Dec/Jan edition

UAW
LOCAL
387
NEWS
VOL. 47 — NO. 6
DEC. 2012/JAN. 2013
Happy Holidays and Best Wishes to all
Local 387 Members, Retirees
and Their Families
Brothers, sisters and families of UAW Local 387:
I hope everyone had a
happy Thanksgiving and
got their fill of turkey and
all the fixings now let the
belt out a notch and get
ready for the crazy
Christmas season ahead.
Pres. T.J. Gomez
don’t delay we are limited to
300 tickets due to capacity of
the hall.
“Reflect on all you’ve been blessed with and
say a prayer for those who are less fortunate
Toys for Tots has been a
and also the military personnel which are
away from their families this holiday season.” passion of Karen Mager’s
Congratulations to President
Obama on his re-election, thanks
everyone who helped out during the
election season it was very important that our voices were heard. I
know there will be debate about
whether the right person was elected I guess we will just have to wait
and find out in 2016. I think the
President has earned 4 more years if
for nothing more than what he did
for the auto industry. I know some
will say “well ford didn’t take any
loans from the government” that is
true but if GM and Chrysler would
have went bankrupt the suppliers
that support the auto industry would
have followed. We have quite a
mess to fix in this country it’s
something that has taken time to
make and it’s going to take time
and cooperation from both parties
to fix.
Deadlines! Deadlines! Deadlines!
There is a lot going on during the
months of December and January at
the Local and it seems we stay pretty busy throughout the year but
these months seem to always be the
busiest. We are currently trying to
finish up the pocket calendar checking and double checking we had
some issues last year and hope not
to repeat them. We are also making
final preparations for our annual
Christmas get together which will
be held on December 19th. This
year the Recreation committee will
be hosting The Local 387 Christmas
party on December 15th for our
members and guests. Our hope is to
have a night of fun and camaraderie
to see some friends from work meet
there significant other and let loose.
We will have the sounds of Scoot
Magoo, the comedy of Kevin Zeoli;
there will be refreshments and door
prizes. Get your tickets at the local
over the years and this year
will be no different she has
been prepping by scouring
sales ads, clipping coupons trying to
get the most for a buck. Not only
does she buy toys with the money
collected from the Toys for Tots
gate collection but she purchases
food, Clothes, toys and other necessities for families the committee
structure adopts for Christmas, the
majority of this she does on her
own time. Thank you Karen from
the committee structure and the
families you affect.
I would like to finish by wishing
everyone a safe and happy
CHRISTmas season and a happy
New Year. Please take time to
reflect on all you’ve been blessed
with and say a prayer for those who
are less fortunate and also the military personnel who are away from
their families this holiday season.
In Solidarity,
T.J. Gomez
New
Retirees
Tom Osborne (Electrician) on the 1st shift has retired
with 44 years of seniority. Tom was born in Tennessee
and now lives in Newport. He has two children and
three grandchildren. His hobbies are riding motorcycles and woodcarving. His future plans are to take life
easy and enjoy family. Special Note: Thanks to everyone at Ford.
Lydia Cervantes (ATWL) on the 3rd shift has retired
with 18.4 years of seniority. Lydia was born in San
Antonio, TX and now lives in Lincoln Park with her
husband Dan. They have two children, three grandchildren and one more on the way. Her hobbies are spending money and traveling. Her future plans are to enjoy
the rest of her life with her husband. Special Note: I
would like to thank FOMOCO for a good living. Glad
it is over. Good luck to all, and look forward to retirement it is awesome.
Gerald (Gerry) Engel an Electrician on the 1st shift,
Dept. 9032 worked at Woodhaven for 401⁄2 years. Gerry
was born in Monroe Michigan, and now lives in Newport
and has three daughters. His hobbies and interests are
computers, flight sims, astronomy, geology, and photography. Gerry’s future plans include spending time with
his family, riding his Harley Davidson Road King, and
wine tasting. He would like to thank Ford Motor Co. and
UAW for his great wages and benefits. Gerry is thankful
for the memories and friends he has made.
Ken Modi (Electrician) on the 2nd shift has retired
with 28 years of seniority. Ken was born in Detroit and
now lives in Rockwood with his wife Katie. They have
two children and six grandchildren. His hobbies are
camping, traveling and cars. His future plans are to use
his RV more. Special Note: It has been great working
with everyone at WSP, and the last five years has been
a real experience.
LOCAL 387 NEWS
USPS No. 479-610
Official Publication of Local 387, UAW
24250 Telegraph Rd., Flat Rock, Michigan 48134
Telephone: 734-782-2771
Published bi-monthly. Second Class Postage paid at Detroit, MI and
additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
Local 387 News, 24250 Telegraph Rd., Flat Rock, Mich. 48134.
