Yesterday, we reported on the UAW’s decision to strike following a breakdown in contract negotiations between the union and General Motors. Now, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters has announced it will show solidarity with the UAW in the GM strike, throwing the brakes on GM vehicle deliveries and adding more pressure on the automaker to give in to worker demands.
“Teamsters and the UAW have a decades-long relationship of having each other’s back,” said Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa yesterday in regard to the UAW’s decision to strike. “And that continues with the UAW’s notification that it will go out on strike against General Motors at midnight. Our 1.4 million members stand in solidarity with the UAW and will honor their picket lines.”
The Teamsters’ decision to join the UAW in the GM strike follows the UAW’s rejection of a proposed labor agreement from the automaker over the weekend, and as a result, Teamster members will refuse to deliver GM vehicles to dealerships in a showing of solidarity.
Roughly 50,000 UAW members are participating in the GM strike.
GM said that its offer to the UAW included more than $7 billion in investments and the addition of over 5,400 U.S. jobs over the next four years, as well as “solutions” for assembly plants in Ohio and Michigan. Further deal stipulations included wage or lump sum increases, improved profit sharing, and an $8,000 ratification bonus.
However, the UAW rejected the deal over the weekend, stating is seeks to secure fair wages, affordable healthcare, larger profit sharing, and improved job security.
“We laud the UAW for its work to ensure that its GM employees are treated with respect and dignity on the job,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said in a statement. “At a time when more and more companies are downsizing and shipping jobs out of the U.S., it is imperative that unions fight for their members. Workers should be rewarded for good work with fair wages and benefits. That’s what the UAW is demanding.”
The strike and contract renegotiations arrive amid an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in the UAW, with several union leaders already charged.
We’ll be covering the GM strike as it continues, so make sure to subscribe to GM Authority for more UAW news and 24/7 GM news coverage.
Comments
Hoffa is the same union leader that allowed UPS to create a second class of drivers and begin doing 7 day deliver, despite the unhappiness of it’s members. The only reason the teamsters contract went through is because so few members voted that it automatically passed. Is Hoffa just trying to capitalize on UAW having the backbone to say no?
Is there any word on what GM isn’t offering to the UAW that Ford and FCA did?
Every body is a bad guy here.
I’m thinking this shuts down delivery of GM’s Mexican-made products too. It’s almost like blackmail. They will all gang up on GM to bring the company’s operations to a complete halt unless the UAW members get what they want. Those nasty tactics lend support to the notion that GM is justified in just shutting everything down and going to Mexico. After all, GM pays them more than anyone else would already ($63. per hour) for low-skill jobs and provides top notch insurance with only a 4 percent co-pay. Yet, it isn’t enough for them.
On the other hand, GM made $10 billion USD last year and despite looking like she spends her time off at the local Kohls and Great Clips, Mary Barra is a highly paid executive. She may look the part of being a “one of us” GM worker but in reality she’s paid nearly $22 million per year or 281 times what the median GM worker makes and her decisions are continuing to shrink GM and it’s on her, not the workers, that GM hasn’t delivered compelling products and thus needs to keep “realigning capacity”, aka shutting down plants and laying off workers. The pain they feel is not of their making but hers.
Your not completely fair against Mary. She is working more for those share holders and they have agreed to pay her that. She and others at the top have to look at profit and keeping the company running. The UAW is a joke. Everyone knew they were scamming the workers and it proves it now. If the workers really think they have their best interest in hand they need to look at the corruption at the top going on. I bet there is a lot more where that came from. Also GM as a company owes the workers nothing. They are the most overly paid workers in the world. Many of their skills are no different than flipping a freaking hamburger. I also don’t under stand the view of the UAW following democrats. They want the best insurance in the world for their workers but the current crop of democrats what that to go away. So yea I think the UAW should be destroyed. We have laws on the books that protect workers. From what I have seen the union only protects the lazy ones not the hard working one. Just had a friend go through this and the union did nothing for them.
The shareholders have zero say in what Barra makes. At that level, compensation is usually a blank check written by the CEO and the board of directors, and in this case is headed by Barra.
Regarding the union, I would say there are just as many bad apples in management as there is on the plant floor.
Wrong, the board has a compensation committee. Need to curb your ignorance…
And who the hell appoints the compensation committee? The chairman of the board.
Well Joe, I did say, everybody is a bad guy here. They are all going to look bad. Every news story is going to mention Mary’s compensation and every news story is going to mention a UAW worker’s compensation. Both of those numbers are going to look outrageous to ordinary Americans.
