GM Receives Regulatory Approval for 300,000-Unit Plant in China's Hubei Province Featured
GM Receives Regulatory Approval for 300,000-Unit Plant in China's Hubei Province
IHS Global: Global Insight: Country & Industry Forecasting
Published: 2/13/2012
GM's passenger vehicle production joint venture in China has won approval for a new 300,000-unit, USD1.1-billion plant in Central China.
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Insight Perspective |
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Significance |
Shanghai General Motors (SGM) has won approval from the regulatory departments in Central China's Hubei Province to build a new passenger vehicle plant there, giving the automaker further access to China's central and western regions which are poised for the strongest growth. |
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Implications |
SGM is currently running at full capacity in China, and has expansion projects on the go across its Chinese facilities in Shenyang (Liaoning province) and Yantai (Shandong province). |
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Outlook |
GM CEO Dan Akerson said recently that GM aims to increase production in China by 760,000 units as it expands into interior China under the government's "Go West" strategy. |
General Motors' (GM's) passenger vehicle production joint venture (JV) in China, Shanghai GM (SGM), is running at or above full capacity having sold over 1.2 million units in China in 2011, rising 18.5% year-on-year. According to a report released by the provincial government of Central China's Hubei province, SGM has won approval for a new 300,000-unit plant in the city of Wuhan. Reuters reports that the plant will cost USD1.1 billion. As well as the new plant, in 2011 it received approval for expansion at its Liaonning facility. IHS Automotive's production forecast data show that the automaker has been running three shifts of seven hours per day at some plants while others have two shifts of eight hours per day—above the planned capacity for the plants. As the new expansions and plants come into play, production at the existing facilities will return to normal.
Earlier this year, GM's CEO Dan Akerson was quoted as saying that the automaker was looking to expand production in China by 760,000 units. This is understood to refer to SGM, which currently has four plants in China, of which two are undergoing significant expansion projects.
"Currently, Shanghai GM has four vehicle manufacturing plants at three locations: Shanghai GM – Jinqiao in Shanghai, Shanghai GM Dong Yue Motors in Yantai, and Shanghai GM (Shenyang) Norsom Motors in Shenyang. Shanghai GM (Shenyang) Norsom Motors' Phase III project and Shanghai GM Dong Yue Motors' Phase III project are under construction. Shanghai GM will continue to increase operating efficiency at all plants to guarantee production capacity keeps up with growing demand," says spokesperson Irene Shen, in a email sent to IHS Automotive.
The two expansion projects at Shenyang and Yantai are expected to increase production by 540,000 units by 2014. The plant in Yantai is currently undergoing a 300,000-unit expansion costing approximately CNY7 billion, while the plant in Shenyang is undergoing a 240,000-unit expansion.
The additional capacity is expected to come from the new plant. There have been rumours circulating that SGM wanted to open a plant in western China, and Hubei province is well placed to give access to penetrate into China's interior and western regions which are poised to see faster growth rates. SGM's current plants are based around the eastern coastline of China.
Outlook and Implications
In 2014, expansions at the Shenyang and Yantai plants will have concluded and the plants will be able to produce almost double their current capacity. Under the current production schedules the plant in Shenyang produces around 300,000 units per year while the plant in Yantai produces just over 300,000 units per year. In 2014, the Shenyang plant will produce over 400,000 units while the Yantai plant will produce over 500,000 units. In response to questions from IHS Automotive, GM said: "Based on the 2015 strategic plan, Shanghai GM will make sustainable plans regarding the further expansion of its production capacity in line with the changing market and growing demand in China." The new plant in Wuhan city will start production in 2014, thereby meeting SGM's strategic plans for production expansion by 2015 in China.
GM: Performance in Europe 'unacceptable,' more changes coming
GM: Performance in Europe 'unacceptable,' more changes coming
Friday, February 17, 2012
General Motors Co. will focus substantial efforts this year on becoming profitable again in Europe, officials said today.
During a conference call Thursday regarding its $7.6 billion profit in 2011, GM CEO and Chairman Dan Akerson called the Detroit-based automaker’s performance in Europe “unacceptable.”
“We know well what are challenges are and we are addressing them,” he said.
In 2011, GM reported a full-year loss of $0.7 billion in Europe, an improvement on its $1.3 billion loss in 2010, but its worst performance of any region last year.
