UAW strike
10-16-19, 12:53 PM
#271
Lexus Fanatic
Looks like GM is going to win with their closures and elimination of 14,000 jobs, I remember some on here saying these jobs will never return, those people were indeed right. The current workers will keep their jobs and will get a 3-4 percent wage hike but their UAW footprint will not expand. 4 years from now, I am sure we will hear about more plant closures just before the contract is up.
10-16-19, 04:54 PM
#274
Lexus Champion
As Mike has said the membership has to ratify it and that will take some time. In the immediate circumstances, what the membership can vote on is to end the strike - that could happen tomorrow. This is what GM execs and Wall Street's banksters need to know before the close of markets. Picket lines come down and that can mean plants can at least start ramping up.
Collective action by 49000 workers is not a pretty sight but they did it. The endless conflation by people in completely different sectors and white collar occupations employing one or two people to a few hundred people vs a gigantic corporation and a huge workforce are meaningless and add nothing to this discussion. What that tentative agreement has to settle is: the number of temps and their $14-$17/hr jobs.
Also health care: we know the US has a private health care system that is unmatched in much of the western world where there are dual systems that match or shadow the public system. A computer engineer or systems programmer isn't subject to repetitive strain injuries built up over a decade or more.
But some truly silly comments by some people living in a bubble here. Naturally, it's a luxury car forum so not all that surprising.
Collective action by 49000 workers is not a pretty sight but they did it. The endless conflation by people in completely different sectors and white collar occupations employing one or two people to a few hundred people vs a gigantic corporation and a huge workforce are meaningless and add nothing to this discussion. What that tentative agreement has to settle is: the number of temps and their $14-$17/hr jobs.
Also health care: we know the US has a private health care system that is unmatched in much of the western world where there are dual systems that match or shadow the public system. A computer engineer or systems programmer isn't subject to repetitive strain injuries built up over a decade or more.
But some truly silly comments by some people living in a bubble here. Naturally, it's a luxury car forum so not all that surprising.
10-17-19, 04:07 AM
#275
Lexus Fanatic
- Increases of 3-4% in wages and lump sum payments. Precise details of the raises were not known. In the 2015 contract, workers got a 3% wage increase on years one and three and 4% lump sum payments on the alternate years.
- A ratification bonus of at least $9,000.
- Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Plant will remain open. The plant will build an electric pickup, but it is unclear how many jobs the pickup would create or retain. Some reports said the deal does not include production at Lordstown, Ohio, an assembly plant that, like Detroit-Hamtramck, was targeted to be idled.
- Newer union workers who currently get only two weeks' vacation a year will be able to take one of those weeks at a time of their choosing. In the previous contract, these employees were required to take both paid vacation weeks during scheduled plant shutdowns. Under the proposal, the second week of a plant shutdown would be considered a layoff and the workers could qualify for unemployment.
- As the Free Press previously reported, a deal was struck on a path to permanent employment for temporary workers, a key UAW demand. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.fre...amp/4002301002
10-17-19, 06:59 PM
#276
Lexus Champion
Reuters report. They will stay on picket lines while voting. Wall Street is reacting, so this is about money and share prices. Some of these workers have already moved to take jobs at other GM plants. Three plants will be shutdown under the proposed agreement. Two parts plants and the Lordstown plant where the Cruze was being built.
Source
GM shares closed down 1.3% at $36.19 on Thursday, after a modest rally on Wednesday following the UAW’s announcement it had reached a tentative contract deal.
GM will move ahead with closing Lordstown and two parts plants in Baltimore and Warren, Michigan. Workers from Lordstown on Thursday were outside GM’s Detroit headquarters, where UAW leaders were meeting, to protest the planned agreement. GM also appears to have dodged a significant addition to its long-term balance sheet liabilities by agreeing to make a one-time cash distribution to UAW members eligible for pensions.
The union said GM has agreed to put “new product” in the company’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant as part of the deal. Details were not provided in the UAW summary but sources have said the plant will build electric trucks.
Separate from the UAW deal, GM on Thursday confirmed plans for an electric battery plant near the Lordstown complex that could eventually employ 1,000 people. Sources have said the battery plant would be a joint venture, where the workers are represented by the UAW and earn in the range of $15 to $17 an hour.
The union said GM has agreed to put “new product” in the company’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant as part of the deal. Details were not provided in the UAW summary but sources have said the plant will build electric trucks.
Separate from the UAW deal, GM on Thursday confirmed plans for an electric battery plant near the Lordstown complex that could eventually employ 1,000 people. Sources have said the battery plant would be a joint venture, where the workers are represented by the UAW and earn in the range of $15 to $17 an hour.
