Word: uaw
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...success in North America." Reuss also acknowledged that some of the pressure to get things done faster comes from the board of directors, led by former AT&T chief Ed Whitacre, who is settling into his role as GM's chief executive, and Wall Street veteran Steven Girsky, the UAW's choice for a seat on the board, who is now in charge of GM's strategic planning...
Much of the opposition is coming from workers from GM plants in Saginaw and Grand Rapids, Mich., and Lockport and Rochester, N.Y., where UAW members say they are being pushed to renegotiate a contract that included concessions they signed only last year, when the plants still belonged to the bankrupt Delphi Corp. "We haven't seen anything in writing yet, but we know they're coming for us again," says a GM worker from Grand Rapids. "We also know they want a 'no strike' clause...
...holiday, some break time, the jobs bank and education benefits. Entry-level wages have been cut in half, which has translated to even lower production-labor costs. "We will not stand for further concessions negotiated by our representatives," proclaimed a resolution that was turned in for consideration at the UAW convention in June by workers from the Ford assembly plant in Chicago. "I've never seen people so frustrated," says a veteran UAW official in Detroit. "These are hard jobs. You might not lift as much as in the old days, but the intensity has gone...
...fight has spilled over into the labor relations at Ford. That company, the healthiest of the domestic carmakers, has traditionally had the best relations with the UAW. But last fall workers at Ford voted down contract changes aimed at erasing the gap in labor rates that had opened up with key competitors, who got additional concessions as they went through bankruptcy. GM's labor costs after bankruptcy have fallen from $72 per hour to about $50 per hour under pressure from the Treasury. Ford's hover around $55 per hour after recent adjustments, and the gap is a top issue...
Officials from the UAW headquarters, in Detroit, have declined to comment on the festering disputes. But critics of the union's leadership acknowledge that there isn't much the union can do to win back lost wages and benefits or even hold the line in the face of new demands for concessions, given the steady decline of organized labor across the automotive sector...