What Do You Think? UAW Declares Two-Tier Labor System Is Unfair To Workforce

As the Detroit International Auto Show opens January 9 and PR glitz is sprinkled everywhere, auto workers will be demonstrating against two-tier wages and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. We’ll say what auto workers and the whole economy need is a strong union, and retooled plants that can put the unemployed back to work building mass transit and renewable energy technology.

Days before, United Auto Workers President Bob King vowed that by the end of the year, the union would organize workers at one of the German- or Asian-owned factories in the U.S., the “transplants.”

Given our union’s track record of huge concessions to the Big Three, and its failure to ever win elections at Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, or Honda, what’s new this time around? King outlined a new strategy: spend $60 million on a campaign to convince the companies to sign a set of 11 principles that would guarantee democratic elections.

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uaw_lax - 1/6/2011 4:40:47 PM

-6 Boost

Something had to be done to be competitive with the rest of the nation and there you have it the new wage system. This was a UAW ideal before kings time and these second tier earners make $14.00 an hour or about $4.00 less an hour of typical Toyota new hire.

uaw_lax - 1/6/2011 8:18:37 PM

-7 Boost

Im just amazed to even here this being mentioned when many think the UAW has done nothing to help the Big 3, and clearly this is a huge step.

MBCLS07 - 1/6/2011 9:53:21 PM

+8 Boost

uaw_lax,
like your counterparts in the uaw, you just don't get it. Your fellow Americans are done paying for your bloated salaries and pensions. Done borrowing billions of dollars from China to bail out companies you help destroy only to have corrupt politicians hand ownership over to the uaw. Done putting up with your sense of entitlement, bullying tactics and political bribery. No one is buying King's spin or yours. Now go away so the American auto companies have a fighting chance of returning to their former glory.

uaw_lax - 1/7/2011 12:46:21 AM

-5 Boost

it's apparent you are have short term memory or just ignorant. If you have read the article there are no more so called bloated salaries with the introduction of the two tier wage and no more cola along with half of the health care we once had. If you read the news the big 3 are making money, and gaining market share i suppose that's the UAW's fault also.

bfghemicuda - 1/7/2011 1:12:21 PM

+3 Boost

The UAW has done nothing to help GM, Ford or Chrysler to become better in the automotive world. In fact they have done just the opposite. The UAW has taught the worker more of what they don't have to do. In other words it is more important to be a UAW Member than a GM, Ford or Chrysler employee. The fact remains that all tasks [jobs] are worth X amount and not what employees are worth or their chosen lifestyles. If you want a better lifestyle,educate yourself and find a better paying task. What the UAW has done is turned this around so the task costs the employeer more than what it's worth along with outrageous legacy costs. Now that the S@#T hit the fan, the UAW gets its pockets lined with unearned taxpayer dollars. My question is everyone is talking when GM and Chrysler will pay back there Government loans and I want to know when the UAW will pay back theirs. We all know the UAW has made concessions but as the big 3 profit again the UAW will be there to suck the life blood again.