The Tuesday strike escalation includes roughly 5,000 workers at GM’s Arlington Assembly plant, which produces the Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV, GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, and Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban SUVs.
The walkout came just hours after the automaker reported third-quarter earnings results that beat Wall Street’s expectations.
"Another record quarter, another record year. As we've said for months: record profits equal record contracts," UAW President Shawn Fain said. "It's time GM workers, and the whole working class, get their fair share."
After five week of strikes, the economic losses for the auto industry had crossed $9.3 billion, Anderson Economic Group LLC estimated on Monday.
Maybe the UAW should invest their strike fund in GM stock.
ReplyDeleteSo, if GM or Ford have a string of bad years and can't sell large numbers of their transportation appliances, are any of these salt-of-the-earth organized labor members going to take less?
ReplyDeleteyou didn't get out much to read the news in 2020 huh? And, aren't reading the news now? Ok... read about how the unions loosened up, walked back benefits, and hence, GM, Ford, and Stellantis made it through the year of nor making or selling cars, and now, make record profits.
DeleteDid you really not know this?
I'll let you look up the rest of the history, like during the 2008 great recession, and the 1929 stock market crash, and the 1942-45 cessation of made for civilian transportation.
But, you go ahead and think that the 5% of profits that pay for the labor, that build the cars, is seriously damaging the car makers. If that was 8%, would they not make record profits? Oh, drat. No record profit. I guess we'll have to suffer with nice profits like last year, and next year, and just go on in business making a profit. What a tragedy. Oh, woe is me... pay the nasty human workers a decent wage, tied to the pay raise the CEO gets... that will certainly doom the car manufacturing process to death, and then the Commies win! Is that your point of view?
All excellent points. But thank God for the non-union, 'foreign' brands. I used to be a UAW member. Our motto was, "Don't worry. You work for GM. We could put a turd on wheels and people would buy them." Well, they did, and people didn't.
DeleteWhat point are you trying to make about the Depression, WWII and 2008? If they did accept major cuts, It's because they were afraid of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. But sure, give them 40% pay raises. They'll be the only ones who can afford what they build.
the unions loosened up, walked back benefits, and hence, GM, Ford, and Stellantis made it through the 2008 great recession, and the 1929 stock market crash, and the 1942-45 cessation of made for civilian transportation.
DeleteOf course, it needs to be mentioned on the same page that union benefits, and stupid GM lack of foresight when replacing workers with robots, resulted in GM going bankrupt.
And no, with payraises, they won't be the only ones who can afford what they build.
Might I direct you attention to Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani, Bugatti, etc etc.
Those ridiculously expensive cars are affordable, and bought, by someone, and it's not always the people making them, even though they are better paid than UAW members, and making more expensive cars.
Since you've already pointed out two parts of what I say next, but not the way I want to use them, I'll just put them together:
non-union, 'foreign' brands, shouldn't be all a UAW member can afford, and it's immoral/unethical for anyone BUT the UAW members to be able to buy what the UAW makes, while upper management makes FORTUNES each and every year...
As you didn't address it, the CEO of Ford, or GM, is making about 15-20 million a year. I'm pretty sure each VP is too. Proabably a lot of regional managers. So, I'll guess GM spends about 50 million on management, same for Ford, and Stellantis.
Give them all a pay cut, it's not like a single one will quit, transfer the millions to UAW contract, and the vehicles made won't need to cost a penny more... as you seem to think paying workers more equates to charging more for cars, instead of the obvious simple result, less profits for millionaires.