Europe is in the midst of an economic crisis that many officials have compared to the U.S.’ recession in the late-2000s, which contributed to the government-backed bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler Group LLC in 2009.
Dan Ammann, GM senior vice president and CFO, said the automaker has already taken steps to improve its operations in Europe, including an executive shake-up. He said the company will continue to make significant changes this year.
“This is simply unacceptable on a go-forward basis,” Ammann said, adding the company is planning to speak with union and government officials in every country. "We're working very aggressively."
In 2011, GM named its Vice Chairman Stephen Girsky as head of the board that oversees the bulk of GM's operations in Europe. It also also appointed Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann and International Operations President Tim Lee to the 20-member Opel board, which governs Adam Opel AG, made up of GM's Opel brand and its British Vauxhall brand.
GM’s share in Europe fell from 9 percent in the last four months of 2010 to 8.6 percent during the same time last year.
"We're looking at everything in order to achieve a better break-even point -- lower break-even point -- and scale," Akerson said. "There's more to come, I think, on this in the next couple of months.
"We're not approaching this on a one-dimensional or two-dimensional basis."
Akerson did not elaborate on what changes are expected for the companies European operations.
The automaker lost nearly $1 billion in Europe in the second half of 2011.
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For First Time in 10 Years, GE Workers Vote in Union
For First Time in 10 Years, GE Workers Vote in Union
In These Times
Feb 6, 2012
If you scan the resumes of corporate executives on LinkedIn, you can identify who has attended General Electric’s union avoidance courses. GE's Union Avoidance Department, headed by Mark Guthrie, is known to be one of the most effective anti-labor departments in American. Unions almost never win elections at the company.
So it's surprising that a group of workers at GE Transportation in Kansas City, Mo., recently voted 44-41 to join IBEW Local 1464. It was the first time that a union had organized a GE bargaining unit in 10 years; the last was a small service shop in Florida containing a dozen workers. According to the IBEW, it was the first time anyone has organized a large-scale GE facility in 20 years.
The key to this success seems to be workers' perseverance. Despite three previous failed attempts in four years to organize the plant, workers strategically countered the talking points of GE’s anti-union campaign. In 2010, workers at the Kansas City plant attempted to organize a union with IBEW after seeing a worker die on the job in a horrific accident. But in a December 2010 election, pro-union workers lost by a mere 11 votes.
During the anti-union campaign of the 2010 election, GE promised workers that wages would increase significantly if they voted down the union. According to IBEW Local 1464 Lead Organizer Mike Knox, when the wage increase failed to happen as expected, many workers began to feel that the only way to improve wages was to unionize.
In response to the union drive, GE rolled out an intense anti-union drive, including captive audience meetings and one-on-one meetings between workers considering a union and their supervisors.
“The Volunteer Organizing Committee was very active. The company identified very quickly who were the union pushers and kept them separated from others workers,” says IBEW Local 1464 Business Manager Darrell McCubbins. “They were keeping them separated on overtime and shifts so that the younger second shift couldn’t talk to the older first shift.”
Through the Voluntary Organizing Committee, however, workers were able to maintain active communications between older more pro-union workers on the first shift and younger more sacred workers on the second shift.
“I attended meetings with the daylight crew and some VOC members on daylight shift attended meetings with us,” says Jim Wasserman, a repairman who worked on the second shift. “We came to the same conclusion: that GE hadn’t convinced us about what they were going to do to answer our problems.”
One of the biggest myths the Volunteer Organizing Committee had to dispel was that GE would close the plants if workers voted to unionize. According to Knox, the committee argued to wary workers that GE in recent years had invested very heavily in the plant and was thus unlikely to close it.
“A very effective campaign of hand billing was a key thing to our victory. We were able to use handbills to go down and counter point by point every inaccurate statement that company made about the union,” says Knox. “Also, bringing in a worker from an IBEW-represented GE railroad plant also helped workers understand how the union would work for them. It was really important to have another GE worker there, especially an IBEW member who could speak their language.”
As a result of the efforts by IBEW Local 1464 and the Volunteer Organizing Committee, pro-union workers won the election by a slim margin of 44-41 in late January. But workers still have to fight to get GE to agree to a first contract; many companies refuse to agree to a first contract and instead push for decertification after one year.
