The Detroit News reports that the UAW vote on Ford’s proposed modifications (full summary in PDF) to the union contract is “tight,” as locals wrap up balloting by Monday. Eight union locals have approved the modifications while four have rejected them, but margins of victory were in the “low 60-percent level to the mid-50-percent range.” Modifications must be approved by a simple majority of Ford’s UAW workers, meaning “no” votes in locals that passed the measure still count and vice versa. And though the Freep has uncovered a letter from Ford to the UAW detailing the carnage that has already been wrought upon Ford’s hapless contract employees (possibly the great unsung victims in this mess), and suggesting that perhaps contract modifications aren’t the end of the world, the video above proves that the old UAW zero-sum perspective is alive and well.
What the NYT describes as a “humbled” UAW is rallying supporters from the teachers unions and the AFL-CIO to join in the Waterloo-of-class warfare. “The way the U.A.W. has been treated is a disgrace,” says AFL-CIO pesident John Sweeney, who’s “Working America” affiliate sent 1,500 “often hostile” handwritten letters of anger to bailout opposer, Senator Bob Corker. “They’re very skilled workers, and too many people forget the role that union played in building the middle class in America.” “Everybody has to find a bogeyman when they have problems,” responds Senator Corker. “When people know you’re telling the truth, it hurts sometimes. New hires into UAW jobs get paid exactly half of what people who’ve been there a while make. That, by the contract they negotiated, is an admission that their wages were too high.”
And while emotions run high at the UAW, its union outliers seem to be taking a far more pragmatic approach. Automotive News [sub] reports that a tentative deal has been reached between GM and its Canadian Auto Worker union employees. The modifications will extend the existing contract for one year freezing pay rates and cost of living adjustments, cutting paid time off by 40 hours per year and boosting insurance co-pays and even requiring them of retirees. The deal must be approved by the union membership, but because a Canadian bailout hangs in the balance, it seems likely to pass. “There is no joy on our side of the bargaining table,” CAW President Ken Lewenza tells Dow Jones. “This is the furthest thing we wanted to do, but the alternatives are worse.”
Similar pragmatism is evident at the joint GM-Toyota NUMMI plant, where Reuters reports that UAW employees are 86 percent in favor of cutting Friday from their paid working week.
just a fake concession to get our tax money… nothing else.
If they killed jobs bank, free benefits for retirees and all that, that would be helpful
“forefathers,Rouge river bridge………………
bla,bla,bla,bla,
Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, bla,bla,bla,
In the socialist world, if only the running-dog capitalist Germans hadn’t taken out Pearl Harbor, we’d have world peace by now.
Do they want to still have a job or what?
I don’t get it.
They talk as if they believe that the companies are lying about their financial situation and it’s all a scam to break the unions.
I would like the union guys in the video to come up with their version on how to get the companies back on track. I sure the answer would be more of the:
“forefathers,Rouge river bridge………………
bla,bla,bla,bla,
Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, bla,bla,bla,”
I fully support the rights of the union workers to vote ‘no.’ It’s why we have voting, after all. Having said that, I think this is what Ford and Alan Mulally are planning on. I think they looked at the possible scenarios and mapped this out from the beginning. Here’s the plan as I see it:
– They pass on the bailout money, making them appear stronger than their competitors financially. At this point, either the bailout money helps the entire market, including Ford, or it doesn’t, and they continue the plan.
– They continue to sit out, hone the plan, and wait for GM and Chrysler to return to congress, begging bowl in hand. It’s inevitable for them to do so. After all, it worked the first time, and it allows GM to continue to delude itself. Ford begins the other portions of the recovery plan – the equity swap, etc.
– They approach the UAW for concessions. If they get them, they can continue their stated recovery plan. But because they have taken pains to appear stronger, they fully expect the UAW to turn down the plan.
They get the rejection and publicly announce they have no choice but to to enter C11 proceedings. The market freaks and Ford stock goes down. But because of their willingness to do what all the experts consider inevitable for the no-longer-so-big 2.8, they will be considered the bold, tough managers, willing to do the right thing for everyone.
Having done this one of two things will happen.
1. The UAW and the debtholders may fold and immediately give them everything they’ve asked for. They may even get bailout money they haven’t publicly requested. Or;
2. They enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy to fanfare from the analysts, deeply slash their debt and restructure their UAW agreement more radically than what they just asked for. Either way they win, and win big.
