Can This Old Dog Learn A New Trick? UAW Prepares To Battle For Increased Benefits

More benfits...is ok..I agree with all them, but ....start to look for other job cause that will push your industry to China and out of business in USA.

We all want better benefits, but they have to keep pace with the rest of the economy, not world class. They aren't there yet.

Profit sharing is a good incentive. If anything they should undercut their base wages quite a bit more and make up for those wage losses with profit sharing (plus a little bit more so the union accepts it). That will a put lot more incentive into the workforce.

Did the UAW sell their golf course?

Nope, they actually took it off the market for now.

I guess they did not...

http://detnews.com/article/20100818/AUTO01/8180315/UAW-s-King-takes-north-Michigan-resort-off-market

Ok, let me see if I understand this, American workers don't deserve to share in the success of a major auto maker's turn around success because they belong to a union?

But no one has a problem with any of their Sr. Corporate officers earning 1,000 times the salary of the average worker.

Welcome to third world America.

The unions gave up very little in the bailouts - they deserve very little on the upswing. Risk = Reward.

The unions were brought back to reality. If they thought they gave up too much, then were never looking around them and seeing what the rest or America was going through.

Exactly what did the financial sector give up to get their Billion$?

"The unions (American Workers) gave up very little in the bailouts..."

Huh? How do you figure that? As compared to what?

As long as American manufacturing jobs remain in the U.S. they should be the best paid for it is a well known fact that American workers are in fact the most productive.

The real problem is that Corporate America pays no penalty for outsourcing good paying American jobs.

Due to the UAW union workers in supplier companies often times make more then the owners themselves!

Joe give us a link for this one lol!?

I read it in an machine shop trade magazine so there is no link. I guess I would point to every single one of the machine shops that shut down when the auto industry slowed down as proof.

OK Joe suppliers are gone because of unions by that logic what happened to the US furniture manufacturing business (no union) what happened to all of the I.T jobs that went to India? (again non-union) I will tell you fat cat CEO's that make millions and millions of dollars took those jobs away from the common man that has a hard time trying to keep food on the table, for short term gains. This is one of the factors that put the US in a recession we cant shake all of our jobs are over seas and the middle class is almost gone to nothing so today you either a CEO or just poor.

when a company goes out of business the owner wasn't making money. The non union examples are dumb because there are lots of non union companies that simply aren't competitive. Lol at the jobs moving to india example, that has nothing to do with how much the managers make.

UAW_LAX employers take great risks in owning companies, their entire savings plan is in the hands of all of their employees. Workers in general have it very easy, taxes are easy to do (you don't need to keep a list of all running expenditures), you're guaranteed benefits and retirement plans (depending on the various benefits your job offers), workers trade up the risk of running their own companies so they aren't entitled anything. If the average CEO was limited in how much they could make, industry would die! Why on earth would anybody start a company or expand a company knowing that the increased risk of them losing it all will have no pay back?

I can't blame the union for being greedy, but I *can* blame them for being stupid. If you want to get blood from a donor, first make sure the donor is healthy. Being rolled out of ICU and no longer being on the "critical list" is not the time to seek a blood donation.

Also, considering the sputtering economy, which looks like it may be slowly easing back into recession, and car sales that look good one month and scary the next, this appears not to be a wise time for hand-outs. But who ever said the UAW acts wisely?

As for execs with fat salaries and fat tax-payer paid bonuses, this is a separate issue. Unfortunately, there is no law against the affluent feeding at the bail-out trough. Perhaps there should be.

Utter Nonsense and here's why.

Unions = Workers Vs Corporations = Board of Directors & CEOs
x compensation

Guess who wins in America today?

Acronis i myself thought that this was a thinking mans forum, but many come here to to whine about none sense don't wast your time if many READ the article the wouldn't comment as such and this is the first paragraph:

"he union wants the workers to share in the turnarounds at the U.S. automakers in a way that does not put the companies "back in a cycle of uncompetitiveness" that left them struggling in recent years, King said:"

The UAW just never learns. There are several GM models I would actually consider, but refuse to buy due to the constant overreaching, careless greed of the UAW. I simply refuse to support the parasites that damage beloved American automotive brands and then use their money/political clout to support anti-American leftist politicians that further damage the country.

Speaking of uaw_lax, your quote from the article is nothing but pure unalloyed spin. Giving the union yet more handouts only creates more "uncompetitiveness". Greedy union hacks like you don't even realize that you sew the seeds of your own demise. You've nearly killed your host already and you seem intent on finishing the job.

Anti-union = Anti-American Worker = Pro-corporate supporter.
In Asia and Europe - worker unions are very active in helping to maintain higher wages for the average worker.

Equals better living standard for all who work in similar industries in those countries.

What this means: workers can afford to buy consumer goods = increased demand = growing economy = jobs

But not here in the U.S. where wages have been declining for the last 10 years.

Without the power of worker unions = American jobs easily outsourced. No organized resistance against predatory corporations who outsource jobs.

Welcome to Walmart wages and more products made in China.

you do realize this isn't the 1800's anymore. This is a competitive marketplace where workers go to whoever is paying the most. And if you want to keep the best employees you damned well better be offering the best wage/incentives.

Acronis - you forgot one thing in that equation.

workers get paid disproportionally more to make consumer goods = increased increased cost = increased retail = growing inflation

I am not saying that people don't need to make more. It needs to be in step with the economy as a a whole. For decades the average autoworker could carve out a envious lifestyle with only a high school education. That simply didn't work outside that world.

