Friday, August 28, 2015

State of the Union for August 28, 2015

August 28, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

· From Chairman Mike Bullock: The catastrophic breakdown that occurred on Wednesday has caused Wentzville Assembly to lose 28 hours of production as of 6:30am this morning. Management has announced that Sunday August 30th will be scheduled as a mandatory production day due to this breakdown, to make up lost production.
If production resumes today, and if 1st and 3rd shift work 8 hours today and Saturday, Sunday will be double time. If 2nd shift works 8 hours today and Saturday, Sunday will be 5 hours straight time and 3 hours double time plus 5 hours Short Work Week if you have more than 1 year seniority. If this occurs to 2nd shift, the Union is going to write a policy grievance demanding GM compensate 2nd shift employees who do not receive double time for 8 hours on Sunday.
For those employees who are excused in advance for Saturday August 29th, you are also excused for Sunday August 30th. Any questions about double time, short work week or time off should be directed to your committeeman.
Training for the Hourly Communication Channel is taking place before and after all three shifts in the Joint Learning Center at A40. Classroom space is limited, so advance sign up is necessary. Sign-ups are taking place in benefits and suggestions or by calling 636-327-2308.
Eight temporary employees were converted to permanent on August 24th. Congratulations to all! Everyone with hire in date of March 26th and a GMIN beginning with 8178 or lower has been converted. There are 10 temporary employees with 3/26 hire in date still not converted to permanent.
Three employees have accepted a transfer from Wentzville to Bedford, IN. It was great having you as a members of Local 2250 and good luck to you at your new facility.

· Teams Needed: 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 Women’s Committee is also raffling off a hoodie sweatshirt and hoodie lined jacket to raise money for Habitat for Humanity. Tickets are $5 apiece or 3 for $10 and available from committee members. Special thanks to Pat Wyse for donating the sweatshirt and jacket! And speaking of Habitat for Humanity, the next build day for the house in Wentzville is Wednesday, Sept. 16. The time is 8 am to 4 pm. The next stage of the build will be drywall. No walkups will be accepted so please see Becky Schieffer by Friday, Sept. 4 to volunteer. You can drop off your contact information at her desk, which is located at the Suggestions office. The address of the house is: 710 Cheryl Ann Drive, Wentzville, MO 63385.

· There are now 10 walkup computer stations around the plant for you to use to access the Hourly Communication Channel (HCC) to apply for Saturday time off among many other things. They are located at: Y34 and W27 in the van body shop; GG15 and GG27 in the truck body shop; CC40 and CC42 in paint; C46 and C60 in GA and the 2 in the cafeteria.

· From Automotive News: Ford Motor Co. is in discussions with the UAW about bringing the Ranger midsize pickup and Bronco SUV back to the U.S. market, according to a Bloomberg report and a person with knowledge of the talks. The company is considering a plan to build the vehicles at Michigan Assembly Plant near Detroit after production of the Focus and C-Max ends in 2018, the source said. Ford also is considering production of the Bronco SUV at the plant, Bloomberg reported. Ford filed a trademark application for the Bronco name in February, according to a government filing. The proposal, which would need to be approved by Ford’s board of directors, as well as the union, would give the automaker a smaller and less expensive complement to the F-series that it has lacked since discontinuing the U.S. Ranger in 2011. Ford still sells the Ranger in nearly 200 markets overseas. As transaction prices for the F-150 have risen, so has the opportunity for a midsize pickup to fit below the F-150 without detracting from it. Ford and Fiat Chrysler's Ram brand have abandoned the midsize pickup market in recent years, leaving it largely to the Toyota Tacoma and the recently reintroduced Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon. “We will move production of the next-generation Ford Focus and C-MAX, which currently are built at Michigan Assembly Plant, beginning in 2018,” Ford said in an emailed statement Tuesday. “We actively are pursuing future vehicle alternatives to produce at Michigan Assembly and will discuss this issue with UAW leadership as part of the upcoming negotiations.” UAW leaders have said they are confident Ford will continue to operate Michigan Assembly past 2018 with different products. The Ranger likely would not be enough by itself to keep the plant running, meaning other vehicles would need to be assigned to it as well. In order to sell the Ranger in the U.S., Ford would need to build it domestically to avoid the 25 percent tariff on imported trucks known as the chicken tax.

