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PAID EDCATION LEAVE (PEL)
By: RICK HOUSTON Local 1853

The week of March 5th, I attended the UAW/GM PEL training. I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you, the membership, my thoughts about this class. I came to Springhill on January 16, 1991 by way of the Leeds plant in Kansas City Missouri. I am currently a Quality Team Leader of the 220/230/240 lines in Ga on 2nd shift. Of all the training classes I have attended, the PEL class is by far, the most enlightening, and informative class I have been to.

Day 1, started with Rick Gregory taking us back to the beginnings of the auto industry, and the UAW. And bringing us up to today. A brief, 1 day, UAW history class if you will.

Day 2 was led by Bill Hollaway, who took us into how corporations are run. He has also spent time in Japan studying how they run their corporations. He talked about the transplants, globalization, the fast growing markets in China and India. Did you know it's law in Japan, if your company wants to transfer you, they can. The government says your family must endure! Your company comes BEFORE your family.

Day 3/Day 4, was led by Jerry Paar. He took us thru two days of economics and how Corporations make money and where they make it. He talked about investments and the return on those investments and about how the decline in our membership has cost us so far, and how it will in the future if we stay on our current course. Another topic was the jobs lost to NAFTA, both manufacturing and non-manufacturing. Good paying US jobs that have gone to Mexico, China, and other countries. How if we don't act now, we will be the ones to look into our children and grand children’s eyes and tell them... “There are no higher paying US jobs because I chose to ignore what was going on around me.” Did you know that your 401k investments might be invested in stocks from China? You can request that ALL your investments be kept here in the US. Ask your investor; they are called Socially Responsible Investments, paying as high as a 75% return on 1 year or a 26% return on 5-year investments.

Day 5 was a wrap up, followed by Q & A with Mike Herron and Dave Hosea. A lot of questions were answered for us. Some maybe not the answers we would have wanted, but I felt, and I think the class felt they were honest answers. We have a better understanding of where this plant is headed, what GM has in mind for us, and what we have to do to ensure future product and ultimately our retirement.

Everyone is supposed to have this class in the future. If you know someone who has taken it, ask him or her about it. Ask them what they learned? Ask them if they liked what they heard? I am willing to bet most people will say they did in fact learn some things they did not know, some they did know, and some they knew but did not want to believe.

Below are some books you can read that talk a lot about what is discussed in the PEL class.

The Machine That Changed The World by Womack, Jones, & Roos
Lean Work by Steve Babson
The Buying Of The President by Charles Lewis

The PEL training started in 1988, and here in Springhill about 18 months ago and is sponsored by both the UAW and GM. The facilitators teach the class in plants for GM, Ford, Chrysler, and others. This was NOT the old YTT class, and you will not leave with a warm and fuzzy feeling. It IS however the reality of where we stand as a nation. We owe it to our brothers and sisters, our children and our grand children, and our younger UAW members to get involved. We need to educate and organize. We need to register and vote for the politicians who have our best interests at heart. We need to get out in our communities and tell them how great this union is! It has to start NOW!

In Solidarity

Rick Houston