The UAW now says that the ongoing contract negotiations with General Motors have taken “a turn for the worse,” after it rejected a counter-proposal the automaker put forth on Sunday.
Talks broke down after the UAW issued a positive-sounding statement Friday that indicated the two parties were close to reaching a deal. UAW Vice President for GM operations, Terry Dittes, said GM’s counteroffer “did nothing to advance a whole host of issues,” the union has tabled, including job security and future U.S. product allocation.
“We, in this union, could not be more disappointed with General Motors,” Dittes wrote in a letter sent out to union members on Sunday, which was acquired by Reuters. “The company has shown an unwillingness to fairly compensate the UAW.”
GM CEO Mary Barra and UAW boss Gary Jones
GM said its negotiators were working night and day to try and reach a deal with the workers union.
“We continue to negotiate in good faith with very good proposals that benefit employees today and build a stronger future for all of us,” the company said in a prepared statement sent to Reuters.
In addition to product allocation at closed U.S. plants such as Lordstown Assembly and Detroit-Hamtramck, the union is believed to be seeking increased wages, a revised pension plan and a clear path to full-time employment for temporary workers once they have been with the company for a certain amount of time.
Reports emerged last month indicating that GM planned to produce its forthcoming battery-electric pickup truck at Detroit-Hamtramck and convert Lordstown into a battery production facility in order to appease the union’s demands. Production of the electric truck isn’t slated to begin for a few years, however, which would leave the Detroit-area plant idle for the time being. It is not clear how many jobs battery production would bring to Lordstown, though it seems this would hinge on the popularity of future GM EVs.
GM is not utilizing the full capacity of the Orion Assembly plant north of Detroit that currently builds the Chevrolet Bolt EV and the automaker discontinued the Chevrolet Volt last year due to low demand.
The strike first began when 50,000 unionized GM employees walked off the job on September 16, grinding production lines to a halt. According to data obtained by Reuters, the automaker missed out on the production of 118,000 vehicles through to October 2nd due to the strike. It has also lost around $1 billion due to the walkout, analysts estimate.
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Comments
So GM is losing boat loads of cash daily as the strike rolls on. But the deal they eventually agree on with carry a lot of weight when the UAW negotiates with Ford and Chrysler in the future. Is there any chance that those other two are supporting GM to hold strong; a rising tide raises all ships?
Ford and FCA have a good relationship with the union. The whole thing boils down to one thing: GM closing plants in the US while FCA and Ford are not. Remember Ford and FCA now employ more UAW members than GM and FCA is actually adding UAW jobs.
BTW where’s Machete Mary and her. great leadership” in all this? Off counting her money? I would think a publicity tramp like her would have visited a picket line or two since there are sure to be TV cameras and photographers there.
The UAW could’ve gone after either of them. They chose GM as their target.
Ford is slashing employees, models, and plants too. As is Chrysler, they only make the 300 and Pacifica now. The FIat brand’s future is uncertain in North America. Only Jeep and Ram are worth anything but it’s not a great business model if/when a recession comes.
GM is the strongest of the 3 by a wide margin and they have the reserve cash to fight this out. UAW was likely hoping that health would persuade them to give in sooner, but GM seems to be giving them brass bas
Ford is not closing any plants in the US and Canada. True Chrysler is down to two models, but they share the same showroom with three other brands in most cases. so it is not costing them a lot of money to carry the brand.
Ford shed 2400 salaried workers in North America in August and 7000 worldwide. Plants open or closed doesn’t matter, and I bet closing plants are in their 2020 strategic plan to consolidate their trimmed workforce and create per plant efficiencies.
Tigger,
You’re full of crap. Ford and Chryco have been closing plants everywhere. Ford, still isn’t finished and may have close to 25,000 layoffs to come.
Really? What plants have Ford and Chrysler closed in the US or Canada during the term of the 2015 contract?
@Rocky ….on so many levels and topics.
You would know. Since Rocky cannot answer the question, perhaps you can tell us which plants Ford and FCA closed over the past four years in the US since you know so much.