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

Saturday, August 22, 2015

State of the Union for August 22, 2015

August 22, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

The following message is from UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada:

• From the Detroit News: United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams on Wednesday branded Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump “an enemy” of the American middle class, and warned automakers against expanding production outside the United States.
Williams rejected Trump’s suggestion that Detroit’s Big Three automakers move plants to lower-wage parts of the United States. He said that would hurt workers and weaken manufacturing in the industrial Midwest — as would plans to move production from the United States to Mexico.
“I think Donald Trump’s comments demonstrate what’s wrong with this country. I think he is a prime example of why we need a huge change in this country,” Williams told The Detroit News. “His comments about he’s going to make America great one day and then talking about diminishing people’s wages, to find less pay for them, is contradictory and he is an enemy — in my mind — of the middle class. He ought to do what he does best: build hotels.”
In an interview with The News last week, Trump criticized investments by U.S. automakers, especially a $2.5 billion investment by Ford, in Mexico. He suggested automakers could reduce wages and still keep jobs in the U.S. by closing plants in Michigan and moving the work to lower-cost locations in the South.
“You can go to different parts of the United States and then ultimately you’d do full-circle; you’ll come back to Michigan because those guys are going to want their jobs back even if it is less,” Trump told The News. “We can do the rotation in the United States. It doesn’t have to be in Mexico.” After Michigan “loses a couple of plants — all of sudden you’ll make good deals in your own area.”
Williams says Trump is telling automakers “don’t build in Mexico, but go somewhere else where you can find lower wages and take advantage of people. What’s the difference? Philosophically, if we’re going to have a middle class in this country, people have to have disposable incomes; they have to have purchasing power; they have to have a right to buy a house, a car; they’ve got to send their kids to school. There’s a whole lot of things that we ought to be doing as a country, and Donald Trump is not about that.”
Asked about reports that General Motors Co. may export the Chinese-made Buick Envision crossover to the United States, Williams said automakers sometimes “float something out in the media” to gauge reaction of union leaders and members. “I think it was a temperature test.” He said that investments in Mexico announced recently by GM and Ford Motor Co. haven’t helped. “It’s raised the temperature of our members. The bonuses that (executives) get, raises the temperature in the plant — so they haven’t made it easy.”

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

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

State of the Union for August 19, 2015

August 19, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
• From Chairman Mike Bullock: Pursuant to the requirements of the UAW Constitution, it is necessary for all General Motors local unions to take a strike vote. This vote gives the International and Local Negotiating Committee the authorization if needed to present a five (5) day letter of intent to the Corporation. In no way does this mean we are going on strike! This ONLY gives the Bargaining Committee the right to issue a five (5) day letter if the corporation fails to bargain in good faith.
UAW Local 2250’s Strike vote will be taken on Thursday, August 20, 2015, beginning at 4:30 AM and ending at 11:30 PM. You must have your union card or badge to vote. The strike vote will take place at the UAW Local 2250 Union Hall, 1395 E. Pearce Blvd., Wentzville, MO. Strike vote will be made by secret ballot. Please vote to support your Local and National Union.

• Basic computer classes are now forming that will be held on each shift in the Learning Center. Courses include MySocrates, 2-step Verification, Ipay, the new Hourly Communication Channel (HCC), Suggestions and Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). This is a great opportunity to learn how to use HCC to apply for Saturday time off as applications will go paperless soon. You can sign up at the Suggestions office or the Benefits office. A minimum of 4 sign-ups is required to have a class.
Times will be: 3rd Shift: 6:45 am to 7:45 am and 9 pm to 10 pm
1st Shift: 2:45 pm to 3:45 pm and 5 am to 6 am
2nd Shift: 10:45 pm to 11:45 pm and 1 pm to 2 pm
The Learning Center is located on the A-aisle next to Medical.

