Automotive News, Media & Press - UAW workers walk off the job at GM

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119061578440137140.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo

sort of glad to see GM is sticking to their guns because they have to cut costs to stay competitive and this will lay the foundation for Chrysler and Ford's talks with the UAW as well

I'm kinda getting tired of the union bullshit. "oh wahhhhhh what about job security? wahhhh!" Try working in the real world where your job security is based on your performance, ya bunch of ninnies! I know factories aren't the most enjoyable places to work(I work in a meat packing plant...) but get over it! I get paid jack shit and I probably do more work than most of them, don't get healthcare, and have to worry about my job being there from day to day.

GM just needs to fire ALL of the union workers and hire real employees like Toyota does in their factories. Similar pay, healthcare and all that, but they can't strangle a company to death by collectively bargaining. I still think unions should be illegal....

Wonder if this will have any effect on the Camaro at all:

Up to 100,000 Canada layoffs seen from GM strike
http://www.reuters.com/article/tnBasicIndustries-SP/idUSN2432962620070924

By John McCrank

TORONTO, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Up to 100,000 Canadian workers could be laid off by the end of this week if the strike at General Motors Corp's (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) U.S. operations drags on, the head of the Canadian Auto Workers union said on Monday.

CAW President Buzz Hargrove told a news conference he believed 80,000 to 100,000 employees in the Canadian auto sector could be laid off, a figure that includes about 40,000 at parts manufacturers that sell to GM.

"To put it into perspective, we have about 80,000 workers in Canada that work in the automotive parts sector and General Motors buys about 50 percent of all automotive parts that are manufactured in Canada," said Hargrove.

"You can expect up to 40,000 autoparts workers to be laid off in the next three days."

On top of that, he said over 17,000 workers at General Motors in Canada will be affected if the strike drags on, with the remainder of the likely layoffs at companies that supply and service the auto industry in Canada.

"So, it's not inconceivable that by the end of this week, we could have between 80,000 to 100,000 people unemployed, mostly in Ontario, some in Quebec, as a result of the dispute between General Motors and the United Auto Workers in the United States."

General Motors Canada public relations director Stew Low said the company will assess each day how the strike is affecting its Canadian operations.

"If the strike goes on a long time, then obviously the impact will be wider spread. But right now what we're trying to do is find every piece of material that we have and make sure we run and build cars and trucks just as absolutely long as we can," he said.

GM has two car plants and one truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario; a transmission plant in Windsor, Ontario; an engine and components plant in St. Catharines, Ontario; a parts and distribution plant in Woodstock, Ontario; and a joint venture with Suzuki Motor Corp (7269.T: Quote, Profile, Research), in Ingersoll, Ontario.

The Windsor plant, which employs 1,400 people, ran its morning shift, then briefly closed before running a four-hour afternoon shift, and Low said it will then cease operations.

GM's Canadian plants are closely integrated with those in the United States, and Hargrove said that if the strike continues, Oshawa's plant No. 1, which builds the Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, will close on Tuesday morning, while plant No. 2, which builds the Pontiac Grand Prix and the Buick Allure, will close at the end of the Tuesday day shift.

The truck plant has enough parts for about three days of production of the Chevrolet Silverado and the GMC Sierra.

And while there is no strict timeline for the St. Catharines plant, "it's pretty clear, within 72 hours, St. Catharines will start to wind down as well," he added.

But Hargrove said that it does not appear that the Ingersoll plant will be affected by the dispute.

Low said he could not say if the dispute in the U.S. will affect talks scheduled for next year between Canadian manufacturers and labor unions.

"The contracts between the CAW and us and the UAW and General Motors are totally different, so I'm not going to make any predictions on what may or may not happen next year."

Separately, auto parts supplier Magna International (MGa.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) said it is monitoring the situation.

"Depending on the length of the strike, Magna International may be required to suspend the supply of parts to General Motors," said Tracy Fuerst, director of corporate communications at Magna, in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Jones)

<checks for his flamesuit>

can't find it.

i'm outta here.

