Gm Employees Choose Unemployment Over Pay Cut

[focijoe]

<H1 id=yn-title>Union rejects concessions at GM Indianapolis plant</H1>– Tue Sep 28, 1:55 pm ETINDIANAPOLIS – The potential buyer for a General Motors stamping plant in Indianapolis has dropped its bid after workers overwhelmingly rejected pay cuts it sought.

 

The 457-96 vote against the concessions also was a repudiation of a deal national United Auto Workers officials had backed in hopes of keeping the factory open after GM announced last year it planned to shut it down in 2011.

 

But local union leaders opposed the offer from Addison, Ill.-based JD Norman Industries, which would have cut base pay at the plant from $29 an hour to $15.50.

 

"The contract they offered us wasn't a contract," UAW Local 23 bargaining chairman Gregory Clark told The Indianapolis Star after the vote was announced Monday. "It just gutted everything we had come to know as a contract between employers and employees."

 

GM has been planning to close or sell the 2 million-square-foot plant west of downtown Indianapolis for three years. The plant now has about 640 hourly workers and state officials had offered Norman Industries $2 million in tax incentives if that grew to a promised 1,900 jobs.

 

Norman Industries planned for the factory to make hoods, fenders and other metal pieces for GM and other automakers.

 

"We are satisfied that the members of UAW Local 23 were allowed the opportunity to vote on JD Norman's contract proposal," company CEO Justin D. Norman said in a statement. "Clearly, we are disappointed in the final outcome. While we are withdrawing from pursuing the plant any further, we continue to hold the employees at the facility in the highest regard and wish them the best in their respective futures."

 

Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels and other state officials had encouraged the workers to agree to the deal with Norman Industries.

 

"We're exasperated by this," state Commerce Secretary Mitch Roob told WTHR-TV. "The taxpayers of this country bailed out General Motors and their workers. Now, those workers here turned their backs on future generations of people who might have had their jobs in Indiana."

 

The plant is owned by Motors Liquidation Co., which GM set up during its 2009 bankruptcy to take over discarded property.

 

Rejection of the contract doesn't necessarily mean UAW members will be out of a job. Many of them already are eligible for retirement and others have the right to transfer to other factories if GM closes the plant.

 

Local union members recognized that any additional work for the Indianapolis plant would come at the expense of other GM factories, Gregg Shotwell, a GM retiree from Grand Rapids, Mich., and co-founder of UAW dissident group Soldiers of Solidarity, told the Indianapolis Business Journal.

 

Shotwell was among those who attended a weekend rally in Indianapolis against the concessions deal.

 

Maurice Davison, the UAW's regional executive director, told the Star he was disappointed by the vote and he didn't expect much cooperation from GM in expanding the plant's workers' transfer rights.

 

"If that were to happen, it would take GM to sit down and agree to it, and I can't see GM sitting down to agree to anything with Indianapolis," he said.

[focijoe]

I personally would want to keep my job at a lower salary than be unemployed.

[Black02Silverado]

I'm not in their shoes and do not know the whole story, but personnaly I would take the pay cut so I still had a job and the benefits to go with it. In time hopefully things will turn around and the plant could grow. But if most are going to retire and others can get jobs making same pay at other plants then it makes sense.

[focijoe]

This is the reason GM had to file bankruptcy and the reason most American companies ship jobs overseas. I'm all for the American worker making as much as they can (I want to also) but there comes a time when the labor is overpriced.

[ryan_hermanutz]

That is a huge drop from 29 to 15.50 but when the medium income for Indianapolis is 15k less than that it really doesn't help the plight of the UAW to convince the public that they shouldn't be disbanded.

[DTyrrell]

I can kind of see where they are coming from. I sure as hell wouldn't take THAT big of a drop, but I would have asked to try and renegotiate a higher (but still lower than the orignal) paycut.

[gmowner4life]

That is a steep cut, but if you get to keep beni's it is better than collecting that whopping $400 check from unemployment. IMO

[rmy660r]

I work for GM. My plant recently received some transfers from the Indy plant. GM sold the plant to a company that agreed to honor the UAW/GM contract until the contract expired and then backed out on that agreement. Those empoyees remaining at that plant have obviously decided to take a stand. Sometimes, people have to take a stand. I think it would make anyone angry to take a 1/2 paycut and lose some health care benfits.

[ColoradoSkiCountry]

are you not going to be even more angry when your begging for food because there are no jobs out there for you that pay over $15.00 an hour? There are people out there who would KILL to have a job for $15.00 an hour, nevermind the benefits. In this day and age, it is STUPID to strike and it is STUPID to take a course of action that will leave you jobless. But then again if we get rid of all the STUPID people in GM maybe they might start making a profit and turn the crumbling company around.

[Bowtie2Sierra]

Wow. The entitlement attitude of the UAW is sickening. I know very little about this particular situation other than the excerpt from the article above but my guess is the offer of $15.50/hr is the market rate for job. The UAW employees are worth no more than the market is willing to pay....despite what they want to believe. Honestly, if the UAW didn't get under my skin so much, it would almost be comical. No sympathy from me.

[mato27]

Some are worried about the quality of their vehicle now! Could you imagine what the UAW would be turning out if they felt 'underpaid' at $15/hour??

[Daryl LBZ]

Awwww I get paid 14 when I should be paid 18! Get over it and take the damn pay cut!

[Zembonez]

The Auto Unions are nothing but leeches that will bleed the automakers dry before making concessions. The UAW is famous for this. I hope they go down in flames.

[chakis24]

so easy when youre outside looking in. think from the workers perspective

 

first, that is a HUGE paycut- imagine if your next pay check had half the amount you get now, and all the rest that followed. where would you and your family be?

 

second, they know any concession they give they wont get back. ever.

 

third, they know if they reject it and go unemployed, more than likely there is an agreement that they have to be offered a job back at the same level before they can go outside those whove been laid off. there is also the transfer clause that was mentioned. they probably still get benefits for a given period of time even though theyve been laid off too.

[Daryl LBZ]

so easy when youre outside looking in. think from the workers perspective

 

first, that is a HUGE paycut- imagine if your next pay check had half the amount you get now, and all the rest that followed. where would you and your family be?

 

second, they know any concession they give they wont get back. ever.

 

third, they know if they reject it and go unemployed, more than likely there is an agreement that they have to be offered a job back at the same level before they can go outside those whove been laid off. there is also the transfer clause that was mentioned. they probably still get benefits for a given period of time even though theyve been laid off too.

 

 

 

True, but they don't have to have $200,000 houses to live in and 2 brand new vehicles. I bet making $29.00 an hour this is what most of them have. Around here we live fine on $15 an hour.