Uaw Michigan Locals Are Ready To Strike Gm

fbachman · April 11, 2008

BRILLIANT... kick the company when it is already down... are these idiots their own worst enemy, or what? They'll strike themselves right out of existance...

DETROIT -- Three UAW locals in Michigan have moved a step closer to striking General Motors plants over local grievances.

UAW locals in Warren, Flint and Delta Township, near Lansing, have notified GM that they could strike within five days unless their disputes are settled, GM spokesman Dan Flores confirmed today.

The Lansing Delta assembly plant makes the hot-selling family of crossovers: the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook. That UAW local could strike as early as Thursday, April 17.

The Warren plant makes transmissions, while the Flint plant makes medium-duty commercial trucks. Warren could strike on Thursday as well and Flint on Friday, April 18, Flores said.

Those locals want contracts that define work rules and other factory issues that were not dealt with in the UAW's master contract with GM signed last fall.

Analysts have speculated that the locals are trying to draw GM into strike negotiations at American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. by hitting other major choke points of GM production.

UAW spokesman Roger Kerson declined to comment on the situation.

The 2-month-old American Axle strike has closed mostly light-truck production at GM.

The three Michigan UAW locals, along with two other locals in Ohio and Texas, sent GM a letter last week, notifying the automaker they were contemplating giving an official five-day strike notice.

The Parma, Ohio, local reached a tentative agreement earlier this week. The local in Arlington, Texas, is not expected to strike because GM plans to idle that SUV assembly operation anyway.

dannynoonan · April 11, 2008

maybe they could use the downtime to fix my god damn lint seats.

pennzoil29 · April 11, 2008

This is imho, but if you ask me, unions are one of the reasons, if not the biggest reason why the economy is in such sad shape. I would like to see these big money people try and live on a shit salary. It is no wonder why companies want to send there business to other countries where labor is practically nothing. I've witnessed unions as the reason why so many factories and what not have shut down. I'm glad that I am sel employed and don't have to worry about a union, which in the long run are more concerned about themselves rather than the people they are supposed to be supporting.

HawkeyeOC · April 11, 2008

BRILLIANT... kick the company when it is already down... are these idiots their own worst enemy, or what? They'll strike themselves right out of existance...

Exactly what has been slowly happening over the last couple of decades. Large companies that have been comfortable at the top for a long time are typically slow to adapt to changes and when thet do figure it out, it's a slow process with obstacles like this that can put companies out of business.

I am shocked at how much unions have given up in negotiations but they haven't gone far enough

MS3DALE · April 11, 2008

maybe they could use the downtime to fix my god damn lint seats.

Mine too!

MS3DALE · April 11, 2008

This is imho, but if you ask me, unions are one of the reasons, if not the biggest reason why the economy is in such sad shape. I would like to see these big money people try and live on a shit salary. It is no wonder why companies want to send there business to other countries where labor is practically nothing. I've witnessed unions as the reason why so many factories and what not have shut down. I'm glad that I am sel employed and don't have to worry about a union, which in the long run are more concerned about themselves rather than the people they are supposed to be supporting.

+1

I agree totally Jeff.

Another thing I think is happening......These unions have the "They need us more than we need them" additude,Not anymore they don't "need you more than you need them",you need them more than they need you because of a place called Mexico!

Thats where all the high paying jobs are going,And I think the AAM strike is going to cause them to send those jobs down there if the union don't sign an agreement.

Bish · April 12, 2008

GM finally has some hot selling models in the Enclave and other Lamdas so the unions response is to strike at those plants. Effective from their perspective.

I forgot, doesn't every American high school drop-out deserve to make $90K? The problem is from the union's perspective, everything is downhill. They forget that their employees have been way overpaid for decades. They seem to forget that there is now competition for those jobs outside the country which has not always been true. They never think of the big picture.

Even worse for Michigan is the fact that companies won't currently move their because the available labor workforce (mostly former autoworkers) are not well educated in the first place and they have become so fat and happy they did no type of ongoing training or education. Would you want to hire a 40 year old with a 10-12th grade education that expects to work for close to 100K with lots of time off and FULL PAID health benefits. These guys need to wake up to reality. Times change and if they don't change they will be extinct....I hope anyhow.

