By the end of next month, GM will have offered 48k workers a buyout package. How many United Auto Workers' (UAW) members will take the offer is yet to be seen, but the Lansing State Journal thinks it may not be enough. Most workers willing to be coerced bribed enticed to take such a deal did so last year, when 34k union employees left the company. The remaining (and somewhat younger) workers realize they'll have to work somewhere; if they give up their $28/hr jobs they won't be able to find anything close to it in their area. However, unless GM can rid itself of the higher-paid workers and replace them with "noncore" workers willing to accept $14/hr, their nebulous turnaround plan might not work according to [undisclosed] plan. Union officials would only say they were waiting for more details of the buyout before commenting on their evaporating membership's options.

The Big 2.8 – United Auto Workers (UAW) negotiations came and went with a couple of day's strike here, a couple of hour's strike there. Motown now turns its attention to Southern Ontario, where all three domestic automakers will be entering negotiations with the Canadian Autoworkers' Union (CAW). Fresh off the unionization of the Canadian auto-parts giant Magna, CAW boss Buzz Hargrove has warned Ford, GM and Chrysler not to seek the same wage, benefit, security and job classification concessions given by the UAW. Last December, Buzz declared "If they want to have a fight with us and they table those issues, there will be a fight." The Globe and Mail reports that Ford's CEO has fired his first shot in the mounting war of words. "The most important conversation we're having in Canada is about competitiveness," Alan Mulally declared. It's a thinly-veiled warning that, given lower-cost options in the U.S. due to good labor deals and the recent appreciation of the Canadian dollar, Canada risks pricing itself out of the auto manufacturing game. Will Buzz really go to the mat? Watch this space.

The Detroit Free Press reports that U.S. District Court Judge Robert H. Cleland has granted the United Auto Workers (UAW) and GM a gag order preventing either side from revealing the details of their $29.9b VEBA health care superfund. Cleland deemed the cone of silence necessary to protect financial, proprietary and personal information (?). To that end, he forbade the release of "documents containing information that would cause named plaintiffs, prospective class members, the UAW, GM or any other present or current employees of the UAW or GM 'annoyance, embarrassment or oppression.'" Well guess what? The UAW rank and file rightly consider the gag order a major "annoyance," as it prevents them from knowing how far up the river they've been sold. "These workers have paid for that plan over the years with forfeiture of pay, and cost of living and many other concessions that were made over the years," Jerry Tucker, a former UAW International executive board member, kvetched. "They are entitled to know everything about the plan." Given the union movement's long and ignoble history of fraud, corruption, theft, mismanagement, extortion, bribery and violence, he may have a point. This is the second time Judge Cleland has agreed to keep union members in the dark about "their" VEBA; he issued a similar order for the UAW-Chrysler filing on November 15. Ford's VEBA-related judicial filing hasn't yet gone dark, but it's only a matter of time. For shame.

Now that the UAW gave away the farm concluded its 2007 contract negotiations with the Big 2.8, it's the Canadian Auto Workers's (CAW) turn. CAW president Buzz Hargrove has publicly committed the union to opposing the two-tier wage system adopted by the United Auto Workers (UAW) at all three Detroit automakers. He'll attempt to forestall the change despite the fact that the rising Canadian dollar has eliminated Canada's competitive advantage over the lower 48. ReportOnBusiness reveals Buzz is addressing the problem with his usual combination of humility and tact. "We're not agreeing to a second-class group of workers at our plants that come in at half-pay and never get to top pay. That just isn't going to happen." Buzz reminded Canadian automakers that the UAW didn't accept wage and benefit cuts to reach parity with CAW salaries back when Canadian costs were lower than in the U.S. Even so, Buzz better have a good supply of Pepto-Bismol on hand when he starts negotiations; chance are he'll be eating his words right form the git-go.

The Kentucky Herald Leader reports that pro-union forces have formed "Toyota Owners for Fairness," a pressure group aimed at organizing Toyota's U.S. factories. It is, no doubt, a bizarre alliance. "It's a collaboration between the unions, the environmentalists and people of faith," revealed the Rev. John Rausch, group organizer and director of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia. (In case you were wondering about the tree-hugging portion of the program, "The campaign salutes the company for its environmental efforts but challenges it to hear workers' concerns.") Although the article makes no mention of any UAW financial contribution to the union supporters (or what kind of car Revered Rausch drives), the fact that Toyota Owners for Fairness launched their effort to unionize a Kentucky plant at a downtown Detroit church tells you pretty much all you need to know on that score. Meanwhile, workers at Toyota's Georgetown plant have set-up a rival group. "Truth Finders" recently bought a quarter-page ad in the Leader to refute claims of worker exploitation. Chief Truth Finder Marvin Robbins declined to name his financial backers, but insisted that Toyota had not contributed to the cause. Given that Georgetown has been union-free for some 20 years and the UAW's dwindling power within the industry, Rev. Rausch best pray for some divine intervention. 

