The United Auto Workers union currently has the strongest relationship with Ford in its ongoing contract discussions with Detroit’s Big Three, while its view of General Motors is the most negative, a report from The Detroit Free Press indicates.
The Free Press recently talked to numerous people close to the UAW discussions to get a picture of how the contract negotiations are coming along. It found that the UAW views Ford the most positively and will thus begin its official bargaining with the Dearborn-based company before turning its attention toward Fiat Chrysler and GM.
GM announced last year that it would be closing four US plants, including Lordstown Assembly and Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, upsetting its American workforce as they watched new products like the Chevrolet Blazer get allocated to Mexico. Employees are also upset that they accepted wage cuts following GM’s bankruptcy and have watched executives receive massive payouts in the years since, receiving little for their sacrifices.
“We think Ford would be the best deal,” an anonymous veteran UAW member told The Free Press. “The most anger is with GM, which is making a ton of money and still Mary Barra is trying to close plants. Our country bailed out GM during the bankruptcy. I mean, why can’t they build the Chevy Blazer in Poletown? Mexico didn’t bail out GM, we did.”
“Workers sacrifice again and again,” another worker added. “This is the first year that the companies are projecting problems so they get pity at the table. They have problems, they want help. Now, in this new world, you can be flush with cash but you think you might have a problem.”
Some workers also told The Free Press that they are making advanced payments on bills as they prepare for the possibility of a strike. The UAW knows the automotive industry may be in for a downturn, but with the Big Three’s businesses all strong, the time for them to capitalize on the situation is nigh.
“Things are going really well now,” another UAW member told The Free Press for its report. “It’s time to share.”
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Comments
Paying an already overpaid group more money will just raise car prices even higher and drive more people to Non-American cars that are priced appropriately. It is time to end the union stronghold that hampers price flexibility in manufacturing and pay what the actual going rate is for labor.
stay tough mary. prepare for the trump recession.
Amen Steve. If former CEOs back in the 1970s through the 1990s had made the hard choices then, GM wouldn’t have ended up bankrupt. Making the Unions happy should be the least of their priorities.
“Tough choices”? In the 1980s GM had about 8 times as many US hourly employees as they do today and more than three times the assembly plants, and more than double the market share. Interesting how GM’s incompetent upper management gets a free pass in the demise of this company
Better yet, resign Mary.
Would love to be a fly on the wall in the room where GM and the UAW “negotiate”.
Isn’t their contract up in September? If UAW focuses on GM last that wouldn’t leave much time for discussions, which may be an attempt to put a stronghold on Barra. I figured they have teams for each of the big 3 and ran negotiations all around the same time
The UAW is actually negotiating with all three as we speak. A target company is then selected. What usually happens is the contract with other two companies is extended. We may not see a contract with gm until November
That makes more sense now. I thought they extended the last contract when the current one was being negotiated but wasn’t sure. It’ll be interesting to see what becomes
GM’s Apparent 4-Step Process:
1. Accept bailout from US Taxpayers
2. Shut down US plants and layoff thousands of US workers
3. Open new plants in China and Mexico where the workers are paid ~7% of the US worker
4. Laugh your a** off
LOL at the people down-voting this comment. I am a GM guy through and through, but this is the 100% truth. How can any corporation, consciously accept billions of dollars in bailout money from a country’s citizens and then layoff those people, close up their plants and move the work overseas?
“Hahahaha! We only need to pay Chinese and Mexican workers $35 per week instead of $35 per hour like in the US.”.
does gm import any cars from china in the the US?
don’t worry about mexico. trump fixed everything with USCAM. it is a bigly beautiful deal.
“Chinese and Mexican workers $35 per week instead of $35 per hour” the only thing that tells me is US workers are vastly overpaid.
capitalism is awesome!!!!
Would you be happy to work for less money at your current job? I didn’t think so.
that’s what the world calls competition.
if you don’t want to compete, join a union and live your life seeking shelter from reality.
if you grew up in america and the best you can do is to take tool A, insert bolt B and screw it in hole C, then i’d be mad and scared too.
News flash: it is not only the blue collar folks you loathe that are having their jobs sent overseas, it is engineering, design, finance, IT etc. The going rate for an engineer in Mexico or India is about $10k a year. The engineering and design jobs that Machete Mary cut? The work is still being done but now it is being done in India and Mexico. If this race-to-the-bottom future is what you want for this country, I feel sorry for you.
i don’t loathe blue collar jobs. all i’m saying that if your job has a low threshold for replacement, life might be tough.
if your replacement can do your job with minimal training, you are screwed. don’t expect to have any leverage.
as far as race to the bottom, what do you think business is about? what do you think technology is about?
the entire system is set up to reward people who can do the same job for less.
that is the definition of capitalism. allocating resources in the most efficient manner possible.
do you think companies get extra points for employing more people than necessary or paying more to accomplish a task?
commerce has always been about a race to the bottom and it always will be.
I work for GM I dont make 35$/hr I dont know anyone outside of skilled trades that does, my father has worked for the company for over 40 years and hasnt had a raise one over 15-20 I believe, he has a pension most of us came in when they got rid of it at GM, my dad picketed through strikes and got second jobs to support his family and they took away cost of living despite having foreign assets and declaring bankruptcy.
They want to reduce our insurance now, we have to work 6 days a week most of those being over 50 hours I cant remember the last time my body didnt ache and I could spend time with my family and I’m 25 and not in bad shape. Upper manage treats us like shit they push us around and dont obey the rules they set in place. GM owes despite what everyone may think. Yea sure 25$/hr is great I’m not complaining but work conditions became terrible in the past few years alone and the cost of living continues to increase. We workers at GM are encouraged to buy GM but we cant afford our own products and on top of that they dont have enough down time or what most people call weekends to fix up their equipment (my tool has been fixed with tape the past 3 times it broke rather than be properly fixed but we should take pride in what we build.)
GM right now employs less hourly employees than Ford or FCA- something that would seem unfathomable several years ago. Right now, FCA and Ford are on track to make more vehicles in the state of Michigan than GM. When it comes time for my next new vehicle purchase, these facts will play in my decision.
if all those steps keep them from declaring bankruptcy again, as a shareholder i’m all for it.
Don’t worry, the only thing that will cause another GM bankruptcy will be the dimwits that are running it now.
Steve needs to live on the opposite side of the wall.
Frustration is a part of life…. So is being adaptive.
You don’t know what you talkin about that’s why we want more money because the cost of living is going up regardless so if you don’t want to prosper give up your job to somebody who does and who want to live a prosperous life in the United States