UAW offers concessions to help bailout bid
posted at 11:47 am on December 4, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Maybe if the UAW had acted before this, we wouldn’t have the Big Three automakers panhandling on Capitol Hill. Of course, if the executives had curtailed their bonuses, sold off their private jets, and streamlined their production, that could have done it as well. At least it looks like the people at risk have finally begun to act like they give a damn about it:
The United Automobile Workers union said Wednesday that it would make major concessions in its contracts with the three Detroit auto companies to help them lobby Congress for $34 billion in federal aid.
The surprising move by the U.A.W. could be a critical factor in the automakers’ bid not only to get government assistance, but also to become competitive with the cost structure of nonunion plants operated by foreign automakers in the United States.
At a news conference in Detroit, the U.A.W.’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, said that his members were willing to sacrifice job security provisions and financing for retiree health care to keep the two most troubled car companies of the Big Three, General Motors and Chrysler, out of bankruptcy.
“Concessions, I used to cringe at that word,” Mr. Gettelfinger said. “But now, why hide it? That’s what we did.”
When analyses showed that compensation at the Big Three for non-management personnel amounted to 50% over that of other automakers in the US, many wondered when the UAW would take action to help the companies to become more competitive. Auto workers complained that the analyses were inaccurate and reflected pension benefits, which amounted to a non-sequitur, since pension benefits are part of compensation. Apparently, the UAW realized that taxpayers bought that rationalization as much as they buy American-made cars these days, and changed its stance.
Since management seems willing to pare down executive compensation and labor appears ready to make significant wage concessions, why not just let them work this out together? Taxpayers don’t need to subsidize dysfunctional private corporations. They can either work together to eliminate the dysfunction or fail. At least the two sides have started acting like they have something at stake in the outcome, which is the first step towards recovery.
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Yes….American workers who would fight to be first on the picket line if Big 3 management didn’t agree to the worker-backed UAW compensation packages that put them where they are today.
xblade on December 4, 2008 at 5:10 PM
Youngs98 on December 4, 2008 at 3:54 PM
That assumes that I absolutely need a new car now and con not keep my current car running until the SD curve evens back up in my favor. So some Americans will be forced to not buy a new car every three years. That may solve the credit problem also. It is a win win. A new car(and new house) is not a need right now comodity, which a lot of Americans have forgot. That is one of the reasons we are in the economic crisis we are in now.
rvastar on December 4, 2008 at 5:06 PM
It is not even reliable foreign made cars. It is reliable non-union US made cars produced for an overseas HQ’d multinational company. The question is what happened to American pride in craftmanship in the Union shops. And don’t even get me started on the closed shop, where is my feedom to not be represented by the union.
cobrakai99 on December 4, 2008 at 7:54 PM
Paying these union morons anything more than $12 an hour to install hubcaps is too much. The concessions they’re talking about will mean instead of getting $73 an hour they’ll get $65 an hour. Big deal. GM will be dead by the end of the decade. And good riddance.
angryed on December 4, 2008 at 7:55 PM
These are workers who get paid more than 3/4 times than any other, for same effort, and then are forced to get paid the same retirement, for a longer period than they were employed, because they retire early, with almost 100% of base pay, per contract. It needs to stop. Either you believe in Capitalism, or socialism is your friend and we all go under, together.
Synergy is when we all go under together.
Entelechy on December 4, 2008 at 8:10 PM
The only people who are union are the ones who actually assemble the vehicles you morons. YES, the union should go away. YES, they should be paid a wage comparable to the rest of the industry. YES, I am probably more conservative than 87% of the people who come to Hot Air. BUT, for every overpaid union worker, there are dozens of others who worked for 5 to 10 years that it takes to take a vehicle from the drawing board to production. None of them are union and they are definitely not parasites. Good riddance to GM Angryed? F you dude. Where do you work? I’d like to go on record saying I hope your place of employment goes under too! And the sad thing is…it probably will within 2 months of GM declaring bankruptcy.
Youngs98 on December 4, 2008 at 9:28 PM
I expect that the result of any of the Detroit Big 3 going under will be a total removal and relocation (far away from Detroit) of any valuable (robots, etc) equipment from their factories, and new factories set up elsewhere. You wouldn’t want any of the old UAW workers, whose motivations will be frightening for a long time.
Companies can move with their feet also. I supect the proximity to the iron mines of the Great Lakes region, has lost its glamour as a reason of where to locate an auto plant.
Looking forward to it.
Jimmy Doolittle on December 4, 2008 at 9:31 PM
Wrong. GM was well on its way to a nice recovery last year and the stock price (then increasing) proved that. Then we had the credit “crisis” compounded with high fuel prices which has sunk EVERY automakers bottom line. What is killing our guys is the fact that they’ve relied on large, high profit margin vehicles while gas was cheap. Trucks. Toyotas heavy HEAVY investment in trucks proves that…although they too have just idled their shiny new Texas truck plant.