• From the Detroit Free Press: The UAW is opposed to General Motors importing from China the Buick Envision, a midsize crossover model that it would be able to produce in the U.S. The company declined to comment on its plans to offer the Envision in the U.S. It was launched in China about a year ago and is built at a three-year-old factory in Yantai, China. It is larger than the Buick Encore subcompact crossover and smaller than the Buick Enclave. "It’s doing extremely well in China, but we haven’t made any announcement about bringing it to another market," said Buick spokesman Nick Richards. GM assembles the Encore in Mexico, Spain and South Korea. It produces the Enclave in its Delta Township plant near Lansing. “After the sacrifices made by U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. workforce to make General Motors the profitable quality company it is today, UAW members are disappointed with the tone-deaf speculation that the Envision would be imported from China," said Cindy Estrada, vice president of the UAW General Motors department. "GM should stand by its declaration that it will build where it sells." In her statement, Estrada called the prospect of importing the Envision "especially alarming in light of the current Trans-Pacific Partnership trade language debate."

• Toyota has at long last revealed pricing and specifications about the redesigned Tacoma. Suffice to say that we, and some automotive observers, are underwhelmed at what Toyota has wrought. Let’s start with pricing. The new base Tacoma, a 2 wheel drive, 4 cylinder “access cab” (extended cab - regular cab discontinued) starts at $24,200. This is a significant price increase from the old model and some $3200 higher than the base Colorado. Toyota defends this increase by arguing that base content is higher (it does come with a 6-speed automatic and a gimmicky Go Pro camera mount), but it offers nothing beyond the Colorado. And for that extra coin you get the same outdated 4-cylinder that, at 23 hwy mpg, can’t even match the V6 fuel economy of our pickups, or the Silverado V6 for that matter (from Car and Driver: “Meanwhile, the 2.7-liter four has limped into this program intact. That means 159 rather raucous horsepower and 180 lb-ft of torque at 3800 rpm. Four-cylinder engines don’t get much respect in this truck class, and adding insult to insult, the only manual transmission available with the four is a five-speed”). Did we mention that it continues to be the only pickup of any size that has drum brakes on the rear? And if you’re into nostalgia, you get an old-school C-section frame aft of the engine compartment. Plus a 5-speed manual. Alas, there is no 8-track tape player. But there are 3 fewer inches of rear legroom than the Colorado in the crew cabs. Toyota has an all-new 3.5 liter V6, which produces less horsepower and torque than our V6 and yet gets worse fuel economy (26 hwy Colorado, 24 hwy Tacoma). Toyota has made a calculated decision to target off-roaders with this truck, hence the Go Pro mount and standard 9” of ground clearance on all models. Automotive News noted this, observing “Tacoma proved it was happiest getting dirty….On road, we were less impressed with the harsh ride and noisy interior that couldn't match the refinement of the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon.”

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

Saturday, August 15, 2015

State of the Union August 15, 2015

August 15, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
• Reminder: The annual Union Picnic will be Sunday, August 16 at the Union Hall (1395 East Pearce Blvd., Wentzville). Time is noon to 5:00 pm with activities beginning at 1:00 pm. There will be a professional DJ, a food station including hot dogs and hamburgers, face painting, bounce house and other activities for all ages. There will also be attendance prizes and raffles. Bring a lawn chair and your badge or Union card to get into the picnic.

• Union meetings will be next Wednesday, Aug. 19 at 6:45 am, 2:45 pm and 10:45 pm.

• Attention Bowlers: Anyone interested in bowling in a mixed couples league, consisting of 2 men and 2 women, every Sunday at 6 pm at Frontier Lanes in O’Fallon MO can attend an informational meeting that will be held Sunday, August 16, 6:30 pm at Frontier Lanes. If you have any questions, you can call Chuck Haller at 314-808-8191 or Bill Loretto at 636-699-3532. Come on and join the fun!

