Posted on 07/25/2011 10:14:07 AM PDT by ThinkingBuddha
To help American carmakers stay in business, autoworkers grudgingly gave up pay raises and some benefits four years ago.
Now that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are making money again, workers want compensation for their sacrifice. Just how much they get is the central question hanging over contract talks that start this week between Detroit and one of the nation's largest and most powerful unions.
The negotiations, the first since Chrysler and GM took government aid and emerged from bankruptcy, will set wages and benefits for 111,000 members of the United Auto Workers, including those at Ford, which avoided bankruptcy by taking out massive private loans. The UAW's four-year contracts with the Detroit Three expire on Sept. 14.
There's more at stake than pay. After the industry's brush with financial ruin in 2008 and 2009, both sides know how quickly Detroit's sales and profitability could vanish. Sales are on pace to reach nearly 13 million cars and trucks this year, better than the 10 million in 2009, but still below the 17 million peak in 2005. Americans are worried about buying cars when wages and the job market are weak. The workers and Detroit companies can't leave themselves vulnerable to rivals.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Wish in one hand and **** in the other...
yep. same as it ever was, until the next time some chump like our President bails them out.
This is the kind of crap that has ruined our country.
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The UAW is eager to boost its ranks with more new hires. Its membership has fallen to 376,612, about a quarter of the 1.5 million it had at its peak in 1979.
The number of UAW auto workers has gone down much more than that. The 376,612 includes a lot of medical, state, and local employees who have unionized.
I predict: GM WILL go bankrupt again. they have become a political organization tied to the Gov’t as much as they are a private industrial company. And like all such entities, they will need to come back to the Gov’t again for help.
That means they have until election day 2012.
Don’t hold GM stock any longer than that!!
Greedy hogs; the company is finally getting out from under water, but go figure, the workers (haha) want the profits instead of letting the company make their own money and then get on a solid profit structure, they insist on taking it as soon as it comes in. Go freaking figure and people wonder why companies are moving overseas.
Yeah right. Why would "management" be the enemy when the unions and Obummer are basically management? How do these dopes have the balls to be looking for more goodies when new car sales are in the toilet? These Gov't companies are still in a death spiral.
I had just heard a news report on this before I saw your post.
The way they (UNION) put it .. "It's time for them to get well after all their sacrifice"!
This is the level of superficial journalism which helps get you to the point we were at in 2008-2009 in the Big Three. Recently there has been a lot of reporting on the fact that Chrysler paid back loans which it received in in the post bankruptcy bailout. And generally speaking, that it true of the debtor-in-possession financing that the Treasury gave them. What is not much talked about is the $17.8B which was disbursed by the Bush Administration in December 2008 to stave off the imminent collapse of GM and Chrysler. That money went bye-bye when the companies filed their respective bankruptcy cases.
I don't see any significant change for the big three and the UAW. What is interesting (and stupefying) is why VW would be so receptive to the UAW at their new Chattanooga plant. They will regret that.
“The enemy is the competition.”
Tell your UAW friends to prepare, Mr. Graham. Honda, your so called ‘competition’ here in Ohio is preparing to capture significant market share. Reviving up production to pre-tsunami numbers next month. Deal with it, like the rest of us in the Real World.
Has there been a vote for the union at the new plant?
All the problems of the big Three the lst 25 years can be teaced directly to the long ago failure to let Chrysler go belly up...
All the problems of the big Three the last 25 years can be traced directly to the long ago failure to let Chrysler go belly up...
Yep. The precedent was set that Government would not let any company "Too Big to Fail" go belly up, and it's a major factor in ruining our economy.
When you have such an inferior intellect as to join a union it follows that you have learned nothing during this economic downturn and are bent on repeating past mistakes.
You do know that, thanks to Obama screwing the bond holders, the UAW owns a significant portion of GM (dunno ‘bout Chrysler, but probably them, too)?
UAW workers compensation, including medical benefits total $51.00 per hour.
Given 25 percent of benefits go towards medical, a union worker is still getting paid 75k a year. Nice work if you can get it.
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