UAW Members At GM Arlington Plant Working, But Ready To Strike
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UAW members at the GM Arlington plant in Texas are working under an expired contract, but are ready to strike if given the call. The UAW is currently conducting targeted strikes at select auto production facilities at all three of the Big Detroit automakers. The GM Arlington plant is one of The General’s most important and profitable facilitates.
According to a report from 88.9 KETR, more than 5,000 auto workers at the GM Arlington plant are currently waiting for the signal to form picket lines as they continue to work at the facility under an expired contract. The previous labor contract expired Thursday, September 14th, at 11:59 p.m. Negotiations between the UAW and the Big Three Detroit automakers (GM, Ford, Stellantis) are ongoing, but reportedly making little progress.
A total of 12,700 UAW members are currently on strike at three separate production facilities, including the GM Wentzville plant in Missouri, the Ford Wayne Assembly plant in Michigan, and the Stellantis Toledo Assembly Complex in Ohio. Affected models include the Chevy Colorado, Ford Bronco, and Jeep Wrangler, among others. The simultaneous walkouts mark the first time in which the UAW has conducted strikes at each of the Big Three automakers at the same time.
UAW President Shawn Fain suggested that additional strikes may be held at other production facilities this week if progress is not made towards reaching a new labor contract. Per 88.9 KETR, UAW members at the GM Arlington plant under UAW Local 278 have strike assignments and positions in case a strike is called.
The GM Arlington plant broke a 70-month production record this past April. The facility produces some of GM’s most-profitable vehicles, including full-size SUV models like the Chevy Tahoe, Chevy Suburban, GMC Yukon, and Cadillac Escalade. Back in June, GM announced a new $500 million investment for the facility to support the production of the automaker’s next-gen utility models.
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Long ago there was the meme of monday built german cars.. because all the workers were hung over or worse. That brings me to todays question.. do you feel confident to buy something that was built by very unhappy workers who are one phone call from tossing the tools where they were?
Food for thought for all those eventually buying something built during these days, weeks..
That’s funny I remember adult family members saying similar things back in the 60’ about cars assembled on Fridays. Even remember the story of a bad rattle in a new car that was eventually traced to an empty coke bottle inside the car door, from the factory.
That was for the US automobile worker. The joke was you wanted a car built on Wednesday because Monday and Tuesday they were recovering from the weekend and Thursday and Friday they were daydreaming about the upcoming weekend.
Long ago ?? Exactly right, GM is making record profits , the GM CEO made over 29 million in salary. Why because “long ago ” this country was eat , drink and be happy. Today, The auto industry is a global profitable as competitive business. You get that when you change your strategy. Long ago is exactly that , today its a competition where profitable companies are successful because of the workers and company working together.
I work there, andno one is slacking off! There are constant quality checks and if anything, the workers are MORE careful about quality; there are those in management that are being extra critical
I’m just waiting for all these people to realize these companies don’t owe them anything. You’re working a Union job that pays more than some people with Bachelor’s degrees. When these companies decide to close factories here and ship the work off to Mexico, who are they going to blame then?
Don’t hold your breath, while some members may realize that, the majority do not. For folks like me, when I truly get tired of a job, I just quit and go somewhere else, but for some of these folks, they seem to want a downright proletariat dictatorship takeover of the companies to get what they want. Sounds like they would be satisfied though with them each getting the same pay as the CEO(s). I was hopeful that we could keep a lot of these jobs here over the long run, but as you say, many of them that aren’t moved over to robotic assembly, will just move to Mexico instead.
Why would you think by having a bachelors degree entitles you to anything? The UAW didn’t cause the strike. That sits squarely on the shoulders of gm management. gm chose to sit on their hands when they could have been negotiating months ago. This company hasn’t learned a thing from uncle Roger’s grand vision of dark factories with robots whirring about to today. Mary wants to blabber on about the historical raise their offering. Every raise is historical because it’s better than the previous contract.
gm can lock the gates and go on a hiring spree. That will ensure Mary’s legacy of helping bankrupt the company for a second time. There are no bylaws written that says management and the union employees can’t get along. That’s only what ignorant management chooses to do. Charles Wilson and Walter Reuther never had a problem getting contracts completed. Only management that can’t see past the end of their bonus chooses that path. This is a company that once had 55% market share and is now down to 14%. Only years and years of ungodly bad management puts you in that position.
“I’m just waiting for all these people to realize these companies don’t owe them anything.”
That won’t happen until they close the last of their plants in the US. I guess we’ll see, but it would be pretty stupid for the companies to invest any further in UAW plants.
One thing that I haven’t seen mentioned yet, is that this is probably the last chance for a very long time that the UAW can extract a substantial pay raise out of these companies. Sure profits have been great for the last decade or so (and so have the bonus payouts to UAW members and CEO’s), but those days are quickly coming to an end with the EV stuff. Wait a few years when the transition over to EV’s is further along, these companies won’t be making much $ at all (if any). It will probably look a lot like 2008 for these companies financially within the next 5 years or so, which isn’t good for any of us. I hope that these jobs remain here for the long haul, but my guess is that they will move many of them out of the US, to help the companies remain cost-competitive.
The UAW and gm have to realize that the enemy is not each other; the enemy resides at 1600 Pensylvania Ave. Both deserve each other for aligning themselves behind such an idiot.
I think you’re making a lot of assumptions as to who the actual working UAW members on the floor are backing these days. UAW president Fain just stated to the entire press core yesterday that he doesn’t want Biden involved in these negotiations and UAW members defected big time on the Democrats in 2020, and will do so again in larger numbers in 2024. Bidens chaotic green new steal and EV push just lost him the UAW members 2024 endorsement.
The EV shove will cost many jobs and send many others to low wage states, where people don’t seem to care about anything except their pickup truck. Screwed up times.
As opposed to you sophisticates who care about getting good tickets to the opera, or a reservation at Spago?
I thought Texas was the biggest market for pickup trucks, and they are not a low wage state.
For that matter, pickup trucks are expensive. You can get a Model 3 for the price of a stripped work truck.
How many ball bearings stuck in door voids? How many loose parts under the car causing rattles? How much outright sabotage to the product?
I’d never buy a car from a company struck for at least several months after the strikes end.
Unfortunately, the vehicles being made now are the ones that were ordered one to six months ago, depending on allocations and wait lists at dealerships. However, sabotage can happen at any time, not just during strikes. And they probably have cameras everywhere watching the employees’ every move around the parts/vehicles.
This part Viking (close to retirement) agrees with you.
Wow.
I don’t think there’s a lot of thought behind the comments here. UNIFOR in Canada is threatening strikes also, and Mexico’s auto union is more beholden to the State than to the worker. And recalls don’t happen because of poor labor practices, they happen because of poor engineering from those with Bachelor degrees and beyond.
I urge you to consider these things far deeper than the present considerations.
Lou – here is my ‘thought’ that is irrelevant to you: GM/US factory workers generally make between $18-$32 per hour, while in Mexico, they make about $3.25 per hour. If GM/US gives their UAW people the 46% wage they want, then they will be closer to $47 per hour at the top end, to me, $32 or $47 per hour is a lot more money than $3.25 per hour…but then again, I’m not in a Union, so I’m probably not smart enough to know why a company should avoid considering moving manufacturing operations to Mexico.
Buford,
Your thoughts are not irrelevant.
When the leadership came out with the 46% number, everybody who knows negotiating knew that is what it was: a bargaining chip. The realistic number is 20-25% to get back to par with the inflationary position we currently find ourselves in and with what we gave up in 2008 to save the company.
I’ve been with GM since 1998 by which I have been blessed with being able to offer my children a college education.
The things that WE have done and continue to do for the company needs a payday.
Gone are the days of ‘the lazy UAW worker’.
We have gone from hundreds of thousands of workers in General Motors to 46,000 workers with a increase in production above 100%. This needs to be fixed and the corporation knows it. They know the numbers, their not dumb.
My plant alone moves 600 tons of steel every day with 900 people (not including salary) which is partly why people (temps) are hard to hang on to. My press alone (I’m a team leader) runs an average of 12,000-14,000 parts per day with efficiency out the ying-yang. We are the number 1 high speed progressive press system in all of North America. People don’t realize the amount of labor that goes into a days work to build that car or truck. That labor (4-6% of the cost of the vehicle) isn’t easy to achieve unless your not actually doing the work.
So, I welcome the labor movement that is sprouting across this country and beyond as an attempt to revitalize the backbone of this country, the middle class.
As I understand it, 20% was already offered and rejected. I can understand wanting to keep up with inflation on the UAW’s part. For me, I am more interested in keeping these jobs in the US for the long-term, as opposed to the UAW just getting the absolute maximum $$ that they can get. To an outsider like me, the 20% number was a pretty darn good offer, it is certainly much more than the 7.5% that I got over 2 years. I am comfortable in my own situation where if I decide the 7.5% isn’t enough for me, I can quit any time I want, and I wouldn’t hesitate to do so.
We haven’t even gotten a 7.5% raise since 2008
That is largely because we have never seen inflation like this, it used to run around 1-3% per year until about two years ago. I have never had a 7.5% cola over two years either (though it was close in 2008), until now. Having said that, 7.5% is a LOT less than 20% which is what was offered and refused by the general secretary. If a 20% isn’t enough of a raise for folks, they should definitely consider just getting a job somewhere else.
This is going to be even more of a “cluster” with Biden sending negotiation teams into it. As little as a couple of weeks ago, he said he wasn’t worried at all about a strike. As for the Arlington plant going on strike, it looks like ordering my 2024 Yukon XL Denali will more than likely turn into a 2025…if these people don’t come to an equitable solution very soon.
Biden has no power. I don’t even know why he sent people to help with negotiations other than protecting the billions of dollars the taxpayers gave these companies for electrification and the 9.2 billion dollars in loans to Ford.
As far as the 20% is concerned, for me it would be a win if the companies would move on eliminating tiers and go back to hiring summer help to cover vacations. There’s just no way someone doing the same work shouldn’t receive the same pay.