I pay 40% of my health care and $20 hr. I’ll take the job at GM
It’s becoming more obvious the union is trying to get the media/ people on their side to save face by playing these games. “We thought we were there but they went back on their word – big bad corporation”. The union is the big bad corporation here and they know their name is stained and they’re trying to look like victims. Perhaps lower the union dues, that would help employees. With all the fraud and embezzlement going on within the union they’re clearly getting more than they need.
They’re nowhere near as clever as they think they are.
The relationships are only as good as the latest business decision.
GM was targeted not just because of plant closings but more to the fact they hsv3 better stock value, they controlled their cost better and have been more profitable.
The bottom line is it is all about the money. GM has more so they can be pressured into giving more money and then set a pattern contract for Ford and FCA to be forced into.
FCA and Ford both are watching what GM does closely as they will be expected to provide similar deals to what GM settles for.
Might add in the past GM could not afford sittting idle. They would have failed years ago if the sat idle as cash flow would have drained fast. Today they can afford to remain idle longer.
In the past very poor deals that still haunt their labor cost were made just to survive.
“The company has shown an unwillingness to fairly compensate the UAW.” — (gotta love how the UAW Bums refer to themselves… NO its GM’s employees)…. that said the current compensation is $13.00 more per hour than tens of thousands of other “transplant” automotive employees. == a $5Billion dollar disavantage NOW… not in the future, but if things stayed the same for the next 4 years that is the disadvantage. Simple economics says, either lower your costs or move production out of the clutches of the UAW… The UAW knows GM is looking at this thus their decision to start talking to Ford & FCA who will likely not do anything until the GM talks are complete.
GM simply CANNOT give a nickel more and the ‘temps” need to find new work before the current UAW force is let go… GM has to end this and if it doesn’t happen now GM won’t be here in 10 years… SIMPLY FROM LABOR COSTS…
The UAW is a cancer and they remind me of “Blow Hard Joe Biden” always pointing his finger in other peoples chests telling them how things ought to be. Telling everyone else how they’re “dead wrong”… pathetic… the bum’s done nothing in the nearly 50 years hes been in Congress.
American Industry will do just fine and the employees will move on or find other work. GET OFF YOUR DUFFS and go find another line of work. Tens of thousands of people do it every day. The hammock of laziness protected by the UAW Thugs is coming to an end… hallalujah!!
If I was a UAW worker I would not put up with any of this crap at all. I’d take my ‘skills’ and work ethic and go else where. That will teach GM!! Who else in America would slave there for these wages , time off, heath insurance and pension program???
Spoken like a true Republicant!
The same Republicans who have sent 3/4 of our manufacturing industry to China…
Would have thought the union would have spent the workers dues to lobby for tariffs, you know, to keep jobs in america, but I guess they had other things to spend the money on……..
Perhaps GM is waiting for more of the UAW negotiators to be arrested for stealing money from their members?
GM’s master plan to go bankrupt then reorganize with needing just 500 workers and 50,000 robots; all parts manufactured using large scale 3D printers then be shipped to Mexico where vehicles are assembled before being shipped for sale in the United States as it would feature 100-percent US manufactured content which allows the vehicles not to be hit by any US tariffs and allow GM to be 10X as profitable without needing to pay over 45,000 employees or healthcare.
I’m a crazy liberal but I don’t understand how these workers feel entitled to jobs. I mean, yeah, they’re entitled to be paid fairly if not well if the company is swimming in money — but what argument do these unions have against automation?
Moving factories to robots is the same thing as closing factories. So the question will ultimately be is it okay for GM to make cars with a smattering of human employees? And since the answer to that will be YUP…
… we have to face that automation will rock the job market and… well… that business model will no longer work. Can’t make people pay for Terrains if they don’t have jobs.
BAH-bye corporations. I’m going to miss you so.
Reminds me of that old addage ……..one of Henry Ford’s brilliant engineers walked up to him one day and said……”we can put in a machine over there that will do the work of 50 employees “…..to which Henry replied….” is that machine going to buy 50 Fords”
Perhaps the plants that are on strike were producing mostly cars that didn’t sell anyways? Which cars are affected?
To hell with the uaw. Unions are ruining this country.
