Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters labor union are picketing outside of GM plants today, calling out the automaker for using non-unionized car haulers. The Teamsters union calls the move “a direct attack on union jobs and the standards we’ve all fought to raise.”
The Teamsters union is not accusing General Motors of any contract breaches or legal impropriety, but it’s making demands to exclusively use Teamsters car haulers. It’s also demanding that GM honor area standards for wages and working conditions.
The Teamsters union created a petition on Action Network with its demands and an opportunity for anyone to sign it. The petition is “calling on General Motors to immediately end its use of nonunion car haulers and restore this work to Teamsters drivers who are paid the area standard and protected by a strong union contract.”
This isn’t the first time there’s been drama in GM’s methods for transporting cars in recent years. Earlier this year, we reported that GM ended all of its business with Jack Cooper Transport after failed contract renegotiations. Jack Cooper had recently lost business with Ford and tried to get more money out of GM to make up for the lost business, but the relationship was terminated entirely.
In January of 2023, as the auto industry began exiting the worst of the post-COVID supply chain crisis, GM took it upon itself to buy its own trucks and deliver cars to dealers directly. It was a way to move the massive backlog of mostly finished vehicles that were waiting on parts and were finally completed and ready to sell. At the time, Chevrolet National Dealer Council’s chairman Keith McCluskey said that GM is “not going to sit back and just be a victim of the transportation industry” any longer.
Since GM isn’t being accused of breaching a contract, it probably won’t have a meaningful response to the Teamsters union’s demand that it only use unionized car transportation. If the UAW speaks up about the issue, it might get more attention from The General.
Comments
But I’ll bet they all wear non-union made clothes and do their shopping at non-union WalMart purchasing JUNK made from China
I hope that these guys are living the union values and buying only UAW-produced vehicles and shopping only at unionized grocery chains like Kroger.
At least some of them are.
I see what you did there,
Auto industry getting crushed by tariffs that the Teamsters endorsed. Karma!
Don’t back down GM, use non union truckers. Please
I left the union about half way through my career. It was a bad time economy wise and we had to absorb a local that went completely bankrupt. Needless to say we had to take on all their problems. With 80% of them about to reach retirement age you can imagine where all our dues were going. I hope the union haulers are protected for one reason I witnessed some immigrants driving haulers for half their salary, but GM didn’t cut the delivery cost not one penny.
They should stay in their own lane
They have lost sight of what Unions were started
Presently, it is not the governments and or companies that rules the countries but the Unions. It is time that this situation ends especially for organisations like USPS, Canada Post, cities bus companies , ect. who are always and since decades lost money and are not profitable. When a union gets more advantages, who is paying the bill at the end, you and me. Worked 36 years for the same company and I was not in a union. If I would not had perform, they would have kicked me out. In every company, employees should have the choice to join or not the union. I am wondering what would be the percentage of employees who would join their respective union. I think, now , that companies are aware of well treating their employees. We are not in the 1940-1950.
You’re correct we’re not in the 40’s-50’s, but we’re heading to the 90’s, the 1890’s, our new Guilded Age.
Speaking of King’s and Oligarchs.
In the south, we don’t have the over-inflated economies that the North seems to inflate.
So, who’s going to pay for the inflated wages that are added to cars? Where does the INDEPENDENT Truck Driver get to work? INDEPENDENCE! You might find that in our founding AMERICAN documents.
The only where in the South that is even remotely cheaper than the North is far outside of any Metropolitan Area, where trailers and dilapidated shacks are considered homes.
It might be … competition for the first time. At a average cost of close to $1,000 an up to get a new vehicle delivered, even a $100 savings per vehicle becomes a big deal. It one of those deals where union people making upwards of $40 to $60 or more per hour … expect those making $12 to $15 per hour to buy their goods.
Welcome to the have’s and the have not’s society that is the USA of today and it is only going to get worse, thanks again to the Republican party. Reagan drove the first nail in the coffin of the middle class, and Trump is trying like hell to drive in the last.
I’m much more concerned about American Made than Union Made…really, why should I care if it’s a union driver versus not?
I can understand how a union can help workers, but your cargo doesn’t know or care if there is a “union” driver behind the wheel.
A union job is a better job. Union workers are better trained and more dependable in the workplace. They make a living wage that supports their families and their communities. I care if a item is made in a union shop. We owe unions so much which is why big business and the GOP has done all they can to destroy the labor movement. Buy union!
Another reason I will not buy a GM vehicle any time soon.
GM could easily afford to pay non union better than union, the cost of lousy work and strikes is pathetic. And WE end up paying for it, definitely not GM.