I'm kinda getting tired of the union bullshit. "oh wahhhhhh what about job security? wahhhh!" Try working in the real world where your job security is based on your performance, ya bunch of ninnies! I know factories aren't the most enjoyable places to work(I work in a meat packing plant...) but get over it! I get paid jack shit and I probably do more work than most of them, don't get healthcare, and have to worry about my job being there from day to day.

GM just needs to fire ALL of the union workers and hire real employees like Toyota does in their factories. Similar pay, healthcare and all that, but they can't strangle a company to death by collectively bargaining. I still think unions should be illegal....


yeah I am with you on that, I am in college now but my summer job requires me to join a union (utilities) and there is too much bullshit going on. I know at the chrysler plant just outside st. louis there was like 3 or 4 employees that got fired for smoking mary jane. then the union steps in and says that no one told them that they couldn't smoke pot on the job so they got their jobs back plus pain + suffering + back pay.... F#$% that.... unions had a purpose 50 years ago but I think their days are limited and GM can solve some problems and pick up a lot more profit if they scrap the UAW

People that keep track of GMs affairs will realize how much damage a strike like this can actually do. I agree that Unions are becoming outdated, if they aren't already, but the general public still doesn't get it. If you read the AOL article on this very subject yesterday morning, according to the survey, most people believed that GM was going to give in to UAWs requests (demands) and that there wasn't going to be a strike. It just shows you that most of the public doesn't look at the big picture.

I'm not sure what UAW really wants, anyway. GM can promise them all they want, even in writing, but if the P+L sheet goes negative, some employees are gonna have to find a new job.

Just my $.02 :burn:

P.S. Putting other unions in a tight spot to get what you want is going to cost you in the long run, also.

I argee. These aren't the days of the early industrial revolution. Unions served a point but that time is OVER in this country.

I was in with a company but just got layed off, that has a union and the union is pointless and just takes a nice sum every month out of our checks for nothing moreless. union help worthless people and our union is so tight with the company they let the company walk all over us...

Fire the lazy SOB's and hire some people who want to work and are happy to have a job.

Ya'll really need to get real, the UAW is working it ass off to keep good paying jobs in this country. You can surely see that jobs are leaving the United States at an alarming rate as companies move to Mexico & China for cheap labor. We can't allow these jobs to keep leaving, nor can we keep giving back health care and other rights. General Motors moves these jobs out of the country to pay less labor, do you see a savings on the price of a car or truck? Good luck looking for a good paying job to support a family.

ROFL! So by demanding that GM continue to pay more than double what I make in a 75hr week, the UAW is helping to keep them in America?

Ya'll really need to get real, the UAW is working it ass off to keep good paying jobs in this country. You can surely see that jobs are leaving the United States at an alarming rate as companies move to Mexico & China for cheap labor. We can't allow these jobs to keep leaving, nor can we keep giving back health care and other rights. General Motors moves these jobs out of the country to pay less labor, do you see a savings on the price of a car or truck? Good luck looking for a good paying job to support a family.

the jobs aren't moving anywhere, they would have to move their entire plants out of the country for that to happen and that is not the argument here... no you won't see see savings on a car or truck, but you will see profit being made, thus money is dumped back into GM's retained earnings. That money gets thrown back into the company for R&D, etc... = better products/higher quality = increase in sales because its a better product = good for everybody (the company and its customers) = Good for the F#$#ing United States of America :usa:

ROFL! So by demanding that GM continue to pay more than double what I make in a 75hr week, the UAW is helping to keep them in America?

I could comment on that and Delphi's old wages. Heh. I have lived in places where 16/hr is the best you can get w/o a college education and even that doesn't get you much higher. While Delphi was dishing out over 30/hr for hum drum ASM line work.

And ChaseSS is right. GM is an industry leader in research and new product development. That spend tons of money developing new products even ones that don't look likely. No possibility barred. GM has their hands in every developed-industrialised country in the world. Small trucks in Brazile to diesels in Italy That is more than some brands can say!


It is hard for GM to be competitive when they pay out a fair price for all their parts and assume great liability. They are trying to make improvements all acrost the board.

