UAW Strikes GM
DETROIT, MICHIGAN--The United Auto Workers launched a national strike today against General Motors Corp. after 10 days of marathon bargaining failed to produce a new labor pact for the automaker's 73,000 hourly U.S. workers.The stunning move came after the union told its members on Sunday they were to walk off the job unless they heard otherwise by 11 a.m. That word never came, and now GM is facing its first strike since the UAW struck the automaker's operation in Flint in 1998.
Prediction: GM's falling market share, currently at 23.56% (year-to-date), will fall by several more percentage points by the end of the year.
8 Comments:
Interestingly, GM shares are up higher than Ford's on the strike news (in real dollar terms, not percentage of price)...
Hi Dr. Perry,
My youngest daughter is a senior at Kettering University. She is currently in her work session at the GM Fairfax Plant in Kansas City. This morning I received an email from her that workers had "just walked off the job." It seems that her education this term is breaking new ground.
Unofficial Prediction: UAW members will accept a VEBA, but they won't fund it with wage cuts or COLA elimination in the same year that GM awarded record pay increases to their executives.
Is there any way for either side of this debate to "Win"? If GM does not find a way to become a denominate force in the automotive market, then the UAW can ride on the back of a GM vehicle right to the graveyard.
GM is a boat with a large hole in the bottom. Everybody seems to be bailing the water with teaspoons.
The UAW president and the GM president can negotiate a settlement in the in the unemployment line.
Hi Prof. Perry, more bad news for automaker GM...everyone is saying this should only last a week, I hope so...if its longer than I am sure it will effect parts supplier Delphi, where I work. Everything has changed in our community and the economy around Flint will get worse...I am sure.
I realize that this will not win me many friends among the soon-to-be-jobless, but there is something here that puzzles me. If this strike goes on for a long time, wouldn't it be in the best interests of the shareholders to sell GM's international operations to the highest bidder, let the closed U.S. plants stay closed, and liquidate the company? My understanding is that GM has been losing buckets of money, and would have lost even more buckets were it not for their international profits. I'm by no means advocating this, but the shareholders are after all supposed to be in charge. Where is the benefit to them in keeping open an unprofitable company?
...and you drive a non-American car too, don't you! Why don't you buy American our go move to the country you support.
How much of that GM car was made in Mexico? How many plants does Toyoda have in the United States supporting American workers? Ford owns 33% of Mazda. Is Ford a foreign company?
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