OT: UAW Launches Strike Against GM

[Thomas Rogers]

UAW Launches Strike Against GM

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

Manufacturing.Net - September 24, 2007



DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers has launched a national strike against General Motors Corp., GM spokesman Dan Flores said Monday. It's the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976, when Ford Motor Co. plants were shut down.



Workers walked off the job and began picketing Monday outside GM plants after the 11 a.m. UAW strike deadline passed.



It remained to be seen what effect the strike would have on the automaker and consumers. The company has sufficient stocks of just about every product to withstand a short strike, according to Tom Libby, senior director of industry analysis for J.D. Power and Associates.



Charlie Coppinger, who has worked at GM's powertrain plant in Warren for 31 years, walked the picket line along with a handful of others shortly after the deadline passed.



The 51-year-old Rochester Hills resident said he hoped a strike could be settled quickly, but that union members were on the line to back the union and its bargainers.



''We're just here to support them,'' said Coppinger, who said leaflets were passed out indicating that the strike was on.



The UAW said it would hold a news conference at 12:15 p.m.



Flores said the automaker is disappointed in the UAW's decision to call a national strike.



''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. We remain fully committed to working with the UAW to develop solutions together to address the competitive challenges facing GM,'' Flores said.



Included in the negotiations was a groundbreaking provision establishing a UAW-managed trust that will administer GM's retiree health care obligations. GM pushed hard for the trust — known as a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association, or VEBA — so it could move $51 billion in unfunded retiree health costs off its books. GM has nearly 339,000 retirees and surviving spouses.

Sounds like if the UAW gets what they want GM union dues are going to go up...way up, to help pay for retiree health costs...



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

Fight the good fight boys.



If the company is unable to keep its promises instead of giving it to overpaid CEO's, the union will have to stand up to take care of its members.



A few years back, our union wanted to take over the retirement accounts from the company, but they refused. Now they are having a hard time keeping it funded.





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen,



I heard the other day on an ABC news report that when building a car, GM pays more towards retiree benefits then they do for the metal to make the car.



I'm just not sure that sounds right, regardless whether or not you support unions.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

TJR,



If you never invested into a savings account and then find yourself needing money, who is to blame. The banks or yourself?





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Caymen,



So it's your contention that if GM properly invested their profits to fund their retirement pension accounts there wouldn't be a problem today?



What about companies like Ford and GM that go decades without profits?



TJR

 

[TomT]

Rick Wagoner, CEO of GM, makes about 8 times what Toyota's CEO makes. What's wrong with that picture?



Note: I am not for the UAW. I think their pay and benefits far exceed what unskilled/uneducated workers receive elsewhere but there's no doubt management's pay is also bloated. GM is going down the tubes unless both sides make concessions for the good of the company.

 

[A K]

[Broken External Image]:



I think everyone here is aware of everyone else's union/anti-union/etc. stance. Why not let it go?

 

[Tom Schindler]

TomT,



Great point. There is always enough money to pay a CEO, but never enough to pay the guy making the actual product.





Tom

 

[Thomas Rogers]

TomT asks:

Rick Wagoner, CEO of GM, makes about 8 times what Toyota's CEO makes. What's wrong with that picture?

There is a lot wrong with that picture. Why do you think American CEOs make so much money, even during years when their companies aren't profitable?



I'll answer that...because of an "entitlement mentality".



CEOs feel they are entitled to that money based on the perceived, intangible value they bring to a company, instead of based on the actual value they bring to a company. Actual value is easier to determine. If a company is profitable, then the CEO should be paid well. If the company is not profitable, then the CEO and management should be paid less.



I'm all for management and CEOs getting a much larger portion of their compensation via an incentive basis.



But if we all agree that management and executives should get paid less when a company does poorly, because they are largely to blame; then it seems only proper that if there are downturns in the economy, or drastic changes in the marketplace that simply cannot be blamed on management that ALL employees should bear that brunt. Meaning pensions should be cut, people should be let go, etc, without a lot of protectionism.



The entitlement mentality that allows CEOs and those that hire and support them to make millions as a company falls is the same mentality that keeps shops at full-staff, pay at full scale and pension at full-value if not increasing as a company goes down the toilet.



I say live by the sword, die by the sword.