• The Women’s Committee will be having a bake sale Monday, August 17 from 5:00 am until sold out. It will be held at the Suggestions Office. Proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity. They are looking for donations of baked goods. You can drop them off at the Suggestions Office.

• Basic computer classes are now forming that will be held on each shift in the Learning Center. Courses include MySocrates, 2-step Verification, Ipay, the new Hourly Communication Channel (HCC), Suggestions and Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). This is a great opportunity to learn how to use HCC to apply for Saturday time off as applications will go paperless soon. You can sign up at the Suggestions office or the Benefits office. A minimum of 4 sign-ups is required to have a class. Times will be 6:45 am to 7:45 am for 3rd shift, 2:45 pm to 3:45 pm for 1st shift and 10:45 pm to 11:45 pm for 2nd shift. The Learning Center is located on the A-aisle next to Medical.

• As is typical during national negotiations, there is virtually no news coming from either side at this point. UAW Vice President/Chrysler department Norwood Jewell released a statement recently that read: "As in prior negotiations, we are faced with some tough challenges. I am confident that with our staff and your elected Negotiating Committee, we will be successful in reaching an Agreement that will make our membership proud. We are very focused on our membership's agenda and have job security at the top of our list, along with bridging the gap between our traditional and entry-level members."

• You may have noticed a lot of flat-bed tractor trailers carrying frames heading west on I-70 lately. What gives? Those are frames for the Ford F-150 being built near Kansas City at the ClayCoMo plant. At only 10 frames per trailer, it obviously takes a lot of trucks to keep the line running. Why not use rail cars like we do? Because frame inventory is so tight that Ford cannot afford to take the extra time to ship them by rail from the Metalsa plant in Kentucky. You see, trucks can get there quicker, even if they can only haul a fraction of what a rail car can. To alleviate the shortage, Ford has taken the unusual step of bringing on a second vendor to produce frames. Michigan based Tower will start delivering frames around October according to reports. There is more to this story than meets the eye, as most people would say that sales are exceeding the supplier’s ability to keep up. But Ford is saying they have not been able to reach full production because of the frame shortage. One thing we know for sure – F-150 sales are down year over year for whatever reason while Silverado sales are up 17.5%. And PickupTrucks.com listed the fastest selling pickups for July (the Colorado crew cab topped the list) and the only F-150 that made the top 10 was the regular cab model, ranked 10th and hinting of fleet sales (has anyone seen a new F-150 regular cab on the road?).

• Tesla recently reported 2nd quarter financial results. We don’t use the word “earnings” because there were none. Of course this is nothing new for a company that sells fewer cars in a quarter than Chevy sells Silverados in a week. Tesla told investors that deliveries for the remainder of the year would be less than previously forecast. That’s probably a good thing, since they lose over $4000 on every car they sell. In the meantime, cash continues to burn at a significant rate. The 2nd quarter saw a $369 million drain, which may not sound like much until you realize Tesla has only $1.15 billion in cash. Simple math tell us that those cash reserves will only last another 3 quarters. What to do? Building more vehicles is not an option until the Model X SUV is ready to launch. The so-called gigafactory going up near Reno must be completed to supply batteries for all these vehicles Tesla claims they will be building by 2020 – 500,000 they say. The obvious answer then is to sell more stock. And sure enough CEO Elon Musk announced a plan to raise $642 million by selling 2.7 million shares of stock for $242 a share. Musk plans on buying 84,000 shares himself, upping his Tesla stake to 22.5% and putting $20 million of his money where his mouth is.
All eyes are now on the launch of the Model X SUV which is designed with vertically opening rear doors called “Falcon doors” (we used to call them gull wing, but that particular bird is too pedestrian for Tesla to use). These doors will prohibit owners from carrying anything on the roof, like kayaks, canoes, surfboards and all the other trappings of typical “active lifestyle’ buyers that Tesla courts. While Tesla claims to have roughly 20,000 orders for the Model X, these actually are not "orders," they're "reservations," which cost $5,000 for your place in line to receive a Model X, currently slated for March 2016 if you order today. When CNBC reporter James Sanford called the sales rep hotline listed on the website, they learned that the "reservation" is fully cancelable and refundable with no penalty. But if you think plunking down 5 grand will give you any insight into the vehicle’s specifications, think again. That will require an actual down payment to buy the vehicle, which you can do later this year. Sanford asked the sales rep what else she could tell him about luggage and recreational item storage and was cut off quickly and reminded "I can’t tell you anything that isn't already on the website."

