Showing posts with label auto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label auto. Show all posts
Friday, April 3, 2015
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Ford and Canadian Workers in Tentative Deal
The following is an excerpt from an article in:
The New York Times
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Ford and Canadian Workers in Tentative Deal
By IAN AUSTEN
OTTAWA — The Canadian Auto Workers union reached a tentative contract deal with the Ford Motor Company of Canada on Monday just hours before a midnight strike deadline.
And Monday night, after reaching the accord, Ken Lewenza, the president of the union, said the union had extended contract negotiations with General Motors of Canada and Chrysler Canada. He warned, however, that the two automakers would face a strike unless they agreed to the same key terms as Ford.
“The gap is still miles apart because we have a tremendous amount of work,” Mr. Lewenza said. “There’s so many issues on the table it would impossible for General Motors and Chrysler’s to respond.”
The extension followed the arrival at the negotiations in downtown Toronto of two senior executives from Detroit: Al Iacobelli, the vice president for employee relations at Chrysler, and Cathy Clegg, General Motors’ vice president for labor relations.
Mr. Lewenza said the extension was intended to give the companies time to study the tentative agreement reached with Ford. If the union believes they are procrastinating, he said, it will give two automakers 24 hours notice of a strike.
“Our patience and anxieties in the workplace only have so much time,” Mr. Lewenza said.
While the union gave concessions to Ford on wages and pensions, it said it was still able to uphold its major negotiating principles. Ford agreed to gradually rehire about 600 union members who were laid off from its plants, and it committed to produce a new line of vehicles at its assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario.
It is a good deal in these economic times, Mr. Lewenza told a news conference. “It’s far from a carry-over agreement.”
Mr. Lewenza emphasized that the union would not budge on its traditional approach of requiring all three Detroit-based companies to accept the same key contract terms, a system known as pattern bargaining.
The New York Times
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Ford and Canadian Workers in Tentative Deal
By IAN AUSTEN
OTTAWA — The Canadian Auto Workers union reached a tentative contract deal with the Ford Motor Company of Canada on Monday just hours before a midnight strike deadline.
And Monday night, after reaching the accord, Ken Lewenza, the president of the union, said the union had extended contract negotiations with General Motors of Canada and Chrysler Canada. He warned, however, that the two automakers would face a strike unless they agreed to the same key terms as Ford.
“The gap is still miles apart because we have a tremendous amount of work,” Mr. Lewenza said. “There’s so many issues on the table it would impossible for General Motors and Chrysler’s to respond.”
The extension followed the arrival at the negotiations in downtown Toronto of two senior executives from Detroit: Al Iacobelli, the vice president for employee relations at Chrysler, and Cathy Clegg, General Motors’ vice president for labor relations.
Mr. Lewenza said the extension was intended to give the companies time to study the tentative agreement reached with Ford. If the union believes they are procrastinating, he said, it will give two automakers 24 hours notice of a strike.
“Our patience and anxieties in the workplace only have so much time,” Mr. Lewenza said.
While the union gave concessions to Ford on wages and pensions, it said it was still able to uphold its major negotiating principles. Ford agreed to gradually rehire about 600 union members who were laid off from its plants, and it committed to produce a new line of vehicles at its assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario.
It is a good deal in these economic times, Mr. Lewenza told a news conference. “It’s far from a carry-over agreement.”
Mr. Lewenza emphasized that the union would not budge on its traditional approach of requiring all three Detroit-based companies to accept the same key contract terms, a system known as pattern bargaining.
For more, visit www.nytimes.com.
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Progressive’s Side of the Insurance Case That Blew Up on the Internet
The following is
an excerpt from an article in
The New York Times
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Progressive’s Side of the Insurance Case That Blew Up on the Internet
By RON LIEBER
It isn’t often that automobile insurance becomes the subject of nationwide outrage. So when it does happen, it’s worth a peek inside all our policies to figure out how they actually work and what the insurance companies are up to behind the scenes.
This week, a man named Matt Fisher took to his Tumblr site to call out Progressive, which insured his sister, Katie, two years ago when she died in a car accident. The company recently sent its lawyer to court — not to assist her estate but to argue that the driver of the other car, who had a suspended license and little insurance, was the innocent party.
Or, as Mr. Fisher put it, “My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer in Court.”
The outrage on social media came swiftly, and it was brutal. Progressive’s initialpublic comments parsing the definition of “defendant” only opened up the company to further vitriol.