For menial type labor where no skills or education are required to apply for and get a job, $63.00 per hour is going to sound way out of line, because it is. How could someone paid so much have the audacity to strike and shut down the operations of their employer? Likewise, there’s a woman at the top that isn’t growing GM and earning her $22 million, instead she is shrinking GM like so many fat cat execs before her. She gets rewarded handsomely while the workers suffer and her company continues to bleed and shed market share. Sure, they are very profitable but in so many other important metrics, GM is still lagging.
Likewise, the corrupt UAW is going to look bad. The news headlines about their leadership will include notes about corruption at the top. There just are no winners here. PR is terrible across the board. Everyone will look bad and I think it drives customers away from GM. Honestly, who would want to support this bunch with their hard-earned dollars? Not me.
UAW refuses to acknowledge it is a global market. I hope this is nice and long and that the UAW ends up fractured and dying. Played hockey with a bunch of UAW GM guys. Most ignorant fools around. Fights in the workplace where guys get knocked out. Union defends them. Going in on Sunday to sleep in a corner was a common trick. Not one of them had a unique skill set that would demand the pay they were receiving in market. It was consistent bi$$ching and whining about everything. Will never buy GM due to those guys.
Could individual plants decide to come back without a master collective bargaining agreement?
CEOs of public corporations get paid based on the recommendations of the board of directors. The CEO is only negotiating their pay. The union is a lot of the problem. Management is to blame some too but right now the Union is trying to just steal money from the company. I like GM and I bought a Terrain that build in Mexico. I can tell you this is was built better than any of the cars i’m got from the US plants. A grandprix, grand am or cruze. The have good workers but there are some who have no business working their. But because of the union they can’t get fired unless they probably kill someone.
The worker doesn’t make $63 a hour. That’s if they get bonuses, or profit sharing, or overtime, and add in health care .. to say they make that an hour is a false statement
I just wish that GM would put more of that profit into its vehicles to make them the best in the world. There is no reason why GM can’t build better products than the Japanese and the Germans. Spend a little more on product development across the product range and the company won’t have to worry about shrinking market share!
Solidarity with GM workers! Workers of the world unite! We are one class.
Great news that the Teamsters union is lending its support to the fellow workers in the automobile industry, even if one might reject the general policies of Jim Hoffa.
I especially call on all those Trump supporters who claim to stand on the side of the US working class to lend their support for the striking comrades at GM and to organize solidarity meetings in their locations and work places.
Workers of the world, stand together in solidarity!
An injury to one is an injury to all.
What next Comrade state owned companies?
If that is necessary, yes.
Move to Venezuela moron…. how’s that working?
Venezuela has a regime which did not really dare to attack private property and expropraite the landed aristocracy and private industry, trade and banking. I see this reluctance as one of the reasons for the current crises. Well, acutely sharpened by the fall of oil prices from their super high level of 100 USD or so, and the US embargo which aims to starve the people into submission.
I’ve had to reinvent myself 4X in my career yet these idiots “make their demands”…. please.. GM is going to destroy the UAW. No other transplant mfr has to deal with this BS and that’s what it is. GM is going to move MORE jobs out of the USA now because these idiots don’t seem realize it’s a global economy.
GM exists to do 2 things 1. Return profits to shareholders and 2. Make cars… in that order. It does not exist to employ people. Employees are an expense and the lower the expenses the more profitable the company and thus the healthier.
If unions helped everyone would be in one they’re corrupt arms of the DemonRat Party and few have any toleration of them. This also is not good for GMs public image and sales as a whole because of its negative press. You nevertheless hear about angry Kia or Honda employees? Especially when everyone knows these employees have the most of all automotive employees. Talk about greed and extortion!
The employees of GM need to step up and decertify the UAW while they still have jobs. I guarantee GM has 49k today I’ll bet it’s 1/2 that in 10 years because they cannot compete with this mill stone around their necks… writings on the wall…
FCA and Ford have no issues with the UAW. In fact FCA announced the addition of 4500 union jobs in Detroit. Could it be that GM’s management is just bad? After all we would not be talking plant closings and layoffs if GM has not lost market share under Mary Barra’s “leadership?”
Observer7 You are just another sheep of the many supporting a criminal, greedy union.
hey Bob, when did you have your latest wage cut? Did you offer your boss to work for free?
Hoffa is retiring!!! Detroit Teamsters 299
Hoffa is retiring soon!!!! Detroit Teamsters 299…… Vote Kevin Moore for International President of Teamsters