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

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

State of the Union for August 12, 2015

August 12, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

• The annual Union Picnic will be Sunday, August 16 at the Union Hall (1395 East Pearce Blvd., Wentzville). Time is noon to 5:00 pm with activities beginning at 1:00 pm. There will be a professional DJ, a food station including hot dogs and hamburgers, face painting, bounce house and other activities for all ages. There will also be attendance prizes and raffles. Bring a lawn chair and your badge or Union card to get into the picnic.

• Attention Bowlers: Anyone interested in bowling in a mixed couples league, consisting of 2 men and 2 women, every Sunday at 6 pm at Frontier Lanes in O’Fallon MO can attend an informational meeting that will be held Sunday, August 16, 6:30 pm at Frontier Lanes. If you have any questions, you can call Chuck Haller at 314-808-8191 or Bill Loretto at 636-699-3532. Come on and join the fun!

• Teams Needed: 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 Women’s Committee will be having a bake sale Monday, August 17 from 5:00 am until sold out. It will be held at the Suggestions Office. Proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity. They are looking for donations of baked goods. You can drop them off at the Suggestions Office.

• Basic computer classes are now forming that will be held on each shift in the Learning Center. Courses include MySocrates, 2-step Verification, Ipay, the new Hourly Communication Channel (HCC), Suggestions and Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). You can sign up at the Suggestions office or the Benefits office. A minimum of 4 sign-ups is required to have a class. Times will be 6:45 am to 7:45 am for 3rd shift, 2:45 pm to 3:45 pm for 1st shift and 10:45 pm to 11:45 pm for 2nd shift. The Learning Center is located on the A-aisle next to Medical.

Here is a look at future Chevrolet/GMC truck plans from Automotive News:
Trax: While the U.S. version is less than one year old, the subcompact crossover's styling dates back three years to its overseas launch. Chevy is likely to revise the front fascia for the 2017 model year to bring its face in line with the rest of the portfolio. Expect a redesign by early 2019. Small GMC crossover?: GM officials have said they're looking at a GMC crossover in the same petite package as the Chevy Trax and Buick Encore, which both are based on GM's global subcompact architecture. Some industry insiders say such a vehicle has been greenlighted; others say nothing has been confirmed. This spring, GM filed to trademark the name "Granite," which was the name given to a small GMC crossover concept that GM showed at the 2010 Detroit auto show. Stay tuned.

Equinox/Terrain: The long-awaited redesign of GM's popular crossovers is slated to begin production in early 2017, as a 2017 or 2018 model. The vehicles will shrink a bit as they move to GM's global compact platform, which also underpins several high-volume cars, including the Chevy Cruze and Buick Verano. A strong possibility for the base engine is the 1.5-liter, four-cylinder turbo that will serve as the base powerplant in the '16 Malibu. Other engine prospects include a 2.0-liter turbo -- also to be offered on the Malibu -- and a naturally aspirated, 2.5-liter four-cylinder. A hybrid model could be added as well. The optional 3.6-liter V-6 will be dropped and is unlikely to be replaced by any six-banger.

Midsize crossover: The downsizing of the Equinox creates space in Chevy's showroom for a new midsize crossover, which will fit between the Equinox and the full-size Traverse. The crossover will line up against the Ford Edge, Hyundai Santa Fe Sport and Nissan Murano. It's unclear what Chevy will name the vehicle, which is targeted for an on-sale date in the second half of 2017. It is based on the same platform as the 2016 Cadillac XT5 (former SRX) and the next generation of the GMC Acadia, which will shrink in size from the current one.

