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UAW GM Strike

Cityboy

Banned
AP

UAW Says Strike Is About Job Security

Monday September 24, 8:22 pm ET

By Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin, AP Auto Writers

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070924/auto_talks.html?.v=35

UAW Says National Strike Is About Job Security for Its Members

DETROIT (AP) -- In the end, the first nationwide strike against General Motors Corp. in 37 years came because the United Auto Workers want something that GM will find difficult to promise: Job security.


UAW officials said the 73,000 UAW members who work at about 80 U.S. facilities for the nation's largest automaker didn't strike Monday over what many thought would trip up the talks: A plan to shift the retiree health care burden from the company to the union. They said they also didn't strike over wages.

They said union members walked out because they want GM to promise that future cars and trucks such as the replacement for the Chevrolet Cobalt small car or the still-on-the-drawing board Chevrolet Volt plug-in electric car will be built at U.S. plants, preserving union jobs.

The strike puts GM, which is restructuring so it can better compete with Asian automakers, in a bind as some of its new products begin to catch on with consumers. But it also means workers are taking a big risk -- giving up pay and slowing down GM in an uncertain economy.

"Job security is one of our primary concerns," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told reporters Monday afternoon after talks broke off and the strike began. "We're talking about investment and we're talking about job creation" and preserving benefits, he said.

Talks resumed a short time later as sign-carrying picketers marched outside plant gates, but weary bargainers stopped to rest around 8 p.m. Talks were to resume Tuesday morning.

Worker Anita Ahrens burst into tears as hundreds of employees streamed out of a GM plant in Janesville, Wis., just after the strike began at 11 a.m. EDT.

"Oh my God, here they come," said Ahrens, 39. "This is unreal."
Ahrens has seven years at the plant, where she works nights installing speakers in sport utility vehicles. She waited Monday for her husband, Ron Ahrens, who has worked there for 21 years.

The couple has three children, including a college freshman, and Ahrens worried about how they would pay their bills.

"This is horrible, but we're die-hard union, so we have to," Ahrens said. "We got a mortgage, two car payments and tons of freaking bills."

The striking workers will receive $200 a week plus medical benefits from the UAW's strike fund. The union had more than $800 million in that fund as of last November, according to the UAW's Web site.

The UAW, Gettelfinger said, is willing to talk about taking money from the company to form a trust that would be responsible for billions of dollars in retiree health care costs.

GM wants the trust, called a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, so it can move much of its $51 billion in unfunded retiree health care liabilities off the books, potentially raising the stock price and credit ratings. It's all part of the company's quest to cut or eliminate about a $25-per-hour labor cost disparity with its Japanese competitors.

"This strike is not about the VEBA in any way, shape or form," Gettelfinger said. "We were more than eager to discuss it," although he said no agreement had been reached.

Industry analysts said initially the strike would have little impact on consumers because GM has sufficient inventory stockpiled for most of its products.

But Monday afternoon, the Teamsters transportation union said its 10,000 automotive transport members would not cross UAW picket lines to deliver GM cars and trucks.

GM reported that it had just under 950,000 vehicles in its inventory at the end of August, about 35,000 below the same time last year.

Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis for J.D. Power and Associates, said even a short strike could hurt the company because its new crossover vehicles, the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook, are selling well and in short supply.

"The momentum they've established for those products would be interrupted if there's a supply interruption," Libby said. "There's not a lot of inventory available to sell down. So they need to keep that pipeline full."

Libby called the Enclave and Acadia a success story for GM because they don't stay on lots for long and they sell at or near full price.

"GM, financially, they don't have a lot of cushion," he said. "I just think it's going to hurt both sides in the long run."

GM had about a 65-day supply of cars and trucks as September began, versus a 71-day supply at the same time last year, said Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association. The Enclave, he said, is at a tight 24-day supply.

The strike will cost GM about 12,200 vehicles per day or 760 per hour, according to the auto forecasting firm CSM Worldwide of Northville.
If the walkout goes beyond 36 hours, CSM expects vehicle production in Canada to be affected because of a lack of U.S.-built engines and transmissions.

The walkout could further damage the image of the UAW, David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, said shortly before the strike began.

"What it says is the union is the same old militant organization," Cole said. "What is a real concern is buyers that punish a union by not buying the products they build."

Cole said the UAW leadership may need a strike to show members that it did all it could to get the best deal.

"They're in a bit of a box, in that they need some drama to get an affirmative vote on this," he said.

GM likely has threatened to pull investments out of the U.S. if the union does not agree to its terms, he said.

Gettelfinger, in his post-walkout news conference, said the union has done a lot to help the struggling GM, including health care givebacks in 2005. But during the weekend, he said GM's stance hardened.

