Those "20%" raises are spread over 4 years which averages to ~5%/year, barely keeping ahead of inflation. The media throwing that out without quantifying it is a blatant attempt by the corporate press to breed animosity towards the unions and paint them as greedy.
And to help keep GM from going bankrupt they took concessions a decade ago or whatever that they never got back. Now they want back what they had and some more to account for the ridiculous inflation and corporate greed we've seen since then across all of corporate America. I don't see why that's so unreasonable.
Just wait until "the strike is hurting the holy economy" narrative gets going.
Just wait until Congress passes a bipartisan law to make it illegal for them to strike.
Yup. All Republicans and exactly enough Democrats. And complicit anti-union centrists will be like "don't blame Manchin! Look at all the other people we agree with who he voted with!"
Manchin is probably providing cover for a few corporate Dems. If it wasn't him, it would be one of them, I'm sure. We just really need to get corporate money out of politics.
Is that you, Florida teachers?
Just wait until “the strike is hurting the holy economy” narrative gets going.
Surprised it already hasn’t tbh.
FTA:
If the strikes drag on, shortages could push vehicle prices higher and strain an economy already bruised by inflation.
Cue the “but I was thinking about maybe potentially kind of buying a new car next year, and this will either make it more expensive or force me to wait” BS
Note: I’m not referring to underprivileged folks whose current vehicle craps out/is stolen and they’re in desperate need of a new method of transportation. I’m talking about folks who are either in no danger of losing their only vehicle &/or can easily obtain a new one and are whining about nothing more than minor inconvenience.
And let’s not forget how embarrassing the state of public transportation is in the US. We basically pretend it doesn’t exist and is impossible to achieve, thus forcing those who live here to have access to some sort of private automobile.
I think part of the reason UAW is starting with a rotating strike plan is to call bullshit on the prepared narratives that parts will imminently be unavailable unless the union settles.
but how will the underpaid assembly line workers survive without 1 billion vehicles rolling out of their factory
Fuck
I used to work at Electronic Arts for 13 years. Doesn't sound very different. Large public corporations will do anything to make profit, including layoffs.
“The automakers, however, say they’re facing unprecedented demands on capital as they develop and build new electric vehicles while at the same time making gas-powered cars, SUVs and trucks to pay the bills.“
GM's full-year 2022 revenue was $156.7 billion.
Keep clutching your pearls, automakers. You disingenuous fucks.
and the government keeps giving them plenty of handouts to make the transition “easier”. fucking insane.
Oligarchies are expected to lie, cheat, and steal. That's what makes them an oligarchy.
General Motors Co. booked $9.9 billion in net income last year, down from 2021's $10 billion despite chronic supply chain woes, rising interest rates and a slowing economy.
GM's comparatively strong financial performance enabled the Detroit automaker to deliver profit-sharing bonuses of $12,750 to approximately 42,300 hourly employees (total number of employees in 2022 was 167,000) - GM's highest such profit-sharing payout. The bonuses total $500 million for the year, the company said.
https://investor.gm.com/news-releases/news-release-details/gm-reports-third-quarter-2022-results
We have so much capital demand that we did almost 3 billion in stock buybacks the last two years... yeah that makes sense. They just bought back shares 3 months ago.
Revenue is not profit
My B. 14.5 billion in profits. Clearly they are saints, with the welfare of the common man foremost in their thoughts.
Starting in 2007, workers gave up cost-of-living raises and defined benefit pensions for new hires. Wage tiers were created as the UAW tried to help the companies avoid financial trouble ahead of and during the Great Recession. Even so, only Ford avoided government-funded bankruptcy protection.
Many say it’s time to get the concessions back because the companies are making huge profits and CEOs are raking in millions.
That’s the problem with agreements like this - workers concede because it’s an emergency type of situation, but when things get back to normal it’s never revisited. As a result, the workers have suffered the repercussions of their “emergency time concessions” for 16 years while the companies reap the benefits of their employees’ sacrifice.
This has to be successful…I feel like it will set a precedent going forward regardless of the outcome. Let’s hope it’s positive. Solidarity!
The stock buybacks specifically are disgusting, they should be getting those stocks...
