State of the Union January 27, 2015

January 27, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

• From Chairman Mike Bullock: The Shop Committee and myself went to the Sub Council meeting last week. Sub Council consists of all the Chairman, Presidents, and Shop Committeeman from all GM locations. All resolutions submitted to the council were read and approved by the council to send forward to the bargaining table at the National Negotiations. The Division 1 Resolutions submitted covered additions or changes to 35 Paragraphs, 13 documents and 4 appendixes of the National Agreement. The Division 2 resolutions were all accepted also.

Last week 10 temps quit and one was released. I was told that someone had posted on Facebook that 45 were fired and 20 walked. I believe irresponsible postings like that do nothing but harm to our Union. Before any temp is released, a member of the Union is involved with the employee and labor. Most of the time, some counseling is all that is required to return the temp to the line. But to say that 45 were fired makes everyone believe that we as a Union are letting that happen. That is far from the case. A temp is still our brother or sister. In most cases that temp is a referral from someone who works here. That employee is expecting us as Union members to guide and assist their referral in working here at Wentzville. Open your arms and your mind and do that. Share with the temp all the knowledge you have gained while working here. United we win.

I have had long discussions with management about temporary employees going to medical. We are in agreement, that if an employee has a work related injury they should report it immediately to their Group Leader. This goes for all employees, seniority or temporary. The Group Leader will give you a pass to go to medical for treatment of that injury. This reporting helps in several ways. If the injury could have been prevented, a near miss report would be generated, an immediate corrective action is put in place and a long term corrective action is formulated. If in the case of a repetitive injury, the Group Leader should initiate a QRP ( Quick Response Program) to Ergonomics and give the employee a pass to medical. Management and the Union are in agreement to this.

Management has announced that the 6th and final Saturday under Plan B of the MOU on Overtime will be February 21. Again to quiet all the Facebook posts, February 7th is not scheduled, February 14th is not scheduled, February 21st is scheduled.

Finally, the shop committee and myself are still discussing options for shift times, lunches and breaks for when we start 3 separate shifts on March 9th. The shift times for February are on the back. If you have any questions contact your committee person.

Under current conditions we are planning that effective February 9, 2015 we will begin transitioning to the new shift arrangement and hours. It is anticipated that we will be running 10 hour shifts through February and during this time all shifts will have a Monday start (except those currently starting on Sunday). The start times will change throughout the month of February as detailed below for production (Division 1) employees. Exceptions will be handled on an individual basis. February 9, 2015
1st shift 6:30 am – 5 pm
2nd shift 4:00 pm – 2:30 am
3rd shift 6:00 pm – 4:30 am


February 16, 2015
1st shift 6:30 am – 5 pm
2nd shift 4:00 pm – 2:30 am
3rd shift 8:00 pm – 6:30 am


February 23, 2015 1st shift 6:30 am – 5 pm
2nd shift 2:30 pm – 1 am
3rd shift 10:30 pm – 9 am


• There will be a Community Services committee meeting Thursday, Jan. 29 between shifts in the cafeteria. All are welcome to attend.

• It is almost February and that means the annual Polar Bear Plunge for Missouri Special Olympics is just around the corner. Once again our own David Hurst will be taking the plunge. You may recall that David, after narrowly missing out his first year, was last year’s top individual fundraiser, collecting $5400. Most of that was due to your generosity at the gate drive. This year we will again have a gate drive to support Missouri Special Olympics and David has set an ambitious goal of $7500. The gate drive will be this Friday, Jan. 30 before the shifts. We know that you will be generous in your support. You can also go to David’s web page to make a donation by going to www.somo/PolarPlunge and scroll down to the Lake St. Louis picture. Click on that and select “donate to a participant”. Enter David Hurst in the box and it will take you to his page. The plunge will be Saturday, Feb. 7 at Lake St. Louise (the smaller lake). If you wish to plunge with David contact Tom Brune at x2119 (serious plungers only please).

• Kelley Blue Book recently released their top 10 vehicles with the best resale value after a 5-year period. Keep in mind this covers all vehicles, from luxury cars to pickups to compact cars. Coming in at #4 was the Chevrolet Colorado, which is projected to retain 58.3% of its value after 5 years. It is also the highest rated GM vehicle. At #5 is the GMC Canyon, which is expected to retain 57.5% of its original value. The GMC Sierra was 6th (55.6%) and the Chevrolet Silverado was 7th (54.7%). This is one of the most important 3rd party views of our product, as customers will tend to choose the vehicle with the highest resale value. It also allows GM to offer more attractive lease rates because the value of the vehicle when it comes off lease will be higher.

Tom Brune
UAW Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
636-327-2119