DETROIT, Sept. 24 — Members of the United Automobile Workers union walked off the job today at General Motors plants across the country after union leaders and company officials failed to reach an agreement in contentious talks on a new contract.
It is the first national strike by the union against G.M. since 1970. That strike lasted for two months. The U.A.W. last struck G.M. at two plants in Flint, Mich., in 1998, in a strike that went on for seven weeks.
“This is nothing we wanted,” the union’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, said at a midday news conference. “Nobody wins in a strike.”
The stalemate apparently arose over the union’s demand for job protection for its work force at G.M., which is one-fifth its size in 1990. G.M., in return, had pushed for the creation of a trust that would assume responsibility for its $55 billion liability for health care benefits for workers, retirees and their families.
Don’t count on health insurance EVER from some big, bureaucratic entity. Stuff it in your couch. In gold bars.
I don’t think people realize how much the UAW has done for OTHER peoples jobs. The UAW has been for years the protector of insurance, and security for millions of people union or not, as other companies had to keep their benefits high to compete.
Just watch what happens to your benefits if union benefits are lost.
Its amazing
Clueless and brain dead on both sides
The auto industry rapes the consumer and gives planned Obsolescence
The brain dead workers , earning good money , most of whom are alchoholics go on
The oil crisis comes
“We don’t want to build econoboxes”
The Japanese industry gets it toe hold
These same car buyers go through the ranks of entry level cars and now have their trusted brands
The workers and their union demand more
The auto executives hide in their offices and come up with the idea of building big old trucks , whose costs have been paid long ago, load them up with options and call them luxury SUVs. Even a Cadillac Escalade is really nothing more than an overstuffred, overmarketed truck
Car prices – due to union costs go through the roof for the consumer
Market share of the big three diminishes if not plummets
The brands that command top dollar and resale value are the Japanese imports
And now the union calls a strike ( which can cost G.M. billions with a B)
The strike is called by the union over “job security” ???
Have I got this correct ?
Both the company and the unions should of been building value cars for the market long ago.
It was one big gravy train for both
Its over now
Only instead of alchoholics the highly paid auto workers on the line are largely drug addicts.
#2 The UAW is the reason the US automakers are in the hole they are in…. Labor costs reported in The Detroit News. “Detroit’s automakers lost a collective $15 billion last year, and all say they need labor cost parity with their Asian competitors in order to turn consistent profits. Chrysler pays an average of $75.86 per hour in wages, pension and health care benefits, while GM pays $73.26 and Ford pays an average of $70.51. By comparison, Toyota Motor Corp. pays its U.S. workers about $48 per hour, according to an estimate from the U.S. automakers.”
I sell products to all 3 US automakers and have had many conversations with union & non-union folks on the ground and the main thing the union is good at in the modern day scheme of things is keeping jobs for workers who don’t deserve to keep them, Such as ones who steal and keep their jobs.
Better a strike than have everything moved to China.
>>The brain dead workers , earning good money , most of whom
>>are alchoholics go on
Just because you’re an alcoholic, don’t assume that everyone else is too. As to making “good money”, the highest-paid worker (Grade 18) in the UAW (technical/ engineering class) makes about $75,000/yr. And that’s for doing actual work.
It’s not minimum wage, but when you compare it with health insurance company hangers-on making ten$ of million$ of dollar$ per year to deny sick people medical care, and hedge fund parasites making hundred$ of million$ for shuffling other people’s money, it doesn’t seem beyond the pale.
Many mornings I wake up and ask myself if I could possibly get more cynical. I continue to surprise myself with the affirmative.
What kind of job security is the UAW after? Instead of sucking the life out of a company by demanding job security, help influence the company into a more profitable path. Why doesn’t UAW use their power to influence GM in to making econoboxes that can compete with Toyota or Honda.
Shocked! Just shocked at some of the responses I see here. I cant believe that the general public has bought into the propaganda that the auto companies have been dishing.