"It was going to be General Motors' way at the expense of the workers," Gettelfinger said. "The company walked right up to the deadline like they really didn't care."

Gettelfinger said the union didn't want to strike.

"Who wins in a strike? But again, you can be pushed off a cliff, and that's what we feel like happened here," he said.

GM spokesman Dan Flores said the automaker was disappointed in the union's decision.

"The bargaining involves complex, difficult issues that affect the job security of our U.S. work force and the long-term viability of the company," he said. "We remain fully committed to working with the UAW to develop solutions together to address the competitive challenges facing GM."

GM shares fell 20 cents to $34.74 in trading Monday.

The last national strike against GM was in 1970 and lasted 69 days.
An agreement between GM and the UAW would become the pattern for pacts with Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.

The negotiations come at a difficult time for both the automakers and the union. Detroit's automakers lost a collective $15 billion last year.

The union also is feeling pressure. UAW membership has fallen from a high of 1.5 million active members in 1979 to around 576,000 today.

Associated Press Writer Ryan J. Foley in Janesville, Wis., contributed to this report.
 

Deadly Sushi

The One, The Only, Sushi
SUPER Site Supporter
Fire all of them. THey are greedy. They demand things that are in this day and age, ridiculous. Unions were good once upon a time. It made sense. But now, they ask and require FAR too much. And Toyota seems to be doing fine. There are industries that need a MUCH more fair pay structure. The auto industry isnt one of them.
 

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
Oh, how intelligent the UAW is. What do they demand? Job security. What do they do? Everything possible to insure the lack of job security by trying to financially cripple their host. As usual, a union is absolutely killing the job security of those they supposedly represent. The UAW should take a page from the once fearsome UMWA; demand everything from your employer with absolutely no concern for the well being of the company. The net result for the UMWA is that they have been decimated and are totally irrelevant now. It may be possible that the UAW moves their position to be officially irrelevant after this bonehead strike. They are only 1/3 of what they were 30 years ago. It’s possible that they may be completely gone in a mere 10 more years. Besides a decline in the need, corruption and total ignorance/arrogance at the top of these unions have lead to their complete collapse. Bye, bye UAW…
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
I agree. The UAW is cutting it's own throat. I wonder if GM will be able to take this opportunity to truly break the union. I feel for the workers. The Union leadership has gone bezerk. How could any international company say that they promise to keep production of new vehicles here in the US? Because of the global economy GM has only two choices break the union now, or give in to the union and watch the union slowly kill GM.
At least I hear they are talking today. maybe the union will come to it's senses.
 

mak2

Active member
I live here in Indiana and am a union member. My union is a professional union, well never mind but it is a little different.
One of the things that always, at least since the 70's drove me nuts is nonhigh school grads making an incedible amount of money doing production work. I heard an interview today of a local guy who sounded like my hill billy relatives down in the hills of Kentucky who, I am certain, does not have a high school education and is making $30.00 an hour complaining about his loss of job security. He knows he cant get another job becasue he has no skills and no education. These guys dont deserve job security. They should be thankful of every hour they have already been paid and go to work at WalMart. I feel that way and he is probably a relative. How could they expect a company to keep its production in US paying an outrageous amount to unskilled labor they could eaisly, very very eaisly replace in Mexico and the guy would probably be better educated.
 

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
Mak2, you bring up an important point; the pay for the work. I have a friend who works for Jeep in Michigan. He is in a supervisory, middle mgt., role. One minority lady puts the "Jeep" stickers on the back of...ah...I forgot the model...Jeep as it goes down the line and snaps the license plate light in it's socket. She makes nearly $135k a year and now has something like 30 "personal" days, 30 "sick" days, and and a dozen or so other days she doesn't have to show up in addition to her 4 weeks a year vacation time. She does not have a high school education nor a GED. Tom has to have an additional employee hired to do her job when she is off or opts to not show up for work; yet he cannot get rid of her.

It's things like that that makes it very, very difficult for domestic brand vehicles to compete with imports. That doesn't even mention the totally absurd amount of money domestic manufacturers have to pay for retired workers in the form of pensions and health care. In short, the unions have all but insured the domestic manufacturers fail. I've actually heard talk of them "going under" only to return as non-union companies so they can be competitive. None of this sort of stuff makes a strike by GM look like anything but guaranteed job suicide. Which is ironic, because the union is striking because they demand job security. I was not an economics major, but I can tell you something about economics and jobs; that is that there is no such thing as "job security". No matter what the factory may promise, if they cannot produce a product that the public will buy (at a profit for the manufacturer), job security is guaranteed to not exist. As a matter of fact, the job is guaranteed to not exist then the company closes it's doors.

