Chrysler gets no sympathy from UAW on health care costs
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger is apparently done being pushed around by the domestic auto industry. Despite having given landmark cost-saving concessions on health care to both General Motors and Ford, Gettelfinger indicated to Reuters the same offer would not be extended to The Chrysler Group. The UAW considers Chrysler to be in a better financial state than GM and Ford, and therefore has disregarded the time honored tradition of pattern bargaining and not accepted Chrysler's latest concession proposal. While the UAW may see Chrysler standing on a littler firmer ground than GM and Ford, the German-American hybrid automaker doesn't exactly have a rock solid foundation at the moment. The Chrysler Group still has a decent-sized inventory of unsold 2006 models despite the most aggressive incentive campaign of any automaker during the summer. As a matter of fact, Chrysler has already admitted that it will lose money this quarter for the first time in four years. Sorry Chrysler, you'll get no sympathy from the UAW.
[Source: Reuters]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Chris 6:14PM (9/07/2006)
When this dumbass gets a load of people laid off in a cost savings plan, no one is going to feel sorry for him.
It seems Ron wants to do to Chrysler what the UAW has done to other domestic automakers...put them on the verge of going out of business. At some point something has to give.
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Jamie 6:18PM (9/07/2006)
He has many supporters in government.
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Jon 6:29PM (9/07/2006)
Here comes more outsourcing.Courtesy of the UAW.The US workforce is suddenly less attractive to manufacturers.
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Ryan 6:29PM (9/07/2006)
Plus they have the support of Diamler and apparently they have made money for four years now? WTF? Of course they are not going to give.
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TSW 6:39PM (9/07/2006)
It's funny, I have no sympathy for the UAW.
At all.
I believe that the UAW is totally responsible for all of the over-priced and poorly-built domestic cars that are available today.
By taking away personal accountability on the work-line, sub-par workers continue to do a terrible job whilst being paid princely sums.
I kinda wanna donate to a "Pinkerton Rebirth" fund.
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Mal Fuller 6:47PM (9/07/2006)
" Sorry Chrysler, you'll get no sympathy from the UAW."
It's the UAW that's truly sorry - VERY SORRY!
"2. He has many supporters in government."
Posted at 6:18PM on Sep 7th 2006 by Jamie
A supporter is something I used to wear in gym class!
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Jeff Banks 6:51PM (9/07/2006)
Viva la Raza!
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Jack 7:01PM (9/07/2006)
Bad time for Chrysler, but I don't think that this will force it to go out of the business.
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doug 7:14PM (9/07/2006)
You gotta understand, All of Ron's line workers got sick when they saw the new Sebring, they can't afford a healthcare giveback right now!!
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Cly 7:05PM (9/07/2006)
Why isn't this Ron Gettelfinger at Guantanamo Bay? It is obvious that he's the biggest terrorist to the domestic auto industry in the US!
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Jon 7:29PM (9/07/2006)
Sounds to me like good old UAW president Ron Gettelfinger wants to import some of the benefits Daimler workers enjoy in socialist Germany.Probably figures he'll start some trouble over there and they'll have to ante up over here and pay up to the union.see how that works?
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Chivo 7:53PM (9/07/2006)
The damn UAW is killing the American auto industry. Some unions are good, but lately, most of them just harm the working class and the American industry.
The UAW should be banned.
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Jon 8:02PM (9/07/2006)
There's no end to the unions quest for power.If certain left wing social revolutionaries have their way and redefine marrage the unions will be at the forefront demanding and extending benefits for everyone who claims to have a domestic partnership based on some kind of behavior.
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Bogey 8:09PM (9/07/2006)
It's not the UAW really, it's the spiralling health costs here in the US. As long as the media and general public can point fingers at a scapegoat (i.e. The UAW and/or it's president, Ron Gettelfinger), then the politicians who seem unable to do anything that will upset their major campaign contributors will blame the union.
Every year more and more people are gonna be pushed out of some health coverage and the count (something like 45 million now) of people with little or no health coverage will keep increasing.
That will continue to push costs up because if you have no health coverage you only see a doctor if it's an emergency and something "expensive" is wrong, instead of preventative health care, which, studies have shown, is far more cost-effective.
The governemt here in the US is run by fat cats intent on maintaining the status quo. Can you name me 5 senators or members of congress who have a net-worth of less than $10million?
The UAW and the auto companies are trying to survive in a world where "stuff" can be made in cheap labor countries for less than it costs here.
I predict that the UAW will lose this one... but who will really win?
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whofan 8:27PM (9/07/2006)
"The UAW and the auto companies are trying to survive in a world where "stuff" can be made in cheap labor countries for less than it costs here".
I am a union worker and I`ll say this, the UAW should give Chrysler what they gave everyone else.
If the shoe were on the other foot you know the UAW would demand it.
The UAW gives unions a bad name.
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Aki 8:49PM (9/07/2006)
"The UAW and the auto companies are trying to survive in a world where "stuff" can be made in cheap labor countries for less than it costs here."
Oh please, you make it sound as though union workers have to scrounge up change every day to buy a morsel of bread and gruel. They make a lot of money, and have an overbloated healthcare coverage.
The UAW hurts domestic makers. It hurt them when they took revenge on management by purposely botching up vehicles when labor relations were strained. It hurt with their continual demands for increased wages.
Basically, the UAW won't make concessions unless it has stripped the company to the point of bankruptcy--which is when it'll play "nice"... with millions of dollars in payoffs. UAW didn't care for the fact that it cost GM *$100 Billion+* in assets for healthcare/benefits alone.
Unions outlived their usefulness. In the old days it ensured fair wages and fair hours. Now it's an unruly, politically-backed mob that yelps and screams to its parasitic heart's content until it ultimately kills its host.
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Jon 8:56PM (9/07/2006)
Wow aki.That was great.
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Clarence 10:25PM (9/07/2006)
#12. The damn UAW is killing the American auto industry. Some unions are good, but lately, most of them just harm the working class and the American industry.
It's not just lately. I watched a union vote themselves out of a job about twenty years ago. The owner of a trucking company told them he would not give any more and would cease operations if they voted to strike. They voted to strike. The trucking company shut down immediately forever.
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Shadyman 10:11PM (9/07/2006)
...the most aggressive ad campaign...
How come I never heard about it, then?
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Chivo 10:15PM (9/07/2006)
Jon, the right wing is worse. If it were for the right wing, every working class person would be getting $4.50/hr, with no health benefits. So c'mon, shut it. Not every left winger like myself is at an extreme, just like not every right winger is at an extreme.
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