The United Auto Workers (UAW) are gearing up to strike against General Motors if progress isn't made on local negotiations affecting three factories in the U.S. The workers at the Arlington, Texas; Parma, Ohio; and Delta Township, Michigan plants are required to give the General a five day notice before the stoppage occurs, and they've told GM's negotiators that if progress isn't made in five days on the local contracts, they'll be laying down their tools. The dispute is primarily over which factory workers will be forced into a lower wage rate. If the work stoppage occurs, it will further compound issues GM is already facing with the American Axle strike, which has forced the automaker to slow or stop production at 30 factories across the U.S and Canada.
It turns out that the three-day inventory of parts that was stockpiled by OEM supplier American Axle is not nearly enough to weather a strike by the United Auto Workers union. The strike began early Wednesday, and though it's only Friday, General Motors is preparing to shut down its second, third and fourth assembly plant on account of parts shortages from American Axle. GM shut down its Pontiac, MI truck plant yesterday, which will be followed by the Fort Wayne, Flint and Oshawa plants, which build the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, at midnight tonight. That's a lot of truck plants off-line, but there's one more in Silao, Mexico that builds the Suburban, Tahoe, Yukon XL and Cadillac Escalade and ESV that will remain running for now.
Unlike the strikes levied by the UAW against GM and Chrysler during contract negotiation talks last year, the current strike against American Axle is no token bargaining tool that will end before the paint on the picket signs is dry. Despite that, it does give GM an opportunity to lower its inventory of unsold trucks and SUVs, so for the time being the giant automaker isn't panicking. The strike has the potential to wane on, however, considering that the UAW is deeply committed to fighting against a proposed cut that would trim American Axle's hourly labor costs from $70 to between $20 and $30. The supplier wants to recoup its $3 billion investment in its plants, but the workers are fighting to ensure that it's not at their expense.
In a move that may threaten production at General Motors, the United Auto Workers union went on strike against American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc. earlier today. The UAW work stoppage, the third called by the union within the past six months, centered around wages, benefits, and concerns that the company may be moving production to Mexico.
American Axle is the sole axle supplier to GM for light trucks such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon. The company supplies axles, shafts, and related components to other automakers, as well. As the four-year contract with the UAW neared the end of its term and the strike loomed, American Axle did stockpile its inventory. It is unclear, however, just how much supply is on hand. It may not need to last long, as analysts expect a negotiated settlement to end the strike within several days. This is good news for everyone, especially the workers who are walking the picket lines outside in the freezing snow.
[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd, Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty]
Nine days after the contract between GM and the UAW ended, the two have yet to come to an agreement on employee concessions, including a two-tier wage structure and a move that would entrust the UAW to be responsible for retiree health care costs. According to a union source, if nothing is accomplished, the UAW has set a strike deadline for 11 AM this morning.
More to follow as it develops, so watch this space.
The Detroit News is reporting that a group of 25 Chrysler employees in Toledo have formed a group called the "Employee Buyout Committee" and are actively exploring the necessary steps required to see the fate of Chrysler end up in the hands of its employees. Their proposal would give Chrysler employees a 70% stake in the automaker, with DaimlerChrysler retaining the remaining 30%. The group appears to be making all the right moves so far, having submitted its proposal first to the UAW, whose legal department is now evaluating the proposition. The employee buyout plan was also mentioned at DaimlerChrysler's annual shareholder meeting in Berlin on April, 4. The committee's apparent spokesperson, Michele Mauder, has also sent the proposal to Chrysler Gropu CEO and DaimlerChrysler CEO Deiter Zetsch, humbly requesting the employee's bid at least be given equal consideration with bids from private equity firms like Cerberus Capital Management and Blackstone Group, as well as Canadian parts supplier Magna. A Chrysler spokesperson has also commented that the proposal is expected to be reviewed by the automaker's legal department.
If allowing Chrysler's own 50,000 UAW employees to own the automaker doesn't happen, the UAW has expressed that it would much rather thow its hat in the ring with Canadian parts supplier Magna than any of the private equity firms that have offers on the table. While the employee buyout plan is a long shot, and if successful, an incredible risk for the employees, it's also inspiring that a group of workers would be the masters of their own fate. Unfortunately, it's not yet known how much the employees could offer for a 70% stake in their employer, which, in the end, is likely DaimlerChrysler's number one consideration in this sale.
The Detroit News is reporting that the United Auto Workers union is hosting a town hall meeting for workers at Toyota's manufacturing plant in Kentucky this Saturday. Not an organization known to mince words, the UAW has labeled the meeting's topic as "The Human cost of Toyota's Success". A press release issued about the meeting states that workers will talk about on-the-job injuries, the use of temps, and concerns about conditions at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky. In attendance will be UAW Vice President Terry Thurman.
As far as we know, the UAW has not managed to establish a credible presence at any automotive assembly plant in the U.S. owned by a foreign automaker. The union would certainly have us believe that the town hall meeting will be attended by a number of disgruntled Toyota employees ready to take action against their employer in a more organized way. Indeed, Thurman states "Our union is firmly and fully committed to helping these workers gain justice."
