Yesterday, managers at GM's Delta Township plant (Buick Enclave, Saturn Outlook, GMC Acadia) sent workers home after a strike at Alliance Industries left them carpetless. Workers were told to report back to work this morning in case the parts were there. This morning, carpets were the least of GM's problems. The Detroit Free Press reports that UAW workers at Delta Township walked out on strike over the terms in their local contract. It's too early to know what effect the walk-out will have or how long it'll last, but between this and the strikes against American Axle and Alliance Industry, the UAW is taking a big bite out of GM's business. While The General probably welcomed the shutdowns at first– it gave them a chance to clear out a backlog of trucks– they're starting to feel the pressure. Can they afford to dig into their diminishing cash hoard relieve it? Can they afford not to?
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The UAW sure seems determined to make sure every American Job is eventually outsourced. I am constantly amazed at how self destructive the UAW is.
Amazing.
gamper :
April 17th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
The UAW sure seems determined to make sure every American Job is eventually outsourced. I am constantly amazed at how self destructive the UAW is.
GM management is bad, and they certainly don’t get a free pass, but you do have to wonder about the thought process of some of these union guys.
It’s painful to watch american firms destroy themselves over problems that have obvious solutions.
I’m certainly no union fan, but you can’t pin all the blame on the UAW. GM has been enabling the UAW for decades by giving them fatter contracts and benefits over the years, allowing costs to spiral out of control.
Much like with their abused supplier base, GM is merely reaping what they’ve sown.
I remember being told a bad job is better than no job at all. I’ve had thoes jobs, and while they suck, they have always paid the bills, even if I didnt get the perks I wanted.
Once thoes GM plants close and thoes jobs are gone, and they are never coming back. The UAW better wise up and start training their people in propper burger flipping techniques, cause it doesnt take more than one guy running a backhoe to dig miles of ditch.
The Union demanded and the manufacturers caved. Now the price of labor for these jobs is so much higher than can be found in other countries – bye bye manufacturing.
This is just another of those cases where the parasite bleeds the host to death and dies shortly afterwards.
Does anyone know the comparable wages/benefits for the average UAW GM worker to a non-unionized Toyota worker?
shabatski:
The wages for the wrench turners for UAW and transplant workers are actually not that far apart (how do you think the transplants have been able to keep the UAW out all this time).
The big difference is in the so-called non-core workers (the broom pushers, if you will). At union shops, they get paid the same as the assembly workers. At non-union plants, they make far less.
The wages are told to be very different. The article on the stike at AA had the numbers of $74 for a Union worker(all in cost), and slightly less than $30 for a non union worker.
Shabatski and Gawdodirt,
My understanding was the the hourly wages that a UAW worker makes is only marginally higher than the transplant worker. However, the reason UAW workers cost nearly twice as much is the extremely generous benefits they have. Zero out of pocket expense for health care for active workers and their families, as well as retirees. Generous pensions, vacations, tuition assistance, sick pay, lay off pay, disability pay, the list goes on and on.
It’s the benefits that make the difference.
I don’t know, maybe I was halucinating at the time, but didn’t GM and the UAW reach an agreement of some sort recently? Isn’t that the sort of thing that is supposed to avoid a strike? They signed an agreement, and now they’ve decided they don’t like it, so they’re going on strike. Who do they think they are, professional atheletes?
A big part of the cost disparity is that GM management was able to pay the workers in the 70s, 80s and 90s with promises that come due now. Back then they had much higher market share.
Lumbergh21 I don’t know, maybe I was halucinating at the time, but didn’t GM and the UAW reach an agreement of some sort recently? Isn’t that the sort of thing that is supposed to avoid a strike? They signed an agreement, and now they’ve decided they don’t like it, so they’re going on strike. What they agreed on last September was the overall contract with the automaker. As contracts with each union Local come up at different locations, they can negotiate location-specific changes to it — usually things that only affect that location like specific worker safety concerns. The recent threats to strike at other locations were caused by disagreements on what constitutes "core" vs. "non-core" jobs under the new 2-tier job structure at each plant. Nothing I've seen so far about the Delta Township disagreement gives the exact reason for this walk-out. Whatever it is, GM will be quick to negotiate agreeable terms, I'm sure
Another big difference between the transplants and the UAW organized plants are the work rules. The rigid definitions of tasks and those who have to to what severely limits the flexibility of unionized factories. Seems to me this would be one area that the UAW would be more amenable.
Those transplant factory workers should be glad that the UAW exists. Because of the desire to keep the union out, transplant management has to offer desirable wage and compensation packages. Should the UAW ever slip into total disarray, count on wages at the transplant factories to decrease.
I’d end the strike when I noticed profits declining as a direct result of the strike. If the plant wasn’t making money; let it idle. Put more money into the products other plants make. Let `em strike for eight to ten years. That’s how you play hard ball.
Another big difference between the transplants and the UAW organized plants are the work rules. The rigid definitions of tasks and those who have to to what severely limits the flexibility of unionized factories. Seems to me this would be one area that the UAW would be more amenable.
Those transplant factory workers should be glad that the UAW exists. Because of the desire to keep the union out, transplant management has to offer desirable wage and compensation packages. Should the UAW ever slip into total disarray, count on wages at the transplant factories to decrease.
You got it right…..as a “transplant” employee we have always had the benefit of union wages without the union BS that goes with it.
You can count on our overseas honchos to cut wages to a “competitive” level as soon as the unions have all been busted or closed down.
The Detroit 2.8 and the UAW/CAW seem an awful lot like an abusive, bad marriage that neither side will end with a divorce.
The children (product) just suffers and continually gets beat in the ballpark (market place).
Or maybe the comparison should be more like a crack dealer (himself on crack) and his customers.