I hold stock in the big 3 and I dont even have such a view of the UAW. What the hell is wrong with you people?
Nepon you are just talking out your ass.
#9 I agree….
Blue collar workers (I’m one of them) have no say against the suits. Obviously the ones writing here are white collar younger workers who don’t remember how a Union can stand up for your rights as a worker.
The american worker is getting screwed and people just basically bend over.
@4
“The UAW is the reason the US automakers are in the hole they are in”
Really? I thought it was because they make piece of shit cars that no one really wants to buy.
Your wage figures MAY be right. I’m not one to trust the auto makers on those figures. In Canada Toyota employes earn, within a couple percent, the same as the big three employees.
Even if the automakers wage figures are correct, who cares? How many man hours does it take to build a car in a up to date plant? I’m not sure but I know a car takes 60 to 80 minutes to go through the line. So even figuring on 15 man hours (which is most likely high) the union wages would only add $405 to the cost of a car.
Blaming the unions is the easy way out. The big 3 are going under because they are badly run companies.
>>Really? I thought it was because they make piece of shit cars
>>that no one really wants to buy.
Bingo!
Well at least some of the blame for the US cars being crap has to fall to the guys and gals that build them.
#11,12 Enjoy your foreign cars. American cars are far from crap these days, I am currently on my 3rd American made vehicle at 250,000+ miles. 1987 Cavalier Z24 379,000. 19955 Dodge Neon 256,000. 2000 Dodge Caravan currently has 258,000 and goes up by about 1000-1500 a week.
Oh I forgot My other current a 2002 Ram 4×4 Quad Cab 93,000 but that not even broken in yet 🙂
>>Cavalier…Neon…Caravan..
’nuff said.
The CHINESE CARS are coming soon…at first, they’ll be POS models, then they’ll get waaay better like the Japaneses and Koreans. DId I mention they’ll be great values?
It’ll be curtains for Detroit if they choose not to compete in this next invasion like they didn’t in the last several. Strike while you can fellas.
“Job Security?” Welcome to the New Reality, boys, where there ain’t no such thing.
Yeah, screw blue-collar workers with the balls to fight to keep their jobs and health care. They should start to behave like respectable middle-class professionals. Sit back and watch their jobs offshored. Vote for country club bubbas who get the best health care in the world – for themselves – and accept the platitudes that work for every other issue.
#17 – GM is already one of the top 3 producers in China. They just have to fill up that pot before they start to spill onto North America.
Union benefits should be tied to company performance. Plain and simple. If the company suffers, so does the union, if the company prospers, so do it’s workers.
The unions have one purpose: to get as much as possible for the workers, with ZERO consideration for the long term health of the company.
Unions in their current condition will destroy american industry and infrastructure in all it’s forms.
Unions should be about safety and fair treatment. Not the anvil around the head of American industry that they have become.
As far as the GM workers, I couldn’t care less if they lose their jobs because the company goes broke, the greedy bastards. Let teh union take care of their health and retirement benefits.
I have a kind of weird reason for not buying Big Three cars…I like cars w stick shifts, and except for muscle cars, you can’t get a Big 3 car with a stick shift. So I buy Japanese. Seems that 85% of cars sold in US are automatic. I’ve always wondered why…it takes away most of the pleasure of driving….in the rest of the world, the vast majority are stick shift….
Unlike the multi-millionaires at the top, at least the UAW workers spend their money in their local communities- they buy from local businesses which spread the money through the community. If those jobs go, guess who else is going to get laid off?
GM hasn’t fully recovered from the strike in the 70’s and they are a much smaller company now than they were then. Union workers are shooting themselves in the foot, and hurting innocent bystanders. Here in Ontario there are 100,000 workers out of work because the parts system is backed up. #9, sell your stock in the “big three” now. It’s downhill from here on.
The North American consumer is also the problem. Regardless of oil prices, gas guzzlers and high performance death machines like the feature of this article should be extinct by now.
#14, Bob, those high mileage American cars you mentioned… their engines were made in Japan.