Problem is, we've never heard of these gross injustices being perpetrated against workers employed by foreign automakers. Perhaps that's because these workers have never had an organized voice before, but it could also be because their jobs are no worse or better than those under the umbrella of the UAW at domestic automakers. Truly, we really don't know which is the case and are very interested in what the workers at Toyota's assembly plant in Kentucky have to say.
Last year was the first time that non-unionized workers at a foreign-owned assembly plant made more than members of the United Auto Workers union make on average in a year. The Detroit Free Press reveals in a very interesting article that Toyota paid out bonuses of $6,000 to $8,000 last year at its largest U.S. plant in Georgetown, KY. Combined with the base pay made by a non-union worker at the plant, that equates to $30/hour or $60,000/year based on a 2,000-hour work year. That is more than the $27/hour or $54,000 a UAW member made on average last year. Union workers, or course, hardly received any profit sharing bonuses last year due to the poor overall performance of the domestic automakers.
This isn't actually surprising, as a matter of fact it was bound to happen. In many instances, Toyota and other large foreign automakers operating assembly plants in the U.S. pay their workers near-UAW wages in an effort to dissuade them from unionizing. In a year when Toyota's sales have grown to record levels and the domestics are losing market share fast, it was inevitable that Toyota's big bonuses would put the pay of its assembly workers in the U.S. ahead of the UAW, which saw no bonuses last year and likely won't for a few. The lack of overtime hours was another hit to the UAW that dropped the pay for many of its members. In time, as the domestics (if the domestics?) recover and the big bonus checks are in the mail again, we expect the UAW's pay to again top that of any non-union assembly workers in the U.S.
We recommend reading the whole article written by Jason Roberson from the Free Press, as there's a lot of layers to dig through with this story.
Chrysler no doubt felt a little burned by the United Auto Workers Union after being told it would receive no concessions for health care like the ones offered to both General Motors and Ford. At the time, the UAW cited the Chrysler Group's better financial health as the reason for the snubbing, but apparently the automaker's $1.5 billion loss last quarter and its expected loss of $1.2 billion for the year is enough to convince UAW president Ron Gettelfinger (shown at right with then Chrysler Group CEO Dieter Zetsche in 2003) that Chrysler's not doing as well as he first thought. Therefore, the UAW is conducting an independent financial study of DaimlerChrysler, just like it did for GM and Ford, to assess the company's actual fiscal standing before a decision to offer concessions is made. Since DCX is an German-American hybrid, however, they're finding it more difficult to gain access to the financial info they need. DCX, however, should be as forthcoming with that data as possible if it hopes to convince the UAW that health concessions would be in both their interests.
Way back in March of this year, the UAW, GM and Delphi sat down to figure out a buyout/retirement plan for the approximately 14,600 employees eligible to leave the workforce. Delphi employees were offered two separate packages: certain retirement eligible employees will be able to walk with a lump sum payment of $35,000, while others would be offered a buyout of between $40,000 and $140,000. A total of 12,400 employees eligible for retirement took the $35k and 1,400 opted to walk early and get a lump sum.
The General agreed to foot the bill for the lump sum payments, along with some post-retirement employee benefits.
How much are we talking? We'd expect the figures sometime before January 1st, 2007, when all the retirees/buyoutees take their leave.
Thanks to a fax sent by the United Auto Workers union to its leaders in various regions, we now know that Ford will be extending its job buyout offer to all 75,000 of its hourly UAW workers. This means that Ford is more than doubling the Way Forward plan's initial offer to buy out 30,000 of its 82,000-person work force. According to the New York Times, only 6,200 workers accepted the offer the first time around, though we expect Ford is hoping its new offer is as successful as the one General Motors made that resulted in the voluntary attrition of some 35,000 workers.
We'll have details of the buyout offer tomorrow morning, but expect it to be chock full of incentives for workers to consider leaving the company.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) are gearing up to strike against General Motors if progress isn't made on local negotiations affecting three factories in the U.S. The workers at the Arlington, Texas; Parma, Ohio; and Delta Township, Michigan plants are required to give the General a five day notice before the stoppage occurs, and they've told GM's negotiators that if progress isn't made in five days on the local contracts, they'll be laying down their tools. The dispute is primarily over which factory workers will be forced into a lower wage rate. If the work stoppage occurs, it will further compound issues GM is already facing with the American Axle strike, which has forced the automaker to slow or stop production at 30 factories across the U.S and Canada.
The Detroit News is reporting that the United Auto Workers union is hosting a town hall meeting for workers at Toyota's manufacturing plant in Kentucky this Saturday. Not an organization known to mince words, the UAW has labeled the meeting's topic as "The Human cost of Toyota's Success". A press release issued about the meeting states that workers will talk about on-the-job injuries, the use of temps, and concerns about conditions at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky. In attendance will be UAW Vice President Terry Thurman.
Problem is, we've never heard of these gross injustices being perpetrated against workers employed by foreign automakers. Perhaps that's because these workers have never had an organized voice before, but it could also be because their jobs are no worse or better than those under the umbrella of the UAW at domestic automakers. Truly, we really don't know which is the case and are very interested in what the workers at Toyota's assembly plant in Kentucky have to say. 
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