UAW Strikes against GM

[Jeremy C]

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/24/news/co ... tm?cnn=yes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The United Auto Workers union started picketing General Motors facilities at 11 a.m. ET Monday as the nation's largest automaker was apparently hit by a strike by 73,000 UAW members.

But negotiations were reported to be continuing, following nine days of extended talks that culminating in an all-night negotiating session right up to, and past, the deadline.

The previous contract between GM (Charts, Fortune 500) and the UAW had expired on Sept. 14, but UAW members stayed on the job at the nation's No. 1 automaker as negotiators tried to reach agreement on what is expected to be a groundbreaking agreement.

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
Is GM a growth stock again?

Time to see how big Wagoner's balls really are.

[vr4]

UAW can suck my left nut

[alienviking]

I have very little love for UAW and no sympathy whatsoever.

[vr4]

http://drsteech.townhall.com/g/aca547a1 ... bb8a80dbbf

http://www.leftlanenews.com/uaw-targets ... trike.html

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/arch ... 40953.html


now why hasnt the UAW been disbanded yet?

[Jeremy C]

I hope that GM won't buckle under the pressure. GM itself is fine as they have on average 40-something days of stock on my vehicles IIRC, but their suppliers have been forced to run so lean that they might not be able to handle the strike.

I still don't understand how the UAW is so blind to realize this really hurts their public image. They were already considered greedy lazy asses, and then to pull this stunt furthers that negative image.

[JagdStealth]

UAW sucks...GM is really turning their product line around too.

[Jeff V.]

I really, seriously wonder if GM could just scab the whole workforce?

If they had more time, it might be possible. But I just don't know if they can bring that many GREEN employees into the fold and train them quickly enough and well enough to avoid a product quality disaster, at a time when they're JUST starting to turn their quality image around.

[Zentelis]

Unions were a great idea when they were the david vs. goliath..now it's just goliath vs. goliath.
The bigger an organization gets, the more corrupt and blind it gets, and they've turned into the very thing they were designed to protect against.
When you deal with 10 people..they're people.
When you deal with 100,000 people, they're statistics.

sad.

[Chris95RT]

Such a bad idea, talks were going so well between both of those groups too. They're only stuck on what to do about health care.

If I were GM I'd look into getting some other people to work for them, and don't pay their health benefits. There are so many people that want to work in the metro area, I would honestly be worried about striking.