After several requests, I finally got Progressive to come to the phone and explain in detail, out loud and on the record, why it chose to fight Ms. Fisher’s family in court.
In the end, the saga of Ms. Fisher and her family isn’t just about whether Progressive made a needless mess of its reputation this week. And it’s not simply about whether everyone should drop their Progressive policies in protest either, as scores of people have threatened to do. We also need to take a close look at our own coverage and determine whether we have a fundamental misunderstanding of how our various auto insurance policies actually work.
Before @fishermatt became a social media phenomenon, he was a devastated older brother. His sister was just 24 when she died in Baltimore with two degrees from Johns Hopkins University to her name and nothing but promise in front of her.
The insurance machinery began its work relatively quickly. Ms. Fisher had $100,000 in liability coverage per person in this accident, and three people (and the lawyers negotiating for them) wanted a piece of it: a passenger in her car, the driver of the car that hit her and a passenger in that car.
Progressive sized up its legal risks. Three individuals thought Ms. Fisher had run a red light — the police officer who filed the accident report (but who did not witness it), Ms. Fisher’s passenger and the driver of the other vehicle. On the other hand, one eyewitness said that it was the other driver who ran the light.
At that point, Progressive chose to pay the liability claims. “If we determine that we shouldn’t pay any third parties, our insured can get sued and be responsible for any amount over the limit,” said Marcia Marsteller, the business leader in Progressive’s legal department for claims. “If we make the wrong call and don’t pay them and perhaps we should have, there is an issue for her estate.”
For more, visit www.nytimes.com.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Nuance's XT9 Simplifies Text Input on Sharp AQUOS TVs
Nuance's Successful Predictive Text Input Lets People Quickly and Easily Find and Discover TV Content; Days of Painstakingly Entering a Search Letter by Letter via Remote Control are Over
Burlington, Mass. – August 14, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that the Sharp AQUOS TV ASIA features intelligent text input powered by Nuance’s XT9, optimized for IPTVs. With XT9, Sharp AQUOS ASIA consumers experience a simpler way to find web content and navigate menus.
Burlington, Mass. – August 14, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that the Sharp AQUOS TV ASIA features intelligent text input powered by Nuance’s XT9, optimized for IPTVs. With XT9, Sharp AQUOS ASIA consumers experience a simpler way to find web content and navigate menus.
Today’s IPTV experience provides consumers with seemingly limitless contents and entertainment options; but, traditional remote controls make it difficult to navigate menus and search the web – and nearly impossible to discover new content. Nuance’s XT9 predictive input technology automatically completes likely search terms after only a few characters are entered, changing the way people engage their traditional remote controls to enter complete words and phrases. XT9 for TV features word correction and auto punctuation, and lets people easily alternate between numbers, letters and symbols.
XT9 supports over 80 languages worldwide, and is available alongside Nuance’s successful Dragon TV voice and natural language understanding platform to provide TV manufacturers with the ability to offer consumers a flexible, multimodal voice and touch connected TV experience.
“There’s a new revolution underway around the digital living room search experience,” said Michael Thompson, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile. “Consumers demand the ability to quickly get to the content they love, and easily discover new entertainment options.”
Availability
Sharp’s 2012 AQUOS IPTV ASIA featuring Nuance’s XT9 will begin shipping in August 2012, supporting English, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Farsi and Arabic. For more details on Sharp’s AQUOS TV portfolio and availability visit www.aquos-world.com/en/.
To learn more about XT9, Dragon TV and Nuance Mobile’s broad portfolio of voice and touch innovations, visitwww.nuancemobilelife.com.
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
Canadian Dollar’s Strength a Factor in Autoworkers Talks
The following is
an excerpt from an article in
The New York Times
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Canadian Dollar’s Strength a Factor in Autoworkers Talks
By IAN AUSTEN
OSHAWA, Ontario — For many in Canada, the rise of the Canadian dollar to parity with its American counterpart is more a source of anxiety than pride.
Prominent among those concerned are the 20,600 Canadian Auto Workers union members employed by the Detroit Three. Contract talks for the industry open here on Tuesday. But the dollar’s high value, which most economists anticipate will continue, has more than obliterated the traditional cost advantage Canadian auto plants once enjoyed.
In 2009, when contracts were renegotiated after the rescue of General Motors and Chrysler, the Canadian dollar was worth about 78 American cents. Last week, it traded briefly at just over $1.
Regardless of the outcome of those talks, the strong currency, and higher wages for Canadian workers, seem likely to continue the shrinking of the Canadian auto industry since its peak in 1999. The underlying issue is how much that decline will continue.