“The workforce is still divided, and management is doing a good job of continuing to stir that up,” says IBEW Business Manager Darrell McCubbins.
On Friday, another group of GE workers—150 people at a facility in Burlington, Iowa— filed for a union election to be represented by IUE-CWA. According to IUE-CWA organizer Jim Latcher, workers at that facility who had previously tried to unionize unsuccessfully are upset by a 30 percent wage cut imposed on workers.
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General Motors might shut down Vauxhall's UK factory as it warns of 'horrendous' losses in Europe
General Motors might shut down Vauxhall's UK factory as it warns of 'horrendous' losses in Europe
This Is Money
By Ray Massey
10th February 2012
Fears for thousands of British jobs and the future of Vauxhall’s UK car plant have surfaced after bosses at U.S. parent company General Motors warned of ‘horrendous’ losses in Europe to be announced next week.
Executives of the American car giant in Detroit say they are considering closing the Ellesmere Port factory in Cheshire as part of a major restructuring of its Vauxhall/Opel operation as it prepares to announce fourth quarter losses in excess of $300million (£190million)
An Opel factory at Bochum in Germany has also been cited for potential closure.
Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port factory, which employs 2,100 people might be closed as General Motors attempts to reconcile losses
Executives say that there is overcapacity in Europe and that plant closures are ‘inevitable’.
Bosses in Britain admit that ‘everything is on the table’ and are discussing cost-cutting measures with unions.
UK union sources say they are ‘deeply concerned’ and say it would be a massive blow to the UK economy.
A Vauxhall source said: ‘Everything is on the table. That includes plant closures.
'But nothing has yet been decided. Unions are being included in discussions. It is serious.’
Worries about the fate of the Ellesmere Port factory – one of the most efficient in Europe which builds the Vauxhall Astra - and its workforce surfaced after the respected Wall Street Journal quoted unnamed General Motors executives in Detroit.
The newspaper published: ‘As part of the discussions, GM is considering closing assembly plants in Bochum, Germany, where it employs about 3,100 workers and Ellesmere Port, England, where it has about 2,100 workers, these people said.’
The GM official told the financial paper: ‘There is increasing frustration with Opel and a feeling that the cuts two years ago did not go nearly deep enough.
'If Opel is going to get fixed, it is going to get fixed now and the cuts are going to be deep.’
Workers leave Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port factory in 2009 after the motor giant announced it's plan to axe 900 jobs at its UK car factory and cut production
Ellesmere Port builds the Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer estate car and the 5-door Astra hatchback.
Some 80 per cent of its production is exported and 20 per cent of its components are sourced in the UK.
Industry sources said that when GM reports fourth-quarter results next week on Feb. 16, GM Europe's loss will be larger than the $292 million (£185m) loss of the prior quarter.
However, it will be lower than the $568 million (£360million) loss of the fourth quarter of 2010.
The German union IG Metall has already refused to consider immediate plant closures or job losses.
General Motors in Europe has suffered losses of nearly £9 billion since 1999.
Vauxhall and Opel chief executive Karl-Friedrich Stracke has told employees that cuts do need to be made with the exact measures planned to be set out after next week’s annual results.
He stressed that no decisions have been made to close plants, shift vehicle production or cut jobs.
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First 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco delivered to customer
First 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco delivered to customer
INAUTONEWS
by Cristian Gnaticov - February 9th, 2012
One of the most expected “green” cars in the United States, the Chevrolet Malibu Eco, is now here, and its first customer, Talfred Hunt, from Illinois, can enjoy his brand new ride. According to reports, Talfred and his wife Jeneise took their 2009 Malibu Hybrid to Advantage Chevrolet for an oil change and became the first customers to buy the new version.
As a reminder, the Chevrolet Malibu Eco is already available at dealerships across the United States and the model can be bought for a starting price of 25.995 USD. The 2013 Chevy Malibu Eco is powered by the basic 2.4 liter Ecotec direct injection four-cylinder engine, which is mated to the General Motors’ eAssist battery electric / gas propulsion system. The eAssist is using a lithium-ion battery pack and an electric motor which enables braking, start / stop functions and electric assist.
General Motors says that the powertrain in 2013 Chevy Malibu Eco’s engine is developing a total output of 182 horsepower and 170 lb-ft of torque, with another 15 horsepower available from the electric motor. The vehicle is coming with a six-speed automatic transmission which is sending power to an all-wheel drive system.
