SEARCH
Union Movement Solid Behind UAW Members on Strike |
 |
|
Negotiators for the UAW and General Motors Corp. have been back at the bargaining table all day in an effort to reach an agreement that would send some 73,000 UAW members back to work at the 80 plants and facilities where they are walking the picket lines.
There is little news from the bargaining table, but yesterday UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union was ready to bargain “24 hours a day, seven days a week” to hammer out a contract that resolves the issues the sparked the walkout—job security, economic issues, benefits for active workers and winning investment in future products.
Gettelfinger noted that UAW workers sacrificed a 2006 wage increase and a cost-of-living allowance, along with working with GM on a number of other issues, including the corporate restructuring and a 2005 health care agreement.
We’ve met and solved all of GM’s problems since 2003…We’ve done a lot things to help that company…It’s become apparent us that as much as workers give, they cannot give enough. As much as executives get, they cannot get enough
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the 10 million-member federation stands solidly with the striking UAW members:
GM workers and the UAW are on the front lines of working people’s efforts to make corporations accountable, demanding that one of the world’s largest corporations honor its workers’ contributions and listen to their reasonable concerns.
Its workers are among GM’s greatest assets—they have improved product quality and productivity, boosting strong gains in critical areas. The UAW membership has approached corporate restructuring and other top issues in a spirit of partnership and flexibility.
We stand ready to assist the members of the UAW in any way necessary in order to hold GM accountable for reasonably addressing the key issues that are so important to these working families’ futures.
The Teamsters (IBT) announced they will honor the UAW picket lines and not deliver parts to the plants or haul automobiles from the assembly facilities.
The contract expired Sept. 14, and the UAW agreed to extend it in an effort to reach a settlement. Negotiations with the Big Three automakers began in July, and GM was selected as the strike target earlier this month. UAW members at Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. remain on the job.
3 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
At stake is nothing less than the future of organized labor and with it the shape of American democracy, for make no mistake about it, the UAW strike represents one of those critical historical turning points, the outcome of which will reverberate for years to come.
A big question is will the Democratic Party and various liberal organizations come to the aid of their brothers and sisters in the labor movement?
The election of 2008 hangs in the balance. For the candidates this should be THE litmus test that determines who should be president.
For more see:
http://thestrangedeathofliberalamerica.com/who-will-walk-in-our-shoes-the-uaw-strike.html
I hope the agreement secures present jobs and creates a future for new workers. Globalization must respond to the human element. Work and compensation. Having a PhD or MD after ones name should not be the criteria for staying out of debt and keeping ones home or sending a child to college…
I have seen and worked under the two tier wage system. As luck would have it our union committee got it taken out of our contract a few years back. Equal pay for equal work. Once you allow a company to use a two tier pay scale it’s very hard to get rid of it. You can cry that sometimes concessions are a necessary evil, but when corporate execs keep getting big bonuses, why must the working men and women keep giving up concessions? Through attrition a company can eventually end up with all new employees working at a lower rate. Think about it.
Some people think only about the here and now. They don’t look to the future. They want to get what is tangible at that very moment and worry about the rest at the next contract. Once you give concessions you don’t get them back. I would urge union members to never give up anything that has been gained in past contracts.
SOLIDARITY!