If giving away the farm at this year's contract negotiations wasn't enough to convince you the UAW is getting soft in its old age, the Detroit News reports they're beginning a TV campaign to show their warm and fuzzy side. The ads direct viewers to IamtheUAW.org where they can view and share stories about the wonderful things the UAW has done for them (like agree to salary cuts), how secure their future is (with increased health care costs) and how the UAW is going to rid us of toxic toys. But instead of focusing on labor issues, the ads will highlight the charitable causes and community activities the UAW supports. UAW leaders say the ads "aren't intended to recruit more members but rather to raise awareness of the activities and positions of the union." Uh huh. So, why are they only airing the ads in Detroit, where they have to convince screwed-over autoworkers they're still the good guys, and Indianapolis, Indiana, Jackson, Mississippi, Louisville, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee – market areas which include cities where the transplants have large assembly plants the UAW wants to organize?

U.S. automakers seeking contract concessions from their domestic union workers often play one plant against the other, threatening to shift work from recalcitrant locals to more amenable union members. The Detroit News reports that German labor union IG Metall has made a preemptive move to stop GM from playing that card internationally. IG Metall has nominated United Auto Workers' (UAW) Veep Cal Rapson to the supervisory board at Opel. (German law requires companies to give seats to their labor union.) "GM's globalization could lead to a dangerous process of downward spiraling competition among the GM plants and unions," pronounced IT Metall's spokesman. Talk about conflict of interest. If GM wants to shift production of an Opel model to the U.S., would the UAW's foreign emissary try to stop the move in support of their German brethren? Lest we forget, GM has already threatened promised to shift Saturn Astra production stateside should the compact car prove a hit with American consumers.

Although 79 percent of Ford's UAW workers approved their new contract, it now appears that not all these yea sayers didn't understood what they were voting for. While only 16 percent of GM's contributions to the union-controlled VEBA health care superfund will take the form of stock or assets, almost half of Ford's VEBA payments will be company paper. As– I mean "if" Ford stock drops, the amount of money available for retiree's health care will also drop. In spite of UAW president Ron Gettlefinger's assertion that the VEBA will shield workers from bankruptcy, Fitch Ratings analyst Mark Oline told Bloomberg this arrangement "does not achieve one of the primary goals of the UAW– a separation between the financing for retiree health care and the fate of Ford." One worker warned the new reality "may cause problems in the plants." But what can they do? A strike or even a work slowdown could push the company into bankruptcy. With The Blue Oval in hock up to its logo, Chapter 11 would leave very little for the VEBA once all other debts were paid.

Now that the dust has settled on the United Auto Workers (UAW) contract negotiations with Chrysler, UAW boss Ron Gettelfinger is finally speaking out about the American automaker's private equity owners. And he likes them. In practice. But not in theory. Speaking to at a Reuters industry pow-wow, Gettelfinger declared that "Private equity firms, a lot of them, they're vultures; a lot of them are strip and flip. I think that can be said as a matter of fact. There are some of those folks that I almost feel dirty when they leave a room after I have met with them." Some? Like, say, Cerberus, who fired 10k UAW members before the ink was dry on the UAW's new contract? The same Cerberus who sweet-talked Gettlefinger into going along with the sale in the first place? "He acknowledged the seeming contradiction, saying that maybe he was 'speaking out of both sides of my mouth.' But he said: 'If you look at what was on the table at the time, as far as the Chrysler deal, there wasn't a lot of options out there.'" If that isn't enough to make a union member's head spin, Gettelfinger also backed away from his previous contention that he was blind-sided by Chrysler's post-contract job cuts. "The union leader also said that job cuts… were not a complete surprise, given weakness in the U.S. autos market. 'We knew there were going to be adjustments,' he said. I'm sure ex-Chrysler workers will be delighted to learn they were "adjusted" rather than "fired."  

Canadian Auto Workers' president Buzz Hargrove has publicly declared "no concessions" re: next summer's contract with the U.S. automakers. He may want to soften that stance a bit. Just as American automakers are trying to cut operating expenses any way they can, Financial Post reports that Canada is now "the most expensive place in the world to make cars." They attribute this dubious honor to the strong loonie and "other factors" that include the new lower-paying contracts with the UAW and the health care concessions. Many suppliers are cutting production and closing plants in Canada, and the automakers are expected to follow suit as Canadian production costs continue to grow relative to operations in the U.S., Mexico and Asia. Will Buzz take the Canadian auto industry down with him or acquiesce to what seems like an inevitable cut in wages and benefits? Watch this space.