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“GM Putting New Team in Charge of Europe; UAW President Bob King To Join Opel Board”
“GM Putting New Team in Charge of Europe; UAW President Bob King To Join Opel Board” - HispanicBusiness.com
Chrissie Thompson
Source: 2012 the Detroit Free Press
Feb. 8, 2012
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General Motors is putting a new team in place to fix its troubled European operations, setting up the likelihood of more job cuts and even plant closings. |
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GM Seeks Cuts at Opel
GM Seeks Cuts at Opel
The Wall Street Journal
FEBRUARY 8, 2012
By Sharon Terlep and Christoph Rauwald
General Motors Co. is preparing to disclose "horrendous" fourth quarter losses out of its European Opel/Vauxhall unit and is demanding deep cuts from labor unions there, a GM official said on Tuesday.
The official said the auto maker's patience with the money-losing operation is running out.
"There is increasing frustration with Opel and a feeling that the cuts two years ago did not go nearly deep enough," the official said. "If Opel is going to get fixed, it is going to get fixed now and cuts are going to be deep."
GM is considering closing two European assembly plants to end losses at its Opel/Vauxhall unit. One of those plants is in Bochum, Germany, above.
The comments send a message to labor leaders, particularly in Germany, that the company is more serious than ever about overhauling a European business unit that has lost around $14 billion since 1999.
GM executives are preparing a plan for its European operation that could include more plant closings and job cuts, according to people familiar with the matter, ahead of reporting what is expected to be a substantial 2011 loss at the unit. GM and the union are discussing moving some production to Germany from Korea, one of those people said, to offset job losses.
The Detroit auto maker's turnaround of its Opel and Vauxhall units hit a roadblock amid a European debt crisis that has added to GM's long-standing troubles in the region. Ford Motor Co. also posted a wider-than-expected $190 million fourth-quarter loss in Europe, which was four times the previous year's loss.
As part of the discussions, GM is considering closing assembly plants in Bochum, Germany, where it employs about 3,100 workers, and Ellesmere Port, England, where it has about 2,100 workers, these people said.
GM executives are eager to devise a plan, but they have yet to reach any deal with labor unions.
"The new management team has a productive relationship with the union and we are both committed to solving the challenges that confront the company together," GM spokesman Selim Bingol said. Mr. Bingol said the official's comments don't represent the company's official stance with the union.
GM, in addition to pushing for production cuts, is looking to reduce materials costs, save money on suppliers and reduce waste within the company, a person familiar with the situation said. The company also has been overhauling Opel's management team, the person said.
German unions are expected to fight the cuts and push GM to look elsewhere for savings.
The auto maker lost $580 million in Europe through the first nine months of 2011. On Feb. 16, GM is expected to report those losses widened in its fourth quarter.
Europe has become one of the biggest threats to GM's comeback and a significant factor in the company's lagging stock price. The company is devoting significant time and resources to fixing the operation. In recent months, GM Chief Executive Dan Akerson has dispatched four senior executives to serve on Opel's supervisory board.: Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, finance chief Dan Ammann, product chief Mary Barra and international operations chief Tim Lee.
Meantime, United Auto Workers union President Bob King will be in the middle of the talks if, as expected, he joins the Opel supervisory board, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. King has sought to become more influential in the global labor scene. He has taken several trips abroad and talked publicly about the importance of working with other unions globally.
Union officials in Germany didn't return calls seeking comment. The UAW declined to comment.
Despite repeated restructuring efforts, Opel hasn't delivered lasting results. Any turnaround must overcome a regional sales slump that analysts expect to linger for years amid expectations for a return to recession in the European Union this year.
Car sales in Europe were down 15%, to 12.8 million vehicles, in 2011 compared with 2007, and the decline is expected to continue this year. On Tuesday, LMC Automotive, said it expects sales in Western Europe to decline an additional 5.9% in 2012, to 12.05 million cars and trucks.
Efforts to revive the company have been stymied by high costs relative to rivals such as Volkswagen AG, and image problems stemming from GM's failed attempt to sell the unit in 2009. Unlike in the U.S., where GM slashed its debt and closed unprofitable factories during a stay in bankruptcy court, Opel never went into insolvency proceedings, Europe's version of a bankruptcy restructuring.
