to line times and weather.
Things are heating up in the full-size pickup fuel economy wars. Tuesday Chrysler Group announced that the Ram pickup equipped with the “EcoDiesel” 3.0 liter engine achieved an EPA rating of 28 mpg highway, setting a much higher bar for Ford’s aluminum bodied F-150 to clear. Last month at the Detroit auto show, Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said he was "absolutely" confident the redesigned pickup would deliver class-leading fuel economy. Asked whether it would get 30 mpg highway, Mr. Mulally replied: "We're absolutely going to be the leader." Upon hearing the Ram numbers, Ford officials seemed to be backpedaling just a bit, saying that the new F-150 would lead the class in fuel economy against other similar gasoline engines. "Even customers who choose a base model F-150 are going to get improved efficiency," a Ford spokesman said, referring to the redesigned truck that will go on sale this year. "They don't have to buy a special engine to get best-in-class efficiency or performance.” So it sounds like it’s going to be a semantic argument around the word “class”. The Ram 1500 EcoDiesel starts at $30,465, including delivery. The price is $2,850 higher than a similarly equipped Ram 1500 with a 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 engine, the company says.
From the Detroit News: Chrysler Group LLC said Friday it is recalling 9,655 full-size vans to prevent accelerator pedals from sticking, which could lead to unintended acceleration. The Auburn Hills unit of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV said it is recalling its 2014 Ram ProMaster vans to resolve a condition that may allow an accelerator pedal to stick in the wide-open position if force is applied at an angle.
Vice President Biden tells UAW delegates that without unions, the middle class evaporates
Vice President Joe Biden defines the middle class differently than an economist might. For him, middle class is a value, not a number. It means being able to afford a home instead of renting. It means having safe parks for children to play in, a chance to send your child to college and the ability to take care of elderly parents.
“Where I come from, that’s middle class,” he told the 1,500 delegates on the final day of the 2014 UAW National Community Action Program (CAP) Conference. “That’s not asking a helluva lot.”
But what’s happening in America is fewer and fewer people are in the middle class, chiefly because of the well-coordinated attacks on collective bargaining by right-wing extremists such as the Koch Brothers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “They know without you there, they call every shot,” Biden said, explaining that the recent right-to-work agenda pushed by right-wing business groups is more about their rights than those of workers. “Is it right for them to eliminate your right to have a say in your work?” Biden said.
The Vice President, whom UAW President Bob King called one of the “strongest advocates, allies and friends the UAW has ever had,” has a long history with our union. The UAW was one of his earliest supporters when he was first elected to the Senate from Delaware in 1972. “You were the ones who took a bet on me and you never left me and I never left you,” Biden said.
President King said Biden was a major reason why the auto rescue succeeded. President Obama essentially bet his presidency on the government, UAW workers and the auto companies’ ability to come together and work through the crisis. A Bush administration official in 2008 predicted 1.1 million jobs would be lost without an auto rescue. Instead, 380,000 jobs were added with the prospect of more to come. All three domestic automakers are producing exceptional vehicles.
Biden said his father, who ran two auto dealerships in Delaware, once told him that all the automakers needed to do was send him excellent product and he could do the rest.
“Guess what? You are sending product,” he said, adding that the direct worker input into quality and other manufacturing issues that the UAW negotiated into its contracts has borne fruit.
The Vice President said many politicians and elected officials have a problem pronouncing a simple, two-syllable word: union. If more learned how to pronounce it, he said, we could grow the middle class. He held up a graph that showed as the number of union members declined since 1968, the share of income going to the middle class has also declined. “We know collective bargaining is the bedrock of our economy. It’s not just about you,” he told delegates. “It’s about economic growth.”
The Vice President also credited our union with not simply being content to advocate for our members, but for a just society. It was a theme expressed earlier in the day in a stirring speech by UAW Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Williams, who referenced our support for the struggle for civil rights led by Walter Reuther in the 1960s and the struggle against apartheid led by President Owen Bieber in the 1980s. “Can you imagine (Bieber) explaining that to our members and why that was important to them?” he asked delegates.
Williams said we must communicate more with our members so they connect why a just minimum wage, global solidarity and other issues are critical to their own economic security.
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