MARK YOUR CALENDARS

November 16, 22, 23  - Office Closed

November 21              - Cap Tickets Due

 November 28-29         - Blood Drive

November 29              - Salvation Army Collection

                                      Before and After Shifts 

December 3                 - Giving Tree Gift Deadline 

December 3-7              - Food Drive 

December 6                 -  Retirees Christmas Dinner

 December 9                 - Christmas Party at Studio 28   

  A-K 3:30  L-Z 12:00

  Movie is Fred Claus. 

December 11               - Lost Time Vouchers Due

 December 14               -  Cap Drawing at Region 1D 

December 17               -  Quilt Raffle Drawing

 December 18               -  Membership Meetings

-          Local Cap Drawing

 December 21               -  Last day; Happy Holidays

 January 2                     -  Return to work.

STANDING COMMITTEE PROJECTS

Civil Rights                  - Quilt Raffle

 Citizenship/Legislative - 50/50 Raffle

 Community Service     -  Giving Tree  

-  Stuff the Turkey

-  Blood Drive

Veterans Committee    - Warm Clothing Drive

  for Homeless Veterans

 Recreation Committee - Food Drive

                                    - Christmas Party (Movie)

CONGRATULATIONS

Tom Williams is a Local 730 retiree and was selected as the recipient of this year’s Region 1D Retirees’ Excellence Award.  Tom works very hard and is very dedicated to his wife, family, church, community, as well as, our Region 1D and Local 730 Retirees Chapter. 

FRIENDLY REMINDER

Any Local 730 members having lost time before Friday, December 21, please turn in your lost time voucher by 12 noon Tuesday, December 11.  The last payroll for 2007 will be run on Wednesday, December 12, so checks can be ready for distribution before the holiday vacation.  The office will be closed December 22 thru January 1.

UAW PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL

All members were encouraged to participate in the UAW Presidential Straw Poll held November 8 at the Region 1D office.  Before the poll was taken, a short video developed especially for the UAW featuring the presidential candidates discussing their platforms and positions on labor issues was shown followed by the balloting.  The results, along with those from other UAW Regions, will be compiled and will determine who the UAW will endorse.

US TRADE

AFL-CIO head John Sweeney has called for regulations implemented among employers globally to stop the U.S. from losing jobs because of unfair trade practices.  “We know that globalization is here to stay, but it doesn’t have to be called survival.  It doesn’t work right when corporations are free to pillage the world for cheaper and cheaper labor, slave labor, child labor.  Sweeney singled out China accusing communist country of employing environmental practices that are globally unsustainable, routinely violating workers’ rights and manipulating its currency.  We need new global rules to prevent that.  It affects us all when a major economy pulls down standards and we need to use the enormous bargaining power of US trade to prevent that.” 

-Continued-

A leveling global playing field was one task Sweeney said must be done to “make America work for working people.” 

LABOR PRODUCTIVITY

The United States leads the world in labor productivity due to longer hours put in by US workers compared to other developed countries according to a new report issued by the United Nations International Labor Organization.

One reason the United States comes out higher is that working hours are longer.  The average US worker clocked in 1804 hours on the job in 2006, well above those of other developed countries such as France (1564 hours per worker), Germany (1436 hours) and the United Kingdom (1669 hours). 

The International Labor Organization warned that the gap in productivity between developed and developing country workers continue to widen, with notable exception of the Asian region.

REUTHER’S BARGAINING PHILOSOPHY

I would like to share with you the following excerpt of an article that UAW President Walter Reuther wrote in 1964 for the Virginia Law Review that still pertains today.

“All industries and all companies within an industry do not enjoy the same economic advantages and profit ratios.  We cannot blind ourselves to this fact at the bargaining table.  If the employer prospers, we expect a fair share, and if he faces hard times, we expect to cooperate. 

Our basic philosophy toward employers we meet at the bargaining table is that we have a great deal more in common than we have in conflict, and that instead of waging a struggle to divide up scarcity, we ought to find ways of cooperating to create abundance and then intelligently find a way to share in that abundance. 

Moreover, the UAW bargaining demands are also geared to the needs of the public.  Our union decided long ago that we could not move ahead at the expense of the community.  We want settlements based on economic facts, not economic power.”

I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Barb Henderson

President

Local 730, UAW