The United Auto Workers union have walked off the job as of 11 AM this morning. 73,000 members have walked off after a deal was unable to be struck overnight. GM will start to see lines of picketers today, which is something the American auto naker really doesn't need, seeing as how it's hard enough to sell American cars already.
---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). ---CNN
Perhaps it is me, but I have always thought that getting paid $80,000 to be a factory worker was a little excessive. That is how GM got themselves in this predicament in the first place...
Posted by: Chad Garrett | September 24, 2007 at 01:13 PM
I don't know Chad, I don't think I would call it excessive, a good portion of the country was built and moved along from those wages. I think GM's problems start and end with crappy product, the refusal to take a look at what was propelling Japans success, killing the Electric car and taking plants everywhere but American soil. I'd like to see American companies take care of Americans a little better, as well as the planet. But that's another story.
Posted by: MPaper | September 24, 2007 at 01:34 PM
I have to disagree with MPaper on this one. Unions are a big part of what is ailing America today. The extortionist mentality used by the union cronies has out lived its purpose. What the union cares about is typically not what the union members care about. If the automakers give into the extortion tactics then dramatic layoffs typically follow. That is bad for the employees and the economy. Once again, a failure to see the big picture clouds the judgement of many.
The Great One
Posted by: The Great One | September 24, 2007 at 06:00 PM
I am not a fan of nor anti union. I will never join the Musician Union no matter how many threatening letters they send me. But GM has seen layoffs since the late 70's. Right around the same time Americans began to buy less and less GM cars, just like Ford and the rest of the American car makers. If you make a product Americans want to support, they will. Your company will make money, your employees can make a decent wage and then put it back into the economy.
Not all unions are bad. Sag/Aftra is a great union. In the ET industry the unions are really the only thing that keep Americans working in it for reasonable wages. If not for the Unions the industry would have left a long time ago, and believe me, they're still trying. Just to save a buck. The industry that has made more money this year than most countries, and the year isn't up. There are two sides to every big picture, what's on the canvas depends on the side you're looking at.
Posted by: MPaper | September 24, 2007 at 06:28 PM