March 31, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
• There will be a Civil Rights Committee meeting on Monday, April 6 between shifts in the cafeteria. As always, anyone interested in attending or becoming a member is welcome.
• From the Women’s Committee: The deadline for buying raffle tickets for the Colorado jacket, created and donated by Pat Wyse, is Friday, April 10. Tickets are $5 apiece or 3 for $10 and available from committee members. Proceeds are for this year’s Habitat for Humanity project.
• When we first read about the upcoming Mercedes midsize pickup, we had our doubts that, despite proclamations from Mercedes to the contrary, this pickup would not be sold in the U.S. We are not alone in those doubts. From the self-styled AutoExtremist Peter DeLorenzo: “As far as whether or not a Mercedes-Benz pickup will show up here in the U.S. market? Count on it. In fact you can bet that some sort of "Texan" edition aimed at the hottest state for pickup sales here in the U.S. is right around the corner.”
• From Automotive News: Honda is ready to get back into the pickup segment, with a redesigned Ridgeline that Honda expects to outperform its first effort. "We sold 40,000 Ridgelines at one point, and we think we can certainly go up from there with a new one," says Jeff Conrad, Honda Division general manager. "Truck buyers are not just people at construction sites," he said. "Some people simply want a truck body for lifestyle or for recreation, and we think there's a lot of white space out there for us." Like the original Ridgeline, the new version will use a car-chassis construction. "Admittedly, the Ridgeline was our first truck, and we learned a lot," Conrad said. "We learned that people do like a more traditional look to their truck, and the next Ridgeline will have more traditional trucklike proportions from a styling perspective. But we're not going to forget to bring more of those innovations that we brought to the segment before, like in-bed storage and ride comfort." The new truck will appear in 2016. ( Below are a couple of images of the Ridgeline. The illustration on the left was shown by Honda and the image on the right is based on that illustration and other information gleened from sources. What you see is a pretty generic pickup design, although the Honda sourced illustration appears to have a split in the center of the tailgate that could indicate a “french door” setup where the tailgate would come down in one piece or open to the sides.)
• From PickupTrucks.com: According to sources close to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, a new Ram midsize pickup truck is likely headed our way; however, whether it will be a badged a Ram, a Dodge or something new (a Fiat?) remains to be seen. FCA has been working with several cobbled-together mules in Europe and the U.S., but this is our best look to date of what may be ahead. We were able to see under the rear of the vehicle, so we know there is a fairly light-duty independent suspension. Some reports suggest the platform for the prototype is actually a modified version of the Dodge Journey, which uses a similar rearend. The popularity of the midsize pickup segment has grown recently with the spotlight shining brightly on GM's Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. Interestingly, all the players in this segment use a live rear axle setup to produce competent towing and payload ratings. Whether anything similar could be done with an independent rear suspension is doubtful but not impossible. This strategy suggests Ram is deciding to offer a crossover-type pickup truck similar to the Honda Ridgeline, likely giving Jeep the opportunity to produce a capability-biased midsize pickup. It also has been suggested that this test truck is likely a disguise intentionally made to look like a more traditional crossover or minivan and camouflaged to look like there's a pickup hiding underneath. We should know more in the next six months.
• From the Detroit News: Cori Lortz’s father, an American union worker, opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s. Now, more than 20 years later, she finds herself fighting against another trade policy: the Trans-Pacific Partnership. “I saw how NAFTA destroyed my dad’s livelihood and I don’t want it to happen to me,” she said Monday at UAW Local 12 in Toledo. Lortz said her father, Larry Middlebrooks, lost his job at a packaging company after operations moved to Mexico as a result of NAFTA. Lortz, who works at the Toledo Assembly Complex producing the Jeep Cherokee, was one of hundreds of union members and others to attend an anti-TPP forum featuring U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, and local UAW leaders.
The event aimed to rally those in attendance to write and call public officials to encourage them to stop a so-called “fast track” on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP — a free trade policy that has been under negotiation since the mid-2000s. Under “fast-track,” Congress can set the terms under which the U.S. negotiates but it does not allow the legislative branch to amend the trade agreement. It also allows Congress an up-or-down vote on trade deals without amendments. Supporters of TPP have said it will open new markets for U.S. products, helping bolster U.S. manufacturing and job growth. Opponents have argued that there should be no fast track process and that the government should openly debate the matter, fearing that the partnership could encourage job outsourcing and unfair working conditions.
“The individuals who advise presidents have forgotten to look inside the borders of the United States as aggressively as they look outside of the borders of the United States on trade,” Kaptur said after the event. “They have failed to recognize the impact that unfair trade agreements have on the American worker.” The economies of the 12 countries involved in the TPP — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam — comprise 40 percent of the global economy. At the UAW’s 2015 Special Bargaining Convention in Detroit last week President Dennis Williams said foreign governments that manipulate currency and put up barriers to imports in their own countries present new challenges to the economy. “No one can afford to get this one wrong,” he said. “Our government cannot negotiate another bad trade agreement.”
Tom Brune
UAW Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
636-327-2119
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