How can a domestic manufacturer pay $135k a year to someone who only works part time and does an "unskilled" job?! There is a rather large Toyota plant about 40 miles from my house. They pay very good wages, about 70k a year, for hard working people who are trained to do a semi-skilled job. And, guess what?! Tens of thousands of people are filling out applications for those jobs; including the "unskilled" jobs that pay about $50k a year plus benefits. Compare the two. Which appears as if it will make it in a competitive economy?
 

Cityboy

Banned
I wonder how much of the $135,000 that woman is saving each year? She likely spends every dime of it on bling. Then, when the inflated wages end, she will have nothing to show and she will be singing the blues.

The same thing happened when Brown & Williamson closed it's Macon plant a few years ago. Lot's of foreclosures on McMansions and BMW's.
 

waybomb

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
First off, I am anti union all the way. When I was a working stiff, I was in the local mechanics afl-cio. What a bunch of lazy jerks. I got threatened a number of times because I was booking 60-70 hours in a 40 hour work week and making everybody else look bad. Well guess why that was - because you ARE bad. Jeesh.

Anyway, the UAW will get a signed contract. Management at GM hasn't changed, and it is easier to mortgage the future and get some sort of short term gain for shareholders, then to fight, and show a bad quarter or two.

And remember, it is not a contract unless both sides sign.

UAW says it has 800,000,000 in the strike fund. I believe it is more like 80,000,000. This means in about 2 weeks to 3 weeks, at $200 per week per member, plus the weekly health insurance premium, they'll be out of money and borrowing from somewhere shortly. That's why the news is saying GM will loose billions in a couple of weeks if they don't sign now.

Ya, right. When was the last time they made billions? They may loose billions in sales, but that may be a benefit. The American market has been supported by foriegn ops for a few years now.

And GM could change the course of unions if they stuck to their guns. But they won't - the executives don't want to be fired, plain and simple.
 

waybomb

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Oh, and another thing - if you are in the market for toys, go online and look at all the classifieds for classic cars, boats, off road stuff, etc. The last few months have seen some great bargains. If this strike goes on, I'm sure I'll be buying some toys.
 

Hutchman

New member
Site Supporter
I may be the only UAW member (retired) on here. I don't usually get involved in these discussions because, for one thing, I tend to agree with a lot of the negative comments. I was called a suck ass my whole career because I went in and worked my butt off every day. Yeah, and I was usually carrying a bunch of scumbags getting just as much money as I was while they did nothing.
I worked at four plants in four states over the years and retired from the Saturn plant in TN. I was in an off line position and didn't work with the assemblers. I never paid much attention to workers complaining their jobs were overloaded because I always figured it was obligatory for them to bitch about it. However, in my position I had a lot of contact with management from assembly and, when the managers start telling me that their people are overloaded I take notice. It seems that things have tightened up considerably lately.
Oh yeah, and I guess since I'm one of those undeserving retirees, I should just go toss myself under a bus so I won't be such a drain. Better take my wife too because, God knows, she doesn't deserve anything either. I'm a mercenary, as long as I can get something, I will.
Brent, in the future I'd take anything your friend in Michigan tells you with a grain of salt. Unless Chrysler signed a vastly different contract, and they didn't, than everybody else, that person gets about half that amount of pay, she gets five sick/personal days combined, and I'd like to know what those other "dozen or so other days she doesn't have to show up" are. I sure didn't get 'em.
As far as Toyota/Nissan,Honda, etc. are concerned, I hope none of you are naive enough to believe anything other than that the only reason they pay a decent wage is because of the UAW. It's how they keep the union out. If they had a choice they'd be paying minimum wage.
Waybomb, you're right, there'll be some more toys coming up. It is sad to see a striker on TV crying about having a mortgage on her home, her summer home, two car payments, and a stack of credit cards to pay on. I got into that mess years ago and had to wise up and work out of it. I could fully retire from working now but choose not to. I want to work a few more years and build the retirement funds. In fact, I'm starting a new job Monday as a GM dealer service tech.
Well, I think I'm rambling. I guess I don't like to be stereotyped any more than anyone else does. I worked my butt off for years and I kinda feel like I've got the benefits coming to me. I know most of you won 't agree with that but things are different now. I'm a second generation GM worker, Dad is retired management, and just grew up and worked all those years with the benefits guaranteed to me so I come to expect them to be there. Nowadays, you go into a job and have to realize right off that, if you ever want to retire, you're on your own. Hutch
 

Dargo

Like a bad penny...
GOLD Site Supporter
No big deal, but I spoke w/ Tom this morning. The person I mentioned earns $39.75 as a 28 year "skilled" employee. After 40 hours per week she earns an additional $19.88 per hour. When she works, she puts in 55 hours weeks. That comes out to be $1590 regular pay plus $895 overtime pay per week. She opts to work 3rd shift and earns some shift premium over that. I didn't get what her shift premium was, but $2485 per week comes out to be just over 129k per year. After 20 years as an employee, she is entitled to 160 hours vacation time per year; that is 4 weeks. And, yes, she does get around 30 additional "personal" or "sick" days per year before any reprimand.

