UAW, Chrysler Reach Tentative Agreement
The UAW and Chrysler Group LLC reached a tentative four-year agreement this morning that will create more than 2,000 new jobs and invest $4.5 billion to retool and upgrade plants to produce new and upgraded vehicles.
The agreement with Chrysler follows recent settlements with Ford and General Motors. UAW President Bob King says:
This tentative agreement, coupled with the new agreements at General Motors and Ford, brings more than 20,000 new jobs to communities across America. Together with the jobs created in suppliers and other businesses supported by auto manufacturing, a total of 180,000 jobs will be added to the country’s battered economy. Through collective bargaining and working together with the domestic automakers, we have shown that cooperation and collective bargaining work.
UAW Members Ratify New GM Contract
Members of the UAW working at General Motors Co. (GM) voted by two-to-one to ratify a new four-year collective bargaining agreement with the company. The two sides had reached a tentative agreement Sept. 16.
The contract will create 6,400 new jobs in the United States, provide jobs for UAW members who have been laid off over the past several years and bring work back to the United States and to UAW GM plants that had been moved to Mexico and other parts of the world. The 6,400 GM jobs mean another 57,600 jobs will be created in suppliers and other businesses related to the auto industry, since auto manufacturing jobs create and support so many other jobs.
“The UAW and GM entered into this set of bargaining as America struggles with record levels of unemployment and an economy that shows little sign of improvement,” said UAW President Bob King.
Because of President Obama’s and the American taxpayers’ backing of our jobs and our companies, we were determined to work together with GM management to grow jobs in the U.S. and to get more Americans back to work and we are doing just that.
The contract provides significant gains for entry-level workers, bringing wages to $19.28 over the term of the agreement. It also improves profit sharing, replacing the old plan with a new, more simple and transparent plan, with higher payouts in profit sharing.
UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, who directs the union’s GM Department, said:
In these uncertain economic times, we were able to win an agreement with GM that guarantees good American jobs at a good American company. When GM was down, our members sacrificed and saved GM. Now that GM is posting strong profits, our members, as a result of this agreement, are going to share in the company’s success.
The new four-year contract is effective immediately and covers more than 48,000 employees at GM.
Tentative UAW-GM Deal Creates New Jobs
The four-year tentative agreement between the UAW and General Motors (GM) provides jobs for UAW members who have been laid off over the past several years, creates and retains more than 17,000 jobs and brings production back to the United States that had been moved to Mexico and other parts of the world.
The UAW local union leadership at GM voted to recommend the tentative agreement to local unions that are holding ratification votes throughout the country this week.
“In these uncertain economic times, we were able to win a tentative agreement with GM that guarantees good American jobs at a good American company,” UAW President Bob King said.
UAW, GM Reach Tentative Agreement
The UAW reached a tentative agreement with General Motors Co. (GM) late last night. The union says the new pact, which covers 48,500 employees, achieved some major goals, including significant investments and products for GM plants, creating good new U.S. jobs and bringing back to this country some overseas manufacturing.
UAW President Bob King said in a statement:
First and foremost, as America struggles with record levels of unemployment, we aimed to protect the jobs of our members – to guarantee good American jobs at a good American company. And we have done that. This contract will get our members who have been laid off back to work, will create new jobs in our communities and will bring work back to the United States from other countries.
Details of the agreement are being withheld until UAW members have had the opportunity to review it. While the union’s website does not provide specifics of the tentative agreement, it does list several highlights:
- –The pact protects the retirement plan, which GM had sought to weaken.
- –The new deal maintains members’ health care benefits and made some significant improvements.
- –The agreement also includes improved profit sharing with far greater transparency than in the past.
Auto Industry Resurgent After Government Aid
Two years ago, the U.S. auto industry was on the verge of collapse. General Motors Corp. (GM) had filed for bankruptcy and had just begun to reorganize with $30 billion from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Chrysler, also with TARP support, reached a partnership deal with Fiat and began its climb from bankruptcy.
Just last week, Chrysler repaid the last of its $8.5 billion in loans the Obama administration made to the troubled carmaker and GM posted its biggest profit since 2000. Since both firms emerged from bankruptcy, car companies have added 115,000 jobs.
A new White House report—”The Resurgence of the American Automotive Industry“—highlights the jobs created in the auto industry and its supply chain, the turnaround of the companies that are now profitable and how entire communities have been revitalized by a strengthened auto industry.
The report says that the decision to save Chrysler and GM “was about more than those two companies.”
It was about standing behind the countless workers, communities, and businesses—large and small—that depend on the automotive industry.
Chrysler Repays Bridge Loan, Adds Jobs
Today, six years ahead of schedule, Chrysler Corp. repaid the last of its $8.5 billion in loans the Obama administration made to the troubled carmaker in April 2009 to help keep Chrysler afloat and save the jobs of tens of thousands of Chrysler workers and workers in the supply chain.