Acadia: Production of the smaller Acadia is set for mid-2016 at GM's Spring Hill, Tenn., plant, replacing its decade-old predecessor. It will continue to feature a third row despite the downsizing. Engine possibilities include a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder turbo and a clean-sheet redesign of the 3.6-liter V-6 used in today's Acadia. The older version, built at a GM plant in Lansing, Mich., could stay in production for several months following the arrival of the redesign.

Traverse: The second generation of Chevy's large crossover is scheduled for a mid-2017 on-sale date, as a 2018 model. The base engine is likely to be a new 3.6-liter V-6, a more powerful and fuel-efficient version of its current engine.

Tahoe/Suburban/ Yukon/ Yukon XL: GM's eight- and 10-speed transmissions are likely to migrate across the lineups of the big SUVs over the next two years. Refreshes are likely in 2017 for the 2018 model year. A move to a new truck platform is likely in 2019, after the rollout of GM's next-generation Silverado and Sierra.

Colorado/Canyon: Models of the midsize pickups equipped with a 2.8-liter, Duramax four-cylinder turbodiesel are scheduled to arrive in showrooms this fall. The addition of an off-road ZR2 model is a good bet, possibly as a 2017 model.

Silverado 1500/Sierra 1500: A face lift of GM's highest-volume U.S. vehicle line is slated to arrive in the fourth quarter for the 2016 model year, an effort to energize the trucks' exterior styling. In 2017, GM is expected to add the 10-speed, rwd transmission that it has been co-developing with Ford across some of its pickup portfolio.

The pickups are scheduled to move to a new platform in late 2018 or early 2019. GM is expected to use aluminum for the hood, doors and liftgate to cut weight, but it likely will not go as far as Ford, which also uses the lighter-weight material for the bed of the F-150. GM is considering use of an air suspension system, similar to the one used in the Ram pickup, sources have said.

Silverado 2500/Sierra 2500: Recent spy shots showed refreshed exteriors of the heavy-duty pickups, with restyled grilles and revamped hoods. Those are likely to appear in 2016. The trucks should move to a redesigned platform within a year of the light-duty counterparts, sometime in 2019.

City Express: Chevy launched the small van in November. It is a rebadged version of Nissan's NV200. Express/Savana: GM remains the only major player in the fleet space that has not replaced its aging full-size cargo van with a more-efficient, European-derived model. There doesn't appear to be any near-term change to the plan.

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

Saturday, August 8, 2015

State of the Union August 8, 2015

State of the Union

August 8, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com

• The annual Union Picnic will be Sunday, August 16 at the Union Hall (1395 East Pearce Blvd., Wentzville). Time is noon to 5:00 pm with activities beginning at 1:00 pm. There will be a professional DJ, a food station including hot dogs and hamburgers, face painting, bounce house and other activities for all ages. There will also be attendance prizes and raffles. Bring a lawn chair and your badge or Union card to get into the picnic.

• Attention Bowlers: Anyone interested in bowling in a mixed couples league, consisting of 2 men and 2 women, every Sunday at 6 pm at Frontier Lanes in O’Fallon MO can attend an informational meeting that will be held Sunday, August 16, 6:30 pm at Frontier Lanes. If you have any questions, you can call Chuck Haller at 314-808-8191 or Bill Loretto at 636-699-3532. Come on and join the fun!

• Car and Driver is reporting that the rumored production of the Hyundai Santa Cruz unibody pickup is getting closer to being a reality. You may recall that the concept truck (if you can call it that) was unveiled at the Detroit auto show in January. Encouraged by the “good response” Hyundai began studying the possibility of production. Stymied by the 25% tariff on imported trucks known as the “chicken tax” (the same tax that protects our truck market and the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement looks to eliminate), Hyundai is looking at building a second US assembly plant to produce SUVs and possibly the Santa Cruz. From Car and Driver: According to Hyundai Motor America’s CEO, Dave Zuchowski, the U.S. Hyundai team expects the Santa Cruz to be approved by the Korean mother ship this November. The overwhelmingly positive public reaction to the Santa Cruz helped Hyundai America build the case, and the automaker’s shifting of several manufacturing facilities from building cars to building crossovers (and additional factories sprouting up globally) will help carve out the necessary production capacity.

