State of the Union July 21, 2015

July 21, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

• From Chairman Mike Bullock: Local negotiations started on 7/13. Union Demands and Management Concerns were exchanged and reviewed. The Shop Committee will be meeting at the Main Table for some items and meeting in sub committees for items that may pertain to only individual departments. The Shop Committee has reached out via email and in person to all the committeeman for specific information in their respective areas. We are only as strong when negotiating when we, as your elected committee, work together to achieve the best local contract possible. Donnetta, Kelly and Wanda are visiting all the areas of the plant gathering jacket sizes for the joint UAW/GM “Colorado Truck of the Year” jackets. Once we have gone through all the departments, we will announce a make-up day back in each department for those missed the first time through. We will also have a make-up day in the cafeteria. As soon as those dates are confirmed we will announce.
Union and management have had numerous discussions about the parking lots. Topics discussed have ranged from illegal parking in aisles and illegal parking in handicap to foreign nameplate vehicle parking, GM vehicle parking, and contractor parking. There will be an announcement shortly on our decision.
The first Saturday of the Flex schedule starts this week. 95% of those that requested Saturday off were approved. Saturday 8/1 is currently being reviewed. The Saturday Flex schedule is a work in progress. The language in the agreement says “The level of traditional employee request for Saturday time off will also be reviewed on a quarterly basis and any necessary modifications will be made by mutual agreement”. The union is reviewing weekly the requests and denials. As of today, 143 Flex employees have been converted from Flex to temp. This is an ongoing process and Flex employees can sign up at any time. The first two Flex employees from the group hired on 5/11 were converted today.
The first 2016 Colorado and Canyon rolled off the line last week. We built 98,277 Colorado’s and Canyon’s in 2015. The build out for the van will be August 20th in body and August 21st in GA. The 2nd quarter GM earnings announcement will be Thursday. The 1st quarter earnings produced a $2.2 Billion dollar profit.

• Mark your calendars: The annual Women’s Committee Benefit Golf Tournament will be Sunday, September 20. It will be held at Country Lake golf course in Warrenton. It is a three person scramble with a 12 noon shotgun start. Cost is $210 per team/$70 per person. The first 3 places in 3 flights will be paid and there will be longest drive and closest to the pin contests along with a skin game. Food and beer will be served after the tournament. Proceeds will go to St. Joachim & Anne Care Services of St. Charles. Entry forms are available at the entrances.

• The awards keep rolling in for the pickups. First, the GMC Canyon received AutoPacific’s award for Best in Class Vehicle Satisfaction for the compact pickup segment. AutoPacific’s Vehicle Satisfaction Awards objectively measure owner satisfaction with 50 separate attributes ranging from interior comfort and styling to fuel economy and performance. “In many cases, an extremely satisfying vehicle is not the car or truck that has the best absolute build quality or the best safety rating,” says George Peterson, President of AutoPacific. “VSAs look at the big picture, which includes owners’ experiences with their vehicle’s quality and safety, but also goes deeper into the heart of the ownership experience.” An industry benchmark for measuring how satisfied an owner is with his/her new vehicle, VSAs are based on survey responses from over 66,000 owners of new 2015 model year cars and light trucks.
Next, the Chevrolet Colorado won standard pickup segment in the annual Strategic Vision Total Quality Index (TQI) study that not only measures problems, but also includes over 155 specific aspects of the customer's experience. It was the first domestic model to top the segment in more than a decade. “In 1997, only 15% of all car brands had less than a half-a-problem per vehicle, with a few ’delinquent' brands having more than two problems per vehicle. In 2015, 100% of all brands had less than half-a-problem on average per vehicle. This means that simply counting problems once had a place in history, but today, knowing what creates love and that which enhances the customer's perception of quality are key to determining what is best,” says Alexander Edwards, President of Strategic Vision. “When defining quality, we listen and measure everything the customer communicates and capture it in a calculation that is converted to a 1,000-point scale called the Total Quality Index score. It represents the future in understanding what motivates the customer,” continues Edwards. The Colorado scored 857. Second place went to the Canyon with a score of 844 and 3rd place went to the Honda Ridgeline, which scored 841. No pickups that scored below the segment average of 831 (we’re looking at you Tacoma and Frontier) were included in the rankings. GM had a total of 7 segment winners. Interestingly, the 2 largest automakers in the world, VW and Toyota had a combined…..zero winners. Strategic Vision bases its rankings on responses from 46,000 surveys.

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