UAW locals threaten strikes at five GM plants

[doh]

http://www.reuters.com/article/marke...0080404?rpc=44

DETROIT (Reuters) - United Auto Workers union locals at five General Motors Corp(GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) plants have served notice with the automaker that they could strike if progress is not made in reaching plant-specific contracts within days.

GM reached a four-year national contract with the UAW last year, but has not yet reached local agreements with most of the more than 70 union locals representing individual facilities on issues such as work rules.

GM said it had received the notices from UAW locals representing assembly plants in Arlington, Texas; Flint, Michigan; and the Lansing-Delta Township plant in Michigan.

A stamping plant in Parma, Ohio, and a transmission plant in Warren, Michigan, also have delivered a five-day notice that precedes an official strike warning, GM spokesman Dan Flores said. The strike warning also carries a five-day notice period under the union's terms with the automaker.

Separately, Flores said GM had reached agreement with the UAW at the national level on what many analysts had seen as the most contentious issue remaining -- how many positions at each U.S. facility would be open to lower-wage new hires.

GM and the UAW had agreed not to disclose the number of those positions at the facilities, Flores said.

Under its national contract with the UAW, GM won the flexibility to hire replacement workers at wages starting at $14 per hour -- roughly half the current average -- outside the main production roles in its plants.

GM has offered buyouts to all of its roughly 77,000 UAW-represented workers to cut costs and make room for the lower-cost new hires. However, union workers have said fewer people are accepting the payouts and early retirement offers this time than had taken a similar round of buyouts in 2006 when some 34,000 opted to leave the payroll.

GM's Parma stamping plant already has been partly idled by a UAW strike against GM supplier and former subsidiary American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings

[lineworker]

The reason this is being done is GM is renigging and dragging their feet on the contract approved last fall.There has been NO local agreement yet. This is just a wake up call for both sides. Let just keep building vehicles so the economy will get rolling.Nobody really wants to strike,but if the union says to strike,we will.

[Jimgm]

Originally Posted by lineworker

The reason this is being done is GM is renigging and dragging their feet on the contract approved last fall.There has been NO local agreement yet. This is just a wake up call for both sides. Let just keep building vehicles so the economy will get rolling.Nobody really wants to strike,but if the union says to strike,we will.

Please refrain from using the word "renigging" because it could be interpreted as a racial slur. Thank you for your time.

[NfamousZ24]

Originally Posted by Jimgm

Please refrain from using the word "renigging" because it could be interpreted as a racial slur. Thank you for your time.

What lol please

[lineworker]

Originally Posted by Jimgm

Please refrain from using the word "renigging" because it could be interpreted as a racial slur. Thank you for your time.

Please! Common sense goes a long ways.

[ByTheLake]

Originally Posted by Jimgm

Please refrain from using the word "renigging" because it could be interpreted as a racial slur. Thank you for your time.

Had the term been spelled correctly as 'renege', there would be no issue.

[member12]

I hope they do strike.

Everytime they strike the union gets smaller and less powerful.

A GM without the UAW is a stronger GM.

[xPUMPx]

stewpid

[tgagneguam]

These two camps really need to work this out. This constant bickering does nothing at all for the fortunes of either side. If GM is indeed reneging on its contract to which it agreed, then it deserves a UAW strike. You signed a contract, now live up to the terms.

Originally Posted by Jimgm

Please refrain from using the word "renigging" because it could be interpreted as a racial slur. Thank you for your time.

Good lord, lineworker is many things, a poor speller perhaps being one of them. A racist doesn't fit, though. Christ, almighty, people just search for slights. That must be a really, really, really difficult way to go through life.

[TedReminder]

The strikes should have happened at the National level. AAM locals are doing the right thing now. I retired from GM in 04. I saw nothing but concession contracts since 82. This last National contract is a huge insult to hourly workers, and retirees. I gotta tell ya, health care scares the hell out of me now.
Ted

[espo19047]

Originally Posted by Jimgm

Please refrain from using the word "renigging" because it could be interpreted as a racial slur. Thank you for your time.

I do not always agree with every post by line worker but one thing we can agree on is he has no history of racist posting. He has many more then 37 post enough to establish a track record.

[grover432]

I say let the union strike so GM can shut down for a few months. They can sell off their excess inventory and stop losing money on the cars they build. If the union doesn't give in, let them shutter the plants that aren't profitable. As GM starts to build and sell cars where they can be profitable, stock prices will go up and shareholders will be happy. The union workers can finally get the pay they deserve (as defined by the market) not what they have arm twisted out of GM and we'll buy import cars or locally built cars that suit our needs. I just feel badly for the young workers. They fallowed their parents into a union job hoping to get a life of unrealistic wages for which they didn't need an education and now those same parents are cutting them lose (on the 2 tier issue) to save their own pocket books.

To H*ll with the union. Let the company go under and see how the retirees feel after their underfunded pension plan tanks. Meanwhile, I'm sure the union bosses are living the high life.

[eaton53]

Originally Posted by Jimgm

Please refrain from using the word "renigging" because it could be interpreted as a racial slur. Thank you for your time.

It could only be interpreted as a slur by a jackass looking to stir up trouble.
I interpreted it as nothing more than the need to use a spellchecker.

[TedReminder]

Damn Grover, you sure need to educate yourself. I believe the pension fund is at this point overfunded. It's the VEBA that is underfunded. Please do your homework before you proceed to union bash.
Ted

[SDRacing]

Originally Posted by grover432

I say let the union strike so GM can shut down for a few months. They can sell off their excess inventory and stop losing money on the cars they build. If the union doesn't give in, let them shutter the plants that aren't profitable. As GM starts to build and sell cars where they can be profitable, stock prices will go up and shareholders will be happy. The union workers can finally get the pay they deserve (as defined by the market) not what they have arm twisted out of GM and we'll buy import cars or locally built cars that suit our needs. I just feel badly for the young workers. They fallowed their parents into a union job hoping to get a life of unrealistic wages for which they didn't need an education and now those same parents are cutting them lose (on the 2 tier issue) to save their own pocket books.

To H*ll with the union. Let the company go under and see how the retirees feel after their underfunded pension plan tanks. Meanwhile, I'm sure the union bosses are living the high life.

And what type of life do you think the GM bosses are living?