16-09-2023, 12:34 PM
BY TOM KRISHER
Updated 5:46 AM GMT+8, September 16, 2023
DETROIT (AP) — About 13,000 auto workers have walked off the job at three targeted factories after their union leaders couldn’t reach a deal with Detroit’s automakers.
The United Auto Workers union is seeking big raises and better benefits from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. They want to get back concessions that the workers made years ago, when the companies were in financial trouble.
A small percentage of the union’s 146,000 members walked off the job
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the targeted strikes will give the union leverage in contract talks and keep the auto companies guessing about its next move.
It could also make the union’s US$825 million strike fund last much longer.
......
WHAT DO WORKERS WANT?
The union is asking for 36% raises in general pay over four years — a top-scale assembly plant worker gets about $32 an hour now. In addition, the UAW has demanded an end to varying tiers of wages for factory jobs; a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay; the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires who now receive only 401(k)-style retirement plans; and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits.
Perhaps most important to the union is that it be allowed to represent workers at 10 electric vehicle battery factories, most of which are being built by joint ventures between automakers and South Korean battery makers. The union wants those plants to receive top UAW wages.
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Currently, UAW workers hired after 2007 don’t receive defined-benefit pensions. Their health benefits are also less generous. For years, the union gave up general pay raises and lost cost-of-living wage increases to help the companies control costs.
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Fain ...... contends that the richly profitable automakers can afford to raise workers’ pay significantly to make up for what the union gave up to help the companies withstand the 2007-2009 financial crisis and the Great Recession.
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Over the past decade, the Detroit Three have emerged as robust profit-makers. They’ve collectively posted net income of US$164 billion, US$20 billion of it this year. The CEOs of all three major automakers earn multiple millions in annual compensation.
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analysts say that when wages and benefits are included, Detroit Three assembly plant workers now receive around US$60 an hour while workers at Asian automaker plants in the U.S. get US$40 to US$45.
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WILL A STRIKE CAUSE CAR PRICES TO RISE?
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At the end of August, the three automakers collectively had enough vehicles to last for 70 days. After that, they would run short. Buyers who need vehicles would likely go to nonunion competitors, who would be able to charge them more.
Vehicles are already scarce when compared with the years before the pandemic, which touched off a global shortage of computer chips that hobbled auto factories.
......
COULD A STRIKE HURT THE ECONOMY?
Yes ...... The auto industry accounts for about 3% of the U.S. economy’s gross domestic product
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If a walkout occurs, workers would receive about US$500 a week in strike pay — far short of what they earn while they’re working. As a result, millions of dollars in wages would be removed from the economy.
The automakers would be hurt, too. If a strike against all three companies lasted just 10 days, it would cost them nearly a billion dollars
......
WHICH SIDE HAS THE ADVANTAGE?
It’s hard to say.
......
So far this year, 247 strikes have occurred involving 341,000 workers — the most since Cornell University began tracking strikes in 2021, though still well below the numbers during the 1970s and 1980s.
https://apnews.com/article/auto-workers-...3c8db7e99b
Updated 5:46 AM GMT+8, September 16, 2023
DETROIT (AP) — About 13,000 auto workers have walked off the job at three targeted factories after their union leaders couldn’t reach a deal with Detroit’s automakers.
The United Auto Workers union is seeking big raises and better benefits from General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. They want to get back concessions that the workers made years ago, when the companies were in financial trouble.
A small percentage of the union’s 146,000 members walked off the job
......
the targeted strikes will give the union leverage in contract talks and keep the auto companies guessing about its next move.
It could also make the union’s US$825 million strike fund last much longer.
......
WHAT DO WORKERS WANT?
The union is asking for 36% raises in general pay over four years — a top-scale assembly plant worker gets about $32 an hour now. In addition, the UAW has demanded an end to varying tiers of wages for factory jobs; a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay; the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires who now receive only 401(k)-style retirement plans; and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits.
Perhaps most important to the union is that it be allowed to represent workers at 10 electric vehicle battery factories, most of which are being built by joint ventures between automakers and South Korean battery makers. The union wants those plants to receive top UAW wages.
......
Currently, UAW workers hired after 2007 don’t receive defined-benefit pensions. Their health benefits are also less generous. For years, the union gave up general pay raises and lost cost-of-living wage increases to help the companies control costs.
......
Fain ...... contends that the richly profitable automakers can afford to raise workers’ pay significantly to make up for what the union gave up to help the companies withstand the 2007-2009 financial crisis and the Great Recession.
......
Over the past decade, the Detroit Three have emerged as robust profit-makers. They’ve collectively posted net income of US$164 billion, US$20 billion of it this year. The CEOs of all three major automakers earn multiple millions in annual compensation.
......
analysts say that when wages and benefits are included, Detroit Three assembly plant workers now receive around US$60 an hour while workers at Asian automaker plants in the U.S. get US$40 to US$45.
......
WILL A STRIKE CAUSE CAR PRICES TO RISE?
......
At the end of August, the three automakers collectively had enough vehicles to last for 70 days. After that, they would run short. Buyers who need vehicles would likely go to nonunion competitors, who would be able to charge them more.
Vehicles are already scarce when compared with the years before the pandemic, which touched off a global shortage of computer chips that hobbled auto factories.
......
COULD A STRIKE HURT THE ECONOMY?
Yes ...... The auto industry accounts for about 3% of the U.S. economy’s gross domestic product
......
If a walkout occurs, workers would receive about US$500 a week in strike pay — far short of what they earn while they’re working. As a result, millions of dollars in wages would be removed from the economy.
The automakers would be hurt, too. If a strike against all three companies lasted just 10 days, it would cost them nearly a billion dollars
......
WHICH SIDE HAS THE ADVANTAGE?
It’s hard to say.
......
So far this year, 247 strikes have occurred involving 341,000 workers — the most since Cornell University began tracking strikes in 2021, though still well below the numbers during the 1970s and 1980s.
https://apnews.com/article/auto-workers-...3c8db7e99b