At the General Membership Meeting on Sunday February 21, I announced that I will be convening a Local 245 Constitutional Convention Committee to prepare for the UAW Constitutional Convention that will occur in Detroit on June 14-18, 2010. Due to the importance of this years convention I feel it necessary to go above and beyond to give each member an opportunity to have their concerns heard. This is a committee that will bring ideas from each unit together to be discussed and have that information shared with the elected delegates and taken to the Convention. I expect this committee to meet three times before the June Convention. If you are interested in participating please email president@local245.com or call me at 313-561-7500.
Local 245 is allotted 5 elected Delegates (3 from R&E and 2 from all other units) and they will be elected in a special election on April 14, 2010.
We are also at this time accepting resolutions for the convention. Resolutions must be based on something you would like modified or changed in the blue UAW Constitution book. All resolutions must be to Local 245 Headquarters by Sunday March 21 in time for discussion and vote at the General Membership Meeting.

Last week I had the privilege of attending the 2010 Census Kickoff in Detroit. I wanted to relay some of the information to each of you to prepare you for the census itself and to remind you of the importance of this questionnaire. I have included a list of ways that the census data is used for on the back of this communication.
The US Constitution requires a national census once every ten years to count the population and determine the number of seats each state will have in the US House of Representatives. More importantly the data is also used to determine federal funding for community services such as school lunch programs, senior services and new construction for highways and hospitals. The census bureau is reaching out to all organizations including labor for their assistance in this year’s census.
The census will be conducted again this year with questionnaires being mailed to families in March by US Mail or by being hand delivered. Each census will have ten questions pertaining to your household.
It is important to note that this information is confidential among the Census Bureau and an individual’s responses cannot be shared by law with anyone, including other federal agencies and law enforcement entities.
I also wanted to inform you of the potential job opportunities that the Census can provide with wages ranging from $8.25 to $19.50. If you know of anyone that is searching for work the census does provide temporary job opportunities. We have been told to have interested parties call 1-866-861-2010 or log on to the web and go to www.2010censusjobs.gov to apply.
Finally I have copies of what the census will look like as well as other literature and information available at the local if anyone is interested. If you wish to view this information on the web go to www.census.gov/2010census As always if there are questions or comments feel free to contact me at the local.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

On January 20, 2010 we attended the UAW National Ford Council Meetings in Detroit and voted overwhelmingly to support Vice President King’s recommendation to file policy grievances in every UAW Ford and ACH bargaining unit signed by every member protesting Ford’s recent announcement to restore certain non represented salary compensation and benefit programs. Vice President King reported that top UAW leaders had immediately protested Ford’s announcement and have held numerous meetings expressing our strong disagreement and anger over the announcement.
We are outraged that after UAW members have sacrificed so much to keep Ford viable that Ford would so irresponsibly violate the terms of the letters of understanding in the 2007 UAW Ford National Collective Bargaining Agreement and the 2009 Modification dealing with Equality of Sacrifice.
The UAW and Ford have accomplished important goals by working together. Most importantly though our collective bargaining efforts we have kept numerous plants open and put major investment and products in our plants in the Untied States when other auto companies were closing multiple plants and shipping work to countries outside of the United Sates. Many communities have been saved by our members’ sacrifices to keep products and investment here in the U.S.
Also through the great work ethic and cooperation of our UAW Ford members working with Ford management at both the plant and National level the Quality of Ford products has risen to the best in the industry. The fact that we were able to accomplish dramatic improvements in quality at the same time we were going through tremendous churning of the workforce due to the retirement and buyouts is unprecedented in any industry and a huge tribute to the UAW Ford hourly members who accomplished this in their day to day work.
We cannot allow Ford to make the huge mistake of undermining the morale of the most important players in their path to recovery. Alan Mulally has led this recovery under the theme of One Ford, One Team, One Goal. It is a flagrant violation of the language and principles of the UAW Ford Contract and ill advised in the midst of this recovery to restore the compensation and benefit programs for one group without equitable restoration to all.

We are asking every member to stand in Solidarity and sign the policy grievance protesting Fords flagrant contract violations!

In Solidarity,



Rodney Clemons Keith Brown
R&E Chairman President

There will be a Special General Membership Meeting on Monday January 25, 2010 at Local 245. The meeting should be brief, will begin at 2:30 pm and be primarily for the purposes of swearing in new Executive Board Officers and R&E Unit representatives. Hope to see you there...

UNOFFICIAL ELECTION RESULTS

EXECUTIVE BOARD

VICE PRESIDENT:

Kim Moore 368

Art Antal Jr. 263

GUIDE:

Jim Bell Jr. 382

Scott Abernathy 213


RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING UNIT:

BARGAINING COMMITTEEMAN:

Paul Vergari 247

Chris Danish 121

Art Antal Jr. 120


COMMITTEEMAN at LARGE:

Joe Rencsok 310

Ali Shareef 170

Today is ELECTION DAY at Local 245! Please remember to VOTE!! Ballot boxes will be traveling to off site locations and outside units. Thank you in advance for coming out and to all the candidates for their efforts!!
VOTE!!!! VOTE!!!

Greetings Members and Retirees!
We are currently asking for members and retirees to volunteer to stand in solidarity with brothers and sisters from both Region 1 and Region 1-A as we picket the North American International Auto Show in Detroit! We will be picketing Toyota after their harsh decision to idle the California NUMMI plant which was a joint venture between GM and Toyota with its workforce being UAW members. These members are going to be out of a job due to this unnecessary action by Toyota. As a result Vice President Jimmy Settles is asking brothers and sisters across the country to picket Toyota at all Major US auto shows throughout the year! You will be asked to volunteer in a 2.5 hour time slot on Saturday January 16, Sunday January 17 or Monday January 18, 2010. Please call Local 245 at 313-561-7500 for further questions and information or to volunteer! I look forward to seeing you at Cobo!