Three months later and enough bluster to buffet a Cape Cod winter resident for a decade, and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have reached a tentative agreement with GM parts supplier (and former GM Division) American Axle. Automotive News [sub] reports that, uh, the UAW have reached a tentative agreement with GM. That and the fact that ratification is "scheduled" for next week. I sure hope they tell the workers. And where are AN's vaunted "inside sources" when you need them? Of course, AN pads out its story with a little background/analysis. The good news? The strike "gave GM a chance to run down overstocked inventory for slower-selling models including its Chevrolet Silverado pickup." [Frank William's report on this "run down" on Monday.] The bad news? "GM, which books revenue when it produces vehicles, also said that the strike had cost it $800 million in the first quarter and 230,000 units of lost production as of April. GM had also shut or partly idled over 30 facilities and put thousands of its own hourly workers on lay-off due to parts shortages caused by the strike." Ramping-up production ain't like flicking a switch neither; so expect that cash burn to smolder a while. What's more, GM will no longer have any excuses. They'll have to face the fact that their truck and SUV business has rolled over and died.
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I think the GM management ought to get canned for allowing their own union to infest their suppliers, nevermind that they actually supported the scheme. The stockholders should demand that any union workers whose unions are causing a supply disruption can immediately be put on suspension without pay while they support their brethren’s strike.
It’s just stupid.
You win some you lose some.The UAW lost this one.
So the factory people have about 3 yrs to figure out how to live on 40% less.
No matter how you cut it, it’s gonn’a hurt.
Did the UAW actually lose this one?
The Freep reported “The tentative deal is expected to include buyouts of $140,000 and buy-downs of $90,000 in exchange for lower wages. Wages at the axle operations are expected to be about $14 an hour for nonproduction workers, $17 to $18 for production workers and $22.50 for skilled-trades workers. The deal is also expected to include a $5,000 signing bonus.”
The signing bonus replaces income foregone during the strike.
Eventually, the new wage rates will mean a worker who uses a broom will make $28K a year; a wrench, $36K; complex tools, $45K. A production worker’s income by itself will be about 70% of Michigan’s median income for a working couple. The spouse’s wages should bring the total up to par.
Or, grab that $140,000 buyout and move to the sunbelt, where that amount buys a pretty decent house. Then get a job (recent local unemployment rate: 3.9%) and live well.
The spouse’s wages should bring the total up to par.…
Nice…spouse has to work, and you have to live in the “sunbelt”…don’t get upset if I don’t jump for joy. As sang by Queen…”Another one bites the dust”. I guess I should be grateful that I don’t work in manufacturing.
Signing Bonus are no big deal, here in Canada they are Taxed over 50% unless you can find a way to defer the amount into a fund of some kind for retirement, when I was active in my Union, I never liked the idea of these signing bonus’s
What is it going to take for these auto workers to realize the party is over? For their own sake they better be saving money and looking at options.
“They’ll have to face the fact that their truck and SUV business has rolled over and died.”
Let’s face it, THE truck and SUV business (save the few entities that actually need them) has rolled over and died.