TO THE READERS: Views and opinions expressed by various members in this
publication are not necessarily those of Local Union Administration.
J. D. (Dave) Pennington (Electrician) on the 3rd shift
has retired with 27.5 years of seniority. Dave was born
in West Virginia and now lives in Brownstown with his
wife Mary. They have two sons and two granddaughters. His future plans are to spend time up north, go 4
wheeling and fish. Special Note: With all the changes
coming good luck in the future.
Thomas Wolfe (Tool & Die) on the 1st shift has retired
with 5 years at WSP and 34.9 of seniority. Thomas was
born in Toledo and still lives there with his wife Cindy.
They have three children and five grandchildren. His
hobbies are boating and fishing. His future plans are to
travel up north.
Stephen Deak retired 12/12. Sorry there is no photo
or article for Stephen.
Recycled Paper
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LOCAL 387 NEWS — December 2012/January 2013
Veterans Committee
Coat Drive:
The Veterans Committee has extended our annual coat
drive from October 1st thru December 15th. If you have any
clean and in good condition coats, sweaters or sweatshirts
that you would like to donate, please place in the bin at security or drop them off at the local. Retirees may drop said
items off at the local during normal business hours. These
coats will be given to the Detroit Veterans Center.
Veterans Day 11/11/12:
I trust everyone had a great Veterans Day and they had
time to thank a Veteran for their service to our country and
for our freedom. All gave some and some gave all as
Freedom isn’t free!
Important Telephone Numbers:
If you have a question for VA benefits or need Veterans
assistance, please call the following numbers:
Detroit Office of Department of VA Affairs
(800) 827-1000
Ann Arbor VA Hospital
(734) 769-7100
Detroit VA Hospital
(313) 576-1000
Holiday Greetings:
On behalf of your Veterans Committee we would like to
thank all of you for your continuous support. Without your
help we could not do the things we do to help our Veteran
brothers and sisters.
We would like to wish you and your families a Very
Happy Holiday Season and a Happy New Year.
(GBA) God Bless American
Bob Harvey
Veterans Committee Chairman
Random Thoughts
Corporate Greed is
Destroying America
by Greg “Woody” Woodruff
A
merica has always been known as The Land of
Opportunity; where everyday people could live
the American Dream of a good paying job that
would bring them prosperity.
Thanks to corporate greed the American Dream will
soon be gone. Many Americans are struggling to pay
their bills and thousands have lost their homes, all
because of corporate greed. The CEOs and upper management of the large corporations are making way too
much money; nobody deserves to earn $35 million dollars a year unless they own the company. Yet these same
overpaid figure heads continuously downsize and cut the
pay of the everyday worker claiming that the company
isn’t profitable; gee I wonder why?
Then after running their companies into the ground
they get bailouts from the government, 17 Billion to GM
& Chrysler, and 85 Billion to AIG. The big banks that are
foreclosing on so many Americans, they got bailed out by
the government too, 4 Trillion; and they don’t even have
to pay the money back. The kicker is that after these people were given the bailouts they all gave each other millions in bonuses. I suppose this is for a job well done.
You would think that these same banks would share
the bailout money with the people struggling to pay their
mortgages. Nope, all they did was line their own pockets
before taking the homes from millions of Americans then
resold them to investors at a reduced rate.
The government has this all wrong, instead of bailing
out these poorly managed corporations and banks they
should have bailed out Americans. If the government
would have paid off the balance of every American that
had a mortgage, the banks would have got their money.
Then the extra money these people had each month
would have been put back into the marketplace to buy
new cars which would have helped the car companies
and boosted the economy; but that would make too
much sense. Instead, that money was given to greedy
people that have no intention of helping anyone but
themselves.
Say goodbye to The American Dream.
LOCAL 387 NEWS — December 2012/January 2013
3
DECEMBER
Merry Christmas to All and...
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
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CIVIL RIGHTS
3:00 p.m.
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EXEC. BD.
2 p.m.
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UNION LABEL
COMM. 3 p.m.
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WOMENS
COMMITTEE
3:00 p.m.
CHRISTMAS
GET-TOGETHER
L.O.D.
COMMITTEE
1:00 p.m.
CAP COMM.
3:00 p.m.
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VETS COMM
3:00 p.m.
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ORGANIZING
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CHRISTMAS EVE
PAID DAY OFF
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NEW YEARS EVE
PAID DAY OFF
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CHRISTMAS DAY
PAID DAY OFF
LOCAL 387 NEWS — December 2012/January 2013
PAID DAY OFF
PAID DAY OFF
PAID DAY OFF
JANUARY
...Best Wishes for the New Year
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FRIDAY
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NEW YEARS DAY
PAID DAY OFF
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EXEC. BOARD
2:00 p.m.
CIVIL RIGHTS
1:30 p.m.