GM has said it plans to sell the Lordstown plant to a group affiliated with electric truck startup Workhorse Group Inc that would initially employ 400 people - barely a tenth of the workforce Lordstown had when it was operating on three shifts. A Workhorse spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
A group of workers from the Lordstown plant stood outside the hotel ballroom where UAW leaders were meeting on Thursday, reading the UAW summary of the contract on smartphones. The Lordstown workers, some wearing red shirts with the slogan “Stop Building in Mexico,” said they were not satisfied with what they saw.
Scott Gearhart, who worked for 26 years at Lordstown, said he is now working at GM’s Wentzville, Missouri, pickup truck assembly plant, living in an apartment and driving 10 hours to go home on days off. “I have my family at home. My mom’s by herself,” Gearhart said, explaining why he has not moved.
Tommy Woliko looked up from reading the contract summary on a smartphone. “I’m looking for something that says we’re not losing jobs to Mexico,” he said. “I see nothing.” Woliko worked for 11 years at Lordstown before moving to GM’s heavy duty pickup truck plant in Flint, Michigan.
A group of workers from the Lordstown plant stood outside the hotel ballroom where UAW leaders were meeting on Thursday, reading the UAW summary of the contract on smartphones. The Lordstown workers, some wearing red shirts with the slogan “Stop Building in Mexico,” said they were not satisfied with what they saw.
Scott Gearhart, who worked for 26 years at Lordstown, said he is now working at GM’s Wentzville, Missouri, pickup truck assembly plant, living in an apartment and driving 10 hours to go home on days off. “I have my family at home. My mom’s by herself,” Gearhart said, explaining why he has not moved.
Tommy Woliko looked up from reading the contract summary on a smartphone. “I’m looking for something that says we’re not losing jobs to Mexico,” he said. “I see nothing.” Woliko worked for 11 years at Lordstown before moving to GM’s heavy duty pickup truck plant in Flint, Michigan.
10-17-19, 07:09 PM
#277
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
The Lordstown workers, some wearing red shirts with the slogan “Stop Building in Mexico,” said they were not satisfied with what they saw.
Tommy Woliko looked up from reading the contract summary on a smartphone. “I’m looking for something that says we’re not losing jobs to Mexico,” he said. “I see nothing.”
Last edited by mmarshall; 10-17-19 at 08:09 PM.
10-17-19, 08:40 PM
#279
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
this looks like an almost complete failure for the uaw.
10-18-19, 06:56 AM
#281
Lexus Champion
Lol. This post looks like a complete failure in balanced thinking and trying to look at the issues from a neutral perspective. GM was going to shut down three plants no matter what the workers did. The UAW gave in to the inevitable re. the closures but the tentative agreement addresses health care and the status of temps.
By 2023 all GM full time workers will make $32.32/hr regardless of how many years they've worked there. Temps will become full time after three consecutive years. Stuff the UAW wanted.
But hey GM only lost $2B and Mary Barra had to get personally involved to negotiate a tentative end to the strike.
By 2023 all GM full time workers will make $32.32/hr regardless of how many years they've worked there. Temps will become full time after three consecutive years. Stuff the UAW wanted.
But hey GM only lost $2B and Mary Barra had to get personally involved to negotiate a tentative end to the strike.
10-18-19, 01:06 PM
#283
Lexus Test Driver
10-18-19, 01:09 PM
#284
Super Moderator
Yup. You know that right now senior leadership is working on a long-term strategic plan to eliminate reliance on the UAW. As new products come online, they will go to foreign plants (existing or new), and US plants will be gradually idled or closed over time as their products leave the market.
10-18-19, 01:49 PM
#285
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
Lol. This post looks like a complete failure in balanced thinking and trying to look at the issues from a neutral perspective. GM was going to shut down three plants no matter what the workers did. The UAW gave in to the inevitable re. the closures but the tentative agreement addresses health care and the status of temps.
By 2023 all GM full time workers will make $32.32/hr regardless of how many years they've worked there. Temps will become full time after three consecutive years. Stuff the UAW wanted.
But hey GM only lost $2B and Mary Barra had to get personally involved to negotiate a tentative end to the strike.
By 2023 all GM full time workers will make $32.32/hr regardless of how many years they've worked there. Temps will become full time after three consecutive years. Stuff the UAW wanted.
But hey GM only lost $2B and Mary Barra had to get personally involved to negotiate a tentative end to the strike.
Unlike some of the other posters, Matty, you seem to have a pretty good grip on the overall situation.
One has to also look beyond the strike, though....and what GM is going to be facing in the long term. They may (?) win out, for now, on keeping some of the plants closed (Lordstown and Hamtramck are still up in the air at this point)...but enormous damage has been done to GM's credibility, image, and reputation. This strike, no matter what the outcome, is going to cost them heavily....beyond the $2B they have already lost. They have alienated and ticked off a lot of potential customers, not to mention those in local/state/national governments, and stand to lose significant market share over this. Their best-selling Silverado has already sunk to third place.....and this is only the beginning.