Despite weak fourth-quarter results, analysts expect GM's 2011 results from operations in Europe be an improvement from the previous year.
This time, the company is looking to go much deeper, and to significantly reduce the company's breakeven point in Europe so it can survive despite depressed sales, those people said.
Doing so will be especially tough in Germany, where influential labor unions for years have fought off plant closing and job cuts. Though industry analysts and an increasing number of auto executives are calling for plant closings and capacity reduction in Europe, few auto makers have managed to downsize, with GM implementing the deepest cuts.
GM's 2009 restructuring plan for Opel called for cutting 8,300 jobs across Europe and closing a factory in Antwerp, Belgium, while increasing spending on new vehicles.
In March, GM's Mr. Akerson replaced Nick Reilly as head of Opel with Karl-Friedrich Stracke, GM's no-nonsense, German-born global engineering chief.
The auto maker also is expanding sales of its Chevrolet brand, which for years mainly was sold in Eastern Europe, into Western European auto markets. This could help increase GM's profitability in the region, but has Opel executives concerned about the effect additional competition could have on the unit's turnaround.
Opel's new labor chief, Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug, said last month that he expected a first draft of a new labor deal to be finalized by the end of January, but so far that plan has not surfaced.
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General Motors has withdrawn its business from Taiwan
"General Motors has withdrawn its business from Taiwan...."
WantChinaTimes
- Staff Reporter
- 2012-01-31
- 14:44 (GMT+8)
General Motors has withdrawn its business from Taiwan by ending its relationship with Taiwan's Yulon Motors while Scandinavia-Asia Corp, Saab's local dealership in Taiwan, is interested in taking over the future sales of Opel, one of GM's subsidiaries, our sister Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times reported on Jan. 30.
GM's partnership with Yulon was established in 2005, when Cadillac, Buick and Opel were introduced to Taiwanese market. Among them, Buick's Excelle and LaCrosse were made locally at Yulon's production line.
Due to a shrinking market for American vehicles in Taiwan, GM decided to sell its 49% stake in the company to Yulon for US$1 in 2008 and close its business in Taiwan. Yulon has cleaned up its stock by the end of 2011 but said that services for these remaining GM vehicle owners will remain.
In the meantime, Scandinavia-Asia said that the company is very interested in becoming Opel's dealership in Taiwan when Yulon decides to bow out.
"Saab is actually a subsidiary company under the GM group too, while many Opel parts are also used in Saab's vehicles. There is no problem for us to continue services for remaining Opel owners," a senior manager from Scandinavia-Asia said.
The manager said that Opel has been talking about this potential dealership with Scandinavia-Asia since last year.
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U.S. Auto Industry In Recovery Mode
U.S. Auto Industry In Recovery Mode
FOXBusiness
Published February 03, 2012
Written By Dunstan Prial
The U.S. auto industry is showing signs of a full recovery just three years after the financial crisis all but left the sector for dead, according to a presentation Friday by J.D. Power and Associates.
Significantly, U.S. consumers are paying historically high prices for their vehicles, J.D. Power revealed.
The average price paid for a vehicle by U.S. consumers in 2011 was $28,341, up 11% from $25,505 in 2008, according to J.D. Power’s data. Meanwhile, incentives offered by dealers have slipped.
Perks such as sophisticated entertainment systems have driven the average price of a car higher.
“While we are still early in the recovery we are somewhat optimistic about both the future rate of growth as well as the overall health of the industry,” said John Humphrey, senior vice president and general manager for J.D. Power and Associates’ Global Automotive Division.
Humphrey spoke at J.D. Power’s International Automotive Roundtable conference in Las Vegas. The data from J.D. Power suggests that the three-year shake out period between 2008 and 2012 may have benefited the industry as it looks toward the future. In that three-year span, two of the Big Three U.S. auto makers – Chrysler and General Motors (GM: 26.18, +1.87, +7.69%) – filed for bankruptcy. Since restructuring their massive debt loads and streamlining their operations, the two iconic Detroit car-makers have returned to profitability.
Several factors bode well for the future of the sector, according to the J.D. Power presentation: the industry as a whole has put vehicle production into “greater alignment” with actual demand; an aging fleet is creating “pent-up demand”; the car makers have ramped up new products that consumers want; leasing and extended financing programs are on the rise; and credit availability is improving.
