June 19, 2014 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
• From the Women’s Committee: This Saturday is our workday for Habitat for Humanity. You can still fill out a form to participate and we will even take walkups Saturday. There will be two shifts that you can choose to work, 8am to noon or noon to 4pm. Please indicate on the form which time frame you would like to work and a contact number. Give your completed form to a Women’s Committee member of drop it in the Suggestion box. The address for the build is 112 Clinton Court at the Enclaves Subdivision. Take Hwy 70 to Hwy 79 and head south toward Salt Lick Rd/Birdie Hills. You will cross over Mexico Rd. About ½ mile past Church on the Rock, turn right on Eisenhower Dr. Clinton Court will be the first left. Hope to see you there.
• Recently there have been a number of audits regarding the use of the Employee Vehicle Purchase program. These are done on a periodic basis to ensure compliance with the rules of the program, typically to verify that people receiving the employee discount are actually eligible. The responsibility always rests with the employee/retiree that purchases made with their discount are valid. However, there have been some cases where personal information is conveyed at the dealership to obtain an authorization number that is apparently used again, without the employee/retiree’s consent, to complete deals with buyers that are not eligible for the discount. When these issues are uncovered in an audit, the employee/retiree will be contacted and requested to make up the monetary difference the employee discount provides – usually thousands of dollars. In addition, these people are suspended from the program for a period of 3 to 5 years. So the message is: never give your personal information to a salesman at a dealership to obtain an authorization number. You should have this with you before you go to purchase a vehicle. The numbers are good for 6 months so there is no need to wait until the last minute. Also, any communication from GM should always be reviewed, be it an email or a letter. Every time an authorization number is generated with your information, a letter is sent to your address of record indicating that. If you do not look at this letter you will have no idea your information is being used improperly. Yet you will be held liable for the difference if you cannot prove the dealer was using your information without your consent. That is the purpose of the notification letter.
• From Automotive News: Ford Motor Co. faces new challenges to its ambitious effort to become the industry's fuel economy leader after revising mpg numbers downward on six models this week. Affected models are the 2014 Ford Fiesta; the 2013 and 2014 hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the Fusion and C-Max (2nd downgrade); and the 2013 and 2014 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. Jim Seavitt, owner of Village Ford in Dearborn, Mich., said he cleared out most of his C-Max inventory in the last couple of weeks with the help of a Ford incentive. Seavitt said he doubts he will be stocking any more anytime soon with this latest news. O.C. Welch, a Ford-Lincoln dealer in Hardeeville, S.C., said: "That's the No. 1 thing hybrid and Energi customers are complaining about. They ask: 'How do you get it to get the mileage on the window stickers?'" Welch said last summer's C-Max restatement virtually stopped sales of the vehicle on his lot. "I've got 24 C-Maxs in stock," he said. "We took half of them and made service loaners out of them. Those things have been grazing on the grass 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for eight, nine, 10 months." Ford said this week it had identified an error in its testing procedures and notified the EPA and worked with the agency to revise the ratings. Ford announced it will make payments to about 200,000 affected customers ranging from $125 to $1,050, depending on the model and whether a customer leased or purchased the vehicle. The company would not estimate the total cost of the reimbursement program.
• From the N.Y. Times: Federal regulators disclosed on Wednesday that they were conducting a review of all the major automakers for ignition-switch problems similar to the safety defect that G.M. has linked to at least 13 deaths. The review, by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has turned up potential problems in at least one company so far. The agency announced that it had opened investigations into about 1.2 million Chrysler vehicles over concern that jostling the ignition key could accidentally cut power in a moving car and disable the air bags — a flaw strikingly similar to the one that has thrown G.M. into turmoil and forced it to recall millions of small cars. A review of complaints filed to the N.H.T.S.A. by drivers of cars made in the last 10 years showed that reports of stalls of moving cars related to ignition-switch problems were not limited to vehicles made by G.M. and Chrysler; such complaints existed for a variety of vehicles. One filed in June 2005 about a 2004 Toyota Solara indicated that the car repeatedly shut off “while driving 25 mph, 55 mph, 65 mph, and other speeds.” The driver brought the car to several dealers near Deforest, Wis., according to the complaint. None could duplicate or fix the problem. Another driver of a 2004 Honda Accord wrote in July 2004, alarmed that the car had shut off on an expressway in Yardley, Pa., while going 65 miles an hour. After coasting to the side of the road, “I was able to start the car up and then realized that the ignition key had slipped forward into the off position while I was driving,” the driver wrote.
Tom Brune
UAW Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
State of the Union June 10, 2014
June 10, 2014 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
• From the Women’s Committee: Our Habitat for Humanity work day is June 21. There are volunteer forms that have to be filled out to work. Forms are at the doors. There will be two shifts that you can choose to work, 8am to noon or noon to 4pm. Please indicate on the form which time frame you would like to work and a contact number. Give you completed form to a Women’s Committee member of drop it in the Suggestion box. The address for the build is 112 Clinton Court at the Enclaves Subdivision. Take Hwy 70 to Hwy 79 and head south toward Salt Lick Rd/Birdie Hills. You will cross over Mexico Rd. About ½ mile past Church on the Rock, turn right on Eisenhower Dr. Contact a member of the Women’s Committee for more information.
Also, there will be a Women’s Committee meeting Thursday, June 12 after first shift and at 5 pm for 2nd shift at the Union Hall.
• There will be an Education Committee meeting Wednesday, June 11 in the cafeteria between shifts. There will be a Veterans Committee meeting Thursday, June 12 between shifts at the Union Hall. • May was a big month for our van sales. With nearly 14,000 sold, it was the biggest sales month since August 2007. Every competitor in the segment saw increases year over year. Here are the results:
• From the Women’s Committee: Our Habitat for Humanity work day is June 21. There are volunteer forms that have to be filled out to work. Forms are at the doors. There will be two shifts that you can choose to work, 8am to noon or noon to 4pm. Please indicate on the form which time frame you would like to work and a contact number. Give you completed form to a Women’s Committee member of drop it in the Suggestion box. The address for the build is 112 Clinton Court at the Enclaves Subdivision. Take Hwy 70 to Hwy 79 and head south toward Salt Lick Rd/Birdie Hills. You will cross over Mexico Rd. About ½ mile past Church on the Rock, turn right on Eisenhower Dr. Contact a member of the Women’s Committee for more information.
Also, there will be a Women’s Committee meeting Thursday, June 12 after first shift and at 5 pm for 2nd shift at the Union Hall.
• There will be an Education Committee meeting Wednesday, June 11 in the cafeteria between shifts. There will be a Veterans Committee meeting Thursday, June 12 between shifts at the Union Hall. • May was a big month for our van sales. With nearly 14,000 sold, it was the biggest sales month since August 2007. Every competitor in the segment saw increases year over year. Here are the results:
| 2014 | 2013 | Change | Share | |
| Ford Econoline | 14,269 | 12571 | +13.5% | 43.3% |
| GM | 13,946 | 10,259 | +35.9% | 42.3% |
| Mercedes Sprinter | 2,264 | 1828 | +23.9% | 6.9% |
| Nissan NV | 1,475 | 971 | +51.9% | 4.5% |
| Ram ProMaster | 1,033 | ---- | ---- | 3.1% |
| Ford Transit Connect | 4,222 | 3709 | +13.8% | |
| Nissan NV 200 | 1203 | 341 | +253% | |