Unions were great when people were in sweatshops or dying on the job because of unsafe conditions. I firmly believe their role was righteous during the first 50 years of the industrial revolution. Today with OSHA and federal regs, it is almost impossible to abuse workers without getting severely punished...at least in my experience as a business owner. I am convinced they are now a cancer on America!

MS3DALE · April 12, 2008

Unions were great when people were in sweatshops or dying on the job because of unsafe conditions. I firmly believe their role was righteous during the first 50 years of the industrial revolution. Today with OSHA and federal regs, it is almost impossible to abuse workers without getting severely punished...at least in my experience as a business owner. I am convinced they are now a cancer on America!

Perfectly said Bish!

redvett · April 12, 2008

Its the CEO's like Dick Douch at AA that made 250 million dollars from 2000 -2007 thats 35 million a year that make the workers not want to work for $14 an hour. Would you? He or anyother CEO is worth that, maybe 1-2 million tops.

hubbycap · April 12, 2008

The UAW must share the same PR firm as al-Qaida the way they're attempting to ingratiate themselves with the American consumer. The only tactical deviation is the absence of running into a school building with an explosive vest. Otherwise the economic devastation is the same.

Bish · April 12, 2008

Its the CEO's like Dick Douch at AA that made 250 million dollars from 2000 -2007 thats 35 million a year that make the workers not want to work for $14 an hour. Would you? He or anyother CEO is worth that, maybe 1-2 million tops.

I also agree it is just as bad or worse at the top. I didn't see those Bear Stearns execs giving back their hundreds of millions they made while driving the company to practical ruin. All the ordinary folk saw their retirements go to next to nothing when the stock went from $130 to $70 to $2. Oh yeah, they bumped it up to $10 after outcry. They took their hundreds of millions and moved on to ruin some other company.

Boat1986 · April 12, 2008

Unions were great when people were in sweatshops or dying on the job because of unsafe conditions. I firmly believe their role was righteous during the first 50 years of the industrial revolution. Today with OSHA and federal regs, it is almost impossible to abuse workers without getting severely punished...at least in my experience as a business owner. I am convinced they are now a cancer on America!

Perfectly said Bish!

Oddly enough, I just finished a 20 page economic research paper on GM and this is exactly what I talked about. I think the unions were important years ago, but times have changed. You cant be a high school drop-out/grad and expect to make good money plus benefits. Shoot, if everybody could do that, then why am I in college?

What really makes me mad is that GM is trying so hard to get ahead again and gain the market share back in the U.S. but no matter how hard they try, it seems that these possible and current strikes keep affecting them.

Just my .02

s-ten · April 12, 2008

Unions were great when people were in sweatshops or dying on the job because of unsafe conditions. I firmly believe their role was righteous during the first 50 years of the industrial revolution. Today with OSHA and federal regs, it is almost impossible to abuse workers without getting severely punished...at least in my experience as a business owner. I am convinced they are now a cancer on America!

Perfectly said Bish!

Oddly enough, I just finished a 20 page economic research paper on GM and this is exactly what I talked about. I think the unions were important years ago, but times have changed. You cant be a high school drop-out/grad and expect to make good money plus benefits. Shoot, if everybody could do that, then why am I in college?

What really makes me mad is that GM is trying so hard to get ahead again and gain the market share back in the U.S. but no matter how hard they try, it seems that these possible and current strikes keep affecting them.

Just my .02

I fully agree with these comments.

One, I hate to see GM crippled by these unions; without the unions added cost the price of GM cars would be right in line with imports.

Two, I agree that Unions served a purpose; that is until that purpose became to make as much money as they could get out of a company.

VMax2007 · April 12, 2008

Oddly enough, I just finished a 20 page economic research paper on GM and this is exactly what I talked about. I think the unions were important years ago, but times have changed. You cant be a high school drop-out/grad and expect to make good money plus benefits. Shoot, if everybody could do that, then why am I in college?

What really makes me mad is that GM is trying so hard to get ahead again and gain the market share back in the U.S. but no matter how hard they try, it seems that these possible and current strikes keep affecting them.

Just my .02

Post it up!!! (The research paper). I would be interested in reading it.