Hybrid Cars are the future and America has been slowest on the uptake. So guess who is smart enough to fill the void?
Honda Accord, Available Now
Honda Civic, Available Now
Lexus GS 450h, Available Now
Lexus LS 600H L, Available Now
Saturn Aura Green Line, Available Now
Nissan Altima, Available Now
Toyota Camry, Available Now
Toyota Prius, Available Now
North america?…
Chevy Malibu… 2008 they will have a mild hybrid as an option that will save only 2 mpg. Who the F is going to pay extra for that?
Stupid, stupid STUPID. And now the stupid workers are on strike.
Bye bye jobs.
The world does not need GM, ot the UAW/
>>The unions have one purpose: to get as much as possible for
>>the workers, with ZERO consideration for the long term health
>>of the company.
On the flip side, the company has one purpose, to make as much filthy lucre as possible on the backs of the employees while the executives sit in their corner offices pulling their puds, with ZERO consideration for the health, welfare, or happiness of their employees and their families.
It all averages out in the long run.
GM workers go on strike because they want their positions guaranteed. That’s living in a fantasy world.
US car companies are dying because they make crapmobiles that smart consumers avoid like the plague. Ask any American car dealer and they’ll tell you that the big bucks come from the service departments.
#14: I had a 2000 Caravan as well. I owned it for only 42 days, because the transmission failed twice. I wouldn’t take a new GM car if I won it on The Price Is Right. I like my ’98 Taurus, but the damn thing needs repairs every year.
The US car companies and the UAW are digging their own graves by ignoring the wishes of the buying public.
#10: Every. Single. Time. that this blue-collar man worked for a union shop, it was nothing but trouble. Constant bickering. Dumbass “shop stewards” that tried to make even the slightest discussion a union issue. Immediate us vs them thinking. Daily mistrust. And pay raise demands that resulted in plant closures and job losses. Every union shop I ever worked for is history.
By contrast, any time I worked for a non-union shop, I got better and more frequent raises and promotions, fully paid health care, and bosses that actually listened to their workers. Oh, and there were no workers protected by “seniority” that got their a$$es saved come layoff time. Everyone had to pull their weight or get shown the door, no matter how long they worked there.
“On the flip side, the company has one purpose, to make as much filthy lucre as possible on the backs of the employees while the executives sit in their corner offices pulling their puds, with ZERO consideration for the health, welfare, or happiness of their employees and their families.”
From a layman’s view it might seem like that, and in a few cases it is. There’s another variable in the equation though. Shareholders. If the average Joe wants to own a piece of a company it has to be public. A company (theoretically) goes public initially to raise cash for expansion. Greed quickly takes over with easy money from issuing more and more virtual stock… they don’t even have to pay for the paper anymore. Every time shares are issued, the average witless shareholding Joe pays for them. His shares are reduced in value (delayed or otherwise) by the percentage increase in shares. So companies hire the most cutthroat, smartass wheeler dealer they can find to run the company and get the share prices back up. Those guys, love em or hate em, are not commonplace, so up go the salaries.
It’s a system we all support by working for, and buying from these companies. Then a union says hey, we want to work less and make more and never lose their jobs. The gains from the highly paid “pud puller” at the top are suddenly wiped out, the competition moves in and the workers have screwed themselves.
They have NO sympathy from me.
No, the domestics aren’t in trouble because of labor unions. The foreign automakers sell cars here primarily made here, and they deal with unions as well.
Perhaps if Detroit would make a car that was worth owning, if they didn’t make countless huge SUVs with piss poor MPG, if they made cars that people wanted, if their executives were taking massive raises and bonuses even as their companies fail, GM and Ford wouldn’t be in the trouble they are in.
It’s easy to say ‘its the unions!’, quite another to look at the facts of the situation and see the unions are not the problem.
Please see:
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/09/25/uaw_strike/index.html
Unions, management and government all conspired to kill the US auto industry… mis-management and LACK of government foresight.