Last time we checked in on the Oshawa closure debacle, a GM spokesperson was calling the CAW blockade "understandable." After nearly a week of being barred from Oshawa by angry CAW workers, GM has lost its sense of empathy. The General is asking for a court injunction to end the protest. The Detroit News also reports that although CAW understands why GM wants their 250-car blockade of Oshawa removed, The General's request for $1.5m in damages from the Union comes as a bit of a surprise. Neither side likes the other, and both feel betrayed, so why is GM trying to squeeze an extra million bucks or so out of the situation? GM has said the blockade caused it to lose some production. With cash burning and nothing to gain in Oshawa, well, why not get that back from the union? For CAW, this is just more insult on top of losing the Oshawa plant. In short, this is the desperate squabbling with the short-sighted over the few remaining scraps of a once-healthy relationship. Cheery stuff.

The Detroit News is running a guest commentary today by UAW President Ron Gettelfinger that's as humble as it is helpful. Which is to say not at all. It turns out Mr. Gettelfinger (along with his union) has been intrigued by the whole "building more fuel-efficient cars" idea for some time now. He wishes Detroit had been as far-sighted and sage as he. Gettelfinger doesn't exactly gloat at the Black Tuesday slashing, since it ain't exactly great news for the UAW, but he does blame "industry, government and concerned citizens" for failing to plan for current conditions. Gettelfinger's implication is that if Detroit and DC had listened to the UAW's "Marshall Plan for the U.S. auto industry"– which was proposed "back when you could buy gas for $1.50 a gallon,"– the current orgy of shutdowns and layoffs wouldn't be happening. So, besides offering economic aid and free-trade measures to form a European bulwark against postwar communism, what did this "Marshall Plan" entail? Predictably, the major parallel is that Gettelfinger's plan involves the Government giving away huge amounts of money, preferably in areas where the UAW can easily sponge it up. Rather than giving consumers a tax credit to buy any fuel-efficient car they want, Gettelfinger would rather see government incentives pay for the production of UAW-made eco-whips. He also trots out the weary canard that increased CAFE standards "unfairly" cost the D3 more than their Japanese competition, and that this should be mitigated by… more government "incentives." 

Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union officials are meeting with "top GM officials" about closing the Oshawa, Ontario truck plant. After CEO Rick Wagoner's announcement that The General's terminating Oshawa production– along with three other plants– workers blockaded GM headquarters. The Detroit News  reports CAW president Buzz Hargrove supports the blockade. Hell, he won't "rule out" the possibility of a strike. Buzz says the Wagoner's announcement was "an insult" as it's been just two weeks since the company promised workers the plant would be open at least until 2011 (what happened to 2010?). GM spokesman Stew Low says the protest is "understandable." I'm sure that really made the workers who are losing their jobs feel better. Maybe next, GM will offer them a spot of tea to go with that sympathy. But don't count on GM changing their plans to ship work from that plant to cheaper ones in the U.S. and Mexico.

NAFTA eh? Turns out that America's trade policy with its southern neighbor didn't quite work out as planned. ""The pressure has not been to raise the Mexican wages up, it's been to push the U.S. wages down," Ben Davis, the director of the AFL-CIO Solidarity office in Mexico City tells The Detroit News. True dat. "Mexican auto unions are taking a cue from U.S. labor leaders by offering two-tier hiring systems and salary cuts that bring already low wages down to near-Chinese levels." Taking a cue? Or, dare I say it, taking pay-offs? "Wage concessions were apparently key to convincing Ford Motor Co. to direct many of the 4,500 new jobs involved in building Fiestas to the Ford plant in Cuautitlan. Union leaders at the plant told the Associated Press they had agreed to cut wages for new hires to about half of the current wage of $4.50 per hour." $2.25 an hour? Yes. Under NAFTA, Mexico is only obliged to pay workers the national minimum wage: $5 a day. ""We need to be more competitive," said Ford union leader Juan Jose Sosa Arreola. "That's the truth. That's a reality." Once again, the truth hurts. Oh, and five Ford execs banked $60m last year. And Bill Ford's deferred millions await the fruit of Mexican labor.

One knee-jerk reaction begets another. As reported yesterday, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) wasn't over the moon over the announced closure of GM's Oshawa truck plant. Note: Oshawa IS General Motors. Chevrolet's had a plant in the city since the early 1900s, before Oshawa itself was incorporated as a city. The local hockey team is named for GM. GM-Oshawa employed 2600 direct workers, and no doubt accounted for thousands of other peripheral jobs. So when GM CEO Rick Wagoner sounded the plant's death knell, the CAW's members immediately declared war. Today, CTVNews reports that defiant CAW members, fueled by a desperation that only comes when one has nothing to lose, are blockading the offices until further notice. There's no news of reactions from workers at the other Oshawa plant where they build Chevy Impalas and Buick Lacrosses/Allures. Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda, just as recently as last month, announced billion-dollar investments in Ontario. Hyundai/Kia is also considering moving in. Of course, we all know this story, don't we? Soon, Ontario will be another theatre of war that The General will cede to the Asians, during its long, tragic descent into oblivion.