I'm kinda getting tired of the union bullshit. "oh wahhhhhh what about job security? wahhhh!" Try working in the real world where your job security is based on your performance, ya bunch of ninnies! I know factories aren't the most enjoyable places to work(I work in a meat packing plant...) but get over it! I get paid jack shit and I probably do more work than most of them, don't get healthcare, and have to worry about my job being there from day to day.

GM just needs to fire ALL of the union workers and hire real employees like Toyota does in their factories. Similar pay, healthcare and all that, but they can't strangle a company to death by collectively bargaining. I still think unions should be illegal....



Agreed, unions where good back in the day when labor laws did not exist. However now that labor laws exist their is no need for unions. Employees and Employers are protected more now then they ever where.

Unions is just another name for a business lead to mislead people and make money off the people through dues and others fees/fines.

I have many friends that work in the trades and are very thankful for the day they quit working in unions.

Looks like they're back to work...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,298097,00.html

one of the only reasons that companies like GM are moving operations overseas (this is a very tiny portion of total operations) is because they are sick and tired of dealing with the stupid unions demanding $35/hr for a guy to sit on his fat ass and put a bolt into a hole. I used to belong to a union an di think that they potentially could still have a place in the modern world but UAW gives all unions a bad name.

So it turns out that their answer to "job security" is to close more plants? I understand the concept, but demanding that non-union plants be closed so that union plants get more work is, for lack of a better word, cruel. Most of these plants are plants that GM was beginning to lose interest in anyway, but that just seems very selfish to demand that. Everyone's out for themselves, but that move seems about 1-2 yrs behind. GM's out of the cost-cutting phase and is EXPANDING now with a remarkable product base.

I still feel that GM should try to seperate itself for UAW as much as possible. This move just doesn't seem to match the market very well. To me, it looks like something to do so that they can say "look what we've done", but what do I know?

I'm not in the auto manufacturing business.........

I talked to a UAW guy, who has a lot of seniority last week. He works at one of the plants near Detroit. He told me that the big reason that the workers striked was that even though GM and the UAW had an agreement, GM tried to strip out some of the jobs that traditionally stay with the UAW. These are the more menial jobs like cleaning and driving around. GM wanted to have non-union cheaper folks do these jobs. He went on to say that, when you get older, and go off the assembly line, jobs like driving around are the jobs you give the older guys.

To be honest I thought that was pretty lame. Here is a guy that is getting paid a lot of money to do the work that someone would get paid $15 an hour. Thats' union BS right there. And he said that GM had some cash, and that the UAW tried to beat up GM when that's the case. I heard nothing I liked, all sounded like it's all geared for the UAW to take care of their older workers even though they no longer do the same level of productive work.

I talked to a UAW guy, who has a lot of seniority last week. He works at one of the plants near Detroit. He told me that the big reason that the workers striked was that even though GM and the UAW had an agreement, GM tried to strip out some of the jobs that traditionally stay with the UAW. These are the more menial jobs like cleaning and driving around. GM wanted to have non-union cheaper folks do these jobs. He went on to say that, when you get older, and go off the assembly line, jobs like driving around are the jobs you give the older guys.

To be honest I thought that was pretty lame. Here is a guy that is getting paid a lot of money to do the work that someone would get paid $15 an hour. Thats' union BS right there. And he said that GM had some cash, and that the UAW tried to beat up GM when that's the case. I heard nothing I liked, all sounded like it's all geared for the UAW to take care of their older workers even though they no longer do the same level of productive work.


Sounds like the typical excuse of someone who doesn't want to take responsibility of themselves. If these older workers would have taken some initiative to plan for their older financial security, then maybe this wouldn't be an issue. So, these people seem to just prefer someone else take care of them.

This might not be the case, but that's just how I'm reading it.

Instead of buying 2 new cars, a jet-ski, and an expensive house they could of saved for retirement. Retirement should be personal resonsibilty. Sounds mean but think about it. Why should every pay in to take care of people that doesn't care about themselves? (Not talking about 401K meaning SS and others)

The USA is really bad about saving in general. On the other hand, it is what pushes our ecomony into overdrive when compared to other nations.