By: Tom Edmonds

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July and enjoyed their long weekend.

A lot has happened since my last Searchlight article. One thing of significance was the 39th Constitutional Convention that was held during the week of June 15th through the 18th. I will report and answer questions (to the best of my ability) about changes to the UAW Constitution at the September 13th unit meeting.

The next big topic is our Special Attrition Program (SAP). We had 40+ members sign up and, if we made it through “curtailment,” folks should be getting exit dates next week.

Many key areas in the facility are going to be extremely shorthanded by March of 2028. I hope we can come up with some creative ways to replace manpower before people exit, as to not lose experience and knowledge.

I am happy though for all who were eligible and chose to sign up. Enjoy retirement and go do the things you have always wanted to do.

The workload is mostly the same as of writing this article. The 3rd floor is working on some level of OT, depending on the EOH group.

The machine shop and die assembly areas are in the couple week low at the moment (mostly because they continue to outperform expectations).

Verification has a decent workload, but is getting dies delivered early, as usual.

The toolroom continues to go “gang busters,” like always. They just get whatever work done that gets put in front of them. We are looking at doing some “nontraditional” type of work for when we have lows in the peaks and valleys of our workload.

We have had some apprentices graduate this year, and will have quite a few more later in the year across the three main trades in our building (diemaker, toolmaker, die designer). I will probably compile a list for the year and do a congratulatory write up in the December article.

Anyway, that is all for now. Enjoy your summer, and the good weather.

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