Workers at the GM Bowling Green plant in Kentucky, the exclusive producer of the C8 Corvette, have rejected a local contract intended to address working conditions and perks.
According to a report from Bowling Green Daily News, members of UAW Local 2164 voted overwhelmingly to reject the most recent offer from plant management, with 98 percent of production workers and 97 percent of skilled trades workers voting against the proposal.
Worker demands include the use of UAW members for contracted work like 3D printing, maintenance, and striping. The demands also include concerns related to sanitation, health, and safety.
“We pretty much knew what the outcome would be,” said shop chairman for Local 2164, Jason Watson, per the Bowling Green Daily News. “It’s disappointing that the company doesn’t take into consideration what the hourly workers are asking for in improvements.”
The outsourcing of work to non-union members has been a particularly important issue, as many of the workers have been transferred to the Bowling Green facility from other GM production facilities that were otherwise closed or downsized.
Although the vote to reject the latest local contract proposal will not result in any immediate consequences, union members are said to have authorized a strike in the event that an agreement is not found.
“We are disappointed that UAW Local 2164 voted down the local contract,” said management at the Bowling Green facility in a statement. “We will continue to meet with the local union to understand the vote and will continue to negotiate. Our goal is to reach an agreement that benefits employees and positions our business to be competitive as we move forward.”
Production of the C8 Corvette has been a tumultuous affair, to say the least. A nationwide labor strike in 2019 delayed the initial production start date for the eighth-generation sports car, followed by production delays resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and associated supply chain issues. Most recently, production was impacted by a tornado that damaged the facility and destroyed several vehicles.
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Comments
We can hope then the rest of GM might have chips again.
Just another addition to the C8 curse.
YEP!!!!
We are watching gm fall apart right before our very eyes. The continued outsourcing almost all production to the lowest bidder by exploitative labor practices in other countries, including engineering and design, is quite alarming.
Gm has been trending downhill after the bail out and production of solid economy cars with innovative union labor agreements…Since Mary Barra has succeeded Daniel Akerson, she has only managed to decrease the overall domestic production and skilled work force.
I really hope that they revisit that winning formula before it’s too late. I’m not sure the taxpayers will want to bail outlying corporate slime like her again. Especially when we have companies like Toyota, Mazda, and Honda investing in tangible products that actually sell right here in the US.
I really don’t think Mary will last too much longer. She was a conservative backseat driver for a time when GM’s biggest problem was executives nitpicking and over controlling everything. She’s show no leadership ever, and that’s what is needed in times like this. Bold leadership.
Bold leadership is taking as big of a company as GM is, and turning it 180° going all in with electric vehicles. She’s axed the vehicles that would not support and/or produce a large enough margin to pour it into R&D.
GM has what it needs to be successful w/ electric cars, including the following:
• Custom Electric Motors for Current EV Roadmap, and Future
• Custom Battery Technology for Current/Future Roadmap
• Dedicated Platforms for Each Segment of Vehicle becoming Electric.
Taking the learning experience from the Chevy Bolt EV’s battery, motor from LG Chem, has only validated GM’s Internal push for Vertical Integration.
With each automaker releasing compelling electric vehicles, it gives GM another vehicle to benchmark against themselves!
I truly do Believe GM has what it takes! Mary Barra has done what no other CEO could have done in such a short timeline! Jim Farley is great @ Ford, yet they have no dedicated EV platforms!
Gm has what it takes thanks to the tax payer bailout. Also she axed the vehicle that your name is, let me add I love the sonic.
The Sonic and Cruze literally helped gm claw it’s way out of bankruptcy… Now this over investment in vaporware and BEVs will see lowercase gm back on the verge of bankruptcy.
You lost all credibility with Sonic love.
My brother you never had credibility when you vigorously defended gm like you were there lawyer. They could literally jack the prices up of each vehicle to $500k and you would argue they are in the right.
Mike. It’s hard to take you seriously when you do not know the difference between their, there, and they’re
John you can take whatever you want seriously that’s completely on you and none of my concern.
Gee someone really gets the big picture.
The same old management screwing us is not going to work anymore.
How many models and cars GM built at a loss in the 90’s on the road to bankruptcy as it was cheaper to lose money on cars built than pay Union workers to sit home.
GM finally has cleared much of the dead wood no one else would touch and finally have invested in the future and as of now it looks to have been the right decision as it is going EV no matter if we like it or not.
The reports on the future of GM and the continued increases of the stock are what this is all about.