Detroit automakers have been scaling back their operations in Canada at a growing pace even as they add workers and shifts in the United States.
Last September, Ford Motor Company of Canada closed a plant that made taxis, police cruisers and Lincoln Town Cars, eliminating 1,500 jobs. General Motors of Canada plans to close one of two assembly plants in this city east of Toronto and will move some of its production to a mothballed Saturn plant in Tennessee, laying off another 2,000 workers. The future of other Canadian auto factories, including Chrysler’s vast minivan plant in Windsor, Ontario, remains murky.
Over all, factory closings by the Detroit automakers have lowered Canada’s vehicle production from three million cars and trucks in 1999 to 2.1 million last year, despite offsetting factory openings and expansions by the Canadian arms of Toyota and Honda.
The number of Canadian Auto Workers members employed by the Detroit Three has fallen by 28,200 over that time. In 2011, a booming year for North American car sales, production grew by 3.2 percent in Canada, 14.4 percent in Mexico and 11.5 percent in the United States.
While a number of factors have led to Canada’s steady decline as an automaker, the new contracts for the C.A.W. workers will probably play a critical role in determining Detroit’s future investment plans in the country.
For more, visit www.nytimes.com.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Auto Parts Price-Fixing & Bid-Rigging
News release from the FBI:
Yazaki Corp., Denso Corp., and Four Yazaki Executives Agree to Plead Guilty to Automobile Parts Price-Fixing and Bid-Rigging Conspiracies
WASHINGTON—Two Japanese suppliers of automotive electrical components—Yazaki Corporation and DENSO Corporation—have agreed to plead guilty and to pay a total of $548 million in criminal fines for their involvement in multiple price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracies in the sale of parts to automobile manufacturers in the United States, the Department of Justice today announced. Four executives, all Japanese nationals, have also agreed to plead guilty and to serve prison time in the United States.
Yazaki has agreed to pay a $470 million criminal fine—the second largest criminal fine obtained for a Sherman Act antitrust violation—and DENSO has agreed to pay a $78 million criminal fine. The four executives from Yazaki—Tsuneaki Hanamura, Ryoji Kawai, Shigeru Ogawa, and Hisamitsu Takada—will serve prison time ranging from 15 months to two years. The two-year sentences would be the longest term of imprisonment imposed on a foreign national voluntarily submitting to U.S. jurisdiction for a Sherman Act antitrust violation. The fine amount and prison sentences are subject to court approval.
“As a result of the Antitrust Division’s ongoing criminal investigation of price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry, more than $748 million in fines have been obtained—which already surpasses the total amount in criminal fines obtained by the division for all of last fiscal year,” said Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “Criminal antitrust enforcement remains a top priority and the Antitrust Division will continue to work with the FBI and our law enforcement counterparts to root out this kind of pernicious cartel conduct that results in higher prices to American consumers and businesses.”
“I would like to commend the employees of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division for their fine work on this very important antitrust investigation. This team has devoted countless hours to the investigation and I appreciate their devotion to the mission. The companies involved in this case conspired to the price fixing and bid rigging of automotive parts. This criminal activity has a significant impact on the automotive manufacturers in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Europe and had been occurring at least a decade. The conduct had also affected commerce on a global scale in almost every market where automobiles are manufactured and/or sold,” said FBI’s Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena.
According to court documents filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Yazaki, DENSO, Hanamura, Kawai, Ogawa, Takada, and their co-conspirators carried out the conspiracies by agreeing, during meetings and conversations, to allocate the supply of the named products on a model-by-model basis and to coordinate price adjustments requested by automobile manufacturers in the United States and elsewhere. They sold automotive electrical components to automobile manufacturers at inflated prices and engaged in meetings and conversations for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon bid-rigging and price-fixing scheme.
According to a three-count felony charge, Yazaki engaged in three separate conspiracies: to rig bids for and fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of automotive wire harnesses and related products from 2000 through 2010; to rig bids for and fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of instrument panel clusters from 2002 through 2010; and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of fuel senders from 2004 through 2010. All three conspiracies involved products sold to customers in the United States and elsewhere. Automotive wire harnesses are automotive electrical distribution systems used to direct and control electronic components, wiring and circuit boards in cars. Instrument panel clusters, also known as meters, are the mounted array of instruments and gauges housed in front of the driver of an automobile. Fuel senders reside in the fuel tank of an automobile and measure the amount of fuel in the tank.