• From the Detroit Free Press: The UAW knows Ford is earning record profits in North America, but does not plan to use that as an opportunity to extract unreasonable raises in contract discussions this year. UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles said Thursday the union needs to remember that the companies that employ union members must be able to remain healthy for years to come. "What we do is negotiate smart. We don’t negotiate for today. We negotiate for the future," Settles said Thursday evening. "We are not negotiating to try to put anybody out of business." Settles said the UAW also must remember that the automotive industry goes in boom-and-bust cycles. "I am saying that we (will) negotiate smart," Settles said. The UAW formally began contract talks with the Detroit Three last month. Since then, Settles said the UAW and Ford have been making progress on a number of issues in committee sessions that often start at 6 a.m. and go all day. "In our negotiations with Ford we deal with small (issues) ...and then we move up," Settles said. "We are at -- I call it the honeymoon stage -- we are getting the low-hanging fruit."

• We’ve all heard rumors that the Chevy Trailblazer SUV, which is built and sold overseas on the Colorado platform, will be produced here sometime in the future. But this is looking less likely in the near term. Automotive News reports that General Motors plans to add a new Chevy crossover that will be slotted above the compact Equinox and below the full-size Traverse, according to three people familiar with the plan. And it will require GM to make some adjustments. Step one will be to downsize the popular Equinox. It will shrink a bit when the next generation appears in early 2017, shifting to the same global compact platform that will underpin the redesigned Chevy Cruze and Opel Astra cars, due out early next year.
That creates more room for the new three-row crossover to slide in between the Equinox and the Traverse, which also is scheduled for a redesign, in mid-2017. The new vehicle will be a short-wheelbase version of the Traverse, the sources said. It's unclear what the three-row vehicle will be named when it goes on sale, tentatively scheduled for the second half of 2017, the sources said. A GM spokesman declined to comment. The shorter wheelbase also will underpin the successor to the Cadillac SRX, called XT5, when it arrives by next spring. And it will serve as the bones for the next-gen GMC Acadia, which will shrink to a three-row midsize when it is launched in mid-2016, the sources said. The Traverse and Buick Enclave will remain full size. It's unclear whether GMC will continue to offer a large crossover based on that same platform after the Acadia scales down. Cadillac won't use that platform for a full-size crossover that it's working on, two of the sources said.

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

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

State of the Union August 5, 2015

August 5, 2015 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
• From Chairman Mike Bullock: Nine temporary employees were converted 8/3/2015. The last one had a 3/26/2015 hire in date with GMIN of 492053432.
Congratulations to the winners of Tuesday’s elections:

Shop district 1-1 alternate committeeman - Dave Wruck
Shop district 1-4 alternate committeeman - Doug Deaton
District 1-5 committeeman - Jon Daugherty
District 2-2 committeeman - Kevin Gilmore
District 2-3 alternate committeeman - Ryan Ely
District 2-4 committeeman - Rick Edmiston
District 2-4 alternate committeeman - Karl “Big C” Wagner
Shop district 2-5 alternate committeeman - Donavin Williams
Shop district 3-1 committeeman - Walt “Kujo” Kujawa
Shop district 3-1 alternate committeeman - Bobby Harris
District 3-3 committeeman - Mike “Big Z” Prescott
District 3-3 alternate committeeman - Nick Miller
District 3-4 alternate committeeman - Tod Colbert
District 3-5 committeeman - Dan Maquire
District 3-5 alternate committeeman - Kurt Lett

• 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.

