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
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