State of the Union July 29, 2015

July 29, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

• There will be Education Committee meetings Thursday at the Union Hall at the following times: 6:45 am for 3rd shift; 1:00 pm for 2nd shift and 2:45 pm for 1st shift. Anyone interested in attending or becoming a member is welcome.

• There will be Civil Rights Committee meetings Monday, August 10 between the shifts in the cafeteria. Anyone interested in attending or becoming a member is welcome.

• You may have seen that there is a new website for GM hourly employees called the Hourly Communication Channel. You can access the website through a link on the menu on the right hand side of the Socrates home page. The link is titled “HCC System”. Not all features of the website are functional yet, but you can check your rings, your pay stub, use links for gm family first, check on and submit suggestions, and soon, apply for Saturday time off. The computers in the cafeteria as well as the walkup computers in body (W-27) and paint (CC40 and 42) will have links to the website. To access the site from home you will have to log onto My Socrates.

• GM announced pricing on the 2.8 liter diesel option for the Colorado and Canyon. It will cost an additional $3730 above a V6 engine. This is the lowest priced diesel option on any truck of any size. It will be available on Colorado crew cab LT and Z71 models only, making the entry price around $31,700. Fuel economy numbers have yet to be released, but chief truck engineer Jeff Luke has indicated that it will be 30+ mpg on the highway. Towing capacity will be 7700 lbs. “Simply put, there’s no other midsize truck that can do what Colorado can with its all-new Duramax diesel,” said Sandor Piszar, director of Chevrolet Truck Marketing. “Along with greater capability and efficiency, it expands the Colorado lineup to give customers more choices and the capability of exploring more possibilities on and off the road.” Said Scott Yackley, assistant chief engineer, “A diesel engine was part of the Colorado’s portfolio plan from the very beginning, meaning the chassis, suspension and other elements of its architecture were engineered to support its capability. That means there are no compromises with the Colorado diesel. It offers exceptional capability delivered with a confident feeling of control.”

• The “Baby Duramax” was also designed specifically for trucks and has undergone many of the same validation tests as the 6.6L Duramax, contributing to legendary Duramax durability and reliability. Pricing on the Canyon will begin around $33,200.

• After last week’s earnings announcement a lengthy conference call with several automotive analysts occurred. During that call one analyst asked CEO Mary Barra about negotiations with the UAW. Here is the dialogue: Ryan Brinkman (Analyst - JPMorgan):
Okay. And then just one last question. I know you are often limited in what you can say relative to labor negotiations, but I would just observe that it seems like you announced in 2Q a tremendous amount of investment in jobs and factories in the United States. And I couldn't help but notice that these were ahead of, rather than in conjunction with, the labor negotiations and sort of stood in contrast to Ford, which actually during the period of time that you were making these announcements, talked about moving small car production to Mexico.
So maybe you could just comment as to whether this is a reflection of your strong relationship with UAW that you don't need to tie these negotiations in conjunction -- these announcements in conjunction with the negotiations and that you do expect a good outcome with the partners that maintains or even enhances your competitiveness?
Mary Barra (CEO):
Again, I'm not going to comment on the specifics, but I think when you look at it, we are working with the UAW and having conversations on a daily and weekly basis. And so we are going to look at where we have capacity [announcement] expansion, new product investments to make, and we look at doing that at the right time. It's a continual cycle. I would say one of the takeaways is it's a continual discussion, but -- and I think we have improved the relationship and both parties work hard to do that. That is not to say that there is not issues that we have got to solve. We are actively working and doing that and using our creative and constructive problem-solving to look at the issues and find the right solution that is going to be good for the Company and help us improve our competitiveness, as well as be something that is good for the workforce. Because the UAW -- as you step back aside from the negotiations, we work jointly together on safety and I think our safety leadership represents that; the quality work we are doing. And we are taking that to the next level.
When you look at the scheming that we have done with our plants to be able to get more midsize trucks and every single full-size truck and SUV out, again that's doing that in partnership. So that is the fundamentals of the relationship. We'll work through the issues. Again, we are constantly talking so it's not as it may have been in the past that it's saving things up for the negotiation. But I don't want to under emphasize that we do have some important work to do and we are on it.

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