General Motors has been dealing with a lot of strikes lately. The United Auto Worker union's strike against one of its main suppliers, American Axle, has been reducing the General's inventory of trucks and SUVs for about a month now, and also threatened production of the Chevy Malibu before the automaker found more parts to keep production going. Just yesterday the UAW walked out of GM's Lansing Delta Township plant where the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn are built. The latter strike is over what the UAW has only referred to as "local contract issues". Whatever those are, they are important enough to come back today and threaten GM with a walk out at its Fairfax plant, one of the two facilities that builds the hot-selling Chevy Malibu. The union has set a five-day ultimatum, and says it will walk out on Malibu production next Tuesday, April 22 if an agreement isn't reached. The other plant building Malibus is in the Detroit suburb of Orion, but it only builds 2,100 Malibus per week compared to the 3,100 units per week built at the Fairfax plant. Clearly the UAW knows exactly where GM is most vulnerable, and its aiming a strike right at it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Matt Keller @ Apr 18th 2008 4:32PM
God f-ing damn I'm so sick of these guys.
tritonofg @ Apr 18th 2008 4:34PM
Maybe GM will move its production outside of the US to avoid this type of crap in the future.
zmf001 @ Apr 18th 2008 5:38PM
Let's hope GM keeps production in this country. We do need SOME cars built in this country that are American manufacturers.
And let's hope someone takes a step in the right direction and just breaks the contract already. This "yanking one leg out of the wobbly tripod" act is getting annoying.
MKIV @ Apr 18th 2008 8:05PM
Excellent point!!! Fire them all and fill those positions with those who actually want a job. It'll be cheaper in the long run and a great way to send a message to these union morons who are doing a job that any monkey can perform.
Volk @ Apr 18th 2008 10:26PM
File and rank union members are indeed morons but you can't say that about their bosses - those are not morons at all - they are well connected mafia of the 21st century making big bucks at the expense of taxpayers and consumers. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they are getting paid by foreign competitors too.
John Jamison @ Apr 21st 2008 11:45PM
The UAW seems set on self-destruction. While GM management made missteps in the past, they are on a short run with good cars and trucks--a run the UAW seems set on destroying. It is hard to believe sometime that the UAW actually wants workers for the big three to stay employed. The world has changed; it is not 1970 anymore and either the UAW gets that or they will cease to exist in our lifetime. And you wonder why workers for Japanese, German and Korean car makers do not want the fools at the UAW coming in and taking over.
jgp @ Apr 18th 2008 4:39PM
Time to hire the Pinkertons.
CarMatchPro @ Apr 18th 2008 4:39PM
Frigin' unions are constantly handcuffing the manufacturers, especially GMC.
Seminole @ Apr 18th 2008 4:39PM
Fire them all. Hire people who really want the jobs. Problem fixed.
Its about time to bust a union me thinks.
Torrent @ Apr 18th 2008 5:14PM
Exactly what i was gonna say. These workers have it good and really don't know it.
Duders @ Apr 18th 2008 8:27PM
Maybe this is just showing my naïveté, but what actually prevents GM from doing this? I mean I'm sure they have contracts that must be kept, but for how long are the contracts valid. What keeps them from just hiring normal laborers and kicking out the unionized workers? Or what stops them from replacing the unionized workers in jobs that don't really require skilled labor?
Chuck @ Apr 18th 2008 4:47PM
Well, you know how it works. The CTS, Malibu and Lambdas begin to reverse GM's fortunes, and though GM is still losing millions of dollars the union leadership decides it's the perfect time to make a statement.
Unfortunately the numbers aren't on their side. In 1979 there were 1.5 millions UAW members. Today there are 464,000.
With neither GM or the union is playing from anything approaching a position of strength, the futility of this sort of action is baffling.
Workers should be thrilled that they're finally in the position to build cars that are selling and have the potential to make their company lucrative again.
Oh, but that's just silly logic. We don't want logic to get in the way of a counterproductive and ultimately pointless power-play.
GEORGE @ Apr 18th 2008 5:15PM
There used to be a time when the unions where needed..
But that time has passed! Too much whinning these days. It not like the "old days" when people banded together for the common good, now its just me me me...too bad :(
Brandon @ Apr 18th 2008 4:49PM
If they where to fire everyone see hom many pepole come running for a $10/hr job I would bet inside a week all of the positions will be filled.
I'm sorry be happy you have a job there are hundreds of people who go out everyday looking for a job and can't get one give that signal MOM who is living at a motel your job you sorry a*s Ba*****
Have A Nice Day
HotRodzNKustoms @ Apr 18th 2008 4:52PM
There was a time and a place for Unions. That time and place has moved on. Autoworkers at any point in a product's life all make a good enough living to live well. Maybe it's not new Cadillac and a million dollar home well but it certainly is a new Chevy Malibu and a median priced home in a nice neighborhood well.
Where the UAW needs to go is China. That's the place to be to stir some real sh*t.
epilonious @ Apr 18th 2008 5:17PM
Technically, that "time" and "Place" is called "right now" and "China"
Unfortunately... it's scary and controversial and there's not a lot of money in it... so you won't see any of our gentle union managers hopping on any delta jets to get those set up any time soon.
Richard @ Apr 18th 2008 4:57PM
The UAW - and Delta's Pilots - should all move to...
1. Germany?
2. United Kingdom?
3. France?
4. Sweden?
5. Hillary and Bill's Place
HotRodzNKustoms @ Apr 18th 2008 5:04PM
I vote for Billary's place
Yar @ Apr 18th 2008 5:01PM
There are companies in development that specialize in providing non-union labor to industries seeking to eliminate BS like the Auto Industry. Shouldn't be too long before we see some contracts being broken.
nexus @ Apr 18th 2008 5:06PM
"local contract issues". what does that mean?