You have no idea what you’re talking about here. When was the last time you were even in an American made car? I take that back if you have and it was a Dodge Avenger.
That’s true–good work. Some nice conservative principles will always bring you back in-line, even when your understanding of an industry is lacking.
Youngs98 on December 4, 2008 at 9:54 PM
Are you done with your hissy-fits yet, youngs98?
The bottom line is this: these companies are begging for this bailout money so that they can go on operating in exactly the same manner that they have for decades…give them the money and that’s exactly what they’re going to do. And when they continue doing exactly the same thing they’ve been doing, guess what?…in a few years, they’re going to end up in exactly the same place: begging for another handout from US taxpayers.
Does it suck for auto workers…engineers…suppliers…etc.? Of course. Doesn’t change one bit of one thing. Continuing down this path amounts to nothing more than a nationalized car industry.
No thanks.
And you can stop with the doom-n-gloom about the collapse of America if these companies go under. Why? Because they’re not going to go under. These are perfectly viable businesses…and the market knows as much. They’re simply being squeezed to death by unsustainable union pressures. When those pressures are removed - and eventually, one way or the other, they will be - the American auto industry will see a new dawn.
rvastar on December 4, 2008 at 10:06 PM
These thugs wanted a guaranteed life-time pension, pay when layed off, and so much more. No wonder the price of cars went beyond the average Joe the Plumber’s ability to buy. In the late 50’s and through mid-1960’s I was a young punk, married with 2 kids, an average salary but could afford new cars with reasonable payments. I make at least 6 times as much now but wouldn’t touch one of those union supporting cars again. Last one I bought new was 2003 and the Diamler dealer screwed me on my loan. They can wallow in their own soup and let them compete in the market place.
wepeople on December 4, 2008 at 10:50 PM
I sure do empathize with the engineers and other professionals at the automakers who are facing tough times. I even have sympathy for the folks at the major newspapers who are getting laid off, despite how much I loathe the MSM. I think a lot of us from various employment sectors are already experiencing the negative effects of the economic problems which I think are being exacerbated by the Lightworker’s victory. But the point of this thread is the UAW “concessions” — a lot of us are pretty unimpressed by the supposed concessions and skeptical of another bailout.
At times like these all you can hope is that being a skilled, educated professional counts for something and that the engineers and other non-union workers will be able to find good jobs elsewhere.
Y-not on December 4, 2008 at 11:05 PM
Youngs98,
…and these particular workers are begging the government to make taxpayers bail out their jobs. That makes them human parasites.
Yeah, right… and these American workers stood opposed to their unions putting GM over a barrel… Isn’t that right, Youngs86? The management! The poor management! See how they suffered! Dang unions! By god, you do write such nonsense, Youngs98.
Then clearly, in your mind, allowing the consumer to decide the fate of the Detroit auto industry would yield disastrous results. The U.S is ~already~ heading towards economic disaster ~because~ of democrats and soft cock conservatives pumping trillions of monopoly money dollars into the loan market, and bailing out large failing businesses is going to somehow reduce that probability…. Hmmm… I wonder how that works? Perhaps I need a soft cock conservative to explain it to me.
FierceGuppy on December 4, 2008 at 11:47 PM
Is it too late for Studebaker to apply for a bailout?
MB4 on December 5, 2008 at 12:49 AM
As long as the UAW exists, failure is inevitable. Just a question of when. This bailout may delay it but it won’t stop it. The inverse pyramid is collapsing.
SKYFOX on December 5, 2008 at 5:17 AM
This is what the unions have forced the American car makers to do. I doubt that there will be another assembly plant ever built on US soil. I wonder how much of the proposed bail-out money would be directed toward projects like this:
http://info.detnews.com/video/index.cfm?id=1189
Syd B. on December 5, 2008 at 9:24 AM
To GM and all the $75/hr windshield wiper installers who have bled the industry dry, good riddance.
godhelpus on December 5, 2008 at 11:22 AM
My mother worked at GM (and is a retiree) as did about 25% of the people liviing in my small town. The stories about the slack union workers are stuff of legend - I toured the plant and saw it with my own eyes.
I had friends who used to brag about how they would do nothing all day. They thought it was funny right up to the day they were terminated.
Now I work as a professional in what’s left of a union plant not related to the auto industry. The union labor I encountered on a daily basis are (were?) the most pathetic excuses for workers I’ve ever seen in my life.
Their sob stories are falling on deaf ears.
Good riddance to the unions.
pain train on December 5, 2008 at 5:07 PM
I want to know why the American people aren’t having serious debate about getting rid of the UAW from the auto plants. You want to build cars? Work for your employer and give him your undivided loyalty–don’t work for him whilst your union feeds you anti-corporate talking points to keep you hostile at the company you work for.
That’s how the UAW thrives: fear and animosity.
And the UAW forward a narrative like they are part of the landscape and cannot be changed or marginalized.
Black Adam on December 6, 2008 at 6:28 AM
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