XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.society.labor-unions, talk.politics.guns
XPost: talk.politics.misc
From: stupid.old.man@wrong.end.of.stick.com
On 11 Nov 2022, Richard Clayton Wieber
posted some news:dEwbL.17798$b3p2.4151@fx46.iad:
>
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union expanded strikes against
Detroit automakers Friday, ordering 7,000 more workers to walk off the job
in Illinois and Michigan to put more pressure on the companies to improve
their offers.
It was the second time the union has widened the walkout, which started
two weeks ago at three assembly plants before the most recent addition of
a Ford plant in Chicago and a General Motors assembly factory near
Lansing.
Union President Shawn Fain told workers in a video appearance that the
strikes were escalated because Ford and GM refused “to make meaningful
progress” in ongoing contract talks. Jeep maker Stellantis was spared from
the third round of strikes.
Ford and GM shot back as a war of words with the union also intensified.
Ford accused the UAW of holding up a deal mainly over union representation
at electric vehicle battery plants, most of which are joint ventures with
a Korean manufacturer.
“There is still time to reach an agreement and avert disaster,” Ford said
in a statement, adding that the strikes are starting to affect fragile
companies that make parts for factories affected by the walkouts.
GM’s manufacturing chief said the union was calling more strikes “just for
the headlines, not real progress.”
The GM plant in Delta Township, near Lansing, makes large crossover SUVs
such as the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave. A nearby metal parts
stamping plant with 300 workers will remain open, Fain said.
The Chicago Ford plant makes the Ford Explorer and Explorer Police
Interceptors, as well as the Lincoln Aviator SUV. The Explorer Interceptor
is the nation’s top-selling police vehicle.
Fain said union bargainers are still talking to all three companies, and
he was hopeful they could reach deals.
Stellantis, he said, made significant progress moments before his
appearance on Facebook Live by agreeing to unspecified cost-of-living
raises, the right not to cross a picket line and the right to strike over
plant closures.
Raneal Edwards, a longtime GM employee who works at the Lansing-area
factory, said she was “shocked but happy” to hear that her plant would
join the strike.
“I feel like they don’t understand that this is about more than wages,”
Edwards said. “It’s about having security at our jobs.”
Edwards said she believes the UAW’s strategy of slowly adding more plants
will work. “I love it because it keeps us on our toes. No one knows what’s
next,” she said.
But in a note to workers Friday, Edwards’ boss, GM manufacturing chief
Gerald Johnson, said the company has yet to receive a counteroffer from
union leaders to a Sept. 21 economic proposal.
Ford CEO Jim Farley accused the union of holding an agreement hostage over
union representation of workers at future electric vehicle battery
factories.
Farley, on a conference call with industry analysts, said high wages at
battery plants would make Ford’s electric vehicles much costlier than
those from Tesla and other competitors.
“Record contract? No problem. Mortgaging our future? That’s a big problem.
We will never do it,” Farley said.
Ford’s battery plants, Farley said, have not been built and mostly are
joint ventures with a South Korean battery maker. “They have not been
organized by the UAW yet because the workers haven’t been hired and won’t
be for many years to come,” Farley said.
Fain later accused Farley of lying about the talks and said the union gave
Ford a counteroffer on Monday but has not heard back. The union is far
apart on economic issues with Ford, Fain said, such as a defined-benefit
pension for workers hired after 2007 and health insurance for retirees.
Workers hired after 2007 get a 401(k)-style retirement plan.
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