Site won’t be updated while I’m gone. On a long needed vaction. It’s been 2 years since my wife and I have had one. The website won’t be updated from July 5 – 10, but I’ll back log the news when I get back. When you are here, don’t forget to visit our sponsors and keep us going strong. [...]

July 5, 2008 CAW Candidate Slams Hargrove Succession Plan by Tony Van Alphen/The Toronto Star A candidate for one of the two top leadership posts with the Canadian Auto Workers says she’s received high-level pressure to support a so-called “team” that doesn’t include her. Carol Phillips, who wants to become the CAW’s next national secretary-treasurer, confirmed yesterday that some [...]

July 4, 2008 Wobbly Shares Of GM Recover Slightly by Katie Merx/The Detroit Free Press Analyst calls cash level manageable. Shares of General Motors Corp. rebounded by 1.4% to $10.12 Thursday from a Wednesday low not seen since 1954 as an analyst waved off the threat of bankruptcy but said the automaker may need to raise $10 billion to [...]

July 4, 2008 NLRB Says Foxwoods Union Vote Stands Up by Heather Allen/The Day News Mashantuckets again defy ruling, set sights on U.S. Court of Appeals. The National Labor Relations Board released a long-awaited decision Thursday, certifying a union election held at Foxwoods Resort Casino in which a majority of table-games dealers voted in favor of representation by the [...]

July 4, 2008 Ford Truck Plant To Lose Shift by Jere Downs/The Courier-Journal Layoffs will affect some 300 workers. Ford Motor Co. will take the Kentucky Truck Plant from three shifts to two by late next month, resulting in layoffs of at least 300 United Auto Workers members, company spokeswoman Angie Kozleski said yesterday. “We told employees this morning of [...]

July 3, 2008 The Struggles Of Detroit Ensnare Its Workers by Tim Parker/The New York Times A Chrysler plant near St. Louis is expecting layoffs. “We’d been led to believe we’d have a future.” JOE WILSON A worker at Chrysler’s minivan plant in Fenton, Mo., for 14 years. With more than 15 of their assembly plants across the country set [...]

July 3, 2008 Thoughts Turn To Life After Chrysler Layoff by Christopher Boyce/The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Scott Crawford knows there is life after the auto industry. He was laid off in March 2006 after working 12 years at the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in Hazelwood. Crawford accepted a severance package and, in August 2006, opened Little Shop of [...]

July 3, 2008 Embezzler Must Pay Back $41,000 To UAW by Rebecca S. Green/The Journal Gazette Ex-union official put on 2 years’ probation. A former United Auto Workers official was ordered to pay back more than $41,000 he admitted embezzling from the union. Norman K. Brown pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne to a single [...]

July 3, 2008 Ford’s Truck Plant To Lose Jobs by Jere Downs/The Courier-Journal Local UAW members will receive bulletin today. As the bottom falls out of the market for pickup trucks, more job cuts are afoot at Ford Motor Co.’s Kentucky Truck Plant on Chamberlain Lane. But Ford officials aren’t talking about how many workers will be furloughed or how [...]

July 3, 2008 UAW Fights To Keep Good-Paying Auto Jobs by Ron Gettelfinger/The United Auto Workers International President Rebuttal James Harbour, who attacks members of our union for exercising their democratic rights, built a lucrative business as a manufacturing consultant (“UAW gives comfort to Big 3 competitors,” June 26). Harbour is now retired—but just imagine his reaction if one of [...]

July 2, 2008 Roles Shift For Chrysler Executives by Tim Higgins/The Detroit Free Press Retirement, departures lead to new appointments. Nancy Rae, Chrysler’s top human resource and corporate communications executive, is gaining more clout in yet another executive shakeup at the Auburn Hills automaker. Rae has been appointed executive vice president of human resources and communications and will lead the [...]

July 2, 2008 Narcissism, Nepotism And Greed At American Axle by Alex Taylor III/CNN News If you need another reason why Detroit is in trouble, take a look at Dick Dauch’s American Axle. More than two decades ago, Fortune wrote admiringly about Chrysler’s Dick Dauch, the muscle-bound manufacturing boss who was pounding his factories into industry-leading shape. His bruising [...]

July 2, 2008 Hargrove’s Coming Retirement From The CAW Sparks Showdown Over Successor by Tony Van Alphen/The Canadian News The Canadian Auto Workers union is heading for a showdown over who will replace president Buzz Hargrove. Hargrove has called early meetings of the CAW’s national executive board, top administrators and senior staff for next Tuesday to debate and endorse [...]

July 2, 2008 Trump Plaza Tells Dealers It Won’t Bargain With UAW by The Press Of Atlantic City Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino has told the union that has earned the right to represent its dealers the casino won’t be coming to the bargaining table. A Trump Plaza spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the casino has declined to bargain with [...]

July 2, 2008 Details Of Ford Kentucky Truck Job Cuts Due Tomorrow by Jere Downs/The Courier-Journal As the bottom falls out of the market for pickup trucks, more job cuts are afoot at the Ford Motor Co.’s Kentucky Truck Plant on Chamberlain Lane. But Ford officials aren’t talking about how many workers will be furloughed or how much production [...]

July 2, 2008 VEBA Ruling Due In Month by The Detroit Free Press Chrysler LLC said a judge will decide in August whether to grant approval for the automaker to establish a $9.75-billion retiree health care trust fund negotiated with the UAW last year. Chrysler had its final hearing before U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland on Monday in Detroit. [...]

July 2, 2008 Nearly 200 Laid Off At BorgWarner by The Muncie Gannett Nearly half of the hourly workforce at BorgWarner Automotive’s local plant has been laid off in what some workers believe is the beginning of the end for the plant, which is already scheduled to shut down no later than April 2009. The layoff of 193 workers [...]

July 2, 2008 Auto Sales Worst In 15 Years by Sarah A. Webster/The Detroit Free Press Companies say rest of ‘08 looks shaky as they try to meet call for small cars. The sour U.S. economy—dragged down by anxious consumers and deep-seated problems in the housing, credit and energy sectors—gave Detroit’s automakers and most of their competitors a bloodbath [...]

July 1, 2008 American Axle CEO’s Reward For Slashing Wages—$8.5 Million Bonus by Jerry White/The World Socialist Website American Axle CEO Richard Dauch was awarded an $8.5 million bonus for defeating the three-month strike by 3,650 auto workers and successfully imposing deep wage and benefit cuts on the company’s hourly workforce, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission [...]