It will be interesting to see the stock as GM releases 30 EV models on the market in the next two years. None have to support the company and can grow in the market at their own pace. This should further increase stock values.
GM’s hasn’t/isn’t doing all that good for a while now. Been steadily going down the last 3 days so, their EV announcement hasn’t inspired or instilled faith in stock holders either. As for the strike, it’s my understanding that most of what they are trying to negotiate is for better working conditions. That to me would seem more than reasonable. As for the issue of out sourcing, I have to be in the corner of the workers and saying that I believe the work should be done in house
Nomad the reality is GM cut out many things that were not doing anything for the bottom line of GM. Recall how large GM was when it went broke?
Right now they have gotten the company right sized and cut much of what was hurting them in the long run and brought them back to profitability.
If the GM of 20 years ago had hit this chip deal they would have failed to the point even a bail out would not have saved them.
As for Faith in GM the market shows it with the highest stock prices they have ever had. Everyone is betting on the next big tech and many of the market watchers are recommending GM. Will they pull it off well will just have to wait and see.
As for better conditions. I have been to and been on lines and they are not exactly slave labor. In fact most are paid very well for all they do. They must remember they are no longer competing with Joe bob in the Ford plant in MI but now he is competing with workers globally.
As for out sourcing. Well something are better in house and some thing just can’t be done economically in house. Case in point would you want a OLED dash designed and built by GM in your car or would you rather have the OLED leader LG design and build the touch screen dashes that we are getting in the future? LG is just so much better suited and will be cheaper than GM setting up production to do the same thing with lower quality. You do go to a doctor for a Surgery and not a Mechanic do you not?
This is what is coming. EV cars are going to be tech items to be assembled. The automakers will design and build some of them. It is very likely other companies will come in and build plants to build these cars for the MFG. This is what happened in the electronics field. Apple does not assemble a thing but they do design and contract others to build the products to their spec.
Some worry about cars being built in China shipped here. They had better be concerned that Chinese companies coming here non union and building cars here.
Bold leadership is not creating a lineup of EVs that most do not want or are ready for and ignoring key market segments like the Bronco and Wrangler markets.
There are some Cadillac dealers that try very hard to treat their customers very well. They are put under so much pressure to keep a product on the road when GM is trying to keep up with the Germans
The problem Walter is the Cadillac dealers got away with too much for too long. The competition has been catering to the customer much better.
GM has had too many Cadillac/ Chevy dealers trying to be a top level brand when you really get a Cadillac with Chevy service. That should not be for the price difference.
Waiting almost 13 months for my C8 order to be placed. It’s supposed to be accepted sometime in March. Do I want a disgruntled employee putting together my Corvette? Can’t get a break
Buy a Model S. It’s faster anyway, and no union workers.
It also looks like crap.
@ Tigger
I agree the C8 does look like crap, definitely a wannabe Ferrari. I couldn’t agree more with you.
Corvettes used to have a look of their own. Trying to be a Ferrari, they ended up with a caricature.
I was talking about the Model S. However I do agree with you that the previous generation Vettes looked cleaner and better. I think it was a mistake dropping the C7.
@ Big Dave, The Friendly Grizzly, & Tigger
I agree with all 3 of you I’m not a fan of the C8 I personally think the previous generations looked a lot cleaner and definitely had there own identity, I’m a huge fan of the C7 I think it’s one of the best looking corvettes of all time. In my opinion they tried to hard to make the C8 look Ferrari like and I can’t stand the back end of the C8. It looks a little better with the spoiler but not much.
A friend has a Tesla Model S and I was surprised that the back seat is basically cardboard and for the money not as comfortable or “plush” as a HONDA ACCORD
Tesla interiors are not good.
They are still better then the crappy plastic gm interiors
The C8 – Ferrari performance at 1/3 the price.
Wrong the C8 which is Chevrolet performance please don’t try to compare the C8 to a Ferrari. The C8 will never compete with a Ferrari and gm knows it.
The S is an ugly sedan, take it to a road course and see what’s faster.
The S has all the sex appeal of a Hyundai Sedan.
This article seems a bit too vague, for me to speculate much. If conditions are that bad , change it. Damn, Same as previously stated Don’t want my Z06 assembled by a pissed off employee. Don’t trust union strikes either
I’m not a big fan of unions, but when a vote goes 97% and 98% against a contract proposal – something is way wrong. Fix it before job actions and distraction adversely impact the build quality of the car – if it’s not already.