Now, all this depends on the vision and strength of will of Alan Mulally, and on the boards belief in him. If they’re going to fold the pot, abandon the plan, and ask for aid, it will happen this week.
We’ll see.
The CAW plan closely follows the UAW one, not surprising as they are cut from the same cloth, they still dont get it as far as I can tell either, what they have done is as little as possible, ie no cut in daily wage or anything else of any meaning ie freezing wages, and Pension increase if cost of living rises? Give me a break, they have done nothing of any value! IMHO.
It’s nice to see the CAW and GM getting along so swell. It’s kind of like seeing the Pope and MC Hammer having a beer together – it’s a nice picture, but you can’t help thinking that something has gone horribly, horribly wrong…..
Both sides are dong nothing more then colluding to get Canadian Gov’t money. GM is hemorrhaging cash and can’t afford to pay the going rate. So, they make a deal with the CAW that does nothing to fix today’s labor cost structure – rather it simply agrees to not increase said cost structure in the future.
Doesn’t make business sense – not buying it. No wait, if the Canadian government falls for this, then yes, I guess I am buying it…..
I would want not to buy a vehicle put together by these guys. I think I already have, but that was long ago.
As these workers pay drops, their ability to pay for their homes drops. The real estate values are going to drop even more as fewer families can afford to buy and maintain their homes in middle class areas. This drop is going to affect everyone in areas associated with large numbers of auto related jobs. This is not just about UAW workers. This is going to affect lots of people.
@mikeincanada You are absolutely right, this is a game and the winner gets public (taxpayers) money.
For the CAW and GM/Chryco/Ford, the deal with the devil is a small price to pay to get on the gov’t gravy train.
@forraymond I am not proud to admit that with 3 teenagers at home and a big mortgage and tuitions to pay, I am at risk of losing my home if my job is gone.
@jackc10
I don’t think about where a vehicle is built, or who built it, I can’t afford to buy. And I am a “greedy overpaid autoworker”.
Did he say he was at Fisher Body when they went out of business? GM absorbed them in 1926. He has to be much older than 50 if that’s the case.
I knew people at the Fisher Body Fleetwood when it was shutdown, but I don’t remember any concessions and I thought most of them went to Poletown. I don’t know what this guy is talking about.
Edit: Another inaccuracy – There were no deaths at the “battle of the overpass.”
I’m starting to think that both GM and the CAW just plain deserve each other. They both are sure as hell colluding in an attempt to get this latest handout from the Canadian government. What are they asking for – $6 Bln, isn’t it?
It was generally understood – ’cause the Cdn gov’t kept saying they wanted to see some cost reductions – what GM and the CAW agreed to isn’t an actual reduction but rather a reduction of planned future labor costs increases. GM’s labor cost basis does not change one bit for the next year – and even then, next year it only promises not to increase! That’s not a decrease.
mcs: Fisher continued to exist as a GM division until the late 80s or very early 90s. My grandfather’s 80s-Cavalier wagon’s door sill read “Body by Fisher”—surely a proud achievement for them.
I just found the rattle in my Ford truck. It’s these guys.
roamer, in you plan, has Ford management been in secret negotiations with the Federal government to get debtor-in-possession? Would that even be legal?
If not, where are they going to get that debtor-in-possession financing to restructure?
@Jeff Puthuff :
mcs: Fisher continued to exist as a GM division until the late 80s or very early 90s. My grandfather’s 80s-Cavalier wagon’s door sill read “Body by Fisher”—surely a proud achievement for them.
The person in the video implied that they were a separate company that went bankrupt. Not true. He also said that he arrived at work and found the building padlocked and that they had to take concessions. That did not happen.
Officially Fisher was disbanded as a division in 1984, but most of it had been absorbed by GMAD long before that date.
There were some separate facilities like the Fleetwood plant on Fort St. that the subject in the video may have worked, but the employees were transferred to the GMAD Poletown plant when it was built. Another person I know went to Ohio. It was a long transition and it didn’t happen overnight.
Your Cavalier probably came from Lordstown and it was built by GMAD – General Motors Assembly Division and not Fisher Body. There were no Fisher Body employees at that facility. Just some GMAD person on the line that stuck the label on the car.
The whole Fleetwood/Cadillac (and the Toronado) operation had to be one of the most inefficient manufacturing operations ever. They’d build the bodies at one plant (Fleetwood) on Fort St., then load them up on open trucks and drive them a few blocks to another plant on Clark St. for final assembly. They were still doing this midway into the eighties.