UAW Members Vote In Favor Of Possible Strike
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As GM Authority has been extensively covering, the Big Three – which includes General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – have been engaged in labor contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union for a few weeks now. The union previously made threats to go on strike if it didn’t receive what it perceived as a fair contract, and now, UAW members have voted in favor of a possible strike.
With approximately 97 percent of all Big Three UAW workers voting yes in favor of strike authorization, the union’s demands include the elimination of tiered wages and benefits, wage increases to offset inflation and match salary increases of company executives over the last four years, the reestablishment of cost-of-living allowances and defined benefit pensions and retiree healthcare, the right to strike over plant closures, significant increases to current retiree benefits, and more paid time off to be with family.
“Our union’s membership is clearly fed up with living paycheck-to-paycheck while the corporate elite and billionaire class continue to make out like bandits,” UAW President Shawn Fain claimed. “The Big Three have been breaking the bank while we have been breaking our backs. Our members’ expectations are high because Big Three profits are so high. The Big Three made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year. That’s on top of the quarter-trillion dollars in North American profits they made over the last decade. While Big Three executives and shareholders got rich, UAW members got left behind. Our message to the Big Three is simple: record profits mean record contracts.”
Of course, it’s worth noting that this doesn’t necessarily mean that there WILL be a strike, but that the UAW is ready to implement one if the need arises.
“The highest authority is the membership, and this is definitively outlined within our UAW Constitution,” UAW Vice President and UAW-General Motors Department Director Mike Booth stated in a prepared statement. “Today the 46,000 UAW represented members at General Motors clearly spoke with a unified voice when the strike authorization passed by 96 percent. General Motors has made insane record profits in the past few years and the UAW membership is only demanding their fair share. Today, the members put the company on notice.”
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“Our message to the Big Three is simple: record profits mean record contracts.” Record contracts mean record prices. There, fixed it for you.
because they havent been hiking prices under the old contracts? hmm naive.
I thought this was settled. It keeps going back and forth. The big three need to go ahead and give the workers what they want. If the big three in fact made their financial marks then give the workers what they deserve and stop all this nonsense!
These UAW made products are already over the top expensive. “Give them what they want” somebody said. They appear to want everything. No, that’s not the answer to this.
People get paid based on their value of labor and performance. Only top executives get paid the most, because their decisions will have an effect as a company.
People that screw bolts for a living should get paid based on their value of labor.
That would be true under a free market. But unions at best distort the free market and at worst completely suspend it.
Value of Labor based in who’s opinion? Management? Workers get to withdraw their services if they don’t like their working conditions or what they are getting paid whether they are rank and file or management. You also don’t have to be in a Union to withhold your services or to go on strike. Now I’m not saying that workers or groups of workers always make the best decisions as to when, where, and how to do that however they still do have that right in the US as much as management may not like it. They are not slaves!
And the too execs decisions, when wrong as they often are, costs people below them their jobs. While the displaced get a measly severance package and an escort from the property like a criminal, the execs that f things up get a nice golden parachute.
Tigger I agree. Executives always get their money one way or another at the expense of the laborers. I know I worked in a plant 12 years. The only award we got was for safety for no accidents in a given time period. The Managers and Executives got bonuses and we got a toaster.
I believe the Big 3 will allow the strike to happen, so that they can get rid of their excess inventory. Then the prices will go up again and they will blame the unions. This could hurt the unions public opinion. Just get a new contract completed and lower the price of vehicles like Tesla did. We are in a recession for crying out loud.
What excess inventory 😂 Everything we build is already bought and what we do build as inventory for dealerships doesn’t last long.
Baloney ! We just drove past a large Dealer in Springfield, MO on Thursday that had way over three dozen over-priced pickups lined up side-by-side on their front row along Independence Rd. It’s been that way since May of this year with a large, unsold inventory sitting there and quickly replaced with another truck when one sells. Various new SUV’s, GMC, Caddy, were seen parked in the next two rows behind the pickups. Another dealer over in nearby Branson that sells Chevy, GMC, Buick but is smaller than the dealer in larger Springfield has had at least 18 pickups lined up along the road, also since May.
Correct billj598. I have seen so many vehicles on car lots, I thought they were having a big tent sale!!!
Bullet meet foot.
Demo progressives .
There is no public support for a strike by the UAW union.
If the do strike I hope the auto manufactures replace them with people that would love a job with benefits that the average hourly pay rate of United Auto Workers is $97 in the United States. That rate includes benefits.
No there is no public support for a strike ! I want the workers to get their pay $97 an hour or whatever!
Well a strike would surely make the imports happy. The Big 3 can barely satisfy demand now and the imports are waiting in the wings.