Remember everyone: Unions and strikes are cool, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
The automakers made around 5 BILLION USD in stock buybacks this last year alone.
i can here it now, more cries of "nobody wants to work anymore"
Nobody wanted to work before, either. It's why you have to pay them to do it.
If I had my expenses covered I'd still do some kind of work. Some things I just enjoy doing.
Some things I just enjoy doing.
Those are called hobbies.
Some people want(need?) control in a different sense than others, I don't think you can stamp out capitalism, at least in a micro sense. If you provided people with everything they could possibly ever need, some would still hustle for more. Some people just don't understand hobbies, its certainly gotten much worse as current culture seems to revere the attitude, but I think its also just an innate trend that will always exist in a subset of the population.
There is a word for that... greed. Greedy people don't have hobbies, they explore opportunities.
And every time I'll say to that: "Nobody wants to work in shit conditions with shit pay".
Fuck then up. Workers need to put the hurt on their useless CEOs.
The limited strikes will help to preserve the union’s $825 million strike fund, which would run dry in about 11 weeks if all workers walked out. But Fain said more plants could be added if the companies don’t make better offers.
Even Fain has called the union’s demands audacious, but he maintains the automakers are raking in billions and can afford them. He scoffed at company statements that costly settlements would force them to raise vehicle prices, saying labor accounts for only 4% to 5% of vehicle costs.
Smart idea: ask for a lot and strike immediately. Don't wait and strike all at once. Pull more workers off the job if they refuse to negotiate, but start out slow.
That allows time for the board to ask management wtf is going on, because they are slowly losing money.
It also a great move for getting support from the general population. It makes it hard to villanize the Union when they are being reasonable.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The strike will likely chart the future of the union and of America’s homegrown auto industry at a time when U.S. labor is flexing its might and the companies face a historic transition from building internal combustion automobiles to making electric vehicles.
Instead, the UAW targeted a handful of factories to prod company negotiators to raise their offers, which were far lower than union demands of 36% wage increases over four years.
Starting in 2007, workers gave up cost-of-living raises, defined benefit pensions for new hires, and wage tiers were created as the UAW tried to help the companies avoid financial trouble ahead of and during the Great Recession.
“We’re the ones for the last 20 years who have been kind of hoping things would change and we would get back some of the stuff that we lost with the bankruptcy,” said Tommy Wolikow, who delivers parts to an assembly line at GM’s pickup truck plant in Flint, Michigan.
The automakers, however, say they’re facing unprecedented demands on capital as they develop and build new electric vehicles while at the same time making gas-powered cars, SUVs and trucks to pay the bills.
GM CEO Mary Barra told workers in a letter Thursday that the company is offering historic wage increases and new vehicle commitments at U.S. factories.
The original article contains 1,009 words, the summary contains 217 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Won't automakers be moving their production lines aboard as result ? There are companies that moved production abroad to reduce costs or/and not have to care about working conditions. Just saying.
They kinda already did, the big automakers fighting unions are arguably what caused Detroit's current situation. I wonder if they can outsource even more or if they're stuck for some reason.
It's not a case of being "stuck" per se. It's just not cost effective to move production on this kind of stuff overseas. Shipping goes by volume, and cars have an absolutely atrocious cost to volume ratio (think about how many dollars worth of iPhones you could stuff into the space occupied by a single car). It makes a lot more sense to build them where you plan to sell them (broadly speaking). That's why a lot of car manufacturing still happens in countries like the US, Canada, and the UK.
Not disagreeing, but isn't there also protectionist incentives to at least assembly them in the US too? Benn a while since I remember reading it, but seem to remember there are many tarrifs, tax incentives, and etc that make it a complex situation for auto makers.
I believe you are very likely correct about that, but I wouldn't want to say for sure without doing some digging.
This isn't the most substantive of your comments in this chain, but I think it deserves some attention. It's perfectly worded and it's a concept more people need to embrace: you don't have to speak in absolutes and it's okay to express the limits of your knowledge.
Thanks to the chicken tax, they'll have to keep some manufacturing in the USA. Maybe this will be what finally kills it.
Ain't the chicken tax already being evaded by Ford making trucks in Turkey ?
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