UAW never gets it...

[Kirby]

GM potential UAW strike target

Auto workers union says automaker would be the lead in negotiations and a target for a walkout; contracts expire midnight Friday.

September 13 2007: 6:00 PM EDT

DETROIT (AP) -- The United Auto Workers have picked General Motors Corp. as the lead company and potential strike target in contract negotiations with the Detroit Three, a local union official said Thursday.
The official, who requested anonymity because the talks are private, said his local received notice Thursday afternoon that GM would be the lead.

 

[Big Daddy]

Ford's sales are the lowest in history, all the American brands are suffering or at least not doing as well as they have five years ago, yet the Unions want more more more! Your right, they don't get it!

 

[tool fan]

Glad I don't work for a Union

 

[Kirby]

Just when GM starts to become profitable after staggering losses...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The United Auto Workers union started a strike at General Motors facilities at 11 a.m. ET Monday as about 73,000 UAW members started walking off the job and hitting the picket lines at the nation's largest automaker.

But negotiations were continuing just before the 11 a.m. ET strike deadline, according to GM spokesman Tom Wickham. Spokesmen from GM (Charts, Fortune 500) and the union were not immediately available for comment.
United Auto Worker union member Barbara O'Leary carries strike signs to a General Motors plant near Detroit, in preparation for a possible strike that could start at 11 a.m. Monday.

A feed from CNN affiliate WDIV-TV in Michigan showed picket signs going up at 11 a.m. outside the GM plant in Lake Orion, Mich., followed by a steady stream of union members driving out of the plant's main gates.

The workers had stayed on the job for nine days past the original expiration of the contract on Sept. 14, while union and management negotiators kept talking. But after the union set the strike deadline late Sunday, an all-night negotiating session failed to produce a deal by the deadline.

But late Sunday night, the union set an 11 a.m. ET strike deadline and issued a statement Monday saying that management had been unwilling to address the unions' key concerns on job security for the members at GM.

While the strike idles 59 U.S. plants and facilities at GM, it does not affect the two other automakers whose workers are represented by the UAW, Ford Motor (Charts, Fortune 500) or Chrysler Group, which between them have more than 100,000 UAW still on the job. Members at those companies have been working under their own contract extensions as the union concentrated on reaching a deal with the UAW.

A key to the contract talks is GM's goal of shifting an estimated $51 billion in future health care costs for retirees and their family members to union-controlled trust funds. GM has more than 340,000 retirees and surviving spouses receiving such benefits today. Shifting those costs is seen as a key to GM efforts to close its cost gap with nonunion automakers such as Toyota Motor (Charts) and Honda Motor (Charts). Top of page

 

[Big Daddy]

Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot. UAW's are fools!

 

[selavia]

In an age where the laborers are more educated, refined, better negotiators, and the media reports every grain of inequity, do we still need a concept that was put in place because of worker exploitation when, at least in our country LEGAL residents do not really get exploited in the labor market anymore?

I think a trade association or some organization with less politics would be better suited to the labor markets these days, rather than the UAW.

What do I know... maybe the UAW has 'the master plan.' Quite honestly, it's just ridiculous.

 

[bmw046series]

I say, GM says to hell with the Unions, hire private contracting firms to build vehicles and GM just does design and branding. Which is something they have been pushing for for a while. Its is far more profitable.

BMW built the X3 by a private subcontracting firm in Austria because they didn't know how the vehicle would turn out--rather than making the production investments--have someone else do it! Now they are going to be building it in the US.

 

[Big Daddy]

In an age where the laborers are more educated, refined, better negotiators, and the media reports every grain of inequity, do we still need a concept that was put in place because of worker exploitation when, at least in our country LEGAL residents do not really get exploited in the labor market anymore?

I think a trade association or some organization with less politics would be better suited to the labor markets these days, rather than the UAW.

What do I know... maybe the UAW has 'the master plan.' Quite honestly, it's just ridiculous.

Well said Sean, well said![headbang]