By: Alex Ortiz

I hope everyone had a safe 4th of July holiday. Summer is in full swing and that means the UAW Summer School at Black Lake is upon us. All of our delegates should have been notified by the time this Searchlight is published.

Your UAW 659 Executive Board has allotted 2 delegates per Bargaining Unit. The selections were up to the Chairpersons to decide, but I stressed that if you were selected to attend, you should be expected to attend your monthly Unit meetings and give a report about what you learned.

If you didn’t get selected but would like to attend in the future, make a point of going to your Unit meetings. Attending your Unit meetings is where you learn about what your representatives are doing for you and how our Union works.

Again, our Regular Unit meetings and Joint Council have been cancelled for the summer. The Executive Board continues the regular business of the Union Hall. The business and expenditures will be presented to the membership for approval in September.

On June 26th, the Retiree Chapter invited the Retiree Benefit Trust to present information about the new HRA of $600 for General Motors retirees. The representative gave a detailed explanation of what expenses the HRA could be used for. The debit cards and explanation packets were sent out at different times. If you threw out the cards, you may request them by calling the Trust HRA Benefit (WEX) at 844-440-4300 or online at benefitslogin.wexhealth.com to log in.

If you don’t have a computer, you can use a mobile phone by installing their mobile app for Apple or Android phones.

Please understand that this benefit is in addition to the OTC (CVS) benefit cards that GM retirees should have already. If you have additional questions, please reach out to our benefit representatives here at the hall. There is a schedule on page 4 of the Searchlight showing the date and times they are available.

Just to inform the membership, we are going to be moving some of Local 659’s money into some short- and medium-term certificate investments. We can increase the return by over 4% and still retain the ability to access the funds if needed.

Your elected officials are constantly looking for ways to save and be smart with our memberships’ dues money. We have reviewed our insurance on the building, looked at all the contracts we have with vendors and even use programmable thermostats to save on heating and cooling costs.

It may be a little early to think about, but Labor Day is right around the corner. Last year, there was a Labor Day Parade here in Flint that marched up Van Slyke to the Sitdowners’ Memorial Park at UAW Region 1D. I’m hoping that we have another event like that, but plans have not been set in motion yet. Please keep watching your Union Boards for any information that may come up about such an event.

Your UAW Local 659 Facebook page and website always have the most updated information about postings and Searchlight articles. Please check it out and give us your feedback.

As always, please be safe this summer!