June 2024

I hope you all get a chance to enjoy some time off during the summer; Michigan is truly amazing this time of year!

Local 602 is in the strange position of having layoffs and hiring at the same time. As you all know, layoffs seem to be part of the job in the auto industry. I hope that GM will start to understand that we can avoid some of these supply chain issues by bringing work back to the United States instead of trying to ship parts from all over the world to Lansing. I know you have heard this before but American workers shouldn’t have to hope that parts from one part of the world get shipped to another part of the world to get packaged and sent to Michigan in time for us to build a car, what a joke! On a more positive note, GM has been hiring new workers so that we can start a third shift. Four thousand people applied for around 600 jobs at LDT! I explain to each group of new hires that the ground work for these new hires to get hired in off the street has been years in the making. The long road from bankruptcy time frame to now has been filled with battles and strikes making the new starting wage structure and benefits package possible for this incredible opportunity. I tell them “we have been fighting for you years before we ever get the chance to meet you!”

A few day before Memorial Day UAW local 602 held a VFW Buddy poppy drive at the LDT plant gates. Even with a shift on layoff LDT workers donated nearly three thousand dollars! If you have not heard of the VFW poppy program it provides compensation to those who assemble the poppies, provides financial assistance in maintaining state and national veterans' rehabilitation and service programs and partially supports the VFW National Home. I think it is a very fitting way to start the Memorial day weekend, thank you to Veterans Chair Bernadine Ross, the entire local 602 Veterans committee, everyone that helped with the collection and everyone that donated. It was a special honor to have Bill Ames a Vietnam War Veteran and Marvin Moorehouse a World War II Veteran Join us at LDT to pick up the donations, thank you to both of these heroes and to all of our Veterans!

In Solidarity,

Mike