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UNION LABEL
COMMITTEE
1:30 p.m.
RETIREE MTG
10 a.m.
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WOMENS
COMMITTEE
1:30 p.m.
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VETERANS
COMMITTEE
1:30 p.m.
LOD
COMMITTEE
1:00 p.m.
CAP
1:30 p.m.
ORGANIZING
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MARTIN LUTHER
KING BIRTHDAY
PAID DAY OFF
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REGULAR
MEMBERSHIP
MEETING
12 Noon
LOCAL 387 NEWS — December 2012/January 2013
5
Local 387 Members
How Roy Moore's dedication to the
Penrickton Center for Blind Children
sparked Ford, UAW involvement
Every year around Christmas time, Roy Moore dresses up as
Santa Claus for the kids at the Penrickton Center for Blind Children
in Taylor, Michigan. His wife joins him as Mrs. Claus, his dog as
Rudolph, and at one time even his children would dress as elves.
Roy has done this for about 30 years.
“Roy doesn't play Santa Claus because he
has a great beard or a huge ego...he does it
because he truly cares,” Penrickton Executive
Director Kurt Sebaly said. “You can tell that
when he visits our children.”
Roy is a Tow Driver at the Woodhaven
Stamping Plant and has been with Ford for
46 years. He started at WSP when it first
opened in 1965 and has remained.
The Penrickton Center for Blind Children
is a private non-profit agency, that provides five-day residential day
care and consultation/evaluation services to blind, multi-disabled
children ages one through twelve. Roy's involvement with Penrickton started in the late 1970s when he was selected as Community
Service Chairman of the Woodhaven Kiwanis Club. One of the
organizations that the Kiwanis Club supported was Penrickton. Roy
didn't know much about the organization and wanted to find out what
kind of support they needed most. At the time, Penrickton only treated around 5 children and was a relatively small establishment.
Similarly, Roy's budget was rather small at around $50.
When he first walked in and met some of the children he immediately thought of his own. He also thought of his sister-in-law who
was blind from birth and his nephew who died of cancer at 3 years
old. He was moved by what the people at Penrickton were doing
and wanted to do more than what $50 would allow him. So he and
other members of the Kiwanis Club volunteered their time and built
amenities for the children at the house. Even his wife
got involved by baking cookies for the kids.
Roy still wasn't satisfied. He started taking advances
on his vacation pay so he could buy Christmas gifts for
the children. He did this every Christmas until a Labor
Representative would not allow him to take an advance
on his vacation pay. The representative said that if he
had a problem with it, then he needed to take it up with the Plant
Manager. Roy did just that.
Roy explained the situation to the Plant Manager at that time who
was Doug Snyder. Snyder was so inspired by Roy's philanthropy
that he decided to give Roy the company credit card and told him to
get whatever he needed for the kids. From there, the employees at
the Woodhaven Stamping Plant adopted Penrickton.
"I supported Penrickton because I wanted do it," Roy said. "I did-
6
LOCAL 387 NEWS — December 2012/January 2013
n't think the company would be
interested."
In the late
1970s, in addition
to Roy's other
support, he decided to coordinate a
Roy and his wife Sheryl are dressed as
Penrickton
Santa and Mrs. Claus. They sit with Emily
Christmas party from the Penrickton Center.
at the UAW
Local 387. One year the person that dressed as Santa Claus got sick
and couldn't make it to the party. Even though Roy didn't have
Santa's shapely figure, he let the costume sag over his body and
played Santa for the children. He has done it ever since.
The Christmas party was one of the first organized field trips for the
children of Penrickton. Sebaly was just starting out with Penrickton
and he said that the children "enjoyed it immensely." Sebaly said the
field trip to the union building spawned more field trips to places such
as wave pools, water parks, Zoos, petting farms and many others.
"I have to say without hesitation that this event has changed
Penrickton Center for the better," Sebaly added.
Over the years, Sebaly estimates that the total donations from the
WSP employees would be over $900,000. Roughly half of that total
comes from the Frostbite Open Golf Outing which partnered with
Penrickton in 1998 and is coordinated by the Local 387 and WSP.
Penrickton also gets support from the Parts Redistribution center in
Brownstown, Livonia Transmission and Experimental Vehicles.
Sebaly pointed out that often times Penrickton Center is one of the
first charities chosen by volunteers from the Ford Volunteer Corps
program. "Ford volunteers both hourly and salaried have made a
huge difference from cutting down trees, landscaping, building a
garage, to helping with our major renovation in 2001," Sebaly said.
Penrickton's goal is to help each and every child become as independent as they possibly can. It is the only charity in Michigan that
works exclusively with blind, multi-disabled children and they do
this without state, federal, United Way or insurance
monies. Most importantly, there is absolutely no
charge for their services and they exist solely through
private donations.