• July was another strong month for auto sales. It’s beginning to look like this year will be the best since 2001. Here is how the van and midsize pickup segments fared:

  2015 2014 Change Share
Ford Transit 8025 --- --- 35.1%
GM 6304 11466 -45% 27.6%
Ford Econoline 3337 9040 -63% 14.6%
Mercedes Sprinter 2163 2214 -2.3% 9.4%
Ram ProMaster 1533 1217 +24% 6.7%
Nissan NV 1526 1230 +25% 6.7%
      Change Share
Toyota Tacoma 17033 13249 +28.6% 54.8%
Chevy Colorado 7209 --- ---- 23.2%
Nissan Frontier 4194 5797 -27.7% 13.5%
GMC Canyon 2654 --- ---- 8.5%


• Field supplies are starting to move up for both the van and the pickups. Colorado supplies, while still the lowest of any GM product, have gone from 17 days to 20 days. At 5645, they are still just a fraction of Silverado supplies, which stand at 95,265 (good for 58 days and right in the sweet spot). Canyon supplies inched up to 39 days from last month’s 35 day supply. Van supplies are also recovering, but still 2350 below last July’s level. They stand at 46 days.

• Getting back to 2001 sales, it’s interesting to look at how some of the products sold then. Silverado sales topped 700,000 for the year as GM sold nearly 980,000 full size pickups. Combined sales of the S-10 and Sonoma pickups was 204,243, and that was down from 262,680 in 2000. GM sold over 567,000 full size SUVs and 134,688 full size vans. Oddly enough, in 2001 GM had 27 car nameplates that averaged 4840 sales each. This year, GM has 16 car nameplates that average 4861 sales each, virtually the same and despite the fact that Cruze and Malibu handily outsell their ancestors. Overall GM sold 4.9 million vehicles in North America in 2001. This year at the current rate GM will sell just over 3 million vehicles in the US. What’s missing? Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab for starters. They accounted for 1.08 million sales. GM also sold over 174,000 minivans. And almost 78,000 Astro/Safari vans. What else is missing? Assembly plants in Janesville, Moraine, Wilmington, Baltimore, Linden, Pontiac, Oklahoma City, Shreveport and Doraville.

• Negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership got beached in Hawaii last week as disputes over autos, generic drugs and dairy flummoxed participants. Here’s hoping these rifts continue to grow. According to the Wall Street Journal, current and former officials concede that it is now unlikely the TPP can be completed and voted on in Congress this year as the Obama administration hoped, before the peak of a presidential campaign that is already highlighting objections to the deal from unions, environmental groups and some conservatives. Election cycles in Canada and Japan, and ultimately in the US, promise to muddy the waters further.
The cars fight pits the countries that signed Nafta more than two decades ago—the U.S., Canada and Mexico—against Japan, whose car industry uses a broad supply chain, sourcing parts from Thailand and other countries not involved in the TPP talks. The Nafta rules require that cars have over three-fifths of their content originating in North America in order to cross the borders duty free. But Japan’s auto makers want to be able to source a greater proportion of parts outside the TPP under the bloc’s rules of origin. Mexico, which is emerging as a global automotive leader, will continue to fight for its interests on automobiles, said Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy minister, at the closing news conference on Maui. Michigan Rep. Sander Levin, along with the Detroit auto makers and a host of other lawmakers, is calling for the TPP to crack down on currency manipulation.

• Speaking of Japanese currency manipulation, Toyota reported record profits for the April-June quarter of $5.2 billion. This despite lower sales in Japan and Asia in general, with VW now the #1 automaker by sales. Credit the cheap yen, which turned what would’ve been a reduction in operating profit to a new record. Toyota concedes that for every one yen loss against the dollar, they realize a $320 million gain. This free money is not available to companies like our own. You may remember that before the Japanese government embarked on a program to weaken the yen it was trading around 85 to the dollar. Japanese auto executives argued then that an exchange rate of 100 yen to the dollar was fair. Well now the yen is at 123, which means $7.6 billion of free profit for Toyota. That illustrates just how important it is for the TPP to be scuttled.

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