According to a two-count felony charge, DENSO engaged in conspiracies to rig bids for and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of electronic control units (ECUs) and heater control panels (HCPs) sold to customers in the United States and elsewhere. An ECU is an embedded system that controls one or more of the electronic systems or subsystems in a motor vehicle. HCPs are located in the center console of an automobile and control the temperature of the interior environment of a vehicle.
According to four separate one-count felony charges, Hanamura, Kawai, Ogawa, and Takada each engaged in a conspiracy to rig bids for and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of automotive wire harnesses and related products sold to customers in the United States and elsewhere. The department said that the individuals participated in the conspiracies at various times from at least as early as January 2000, until at least February 2010. During the conspiracies, the individuals held the following positions: Hanamura was a branch manager at Yazaki North America in Columbus, Ohio, and a Honda division sales manager in Japan; Kawai was director of Toyota Sales of Yazaki North America in Lexington, Ky., and vice division head of Yazaki’s Toyota Business Unit in Japan; Ogawa was assistant section manager and later section manager in Yazaki’s Honda Business Unit in Japan, and branch manager in Yazaki’s Honda Sales Unit and later director at Yazaki North America in Columbus; Takada was assistant manager in Yazaki’s Toyota Business Unit, director of Yazaki North America in Lexington, and manager of a sales department of Yazaki’s Toyota Business Unit in Japan. According to the plea agreements, which are subject to court approval, Ogawa and Takada have each agreed to serve 15 months in a U.S. prison. Hanamura and Kawai have each agreed to serve two years in a U.S. prison. Each of the four executives has also agreed to pay a $20,000 criminal fine. According to the plea agreements, Yazaki, DENSO, Hanamura, Kawai, Ogawa, and Takada have all agreed to assist the department in its ongoing investigation into the automotive parts industry.
On Nov. 14, 2011, Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $200 million fine for its role in the wire harnesses price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracy. Three of Furukawa’s executives also pleaded guilty. The court sentenced two of the executives to 15 and 18 month prison sentences, to be served in the United States. Sentencing of the third executive, who agreed to serve a year and a day in prison in the United States, is scheduled for Feb. 28, 2012.
Yazaki and DENSO are charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum $100 million criminal fine for a corporation. Hanamura, Kawai, Ogawa and Takada are also charged with a violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for an individual. The maximum fine for both a company and an individual may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
Today’s charges arise from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into bid rigging, price fixing and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section and the FBI’s Detroit Field Office with the assistance of the FBI headquarters’ International Corruption Unit. Anyone with information concerning the focus of this investigation is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section at 202-307-6694 or the FBI’s Detroit Field Office at 313-965-2323.
Yazaki Corp., Denso Corp., and Four Yazaki Executives Agree to Plead Guilty to Automobile Parts Price-Fixing and Bid-Rigging Conspiracies
Companies Agree to Pay a Total of $548 Million in Criminal Fines–Includes Second Largest Criminal Fine Ever for an Antitrust Violation; Executives Agree to Serve Prison Time
| U.S. Department of Justice January 30, 2012 |
WASHINGTON—Two Japanese suppliers of automotive electrical components—Yazaki Corporation and DENSO Corporation—have agreed to plead guilty and to pay a total of $548 million in criminal fines for their involvement in multiple price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracies in the sale of parts to automobile manufacturers in the United States, the Department of Justice today announced. Four executives, all Japanese nationals, have also agreed to plead guilty and to serve prison time in the United States.
Yazaki has agreed to pay a $470 million criminal fine—the second largest criminal fine obtained for a Sherman Act antitrust violation—and DENSO has agreed to pay a $78 million criminal fine. The four executives from Yazaki—Tsuneaki Hanamura, Ryoji Kawai, Shigeru Ogawa, and Hisamitsu Takada—will serve prison time ranging from 15 months to two years. The two-year sentences would be the longest term of imprisonment imposed on a foreign national voluntarily submitting to U.S. jurisdiction for a Sherman Act antitrust violation. The fine amount and prison sentences are subject to court approval.
“As a result of the Antitrust Division’s ongoing criminal investigation of price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry, more than $748 million in fines have been obtained—which already surpasses the total amount in criminal fines obtained by the division for all of last fiscal year,” said Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “Criminal antitrust enforcement remains a top priority and the Antitrust Division will continue to work with the FBI and our law enforcement counterparts to root out this kind of pernicious cartel conduct that results in higher prices to American consumers and businesses.”