In less than two years, the financial aid from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) helped Chrysler emerge from bankruptcy and keep workers on the line. The loan to Chrysler drew heavy criticism at the time—especially from those who said the government had no business investing in jobs. Said President Obama in a statement today:
Supporting the American auto industry required making some tough decisions, but I was not willing to walk away from the workers at Chrysler and the communities that rely on this iconic American company. I said if Chrysler and all its stakeholders were willing to take the difficult steps necessary to become more competitive, America would stand by them, and we did.
In a conference call this morning with former Democratic governors, Jennifer Granholm (Mich.) and Ted Strickland (Ohio), UAW President Bob King said the Obama administration’s willingness to invest in Chrysler and GM with TARP funds shows a major difference between Democratic and Republican strategies on manufacturing.
We’re bringing many manufacturing jobs into this country because Democrats under the president’s leadership understand the importance of manufacturing to the U.S. The Republican Party is doing nothing for the manufacturing base.
Read more at Talking Points Memo.
Corker Tells Whopper: ‘I Saved the Auto Industry’
Some lies are just tiny fibs, reshading the truth just a little bit, something all of us—except for the purest of heart—have done. Then there is the whopper, the bald-faced lie that completely blots out the truth. Just like what Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said the other day.
Thanks to the 2009 federal loan agreement to help General Motors and Chrysler stay afloat, both companies have dug themselves out of deep financial holes and are restoring jobs.
Last week at a ceremony at GM’s Spring Hill, Tenn., plant to celebrate the rehiring of 483 workers to build a line of fuel-efficient EcoTec engines, Corker, who ranted and railed against the government help to save the auto industry, took credit for the government help to save the auto industry. Here is what he said. Really.
At the end of the day we all have to feel good about what we did, I contributed to strengthening the auto industry in this country.
Young Workers: Hit Hard, Hitting Back
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As the newly elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, I traveled the country this fall, talking with workers and hearing their concerns. The economic crisis is causing a lot of pain. So many people have no jobs, no health care—and many are losing their homes. And as I looked into the faces of young workers, the reality hit home that these young people are part of the first generation in recent history likely to be worse off than their parents.
This is a tragedy.
The AFL-CIO and our community affiliate, Working America, recently surveyed young workers—and I’m not talking about 17- and 18-year-olds. I’m talking about 18- to 34-year-olds. In the past 10 years, young workers have suffered disproportionately from the downturn in the economy:
- One in three young workers is worried about being able to find a job—let alone a full-time job with benefits.
- Only 31 percent make enough money to cover their bills and put some aside—that is 22 percentage points worse than it was 10 years ago.
- Nearly half worry about having more debt than they can handle.
- One in three still lives at home with parents.
‘The Last Truck’: HBO Looks at Plant Closing Through Workers’ Eyes
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Just two days before Christmas 2008, workers at the General Motors assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio, watched their livelihood and the lifeblood of their town dry up as their plant shut its doors for good. A new HBO documentary, “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant,” which first airs on Labor Day, offers poignant personal testimony about the impact of the decline of American auto manufacturing on this tight-knit Ohio community.
While the layoffs of the 2,500 workers and 200 management staff was bad enough, thousands more of their friends, neighbors and family would lose their jobs as businesses that serviced the plant—suppliers, restaurants, retail stores—were forced to close for lack of business.
In the documentary, “Popeye,” a toolmaker, simply states what the decline of manufacturing means to him and to the American Dream:
My grandson will have a worse life than I had.
HBO’s press release about the documentary points out the real extent of the damage from the closing:
…the GM workers lost much more than jobs, including the pride they share in their work and the camaraderie built through the years. To the natives of Moraine and the greater Dayton area, General Motors wasn’t just a car company—it was the lifeblood of the community.
Retirees Were Promised Health Care—GM Deal Breaks the Promise
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Workers and retirees have suspected for years that companies often use bankruptcy as an excuse to cheat retirees out of their promised benefits. Now, three unions say that’s exactly what the U.S. Treasury Department is doing to tens of thousands of General Motors (GM) retirees.
The IUE-CWA, United Steelworkers (USW) and the Operating Engineers (IUOE) plan to appeal a bankruptcy judge’s approval late last week of a plan to allow the new GM, which now is owned primarily by the taxpayers, to take away health coverage from 55,000 retirees at some GM and GM Delphi plants.
In a series of newspaper ads, the unions urge workers to call the White House at 202-456-1414 or send an e-mail to www.whitehouse.gov and ask President Obama to restore the GM retirees’ health care benefits. Click here to learn more about IUE-CWA’s campaign to save the retirees’ benefits.
The ads feature retirees like Debra Turner (see ad above), a GM retiree who suffers from multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. At 51, she’s not eligible for Medicare. Until now, her GM health care paid for most of the $3,400 a month in medicines she has to take.