"Frankly, Penrickton Center would not exist without the support of Woodhaven Stamping Plant,"
Sebaly declared.
Over the years Penrickton has grown from having five (5) children in the 70s to now having over thirty (30). Roy's selflessness and
generosity was highly contagious among his peers because of his sincerity. He worked discreetly, not seeking approval or praise for his
efforts. Now multiple locations within Ford Motor Company support
Penrickton and the organization is thriving. Roy said that if he could
make one child smile, then his efforts were worth it. If our wealth
was based on the smiles we incite, then Roy is sitting on a fortune.
s and Family Section
We Celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary
Cruising, Boozing and Snoozing, Again
By: Doug Thoma
On October thirteenth, five Woodhaven Retirees took their
families on an eight day southern Caribbean cruise aboard the
Carnival Valor. Ports visited were Grand Turk, Laromana,
Dominican Republic, Curacao, and Aruba.
Our group consisted of thirty five people and three youngsters. A grand time was had by everyone, as was our first cruise
together in the Eastern Caribbean in April of 2005.
Don’t forget to join with the retirees at Liberty Lanes bowling alley in Largo, Florida on February 10th of 2013. We have a
good time each and every time we get together. Do join us won’t
you? Contact Doug Thoma if interested 1-734-242-3984 or
Louie Schenck at 1-727-442-7033.
Civil and Human Rights
Committee Says
Thank You
The Civil and Human Rights Committee would like to
give thanks to the membership for their generous donation of
$1334.44 during a gate collection November 14th 2012. A
special thank you to Debbie Smith, Traci Gray, Phyllis
Williams, Kathy Wilson, Ricky Davis and Arnold Miller for
collecting the donations on such a chilly day. The money
collected ($1334.44) was sent to the Red Cross in New York
to help assist the victims of hurricane Sandy with a note giving the membership credit for the donation. Again the Civil
and Human Rights Committee would like to say thanks to the
membership for their generosity.
Deadline
to submit articles for the Jan./Feb. 2013
LOCAL 387 NEWS
is
January 18, 2013
Paskel, Tashman &
Walker, P.C.
Attorneys-at-Law
LEGAL REPRESENTATION SPECIALIZING IN:
• Divorce
• Medical/Dental Malpractice
• Slip & Fall
• Social Security
• Wills • Trusts
• Probate • Workers’ Compensation
• Custody • Criminal Defense
• Bankruptcy
• Drunk Driving
• License Restoration
BRIAN L. WALKER, P.C.
is at the
LOCAL 387 UNION HALL
24250 Telegraph Road
Flat Rock, MI 48134
2nd Wednesday of the month 10 a.m. – Noon
4th Wednesday of the month 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
Or contact his office at
800-826-0101
LOCAL 387 NEWS — December 2012/January 2013
7
IN MEMORIAM
NO PHOTO
AVAILABLE
ROBERT
WOODFORD
Born: 7/6/1954
Died: 3/3/2012
DENNIS REAMES
Born: 10/21/49
Died: 8/17/2012
HANS KOENIG
Born: 9/28/1927
Retired: 12/1987
Died: 4/5/2012
NO PHOTO
AVAILABLE
JIMMIE
RASPBERRY
Born: 2/3/1921
Retired: 12/1/1974
Died: 11/13/2012
• Indoor Service Drop Off
• Indoor Delivery
• Southeast Michigan
Performance Dealer
• SVT & Roush Vehicles Available
2800 N. Telegraph Road
Monroe, Michigan
(734) 243-6000
www.yourfriendlyford.com
ATTENTION:
By-law amendments will be accepted at the
January Membership Meeting
Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 12:00 noon
24250 Telegraph Road - Flat Rock, MI.
ARTICLE XVII - Amendment to By-Laws
Section 1
Any motion to amend these By-Laws must be submitted in
written form at the January Membership Meeting. The
member making the motion shall read the amendment to
the membership before referring to the By-Laws Committee
for study and recommendation. A quorum need not be
present at the January meeting in order that members may
submit By-Laws changes to the By-Laws Committee for
their study and recommendation. All By-Laws submitted to
the By-Laws Committee will be posted with the notice for
the next membership meeting, until acted upon.
T. J. Gomez, President
By-law Committee
NOTICE
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Due to Membership action at the
October Membership Meeting the
November 18, 2012 meeting
has been cancelled and
the December Membership Meeting
is postponed in lieu of the
Christmas get-together on
Wednesday, December 19, 2012.
Our next scheduled
Membership Meeting will be
JANUARy 27, 2013
We will be accepting By-law proposals.
T. J. Gomez, President
Karen Mager, Recording Secretary
8
LOCAL 387 NEWS — December
2012/January
October/November,
2012 2013