Humphrey in his presentation warned that the car makers should remain “disciplined” and not get ahead of themselves in terms of production, an issue that contributed to their woes in recent decades. In other words, don’t let production outstrip demand.
Another concern is a rise recently in risky borrowers getting approval for car loans. The auto industry resembled the housing industry last decade in that sales and prices were pumped up artificially by giving credit to risky borrowers, many of whom couldn’t pay back their loans.
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On this date in the Sit-Down Strike: 75 years ago, union members flooded Flint streets in support of strikers
On this date in the Sit-Down Strike: 75 years ago, union members flooded Flint streets in support of strikers
The Flint Journal
February 02, 2012, 2:30 PM
FLINT, Michigan -- Union members converged on Flint in preparation for a mass demonstration outside General Motors' Fisher Body No. 1 plant on Feb. 3, 1937.
Inside the Fisher No. 1 and No. 2 plants, sit-down strikers remained in defiance of a judge's order just one day earlier that had banned picketing and had ordered strikers out of the factories.
"The temperature was near zero in Flint as February 3 dawned," author Sidney Fine wrote in the book "Sit-Down."
"In the early morning the roads leading to the city were filled with vehicles carrying UAW members and sympathizers to the scene of the strike," the book says. "Walter Reuther brought in several hundred men from his West Side local, and the Toledo UAW dispatched every available man.”
Some of the supporters of the strikers went to Fisher No. 1 to add muscle to the sit-downers inside the plant in preparation for a possible attack but most gathered outside the plant, according to Flint Journal accounts at the time.
One Journal report noted that large crowds had assembled, some on the roofs of nearby buildings, to get a better look at the plants on Feb. 3, waiting to see how local police or the National Guard would carry out the injunction issued Feb. 1 by Genesee Circuit Judge Paul V. Gadola.
"The outsiders (in Flint for the demonstration) included a substantial number of women since strike leaders had designated Feb. 3 as Women's Day, and Auxiliary members had come to Flint from Detroit, Saginaw, Bay City, Pontiac and elsewhere to join in the scheduled parade," according to "Sit-Down."
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“State House committee passes labor bills limiting strikes, dues collection”
“State House committee passes labor bills limiting strikes, dues collection”
By Karen Bouffard
Detroit News Lansing Bureau
February 1, 2012
Lansing— Unions lashed out Tuesday against a package of bills they say is the latest volley in a war against labor by Republican lawmakers.
Legislation passed by a House committee in a room packed with labor supporters would require employees to provide annual written permission to their employers to have union dues deducted from their paychecks.
Another bill would bar county and municipal employees from striking — like public teachers are barred from doing so — and steep fines would be set for public sector strikes and lockouts. The bills also would make it easier for employers to get an injunction to stop picketing.
The package follows passage of a new emergency manager law, teacher tenure reforms and other measures unions believe are intended to weaken collective bargaining, and as momentum builds among the GOP majorities in the House and the Senate to make Michigan a right-to-work state. Gov. Rick Snyder has said he does not want a right-to-work bill to cross his desk, but has stopped short of saying he wouldn't sign such a bill if it's passed by the Legislature.
"This is real bad; this is onerous," Ray Holman, legislative liaison for the UAW Local 6000 which represents 17,000 State of Michigan employees. "It's a skirmish before the giant battle, which is right-to-work.
"This is a way to undermine our political power. It's a power grab."
The package was approved by the House Oversight, Reform and Ethics Committee chaired by Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills. There are three Republicans and two Democrats on the committee.
The bills now go before the full House for a vote and would also have to be passed by the Senate and signed by Snyder to become law.
The package is supported by Republicans and business owners who say reforms are necessary to limit the cost and disruption of strikes.
"This package is pro-worker and pro-taxpayer," said Ari Adler, spokesman for Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger of Marshall. "It will help union members hold union bosses accountable for how they are spending the hard-earned money being taken out of their paychecks in the form of union dues."
An overflow room equipped with a large TV screen was set up next to the hearing room in the House Office Building.
"This is an unwarranted assault on working people," said Jerry Skinner of Farmington Hills, a retired electrician and member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 58, who attended the meeting. "We'll be telling them what we think in November."
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