UAW local wants seat on GM board in exchange for concessions
Looking to further tighten up its hammerlock on General Motors, the UAW would reportedly like a seat on the automaker's board as a reward for helping it garner federal dollars. Marc McQuillen, president of UAW Local 2404 in Charlotte, North Carolina, has posted on his group's website that the suspension of the jobs bank and a two-year delay on automaker payments into the retiree healthcare fund are concessions enough for the UAW to seek a seat at the big table. We visited the website ourselves and couldn't find any such declaration, so it must have already been removed. While this particular local union has been shooting off its mouth in the Tarheel state, GM says it has not been asked for any such thing by the UAW itself. We think perhaps the brain should get back in touch with what its pinky toe is doing before trying taking over the world.
[Source: Detroit Free Press]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Gary 11:06AM (12/09/2008)
It would make sense for the UAW to have some sort of say at the board level. They would have their concerns heard from at the top with feedback on an ongoing basis, rather than hearing from the union demands every few years during contract negotiations. It could be more constructive than strikes, etc.
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SimbaDogg 7:14PM (12/11/2008)
tell that yokel to shuttup. the overbearing weight that the UAW has put on the chest of the Big 2.3 is a significant reason to why they're in the dire straits they're in now. I mean, a job bank? seriously? in what profession in the world can you think of where you would be paid 95% of your salary NOT to work. at the expense of your employer...not like striking grocery market guys getting paid because of former union dues. UAW you may have been needed in the past, but seriously...its time to move on.
DJ 11:11AM (12/09/2008)
I am NOT a union guy, nor am I pro-union, but I can't see why this would be a bad thing... It's not like the union representation would be the majority (or even plurality) of the board representation, right?
And as Gary has stated above, this may open up more conduits for communications, would it not?
Perhaps someone with greater insight and experience can answer this.
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Judy Zik 11:39AM (12/09/2008)
Sounds like a good idea but there would be limits. They would have to excuse themselves from any meetings where the Management end of contract negotiations are being discussed. The UAW, CAW and Management need to all be on the same team.
As far as this union local is concerned with so many plants getting closed and Union locals disappearing I wouldn't want to be a vocal pain in management's rear right now.
pmalik 11:15AM (12/09/2008)
I think they need a little reality check - the board members have a fiduciary duty to the SHAREHOLDERS, not employees. Seriously, saying absurd things of that sort makes me think they don't have a single corporate lawyer on board.
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DJ 11:29AM (12/09/2008)
With all due respect, I don't think the current board members are really doing that great of a job in regards to their duties to the shareholders.
Mazda FTW! 12:38PM (12/09/2008)
"the board members have a fiduciary duty to the SHAREHOLDERS, not employees"
That was the first mistake our economic system made.
G-Meister 1:21PM (12/09/2008)
Mazda- perhaps if UAW members had been buying company stock instead of Snowmobiles, boats and Cottages, they wouldn't have this problem, but rather would own controlling intrest in the company. But then who would they blame?
From OPM:
"... you people are f'ng u capitalism! You know what happens when you f' up capitalism? the Commies take over. And you know what the first thing the Commies do when they take over? They SHOOT ALL THE LAWYERS!"
Dab 11:19AM (12/09/2008)
Unions are crooked. Union leaders are crooked. Unions are the reason vehicles cost so freaking much, and the reason the return that an auto maker gets on a vehicle is so minimal. Unions are responsible for creating do-nothing jobs that pay way too much, and are always the first to complain when the auto maker can't afford to employ workers. Heck, the unions complain constantly even when they're already gouging their employers mercilessly.
The UAW had nothing to do with the bailout. The UAW did not have to be at the congressional hearing, and yet now they want to be freaking board members!?
They should be freaking grateful they now have another couple of months to suck more blood away from the auto industry.
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Patate 11:28AM (12/09/2008)
Hmm
The UAW's president WAS at the congessional hearing.
Even the rest of your post was worthless, shut the hell up.
Scott in ct 11:58AM (12/09/2008)
DAB as listed in the dictionary......ignorant...uninformed...misguided...clueless.......etc
FactRat 4:50AM (12/10/2008)
I will agree with you that the unions should have nothing to do with the bailout. The union does not run the company. The company gets to take all of the credit for this one. The union is in place to protect the workers from the bad decisions that management ends up making. Thank God, the union is there for this one! The Boys on top with all of their Greed and all of their Need--have really gotten their tales in the fire this time. Do you people understand what a contract is? Do you know the word, negotiation? Can you say...JEALOUS much? Thanks for judging everyone that works at GM as dumb line workers. Some of us went to college. And even the ones who didn't had the brains to accept what GM offered to pay them. The last I seen, GM signed my paycheck, not the union and not You. GM agreed to this wage when GM signed this contract along with the union. I know that all of you people out there bad mouthing the union--have sat down and read the GM/UAW contract book--cover to cover. I mean who would make comments on a subject that they were not informed on? Answer: Jealous people who don't work at GM!
Tim 12:09PM (12/09/2008)
This is good. The Unions should be at the the boardroom table. They will have no excuses that they were not aware of the problems and had no input in the manufacturing decisions. Their fate should be the Unions fate.
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speedzzter 11:26AM (12/09/2008)
A board seat is hardly unprecedented.
But what really needs to happen is for the U.A.W. to drop a whole host of work rules, expensive "featherbedding" practices, and "us versus them" assumptions that make the Detroit 3 less competitive against the Japanese "invader" assembly operations located in the "right to work" states.
It's unclear that a board seat will address these problem.
Nor would the oft-discussed "nuclear option" of bankruptcy. After all, if a bankrupt automaker rejected the U.A.W. contract, who would build the cars. As Ford and Firestone found out in the Explorer roll-over litigation debacle, under-trained "scab" labor can be dangerous.
As it is, this looks to be more along the lines of piling on to the liberal power-grab that's underway in the Detroit 3 loan bill. It seems some in the U.A.W. have yet to learn that they're all in this together with the Detroit 3 and that the old 1930s way of doing things has to end now.
http://speedzzter.blogspot.com/2008/12/political-overreaching-in-detroit-3.html
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hashiryu 11:32AM (12/09/2008)
They are like a modern legalized mafia, what a bunch of leeches. If GM bow to this request they will see nothing but regret in the future,
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Alex 11:32AM (12/09/2008)
Whatever happened to the UAW using some of its VEBA money to reinvest in GM through stocks? Buy enough of them and you'll get a seat at the board. Then the UAW wouldn't be quick to do anything that'll jeopardize GM's stock value.
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happy_penguin 12:04PM (12/09/2008)
There is no VEBA money, yet. The UAW agreed to delay payment.
Temple 11:37AM (12/09/2008)
'suspending' Jobbanks aren't enough. Closing them is getting closer.
Also, the worst thing for GM is having more in fighting and oversight on their board. GM needs to be ones deciding on which cars to buy based on what the market is buying. Government and labor dictating how GM is going to do business is just going to make things worse.
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Rbic 11:41AM (12/09/2008)
I just hope that they actually do restructure the union environment for the auto workers. There have been many times in the past 3 or 4 years that I have been threatened because I broke the line at the transmission/break factory that I work at. Unions (at least the one that I'm in) are worthless in my opinion. The only thing that I would miss would be the 48 dollar an hour strike pay that I got.
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happy_penguin 12:07PM (12/09/2008)
Wow. I don't know what union you belong to but every UAW member who was on strike around here that I know only got something like $150/wk I think it was? I remember people losing their cars and homes.