April 15^th and 16^th, Local 211 retiree board members attended the UAW Region 2B Retired Workers Council meeting in South Bend, Indiana. The council delegates are the top four officers of all the local retiree chapters all across the state of Ohio and Indiana. I chair the council meetings.

Our Region 2B Director, David Green, opened the meeting and spoke about the organizing of plants going on throughout the South and with the transplants. He also talked about the upcoming election and the candidates our union is supporting. Director Green said we have two old white guys running for president and that our International Union is supporting the candidate who stood with our members on the picket lines - and has stood with us from day one. Green went on to say that the other candidate came to his plant in Lordstown, Ohio and told the membership not to take the transfers offered to other GM facilities or sell their homes because he was going to make GM keep the plant open. That was what members wanted to hear. They cheered and likely voted for him. But we know what happened. After elected, President Trump never returned to  Lordstown. Instead he went on his twitter page and blamed the Lordstown union leadership for the plant closing. Green said that Trump attacked him and the bargaining committees, saying the workers’ wages were too high. And during the Stand Up UAW strike, Trump put together a fake union picket line and stood with non-union workers in an attempt to win the UAW’s support. That was an insult to our members’ intelligence. Director Green then answered several questions from our union council members on many issues facing our union’s future.

Lisa Rinke, the Director and Administrative Assistant to the UAW Retiree Workers Department, and Becky Bridgewater, the servicing rep, gave a power point presentation on the services and contact numbers for information on programs available to our retirees.

Donna Pavese did a presentation on hackers, security risk and artificial intelligence. The presentation was created for UAW retirees by Best Practice Consulting. She covered a long list of information, saying today’s retirees are the most trusting generation and that makes us the most targeted and open to scams. She said NEVER give your personal information or money to an urgent request.

Raye Ohl, Region 2B Ohio retiree rep and CAP coordinator, spoke about our endorsed candidates and future meetings.

Mike Palmer, the council secretary/treasurer from Local 1005, Parma, OH and Jim King, the Indiana chair from Local 663 Anderson, IN, gave reports on financial status and concerns facing our Indiana Council members.

It was a very informative meeting and the Council members voiced their appreciation for all the work that went into putting it together. Our next meeting will be held at Black Lake, MI, in July.

In solidarity,