As you can imagine, GM's decision to close their Oshawa truck assembly plant in Ontario, Canada doesn't set well with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). "It's nothing short of betrayal," CAW Oshawa branch president Chris Buckley told Reuters. "General Motors is going to produce our truck in Mexico and the United States. That's absolutely disgusting." If he's looking for the real betrayal, he should think back to the contract negotiations in May, when CAW president Buzz Hargrove took a hard line stance against contract concessions, making Canada the most expensive place in North America to assemble cars. Or recall Buzz' statement that "It's my last set of negotiations and my legacy is not going to be that the sons and daughters of current workers that were hired over 20 years ago are going to come in at the same rate in 2008 as their parents did in '86 or '87." It now looks like Buzz' legacy will be unemployed sons and daughters of current workers thanks to his inflexibility driving production out of Canada and back to the lower-paid hands of the UAW and Mexican auto workers. Just sayin'.

Last February, GM offered buyouts to all 74k of its remaining US hourly workers. We now know Some 19k GM union members are so out of here. J.P. Morgan analyst Himanushu Patel predicts GM won't replace up to 15k of the departing union members, for total annual savings of $2.1 billion. For mortals, $2.1B is big bucks. But for cash-burning GM 'tis nuth'n. For years now, GM has been reporting record-setting cost reductions and record-setting losses. Talk about saving your way to nothing! The boogiemen on Wall Street bid the stock to a 26-year low of $17.38 at yesterday's bell. AP reports via Yahoo! Business that the General is thinking about moving workers off the truck assembly lines and onto building the cars which are actually selling. GM eliminated shifts at two truck plants in Michigan. Laid-off workers could be moved to a car assembly factory in nearby Orion Township, where GM is negotiating with the UAW to add a third shift. Negotiations? "We haven't got anything final," says Mike Dunn, bargaining chairman of UAW Local 5960. "We're always looking to bring work in. We're hoping before the year's out that we can accomplish this goal." Hey, what's the rush?

GM has been trying to realize savings from its two-tier wage agreement with the UAW by offering veteran hourly workers (who are locked in at old wages) cash buyouts to walk from their jobs. Well, the offer has expired and the Detroit News reports that some 19k UAW workers, or nearly a quarter of the General's North American work force, has taken the money and run. Although GM hadn't set a public goal for the buyouts, the 19k number was at the high end of UAW President Ron Gettelfinger's 5k to 20k estimate, and far exceeded Ford and Chrysler's most recent buyout takes. About 4,200 workers took Ford's latest buyout offer, about half of what the blue oval wanted. Chrysler's recently bought out about 7k workers, bringing it to nearly 80 percent of its hourly headcount reduction goal. But GM had to work hard to convince so many of its 46k workers who are eligible for retirement to walk away. The General offered $62,500 to each retirement-eligible worker, who then had the choice of receiving cash upfront or rolling payments into an IRA account, on top of full pension and retirement benefits. And while the carrots for leaving GM were good, the sticks are still looming for those left behind. Ominous reports from Automotive News (sub) tell of GM's "top managers working on additional restructuring measures to deal with a declining U.S. auto market." An anonymous source tells AN that GM plans to cut shifts at truck and SUV plants, cut about 2k salaried jobs through involuntary firings (sound familiar?), and is considering "other actions." Gee, retirement is starting to sound pretty nice, eh?

Ford is bringing the Fiesta back to the US of A (AP via Yahoo!). Lke the Fusion, this American car will be Hecho en Mexico. Looks like UAW President Big Ron Gettlefinger didn't get far with his argument that Ford's U.S. plants are "competitive enough that the automaker could make money building its smallest cars in the U.S." Somehow I don't think the recent "independent" strike actions at multiple UAW factories bolstered his argument much. The last time Ford sold Fiestas in the homeland they were made in Germany, imported from 1978 through 1980. Almost nobody bought them, in part because Ford dealers didn't have a clue about selling the silly little things. Although a flop at home, worldwide the Fiesta has been a perennial best selling sub-compact. This latest version will go on sale in Europe, China and other markets before making it's way back home. Assuming gas prices stay high, the new Fiesta should find a strong welcome at your local Blue Oval dealer. The question is, what is taking so long? Why is China in on the initial roll out while the world's largest car market (yes that's still us) has to wait another two years?

