ELECTION DAY: Tuesday, March 2, 2004 is election day. PLEASE exercise your right to vote. Although this is the Primary Election, it is a very important election. You not only have the Presidential Primary, there are many important State, County and Local offices and issues on the ballot. These offices and issues will affect you, your loved ones and all of us. Your votes do count. Please take a few moments out of your busy day to vote.

COST OF LIVING (COLA): Gerald D. Bantom, Vice President and Director of U.A.W. National Ford Department informed us that the three-month average for November and December 2003 and January 2004 is 175.10, yielding a negative seven cents (-.07) per hour. Therefore, effective Monday, March 1, 2004 the total cost-of-living received in your paycheck will be ten cents (.10) per hour.

JOINT CONFERENCE: The Chairmen, Bargaining Committees, Appointees and myself will be attending the UAW/FORD Joint Conference the week of March 8th, 2004. 1st Vice-President, Jerome Williams will replace me for the week and can be reached at the local hall at 934-3151 ext. 22 or plant pager 059. The Unit Chairmen will list their replacements for those attending this conference in their respective Units.

MANDATORY HOME DELIVERY (MAIL ORDER) PRESCRIPTION PROGRAM: Members with Traditional Blue Cross/Blue Shield health coverage, effective with the fourth fill after January 1, 2004, certain maintenance prescription drugs (long term medications) MUST be filled through Medco Health Home Delivery Pharmacy Service. If the prescription you are taking is on the list of about 100 "maintenance" drugs in the UAW-Ford Collective Bargaining Agreement, you will be REQUIRED to have that prescription filled at mail order in the future. For order forms or any questions, see or call your Benefits Representative Dotti Washington at the local hall at 934-3151 Ext 29, or Tom Orlando at the plant at 933-1322. You should have received this notice in the mail from Ford Motor Company.

MEMBERS WITH OTHER HEALTH CARRIERS: The mail order program is an OPTIONAL program you may want to look into for cost savings.

INTERNET OFFER: Imagine Net, LLC has purchased Admiral Communications subscriber base. Imagine Net will honor the group offer and pricing that is in place for members of Locals 2000 and 425/Ford employees and their families for $8.95 Dial-Up and $39.95 for DSL Internet access. Imagine Net also offers a high-speed dial-up to Accelerator, DSL, Spam Filtering and Virus Scanning. You can contact their Customer Service & Tech Support department at 1-800-536-0032. Their web site is http://home.imaginenet.net.

NEXT UNION MEETING: March 14, 2004 at 2:30 p.m. at the local union hall.