If wasn’t for unions companies would be paying nothing look at Amazon. The rank and file do their job corruption like anything in the US comes from the TOP.
Corruption comes in many sizes and from both ends of the food chain. There is more corruption among the ranks of Top Union Officials than in most corporate management.
Simple! Do not buy any vehicles made in Mexico and other countries. Check the Vin before u purchase.
The topic of the article is about Corvettes that are made in Kentucky, which, last time I checked, is in the USA.
Why on earth would a shop chairman bring forth a contract proposal on a local agreement that he knows his members won’t pass?
Because he knows it’s a terrible contract, and so he wanted to bring it to the rank-and-file union members, who, he knew would overwhelmingly reject it, just to show GM what the folks in the plant feel about it.
Likely GM will give in and pass the cost to the customer.
30 billion investing in products that your home market doesn’t want, yet you jeopardize your best product by being cheap!
Reading the few details in this article, about new technologies like 3D printing, and how the auto workers union insists that
it be done by union workers. I am not sure. How can you have innovation and change, if people on insist that nothing should change ? Using that idea we would be forced to use horses and buggies, and we almost were because the same backlash happened when the entire industry from rancher to blacksmith to saddle makers , to buggie whip makers were threatened.
I agree that unions made life better for millions, but I also wonder if unions in the long run are better, I just don’t know.
A union worker can certainly operate new tech like 3D printers. Skills are there, but does anyone know how much todays union auto worker gets, after being on the job 20 years ? Where I work the union workers in the shop are getting $35 an hour for a job that a $10 hour person can do. But I respect experience , that $35 an hour person is better at the job than the $10 person.
I would love to read a statistic about how much of a C8 corvette is Labor, how much is materials, from a cost perspective.
How many hours are spent, and how much is the price of the labor ?
Good question. IMO, there is a bunch of touch labor involved in the engine and body. Much is robotic labor. In the Z06, with different body dimensions, there may be significant labor expended because of the lack of a mass market fort the Z06 and robotic programming does cost $$$$.
Automobile manufacturers use robots Porsche, BMW they all do up to a certain point in MANUFACTURING
In the pictures above, you can see a right hand drive C8 dashboard. pretty cool. Or is it a left hand picture flipped over ?
Classic union BS. Let’s be honest here it is nothing but greed. GM should fire a third of them and replace them asap. Enough.
Greed ? how about Mary making 24 million and GM $10 billion stock buy back to increase execs option prices.
UAW aka……. Unemployed Auto Workers
If the job is unsafe and not otherwise satisfactory the workers should start their own business or get another job.
Hopefully they do that will give people on here a reason to keep crying about why they don’t have there cars yet. Sounds like a win to me listening to a bunch of supposed adults cry like children because there car isn’t built yet. 😢
Why? Mary Barra and the rest of those Ivy league execs didn’t start that company.
I was a union worker and had the opportunity to manage 3000 union workers and I have seen it all over my 70 years if experience. When unions were first organized they worked for the people. Today it’s all about power and filling their pockets. If you privately polled the Bowling Green workers 90% of them will tell you they don’t need the union. Unions overtime make the majority of strong hard-working productive individuals lazy. Why, because they feel they could do less or coast, make more money, and not worry about being fired. I a sure I will get a lot of negative responses to this post, and that’s fine. GM is not perfect either. They should look at their non-union competitor’s employee handbooks, salaries, incentives, benefits etc. then restructure to remove the union while incentivizing and taking care of their employees. It would be a win-win for all parties. If unionized corporations today want to survive they need to make significant changes. It’s not hard. Put a dozen highly productive individuals in a room and ask them to make a list of what will it take to make them long-term loyal employees. Trust me they will tell you. Deliver and you do not need a union. It saddens me to see millions of American workers quitting their jobs everyday. What happened to the American workers I grew up with that were family-oriented, strong, hard-working driven to succeed and we’re proud to be an Ameican?
Don’t think that companies pay high wages from the goodness of their heart they would pay $5.00 an hour if they could
If you want to make more get a education or get a better skill.
These are assembly line jobs and they pay well already. You are not going to be a millionaire putting screws in holes.
They should let people build there own cars on the line so the clowns on here can then cry about how it’s taking to long to build.