Of course if you challenged that concept you you were met with criticism that it was the American way and you were unpatriotic.

No it was a union way of life that basically drained the very companies that they lived off of to death. Now they claim to be the victim.

You can't spend what you don't have. Eventually they killed the cow that fed them.

acronis wrote "Anti-union = Anti-American Worker ..."

If you're against unions, you're against America.
If you're against tne war, you're against America.
If you're against the president, you're against America.
Lots of people have wrapped themselves in The Flag to further their own cause, diverting attention from the *real* issues with cries of anti-patriotism. This is not new.

In 2010, some people still believe they have a *right* to a job, and that they should have the right to have their representative extort their employer: Give me what we want, or we will stop working, thereby moving towards putting you out out of business... and you, Mr. Employer, should *not* have the right to replace us with those who are willing to do the job as you offer it.

If anything, unions are at the top of anti-American expression. Americans hold freedom most dearly. I have the freedom to quit my job if I feel underpaid. If I am right, and less-paid workers don't fill the void, then my employer will realize this, and either raise his offering, or go somewhere where people *will* work for his offering. That is *his* freedom.

The "right" to a job sounds to me an awful lot like a communist relationship, in which the worker has the right to a job, and the state has the responsibility to provide him with the necessities of life.

It appears to me that the people who need "union representation" (AKA thuggery), are those who cannot do better themselves by way of wit, creativity, resourcefulness, or adapting to new economic conditions. So to them, it makes perfect sense to have thugs secure for them what the free market would otherwise not provide them.

@Patrick
Unions in the U.S. are at their thinnest levels in the private sector amounting to a mere 9 percent. So, to your argument about unions making unreasonable demands is absolute pot wash!

The average American worker has very little to no bargaining power left and in a deeply depressed economy, as exist today, will barely see their wages rise.

In reality organized workers in the past had been the firewall that kept jobs local and from being yanked overseas.

None of you, who are anti-union have shown any compassion or concern regarding the rapacious and predatory nature of these why big greedy corporations.

I get the feeling that most of you are gleeful when American jobs are off-shored.

It’s really quite funny and pathetic at the same time because in Europe, especially in Germany, where unions are strong, you can’t just dump your workers jobs just because you found some Chinese or Vietnamese to work for fifty cents a day.

This is why the Germans focus on creating something the Chinese have yet to master. Quality Products. You can't afford to make cheap low margin product if you have to support your workers. A company like Porsche that makes on average $20,000 per car can afford nice comfy salaries. But they are forced to hire people who are very qualified. They do not hire high school graduates, which is what a very large majority of union babies in North America are. That being said, if there were no unions in Europe, manufacturers would be forced to decide between going up market or focus on mass production. If they focus on low margin cars, then they have to hire a lot of lower income workers. Meanwhile, if they want to keep their reputation up for quality work, they still need to attract the best employees with the best wages. Unions are unnecessary dinosaurs.

@Joe

Well said Joe, perhaps we can have displaced American workers board planes to China to apply for their outsourced jobs!

or we can provide a system that actually encourages individuals to attend post secondary institutions and make the most efficient/intelligent workforce in the world. You can't beat china in numbers. You can beat china in quality.

@009

Huh? Who said if you challenged the concept that high school educated workers couldn’t earn a decent livable wage that it was somehow unpatriotic? Especially, right here in the U.S. ?

The problem with your argument is that you’re conveniently ginning up justification for the so-called, free market construct of the capitalist, oligarchy doctrine, of seeing workers as usable and disposable commodities.

None of those union workers at GM or Ford ever designed a car or cut corners on material costs. All those decisions were made at and in the Board of Directors meetings, behind closed doors at those companies.

The workers (union) simply did what they were trained to do build cars.

You're also conveniently forgetting that the people directly responsible for ruining GM were the all those Chiefs in your beloved Corporate Board Room, who when the tough times came, left with all their guaranteed walk away money (in the millions).

@Steve

You assume so much and understand so very little about the purely capitalistic free market system you tout so proudly from your perch.

It’s as if you just got off the boat and landed in Disney Land for the first time and didn’t realize you were in a fantasy make believe world.
Your assumption that an employer will pay you more if “less-paid workers don’t fill the void” is pure fantasy.

Employers WILL NOT pay more as long as they know there are enough unemployed eager to accept your job for even less wages, while using the threat that they can up and move to countries like China, Vietnam or India at anytime and therefore outsource your once good paying job.

Unless you are willing to move to that third world country to reapply for your outsourced job, then you don’t have any real problems do you?

acronis, what part of "...If I am right, and less-paid workers don't fill the void, then my employer will realize this, and EITHER RAISE HIS OFFERING, OR GO SOMEWHERE WHERE PEOPLE *WILL* WORK FOR HIS OFFERING. That is *his* freedom..." did you not understand? (emphasis added)

It *appears* to me (I could be wrong) that your contempt for those who do not share your views is blinding you to that which is right in front of you.

@Patrick,
Good for you that you have a job that has not been outsourced or downsized!

Clearly, people who think like you are part of the growing horde of feckless waifs. You are part of the new breed of conservatites who believe in both the tooth fair and free market paradise.

Some day, when your coveted, high paying job is outsourced or downsized Walmart and Home Depot will have a place for you.

lmao

"Clearly, people who think like you are part of the growing horde of feckless waifs. You are part of the new breed of conservatites who believe in both the tooth fair and free market paradise."

so Patrick is a deadbeat cause he has pride in his work and is willing to be work/learn? And even if his job is outsourced in the future. He will have the skills to easily snatch another one.

Great read.