And the $22 Million a year dud was the person who assigned the slow-selling cars to the affected plants. Funny, FCA and Ford’s CEOs made less money yet they could see the trend toward trucks and crossovers coming four years ago.
then how come fca and f are playing catch up in the mid-size truck segment?
The midsize pickup was in the pipeline before Machete Mary took over in 2014. A better question would be why doesn’t GM have a true compact/midsize SUV like the Bronco or Wrangler?
even ford doesn’t have the bronco.
it isn’t coming out until late next year.
if ford management were as prescient as you claim, the bronco would’ve been in production and on dealer lots years ago.
as far as gm not having a wrangler/bronco competitor … gm seems to have no shortage of suv/cuvs. if they don’t have one to satisfy the off-roading poser crowd, i’m ok with that.
Current article in Motor Trend: No dillydallying here, heaven forbid. If you’re shopping for an American three-row luxury SUV, it would be a regretful mistake to buy a Cadillac XT6 over the Lincoln Aviator.
GM needs to commit resources to product not labor and benefits. They exist to pay shareholders and make vehicles… the UAW is a cancer.
IMHO…if you look at the total benefit package that’s been reported in the media, …everything / all in…for the global segment of the market they’re in, I think the GM folks need to be really thankful that things are in fact “not fair”.
For starters, bet the Ford and FCA Folks would love to have what they have.
wow alot of comments. My fear is GM will soon give into some union demands ,then increase Mexican production and shut down another USor canadian plant.
That’s a certainty! Mexican and Chinese workers never strike, work at the very same job for a fraction of the cost and actually show up for work as instructed.
Fat, lazy, sick with many being drug addicted American workers can be easily replaced.
By the sound of these comments it is obvious that most of you have never even been in a factory. You probably never got your hand dirty. Your ‘thoughts’ are regurgitation of stories you heard from your neighbors friends cousin who worked on the line in the 1979’s.
It’s not like that today. Give it a shot and apply for a job as a temp on the assembly line. You will get a real education.
Back to reality. The labor cost at GM as as low as 5% of the vehicle price. The figures don’t say but that may include management also.
So if you bought a $50,000 Silverado and the UAW members worked for FREE. You would still pay $47,500.
Wake up xjug and the rest of the ‘sheeple’. The workers are not the issue. They are just the easiest way to cut cost for an incomplete and obscenely over paid management.
Best be careful American Worker. For folks like a certain boxer and a certain colored potato that post here, common sense and reality has escaped them. Upper management can do no wrong at GM. That is why they have 50 percent of the market- opps that was in the 1960s. It is about 17 percent now. Pretty soon they will not even be the largest automaker in the US.
Obviously you have never been to a Mexican plant before. The turnover at the plants is massive, and there are always dozens of people waiting at the gate for the next worker to be fired or quit.
Like they were in the 80’s and 90’s, no question the UAW is still greedy. I remember union management letting their members become permanently unemployed rather that accept reasonable offers. UAW is always f-n greedy.
GM has $18 billion in cash reserve and I wonder how much the union has in their strike fund. are the union bosses still getting a pay check //
Motorman,
That’s a stupid question.
do you know for sure the union bosses are living on $250 a week strike pay ??
People employed by the union aren’t on strike, GM employees are.
should not they being showing support of their members by equal sacrifice. ?? the union leaders knows as soon as this strike is over the attention will be back on the crooked union leaders
And politicians should be truthful and honest. And always put country before party and themselves. But we all know that many qualify as kleptocrats and are quite the opposite…
First thing, GM needs to get rid of that stupid CEO that has been running them back into the ground.
I like to know when the UWA will recognized the pensions are a dead issue in the USA. Almost all American corporations no longer have pension but usually do offer 401k plans with a certain amount of matching funds.
The cost for the American worker is huge compared to the Asian made vehicles. When the UWA asks for more monies, it just makes it easier for other companies importing lower cost vehicles to take a larger share of the market. GM is trying to balance the offers to keep the company profitable against the competition to remain in business.
“Before your employees will believe in, or care about, the long-term vision of the company, its culture, or its success, they need to feel that you see each of them as a person — not just an “employee” to execute your to-do list. They need to feel that their leader — and the company — is invested in them. Once you show your team how much you value them, there’s nothing they won’t strive to accomplish.”