By: Duane Ballard

Greetings Brothers and Sisters,

With spring right around the corner, it is time for the Local’s Annual Conservation Dinner. There are still spots available for single tickets and it would be great to see you there.

Our funds from previous dinners have grown and we are presently putting together a plan to put up a pavilion at the site where we have our annual Free Kids Outdoor Day. The dinner is a great time and there are plenty of prizes to go around. The tickets are $75.00 and it comes with a year membership to United Sportsman Alliance, a delicious dinner with refreshments, and a great time, with chances to win guns and other outdoor equipment.

I mentioned the pavilion at Blue Gill Landing will be used for the free kids’ day and other outdoor events with Genesee County parks. We set up a time frame to get this done before the kids event. We are looking at the May time frame to have it finished before our June event.

I need some serious help from the membership on this one. This will be done with all volunteer work from our membership. I have also contacted a couple of trades unions to help with the project. These locales include Flint, which trade unions include IBEW and Sheet Metal Workers. Hopefully, this will help get this project done in a couple weekends.

If you are interested, please contact me to get on the list to help. No one will be denied. Let’s show the area what UAW Local 659 can accomplish for the community when we all work together.

I want to congratulate all of our GM members on the record-breaking profit sharing they are to receive at the end of this month. This was accomplished because of the hard work members put in and the work and quality effort done inside our facilities.

My honest belief is that all units that supply or helps with the product that GM puts out should be part of this profit, but with individual contracts at our suppliers and our service units (i.e. sanitation), it just is not that way. My hope for the future is this is something that can be negotiated within these individual contracts and that one day it will be a possibility for them.

To remind the GM folks, when you get this in your pay, there is a special assessment that comes out to $208.80. This is a small price to pay for receiving a good lump sum.

When you look at that check stub, remind yourself to look at all your stubs. It has been while since I mentioned it, but everyone needs to be doing this every week. Do not rust any company to pay or deduct correctly all the time. Remember, it is your money. You earned it. Make sure they pay you what you are owed, what you want deducted, an that your dues are being taken out.

As I sit here and write this article, the weather is calling for 6-10 inches of snow. The older I get, the less I like winter, but I know I have to deal with it for a couple months. However, winter is a perfect time to get kids outdoors. If you notice, they don’t complain about the cold as much as we do. What I would give to be that age again and not have the cold bother me as much.

My advice is to bundle up, in layers, and grab that sled that has been hanging in your garage, grab a kid, find a hill and enjoy. Even though we are older, I’ll bet if you hopped on the sled, you would bring back memories and totally enjoy it. Take the time and get a child outdoors, so they can recall those memories one day.