Word: forded
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...United Auto Workers' bargaining committees from General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are scheduled to meet in Detroit this week, facing pressure to make additional contract concessions in order to secure federal aid for the struggling automakers...
...battles over concessions have reopened old wounds in an industry long known for class warfare. Detroit's auto companies are organized around a strict hierarchy, with little of the "all for one, one for all" spirit that is more typical of start-up companies in Silicon Valley. Executives from Ford bluntly told union bargainers during one meeting last year that "shared sacrifice," a concept used during the industry's last crisis in the early 1980s, no longer applied because executives' high salaries were based on Ford's successful global operations...
...Until three years ago, the UAW's bargaining strategy was driven by a "no-concession" policy, though it did limit wage demands in exchange for richer pension and health-care benefits. Over the last three years, however, the union has reluctantly rewritten contracts with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler LLC, often over the strong objections of many union members...
...late 2005, workers at Ford came within a few dozen votes of scuttling a plan that offered the company relief from skyrocketing health-care costs by raising co-pays and deductibles. At Chrysler, the same cuts never came to a vote because the union's Chrysler council, which is made up of top local union officers, opposed the cuts even though the union board had recommend approval...
...Meanwhile, the UAW has allowed new employees to be hired at lower wages. Under the 2007 contracts it signed with GM, Ford and Chrysler, new blue collar workers start at $14 per hour, rather than the $28 per hour paid senior employees. New workers also get a 401(k), instead of a defined-benefit pension plan, and a restricted menu of health-care plans...