American Axle CEO Dick Dauch hung tough against the United Auto Workers (UAW) for 87 days. As the smoke clears, it's clear Dick Dastardly came out on top. The new union contract cuts the company's average hourly labor costs from $73 to about $40. The Detroit News reports that DD also sliced some 2k workers from AA's 3,650-member North American workforce. All in all, the parts maker will realize some $300m in annual savings. To help show these workers the door, AA secured some $215m worth of OPM from GM. That's roughly half the $450 to $500m tab. Meanwhile, AA shed some $370m in lost sales. Put those numbers against each other, and it looks like AA recovers its strike expenses in less than a year (excluding lost sales), and powers on from there. Meanwhile, Automotive News (sub) reports that AA has a $1.4b in backlogged orders to be filled between now and 2013. Mr Dauch celebrated the good news today by promoting his son, David Dauch, to the position of President.

In the wake of last week's revelation that FoMoCo ain't out of the woods yet, the blue oval is in full-on cost-cutting mode. Detroit News reports that Ford VP Jim Farley has announced a 10-12 percent cut in its U.S. salaried workforce to go into effect by August. Saying that Ford is struggling to cope with "a structural change to our economy," Farley told employees at a company "town hall" meeting that the approximately 2k layoffs would be involuntary firings rather than voluntary buyout offers. But Farley isn't losing sleep over the firings, as he sees Ford's problems as being caused by external economic forces over which he has no control. "I would expect other car companies to make similar announcements," Farley told employees when announcing the cuts. "They have the same issues that we do — even Toyota." Even Toyota, eh? Meanwhile, FoMoCo is also trying to tart up its troubled Volvo division by throwing consultants and suppliers under the bus. Automotive News [sub] reports that Volvo has announced that it will pay consultants and suppliers ten percent less than the current contracted rate for services. Proving that shit always runs downhill to the supplier, Volvo spokesfolks blame weak U.S. sales (which they expected) and weak European sales (which they didn't), saying "We're looking into how we can turn the business around." What, so soon? Look for this to simultaneously increase speculation of a Volvo sale (why not screw the suppliers if you've already written the brand off?) and decrease the likelihood of said sale (same reason).

American Axle's unionized workforce are set to ratify their new "would you rather face the firing squad or be hanged?" contract. The Detroit Free Press reports that locals who've already voted have agreed to the terms of the four-year agreement. While the media has focused on salary cuts, the bitter is in the fine print. The contract changes the guidelines for computing overtime from "the regular working day is eight hours and the regular working week is forty hours" to "the regular working week is forty hours." (Translation: the company can lengthen individual shifts up to the new, 40-hour limit without paying overtime.) The accord removes five holidays over the course of the contract, and cuts the bonuses for those that remain. It lowers the limit on max vacation time accrued by the most senior workers, from 200 to 160 hours (those who already have between 160 and 200 hours can retain what they have, but not increase it).The contract reduced cost of living increases, which will now be made in lump-sum payments instead of hourly increases. The agreement cuts shift premiums drastically, to less than $1 per hour. So that's what 11 weeks on the picket line gets you these days.

[Click here for a PDF showing some of the changes from the old contract to the new.]

The following was posted anonymously on a UAW website. The facts of the matter have not been substantiated. I'm re-publishing it for two reasons. First, no one is talking about the potential (or actual) quality problems created by the squeeze on domestic suppliers, or the QC impact of recent and ongoing union strikes and stoppages, or the ongoing threat to auto workers' collective skills posed by job reclassification and employee buyouts, or (as in this case) the piss-poor corporate culture that still lingers within The Big 2.8's empires. Second, I'm inviting our front line readers to come into the light and tell it like it is. If you want to drop the dime/let the chips fall where they may, I guarantee your anonymity.

"We had a fire extinguisher get backed into by a forklift blowing up and covering light bars. So they make us clean them off with water still leaving the residue on there not notifying chrysler this problem even happened. Then friday morning someone forgot to lock parts on a truck going to chrysler so here we go all the parts fly of the trailer to the ground about a 5 foot fall these were break calipers rotors and a couple other parts not notifying chrysler of the damage.. just thought u want to know.. I wouldnt buy a car from this plant i see to many bad parts going over to chrysler and half the time it is not good.  so Ill update u with any other foul ups we have. What they dont know wont hurt them as the motto goes."

United Auto Workers (UAW) at American Axle are set to ratify vote on their new contract. You know– the one that cuts their wages from about $28/hour to $14.35-18.50 per hour after an 11-week strike. The one where UAW Prez Big Ron Gettelfinger said he didn't want GM's involvement. Yeah… that one. The Detroit Free Press reports a lot of the workers are unhappy with the proposed settlement. However, most feel they don't have a choice (as if). For its part AA management is hoping most UAW members will opt for buyouts or early retirement; it would be a shame to waste the extra $18m GM kicked in at the last minute to sweeten the pot (bringing their "involvement" ito $218m). Where GM wll get the money is anyone's guess. Perhaps those money trees at RenCen are producing a bumper crop this year. And well they should– they're being fertilized with the highest-quality corporate bullshit in the world. Just sayin'.

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.