I think the big car companies are only going to produce a minimal amount of vehicles so everyone will have to pay more. But that is only going to work until people stop buying. So I suggest lets stop buying and when the dealers have to many vehicle in stock this hype will end. I am glad to have great operating vehicles and don’t have to buy. I have owned over 90 vehicles in my life time but this is ridiculous. I had to pay MSRP for the first time ever only because I had a lease and either had to buy my lease or buy a new vehicle. But its people like me that buy and trade cars in with 4k to buy the next model. I will hold out until things get back to normal.
Wow. Folks hate GM leadership. Folks hate GM workers. What are all you folks doing on this site?
People don’t have to like gm leadership or the workers to like the cars. You must not realize this website is mainly about the cars not about the workers or the leadership hope this helps you seem very confused.
If people would stop buying the C8 for 6 weeks over sticker would fall flat. Some here said the greed of the union workers how about the C8 dealers and the folks that buy the car and flip it some multiple times their excuse: It’s Capitalism.
No the automakers are wanting to move to an order system much like they use in Japan.
In place of stocking millions of cars and trying to guess where they will sell they will have you come in and order just what you want. Then in 4-6 weeks it will be delivered for your inspection and then to make the closing deal.
This is how the market works in Japan and how it was here to a point years ago.
The real question is in this instant gratification society will people be willing to wait for their car. That may be tough to over come.
Yeah, 40 to 50 years ago, when a car a dealer was just a small, local ma and pa business down the street, it likely had, maybe only three or four dozen vehicles in stock, for those folks who needed to buy a car quickly. Then, most of the folks sat down with a salesperson and custom ordered a car out from the catalogs and ordering guides, and which arrived in four to six weeks. Nowadays, in the past 40 years, with the advent of the multi-location mega-dealer, each location can have several hundred vehicles sitting on the back lot, unsold, and waiting for a potential customer. The car sale reps rarely take custom orders from a customer, but , instead, take the potential buyer out to the back lot to show them what is available from a particular line of vehicles. It’s the sales manager who now does 99% of the ordering for the dealership, and they order the models and equipment packages they feel confident they can sell, or on which they can make the biggest spiffs. That’s why 95% of the cars these days are black, white, silver, grey or dark blue, and never lime green, gold or violet shades. Lately, with the current chip shortages, I’ve seen local car dealers now advertising to customers to come in and custom order a car or truck with the options they want, for a sold order, but with the necessary computer chips installed.
Used to be no screwing doc fee of $100s the biggest scam in car buying.
I DO NOT PAY fees – period. If you make that a condition of purchase up front – watch how fast the fees disappear. Most of the time though – the doc fee will remain. I then remind the salesperson that I said I DO NOT pay fees. Then they give you some BS about how it’s standard or “required” for some stupid reason. So, then I tell them – fine – you pay it. Guess what …… they do. The doc fee stays on the sales agreement but they adjust the already negotiated price for the car to offset it. Done – no fees.
Well a lot of this inventory and mega dealers came about that GM lost less money building cars vs paying union workers to sit home doing nothing.
Bad contracts led to bad business practices.
With large inventories automakers encouraged to take on these cars to help the mfgs to keep money flowing.
All big three failed and they all did it over decades not months.
Unions have become obsolete.
No way, not as long as the execs who got their jobs through the Ivy league good ol’boys club keep making 10’s of millions and they do 10 billion dollar stock buy back to drive their option prices up.
You know I have had 7 Corvettes and wanted my 8th but this rollout has been so much BS from dealers and management and now maybe another strike that I say screw it and the C8
The union won’t be obsolete in Bowling Green if they strike
Following sales of 20/21/22 C8 this last month and they are not going for $over list msrp , especially the ones with some miles after they paid taxes and fees, dealers, shipping etc. Maybe breaking even, Are they all waiting for Z06 or another variant??? I don’t know for sure. But if the trend continues I ll bail out on Stingray order. My dealer has separate lists for different versions of C8 . Are they all doing that? I think not
I love my new C8, they had union strike in late 2019 as the productions was to begin. Then other things delayed production.
My own car was completed between to shutdowns to to supply issues. I feel lucky to have gotten it, almost one year ago now.
After waiting a year and a month from time of deposit. Good things are worth waiting for.
So if the unions caused a shutdown in 2019 and now it is 2022, how often does this happen ?
I wonder how many of these union workers that need repairs around the house go to the local building trades union hall to get the job done? My guess is they hire the cheapest illegal immigrant when needing a new roof put on.
She’s a Motor Head, Yup
Go Union. The execs did not found, nor do they own GM. They have no problem authorizing a $10 billion stock buy back to drive their option compensation up. You have an equal right to GM.