Because health care VEBAs normally contains less than $1b in assets, they're usually nothing more than a sideline for sleepy old pension fund managers. But, as Bloomberg reports, a VEBA the size of the one The Big 2.8 have agreed to bestow upon the United Auto Workers (UAW) is a whole 'nother kettle of fish. At $54.4b, it's plenty big enough to catch the [cold, dead] eye of the big boys like JP Morgan Chase & Co., State Street and Merrill Lynch. According to trade publication Pensions and Investments, this health care fund is the same size as the University of California's pension fund endowment– which is the nation's 25th largest. UAW president, Ron Gettlefinger says his organization has been "inundated" with offers from Wall Street to manage the trust. And why not? Independent investment consultant Geoff Brobroff estimates the fees for managing the VEBA could total $285 million (not including kickbacks). Nice work if you can get it.

Now that we've clocked the United Auto Workers (UAW) new contracts with The Big 2.8– including lootable union-controlled VEBA health care superfunds, wage structures that pay workers different money for the same work, and job guarantees that aren't– there's another detail that's just come to light. The GM – UAW contract changes the day union members get off for Veteran's Day. Why would the union abandon the day that the rest of the country uses to commemorate its veterans' sacrifice for their freedom (or buy a wide screen TV)? So that union members can enjoy the official opening of deer season. Even though the rest of the nation observes Veteran's Day on November 11, the contract specifies November 16, 2007, November 14, 2008, November 16, 2009, and November 15, 2010  (all Fridays of course) as UAW holidays. According to the Flint Journal "both sides say the Friday-off deal will disrupt plants less" because many UAW members are hunters and take deer opener day off anyway. This military veteran suggests that we all stop for a moment of silence for the deer that give their lives so unselfishly for the good of the auto industry.

If you want to get the full flavor of dissent at the sharp end of the Ford contract approval [sic] process, visit The World Socialist Website. While we'd like to see some better reporting– details of the union's "campaign of lies and intimidation" and substantiation for the website's claim that Ford's VEBA health care superfund would "make the UAW the company’s largest shareholder, with a stake four times larger than the Ford family"– the workers' quotes make for powerful reading. Randy Hall: “They say layoffs can take place due to lack of product demand, but isn’t that the reason they are laying off in the first place?" Ken: "As for the VEBA, the union is going to end up stealing the money from the retirees. They never take the cuts they make the members take. The membership has been going down for years but the union officials’ salaries haven’t gone down." David: "How are you going to promote solidarity when you have one group working for half the wages?" And one unnamed worker (take that as you will): "They used to divide us between black and white. Now it’s US workers and workers overseas. To me the divide is between the rich and the poor. Race is used to camouflage the real issue. I can’t just lay down and let them rape me. This local is supposed to be the heart of the union and they have totally sold us out.”

BusinessWeek's Ed Wallace thinks U.S. automakers– both indigenous and transplanted– better watch out for the UAW. While GM and Chrysler are dancing a jig over unloading retiree health care and cutting wages, he foresees aftershocks in a few years. Wallace points out that retired members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) don't get to vote on contracts. As active members (who voted for the two-tier wage structure) retire, as they're replaced with lower-tier workers, a "younger worker might well feel cheated and resentful, doing the same job for maybe half what someone else was paid to do it just five years earlier." Wallace thinks this seething resentment wage and benefit disparity will combine with a backlash from transplant workers facing lowered wages to stimulate a UAW "comeback." In other words, the deal Detroit's celebrating today could bite them in the ass tomorrow– in, say, four years. Should they be around to experience the backlash, The Big 2.8 will claim they never saw it coming.

Alan Mulally has publicly admitted the possibility that his employer may– indeed might— go belly-up. Automotive News reports today that they asked FoMoCo's CEO if his employer will survive. "Don't know — race against the clock. Are we working on the right things? Absolutely. I've been there. I've seen this movie. I performed well in it. I know exactly what to do. Do we have enough time? No idea." Arriving hard on the heels of this weekend's Ford – United Auto Workers' (UAW) agreement, Mulally's startling statement could be seen as an attempt to convince Ford's rank and file to ratify a contract which may not contain job guarantees. If so, his post-admission theatrics were suitably dramatic: "The more you worry about worrying, as opposed to worrying about doing, then you're going to put this at risk," he said, slapping a piece of paper on which he'd sketched elements of his turnaround plan. "So let's just do the goddamn plan." Of course, the date of AN's pow-wow with Big Al is the critical piece of information in this regard: October 26. That's 17 days ago. Why did Automotive News sit on this bombshell until now? Did they agree to an embargo? No matter how you look at it, this one stinks.