So, on actual pay, I missed by about 6k per year on her pay. But, the 129k per year does not take into account any additional benefits such as medical, dental, vision, company pay to 401k etc. So, in real money, I likely was short. If she can get that, I don't blame her for taking it. However, it is things like this that will cause the domestic manufacturers to fail when competing with non-union auto makers. I don't know about Honda, but I assure you that thousands of people keep applications in at the local Toyota plant for wages far less than half this amount and, apparently, perform better on the job. Unexcused sick days or "no-show" days are not tolerated at Toyota. Those will get you fired. They don't staff extra people by the thousands to cover people who don't have to show up for work.

I'm sorry to have offended you Hutchman, but I grew up with a father who has been a lifelong member of the UMWA. It took a long, long time, but my father finally came to the conclusion that the union was corrupt, stole the rank and file member's money, had no real concern of the rank and file, and caused tens of thousands of coal miners to lose their jobs. Now, what's worse, because of actions by the UMWA, the "guaranteed" health benefits are in doubt. I've seen big unions. I've seen how big unions work. I've seen how the unions protect absolutely worthless workers and prevent companies from getting rid of them. I've seen unions cause huge companies become no longer competitive and die. I hope the UAW comes through for you and things work out for you, but I've studied unions, seen unions in action, and have seen how irrelevant unions are at this time and how they have caused extreme hardship for their members.
 

thcri

Gone But Not Forgotten
First off, I am anti union all the way.


As far as I am concerned the union is the main reason why big manufactures have moved out of the country. They can't compete and the only way to get out of a union is to leave the country. Once in you can't get out without facing major consequences.

I hate the unions because of the rules they have gotten our politicians to create. They can talk to my employees about joining the union but I can't talk to my employees about not joining the unions. If I even talk to a union BA one time the union can say we are in negotiations and then come into my place of business and talk to my employees and force a vote and I have no input. The unions around here money out of each pay check per hour to donate to politics. And we all know where it goes.

Last I heard on the GM deal was the union was making it sound like this whole thing was GM's fault and GM was not willing to negotiate and that the union only wanted GM to charge an additional 1,000 per car so fund the unions health care program. Yeah just add a grand to each car and all of us will go right out and buy a new car.KMA
 

waybomb

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Unload the pension; no raises, just an annual bonus; and a two tier pay system.

I was wrong. GM won hands down. Now I only hope Ford and Chrysler ask for more. They are in worse shape than GM and need a little extra push.

Of course, the union hacks will declare a victory.
 

Hutchman

New member
Site Supporter
Brent, you didn't offend me. The only thing that offends me is being stereotyped. As I stated in the first line of my post-I'm against much of what the union stands for. I'm an independent conservative and usually vote Republican. The UAW always states at election time that they are not necessarily going to back the Democrats but will back the best candidate. Then when it comes time to announce who they're backing it's always the Dems. Wouldn't matter if the candidate was a convicted pedophile, they're backing him/her.
Apparently, I spent 31 years working for the wrong auto company. When I left, I was getting $26.xx per hour as unskilled labor at a job that should have been classified as skilled. My apologies to Tom.
 

mak2

Active member
Fire all of them. THey are greedy. They demand things that are in this day and age, ridiculous. Unions were good once upon a time. It made sense. But now, they ask and require FAR too much. And Toyota seems to be doing fine. There are industries that need a MUCH more fair pay structure. The auto industry isnt one of them.

Did I mention I agreed with every word Deadly Sushi said? :1062:
 

ddrane2115

Charter Member
SUPER Site Supporter
The lady mentioned HOPES she keeps that job, and I am sure being a minority, she will.

My brother worked for Ford some 23 years, died the morning before his afternoon shift was to start with a heart attack. The all friggin powerful UAW contract got his surviving wife a great big fat stinky no count goose eggs. 23 years and she gets NONE of his benefits, seems he was 2 years from "retiring", so nothing, not one dime of pension, no insurance, no nothing............and she never will, see her SS is more than his would have been.

I drive a Ford now, bought used, would not buy American new again, Honda, Nissan, BMW, German, Toyota, but wont buy UAW or even Saturn.

As far as this strike goes, glad for the employees it is over, but they really did get screwed by the union again. One thing that gets me is why take over such a thing as health care. my guess is retirees health care is about to go belly up, and the money they get for doing this goes in the pockets of the scum leaders.

just my 2 cents worth.
 
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