“I would like to commend the employees of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division for their fine work on this very important antitrust investigation. This team has devoted countless hours to the investigation and I appreciate their devotion to the mission. The companies involved in this case conspired to the price fixing and bid rigging of automotive parts. This criminal activity has a significant impact on the automotive manufacturers in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Europe and had been occurring at least a decade. The conduct had also affected commerce on a global scale in almost every market where automobiles are manufactured and/or sold,” said FBI’s Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena.
According to court documents filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, Yazaki, DENSO, Hanamura, Kawai, Ogawa, Takada, and their co-conspirators carried out the conspiracies by agreeing, during meetings and conversations, to allocate the supply of the named products on a model-by-model basis and to coordinate price adjustments requested by automobile manufacturers in the United States and elsewhere. They sold automotive electrical components to automobile manufacturers at inflated prices and engaged in meetings and conversations for the purpose of monitoring and enforcing adherence to the agreed-upon bid-rigging and price-fixing scheme.
According to a three-count felony charge, Yazaki engaged in three separate conspiracies: to rig bids for and fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of automotive wire harnesses and related products from 2000 through 2010; to rig bids for and fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of instrument panel clusters from 2002 through 2010; and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of fuel senders from 2004 through 2010. All three conspiracies involved products sold to customers in the United States and elsewhere. Automotive wire harnesses are automotive electrical distribution systems used to direct and control electronic components, wiring and circuit boards in cars. Instrument panel clusters, also known as meters, are the mounted array of instruments and gauges housed in front of the driver of an automobile. Fuel senders reside in the fuel tank of an automobile and measure the amount of fuel in the tank.
According to a two-count felony charge, DENSO engaged in conspiracies to rig bids for and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of electronic control units (ECUs) and heater control panels (HCPs) sold to customers in the United States and elsewhere. An ECU is an embedded system that controls one or more of the electronic systems or subsystems in a motor vehicle. HCPs are located in the center console of an automobile and control the temperature of the interior environment of a vehicle.
According to four separate one-count felony charges, Hanamura, Kawai, Ogawa, and Takada each engaged in a conspiracy to rig bids for and to fix, stabilize and maintain the prices of automotive wire harnesses and related products sold to customers in the United States and elsewhere. The department said that the individuals participated in the conspiracies at various times from at least as early as January 2000, until at least February 2010. During the conspiracies, the individuals held the following positions: Hanamura was a branch manager at Yazaki North America in Columbus, Ohio, and a Honda division sales manager in Japan; Kawai was director of Toyota Sales of Yazaki North America in Lexington, Ky., and vice division head of Yazaki’s Toyota Business Unit in Japan; Ogawa was assistant section manager and later section manager in Yazaki’s Honda Business Unit in Japan, and branch manager in Yazaki’s Honda Sales Unit and later director at Yazaki North America in Columbus; Takada was assistant manager in Yazaki’s Toyota Business Unit, director of Yazaki North America in Lexington, and manager of a sales department of Yazaki’s Toyota Business Unit in Japan. According to the plea agreements, which are subject to court approval, Ogawa and Takada have each agreed to serve 15 months in a U.S. prison. Hanamura and Kawai have each agreed to serve two years in a U.S. prison. Each of the four executives has also agreed to pay a $20,000 criminal fine. According to the plea agreements, Yazaki, DENSO, Hanamura, Kawai, Ogawa, and Takada have all agreed to assist the department in its ongoing investigation into the automotive parts industry.
On Nov. 14, 2011, Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd. pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $200 million fine for its role in the wire harnesses price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracy. Three of Furukawa’s executives also pleaded guilty. The court sentenced two of the executives to 15 and 18 month prison sentences, to be served in the United States. Sentencing of the third executive, who agreed to serve a year and a day in prison in the United States, is scheduled for Feb. 28, 2012.
Yazaki and DENSO are charged with price fixing in violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum $100 million criminal fine for a corporation. Hanamura, Kawai, Ogawa and Takada are also charged with a violation of the Sherman Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $1 million criminal fine for an individual. The maximum fine for both a company and an individual may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victims of the crime, if either of those amounts is greater than the statutory maximum fine.
Today’s charges arise from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into bid rigging, price fixing and other anticompetitive conduct in the automotive parts industry, which is being conducted by the Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section and the FBI’s Detroit Field Office with the assistance of the FBI headquarters’ International Corruption Unit. Anyone with information concerning the focus of this investigation is urged to call the Antitrust Division’s National Criminal Enforcement Section at 202-307-6694 or the FBI’s Detroit Field Office at 313-965-2323.
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