Retirement!

It's hard to believe, 49 years old, 31 years of service, and now I rank among the retirees of General Motors. As of April 1, 2009 it will be official. I accepted the GM incentive package to retire with a monthly pension, vehicle voucher and cash, and full benefits, which was being offered to employees with 30 or more years of service. The decision was a hard one to make. With uncertain times ahead and the fact that in February, I was reduced as an electrician and offered to either take a lay off from Skilled Trades or go back to work the production line. I decided that taking a pay cut of $5.00 per hour and working in production was still better than being laid off. With the possibility of even more cut backs in contractual issues and benefits I said enough is enough. I felt that the incentive offer being given at this time is probably the best it is going to get, so I closed this chapter of my life at GM and retired. I look forward to what lies ahead. I'm currently in school looking to get into the medical field in Respiratory Therapy but I also have an appointment later this week at Michigan Institute of Aviation Technology in their Energy Industry field, possibly in wind power (green energy). I'm very excited about that and with my electrical back ground I think that may be a better fit for me then the medical field so we'll see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

Cesar E. Chavez Essay Contast

We are sponsoring our 2nd annual Cesar E. Chavez contest this year. It is open to all K-12 students of Oakland county schools. Awards will be given on March 31st. The information has been distributed throughout the school district. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners. Anyone interested should contact their school counselors for more information or contact our chapter President, Lorenzo Rivera at riveradall@charter.net or Recording Sec., Oscar Sanchez at oscarsanchez789@att.net .

3rd Annual Cesar E. Chavez March

I do hope many of you can join us for our 3rd annual Cesar Chavez March event this year once again beginning at noon at the University of Michigan Center with a program honoring former Flint City Councilman Paul Vasquez after and a light lunch as well to honor our great leader Cesar. It will be a vegetarian luncheon but this is all free and for those who arrive early we will be showing a short movie covering his life and work in the Kiva Room at the University as well. Please call Art Reyes; our chair and Local 651 President at 810-742-7420 or email Pat Flores at Patricia.A.Flores@gm.com for more information. We are printing out flyers that list the map and info and can send these out as needed per request. Have a great day and best of luck!
As ever, Genesee County Hispanic Collaborative Member Marcy (Maricela) Garcia.
Anyone interested in going and wish to car pool can contact Lorenzo Rivera. He plans on meeting at the Big Boy resturant at I-75 and Baldwin Ave.

Feb 28, 2009 LCLAA meeting

Since I resigned as President of the Chapter for reasons stated in the other posting,today was the first meeting with our new President of the Oakland County Chapter. Lorenzo Rivera has stepped up to the position of President once again. During the meeting we discussed our plans for our 2nd Annual Cesar E. Chavez essay contest among other things. We also made some appointments to the Executive Board to fill some positions. Debra Styers and David Mora are Vice Presidents and we made recommendations for a 3rd V.P. and a Member at Large but those individuals haven't been contacted yet to accept or decline. Once that happens I will update the blog with the new standing E-Board.
As we finalize more of the plans for the essay contest I will post the information.
Just as a note, if you would like info or pictures posted on the blog just let me know and I'll do my best to comply. Thank David Mora