TJR

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I'm sure Toyota, Nissan, and Hyundai are just laughing at this. The US automakers are barely staying afloat and the unions are worried about retirement plans. I guess they're too stupid to know that if GM gives more, then they go bankrupt and then no one has job to strike from and no one gets a retirement either. Hell, the strike itself could ruin the company, but the UAW bosses don't care, as long as UAW exists, they get their paychecks regardless of whether any US automakers survive.

 

[Johnny O]

Just shut 'em down and import everything from GM Australia.

GTO's all around for everybody!!! :lol: (j/k, I know they quit making them)

 

[Benjamin Feinstein]

The CEO's of most companies are paid way too much. I dont care how well you run a company there is no need form multi millon dollar saliries. Instead of paying CEO's that much money how about reinvest the profit into the company.



The same goes to the union or even non union employees. If the company is not doing well then recognise that and stop trying to squeez water from dry rocks.



Look at what happened to United. The company went to its employees and asked for pay cuts at all levels. The Unions and other employees said no they were unwilling to take paycuts and guess what happened. United went bankrupt and got the right to stop paying for the pensions of current and past employees. Think how you would feel is you got a call one day after working for 30+ years and being told that you no longer had a pension.



To solve the current problems with the US auto companies both management and the union workers are going to have to take one on the chin and give a little if they want to continue to have a place to work.

 

[Gavin Allan]

What, is it deer season or something?



I swear they go on strike just to get a few days off. Management enjoys the time off too.

 

[KentheREALone Z]

I just couldn't wait to get home today and read this forum!!!!!!!!!!!!



Come on guys, you an do better than the above!!!!:lol:

 

[blksn8k]

Hey, now that you mention, archery season starts this coming Saturday!

 

[Tom Schindler]

I'm sure Toyota, Nissan, and Hyundai are just laughing at this. The US automakers are barely staying afloat and the unions are worried about retirement plans.

All three of those companies have labor that is organized. They know the drill. Unfortunatly, those same companies do not have to deal with hospitalization since their government givs it to them.



They do not have to deal with what we have to deal with.



Nelson, you keep forgetting that.





Tom

 

[Nelson Atwell]

So Tom, you suggest we embrace Social Medicine to cure the ills of the US Auto Companies? How can the Japanese Auto plants in the US stay profitable? Toyota doesn't pay my cousin's medical bills. She has insurance like almost everyone else.



Perhaps I am just confused by your statement. I don't speak with Native English speakers too often in Poland (with the exception of my daughter), so maybe I am losing my English skills.

 

[Tom Schindler]

I am saying our system isn't not working to the best of its ability as it could and something needs to get fixed. Whatever the solution is, it should be looked into vs. just getting dismissed.



Toyota, Nissan, and Honda are small pups in the USA. They do not have the legacy that other companies have. It is not a union vs. non-union thing. It is about caring for our againg people. You will find yourself one day facing the same fate. You have a good pension coming from Uncle Sam. You also get good health care. We forget that health care and pension plans were part of their compensation package. It was not an extra perk. They gave up other things like pay raises to get a pension plan.



Those retired workers are only asking for the company to keep up its side of the bargain.



Imagine retiring and Uncle Sam saying you no longer have a pension or medical coverage when you retire. I know Retired military members get a hefty pension and medical coverage. Put yourself in their shoes.





Tom

 

[EddieS'04]

Caymen,,I would bet that the majority of our members who hate unions, and their medical and retirement benifits. They have their own benifit packages with who they work for.

I base this on the people I have argued union vs. non union, with. Texas is an open shop state. Here in the Houston industrial complex, there are plenty of non union jobs that have better benifits than union jobs. For those that would say that union benifits drive up the cost of a product. That is a lost argument in many areas of the country.

[Broken External Image]:

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I don't hate all unions...just unions that misuse their power to harm its own members, the company that pays them and disturbs the national economy. Our country doesn't need something like this, when the economy is already on shaky ground. GM doesn't need this either, when it is barely hanging on. The workers certainly don't need this. They can very easily see themselves in the same position the workers at the Oklahoma City plant are in...out of a job.



Now the teamsters are joining the strike by not transporting completed vehicles.



I admire Solidarity and Lech Walesa. That union actually did something good for it workers and for Poland, and it started a chain-reaction which brought down the Soviet Union. Our unions are an embarassment in comparison.



[Broken External Image]: