UAW Submits Counteroffer To GM’s Latest Contract Proposal

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• 90 days to reach top wages?

  So they want everyone making the same wage regardless of how long they have been doing the job?

  • I am a card carrying Union member. I agree with the 9 months take. The UAW is crapping all over their senior people. To ask and expect a newer employee be brought to top tier in 9 months is utterly ridiculous and insults top tier employees who know and have done their job for years, when the new guy just figured out a few aspects of their job? Then to turn down a 20% increase? Is the 4 day work week still being pushed by the UAW? all that will do is line the workers pockets with overtime being available 3 days instead of 2. Can't wait to see what the price of vehicles will be. Insanity!!!!

    • Not to mention that young people and new people tend to quit and find other jobs for the experience.

      • Uh, not if they get paid what the UAW is asking for....

    • 90 Days not months. Read the article.

    • labor acounts for about 5% of the car price. That is global labor. Lets assume the UAW represtents half of that so 2.5%.
      Half of the labor cost is Health care so that isn't going up with wage increase. The other half, 1.25%, they are looking to increase by 40%, with the reduced days, we can figure 75%. That means car prices could go up a whole .93%!

      • Wrong. Thats final assembly only. That disregard component assembly, which engines/transmissions/axles/body panels and much of the trim is all done in house, and also is included in the labor increases.

        When you consider that every component is manufactured inspected and shipped by an individual, the final costs for vehicle comes down to just over 50% labor, almost 15% raw materials and almost 35% energy, which has skyrocketed here as of late as well. About 1/5th of that labor is not unionized, so were talking about 40% of the vehicle costs in reality.

        How do you get half of the employee costs is healthcare? Is health insurance 5500/month In Michigan with the employer providing 100% of it???

      • You are dreaming!!!! Labor accounts for a ton of the cost. Not to mention benefit and other costs.

        • On a $52,000 Truck from GM. Labor and overhead is $1200. That’s labor and overhead and operating cost per vehicle

      • BS, theres no way even the 20% which is massive, wont have a huge impact on car prices. Thats a myth the union pushed to generate public support. 20% isn't enough for them? Their greed is astounding!

    • The price of vehicles continues to go up but the pay rate has stayed the same don’t blame the people who build the cars blame the corporations

      • Yes…. But has it gone up 75% since the last negotiation???? A 20% raise to me is very reasonable, and the UAW should hold out for 23-25% for a week or 2, or 10% + COLA. Anything more is insanity. They have already been offered the 20%. They should say 23 and its a deal.

        • Steven, please post to all of us where you are getting the ridiculous (75% wage increases) figures your stating and how you know that components are NOT included in that 5% labor figure since some of the components you mentioned have been outsourced to 3rd party vendors for years now.......Ill wait. Btw,

      • Government Motors can just get another bailout. I gave up on GM over their utter failure to control their business. UAW is not asking for anything extraordinary when you think about what GM dealers are charging in markups.
        And yeah, it's all connected under the GM roof.
        Hope UAW can hold GM to their word. GM customers can't depend on it.

  • It is very unfair to have workers working side by side with some literally making half of what their coworkers are making. I invite anyone to come to the factory floor and chase the chain for $16.00 an hour. With mandatory 6 day work weeks-and during critical status even mandatory 7 day work weeks and see how long that you last. They do not care if you have young children or what else that your responsibilities are. You will likely be put on second or third shift, be expected to learn a different job every day(sometimes multiple jobs) with minimal training but with expectations of perfection. Be advised that you have to ask permission for a bathroom break and may have to wait 30 minutes before receiving one-and if you have to walk off on a emergency basis you may be subject to disciplinary action. The jobs are designed to have almost perpetual motion with multiple guns, established footprints with line shut off if you are in the hole. Some of the parts are quite heavy and awkward and repeated motions can cause carpal tunnel. If you cause excessive downtime you may be subject to discipline. The new hires are moved around almost daily which can be very stressful being thrown on a different job on a daily basis. Most have no choice but to accept the 4 hour overs or unders usually offered because of attendance issues caused by people hurt on the job and the constant turnover due to the low rate of starting pay and the fact that they do not get a living wage.. The new hires also do not have as good of heath insurance as the seniority employee hired before then and cannot ever get said better insurance either no matter how long they work. The jobs are so overloaded that it usually takes a minimum of 2 people to do the job when the primary operator is out for any reason. I defy anyone to find any other employment in their state that requires their employees mandatory 6 and even 7 day work weeks. This is not voluntary and you are subject to discipline if you cannot cover the extra required shifts during critical status with vacation days, FMLA , etc. Many people literally walk out at lunch and never return. The turnover rate is high and morale is low. Some plants can go through a hundred employees a month. Remember that each automotive jobs indirectly support 7 other jobs. Our country needs to be manufacturing items-we all cannot find gainful employment if we become just an agrarian/ service society and without the middle class there are not enough consumers to purchase everything that drives the economy. We are all interconnected wether we realize that or not. Many new hires have to get secondary employment just to make ends meet. Most plants even with regular job fairs cannot get enough people hired due to the high turnover. Management is routinely forced to work on the line themselves and also have a high turnover rate. Quality suffers due to constant turnover and work related injuries, sick leave for surgeries, having to take sick children to doctors, personal sick days ,and just being exhausted. I invite anyone that doubts this to apply to work at an Big three factory and observe for yourself. You can troll my comment if you like but I have observed this in person-have you?

    • Your comment may be correct but corporations, unions, and our government don't control you or your families. America is the land of the free, with the opportunity to grow, get an education, start a business, move from job to job etc. There are over 10 million open jobs in this country. If conditions are that bad at these facilities leave. Yes, it's change and no one likes change or to uproot their families but you are in control of you and your families life. If you are depending on the unions to make your life better you deserve what you get. While they say they represent you, they are really a pseudo socialist group. In the end they negotiate how many hours you work at what rate, how much vacation etc. Bottom line they are telling you how much money you should make and how you should live while they get richer. If unions were good they would be educating their members, helping them grow, move up the ladder, get new jobs but know they want the members to be dependent not independent. I originally stated America is the land of the free, but under this administration it is heading toward communist, socialism. The government is mandating what kink of vehicles to drive, gas stoves, light bulbs, air conditioning, washer and dryers, and now starting to control our food. If you want our government, unions and corporations to control your life then go for it and stop your complaining, otherwise get outside the box and make a positive change in your life.

• lol 90 days is a probationary period, not to top out the wage band lol sheesh

  • Meanwhile, the UAW has called for a 40-percent wage hike and a 90-day period to reach top wages, as compared to the eight years required currently.

• They should ask for the same wage structure as the execs at the same % of shares based on company performance. The union should be buying shares so they can have more say on exec compensation.

  • The Union is strongly against stock ownership. Its weird, but a thing. They dont want to be too influenced by the company's performance... it kind of makes sense, but also weird.

    • Because they know when they get their way and gouge the automaker, the stocks go dowm so they dont want any part of it???

      FYI, the definition of an organism that benefits at the detriment of its host is a Parasite 😳

      • GM offered a 20% raise during the 4 year contract and the UAW wants 40%. Split the difference at 30% raise, a 5% annual raise the first two years and 10% lump sum 3 & 4th year, COLA and profit sharing. One year to become fully vested pay and benefits. The 1998 strike was 25 years ago, the sooner it’s over with, before everyone loses out. With the difficult transition to EV’s ahead, fewer self inflicted problems will benefit GM employees in the long run. GM has to appease the government regulators, dealers, employees, shareholders and consumers in a dicey economy. It could be a rough road ahead, hopefully it will benefit everyone if it can be resolved soon.

        • Profit Sharing? They are employees not owners! Owners share in profits and losses. Will employees share in losses?

    • because stock ownership means you have risk, they only want upside

  • Yes. Great idea. Salaries based on production and sale.

• 90 days is typical a probation period to evaluate if you can perform. How do you think the members that had to work 8 years to get to the top wage are going to feel when a new hire comes in (maybe even a Biden illegal) and after 90 days, get the same wage as it took them 8 years to earn.

  • But why did it take so long for the first worker to get to that level? Things change. Get used to it.

  • Workers get laid off and fired when money runs out or profits tumble. Government Motors can just get another bailout or otherwise fund exec salaries.

    Too bad we can't elect someone to run government instead of robbing everyone. I mean, somebody's gotta pay the bribe money. I think it's the customers of the business that paid the bribe... I wonder how much Mr B accounts for inflation rates on *everything*

• Too many of the UAW demands are just outlandish. Union abuses at GM has caused several component plant closures in Indiana.

• The union was asked to sacrifice in 2008 to save the company. Now there are record profits and the CEO taking down $25M+ a year.due in part to record profits. Here are the facts:

  General Motors gross profit for the quarter ending June 30, 2023 was $5.346B, a 21.25% increase year-over-year.
  General Motors gross profit for the twelve months ending June 30, 2023 was $22.344B, a 32.21% increase year-over-year.
  General Motors annual gross profit for 2022 was $20.981B, a 17.36% increase from 2021.
  General Motors annual gross profit for 2021 was $17.878B, a 30.76% increase from 2020.

  Seems like there is some middle ground or does it all need to go to the stockholders?

  • Gross profit doesn’t mean they made any money after expenses. Net profit is what matters most.

  • Look up GM profits from 2013-2016, and again from 99-2003. Now adjust all those for inflation…….

    GM is nowhere near to the profit they were making back in the day. They are toughting “record profits” in a time when their struggling because inflation allows them too, and they are hoping its draws attention on the stock market. Not because they are rolling in dough, cause their not.

  • first of all, union didn't sacrifice themselves to save the company, companies bankrupted and shareholders wiped out. they needed new investors to step in and keep lights on, would they though, given union's outrageous pay which bankrupted the companies in the first place? they wouldn't, so union had to give back the premium package they had so they could keep a job. Once that's done, new investors stepped in, operated company for a profit and union keep their job. It's never sacrifice for the company.

• Trump is still working in getting Mexico to pay for it!

  • After Mr. Business Tycoon gets thrown out of NY for Fraud, maybe he can move his operations to Mexico and get the cartels to pay for it. His business style is closer to theirs than a legitimate business. Olay and adios to Donny!

    • You're an idiot. You aren't smart enough to flip burgers. You have a brain dead idiot running the country now. You two make a perfect pair.

      • you are spot on, Captain. People like Joe shoot off their pie hole but are ignorant to the subject they address.

• I've worked at gm 29 years, both production and skilled (electrician and toolmaker). It took me 3 years to reach top pay. I feel insulted that this generation thinks they add full value after 90 days. That's just wrong. I feel 3-4 years or one contract is a fair time to reach top pay. I feel as thought the union isn't representing everyone as they should. They only care about the younger ones with no thought to what is fair and just to everyone.

  • People, it’s negotiations. What you ask for or propose is not where you are going to end up. It’s give and take and the one with the most leverage at the time can likely end up with the better deal….that is until next time when the leverage ball may be in the other court. Sometimes certain proposals or demands are a smoke screen for other things. They will hammer out a deal eventually.

    • You dont walk in to a negotiation asking unrealistic expectations. Youll get laughed at, and wont be taken seriously. They should have walked in with something reasonable. They handed GM all the power when they started this negotiation.

  • Overheard on the strike line...IT'S MY MONEY AND I WANT IT NOW!!!!

  • I think it should take more than 3-4 years to make top pay. You people make way too much money to strike for higher pay. Get out in the REAL world and see how long it takes other workers to get top pay. They wait 20 years in some jobs.

    • Jealousy much?

• Question?

  Next year, when the American auto companies profit are
  down 20 billion, is the union gone to take a pay and benifits cut???????

  • Uh, that's exactly what they did in 2008....

• The UAW president Shawn Fain has a lack of business knowledge, particularly with macro economics. The 2020 pandemic nearly bankrupted all 3 of these companies until the stimulus checks started going out and people began buying new cars. Yes they made record profits since then, but the economy is looking bleak with interest rates on car loans nearing 9%. These automakers know their sales about about to slump, so raising wages 40%, adding back inflation protection, and providing a pension is not something they can do right now without risking bankruptcy again should the economy go south in the next year or two. You might ask, what are these car companies doing with their record profits... Well, outfitting your production line to manufacture EV's costs billions of dollars, product development costs, engineering etc are all extremely cash intensive projects. With business loan rates hovering around 8%, it would be extremely costly to borrow at this time.
  If the UAW president understood these basic principals of business and macro economics, he wouldn't be costing his union more jobs and hardships in the short term. This is how I predict this playing out.... Automakers know new car buying is slowing down so this strike is maybe a good thing for them since they probably only need 60% of their staff working anyway. Also, by the union striking, it affects other production plants which GM and Ford have announced layoffs due to the striking plants not producing the materials needed at other factories. All of the striking workers are getting a measly $500 per week, which the ones laid off by GM and Ford get nothing (maybe unemployment checks). Eventually the UAW president is going to take so much heat from his own union workers that they are starving and losing a roof over their head, that he will call off the strike and end up taking the original deal from 3 weeks ago. What might that deal be? 20% pay raise, no pension, no 32 hour work week, none of that. This will definitely go down as one of the most pathetically orchestrated strikes in recent memory.

  • So you know for a fact that Shawn Fain has a lack of business knowledge? He just might be much smarter than you think. I don’t think that he worked his way up to President of the UAW by having zero negotiating skills. Time will tell. Let’s let the negotiators negotiate and see how it shakes out.

    • Since when has politics proven that the best and brightest get elected...get your head out and stop looking for your hemorrhoids!

    • well.... most union workers are brain dead, so..... no you don't need negotiation skill or business knowledge, you just need to be able to roil them up