Posted on 08/04/2023 7:51:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain said on Tuesday the union was seeking ambitious benefit increases in contract talks with the Detroit Three automakers, including double-digit pay rises and defined-benefit pensions for all workers.
The UAW presented its economic demands to Chrysler-parent Stellantis on Tuesday and will make presentations to General Motors (GM) Wednesday and Ford Thursday ahead of the Sept. 14 expiration of the current four-year contracts, Fain said.
They include proposing to make all temporary workers at the U.S. automakers permanent, placing new strict limits on the use of temporary workers and increasing paid time off.
Fain also wants increases in pension benefits for current retirees and to ensure all workers get defined-benefit pensions.
The union leader, in Facebook Live remarks, called the demands “the most audacious and ambitious list of proposals they’ve seen in decades.”
Fain said the CEOs of the Detroit Three saw their pay rise by 40% on average over the last four years.
He singled out GM CEO Mary Barra, who received $29 million of compensation in 2022, and said it would take an entry level worker at a GM joint venture battery plant 16 years to earn as much as she made in a week.
Fain listed numerous demands, including restoring retiree health care benefits and cost of living adjustments. He also said the UAW was proposing to have the right to strike over plant closures and to eliminate the two-tier wage system under which new hires earn 25% or more less than veteran employees.
He noted the Teamsters recently won an end to two-tiered wages in a new contract with UPS . “It’s wrong to make any worker a second class-worker. We can’t allow it any longer,” Fain said of the demand for the same at the Detroit Three.
Stellantis said it had a “very productive meeting” with Fain and the bargaining committee and would review the union requests to understand how they aligned with company proposals and where common ground could be found.
“We are not seeking a concessionary agreement,” Stellantis said.
GM said it would review the demands once they were received from the UAW on Wednesday.
Ford said it looked “forward to working with the UAW on creative solutions during this time when our dramatically changing industry needs a skilled and competitive workforce more than ever.”
Fain also said the Detroit Three need to pay better wages for workers at battery joint venture plants and praised Democratic senators last week for urging the companies to include those workers under the master agreements.
No sympathy for gubmint motors.
Fain said the CEOs of the Detroit Three saw their pay rise by 40% on average over the last four years.
Greed in action it never end well.
Chrysler and General Motors cannot survive without Obama/Biden federal subsidies.
They should go bankrupt. People do NOT want those junk cars. /spit
I guess because those electric cars are selling like hotcakes, eh?
Typical Union thinking. Because the CEO got 40% the guys mounting steering wheels should get 46%. People cannot afford cars as it is. Between this and the fascist CAFE standards it’s going to cost $100,000 for a Ford Focus.
If union members were as good at bribing government officials as the senior execs they would deserve the raises.
;-)
I used to disagree over CEO salaries but I’m re-evaluating that. Especially those whose business is losing money.
> Greed in action it never end well. <
You make a good point. The unions are destructively greedy. But one should not forget about the CEOs. The are just as bad.
In the old days, the average big company president made something like 40 times the wages of the average worker. Now it’s more than 350 times.
Sure, a company president can be payed whatever the board sees fit. But then a worker can ask for whatever he sees fit. Both sides are competing to see who’s greedier, and who will kill the golden goose first.
Customers are beating down the doors!.......................................to get out!~.................
The merit of the CEO salary increases wasn’t my point. In fact, if it was up to me Mary Barra would be fired today. It is ridiculous to have a man global warming true believer running a car company is ridiculous. I’m betting Obongo had a lot to do with putting her there.
The nerve of them demanding such big pay hikes.
Who do they thin they are?
Government employees?!
Besides, can’t they just suffer like the rest of us?
The nerve of them demanding such big pay hikes.
Who do they think they are?
Government employees?!
Besides, can’t they just suffer like the rest of us?
Who do they think they are?.........................Hunter Biden................
Hilarious
Must be fun to live in the Rust Belt reality distortion field
They still think people are rabid to buy their cars?
All they do now is just draft on the Japanese, Korean and German car makers. In the singular cases of the F150 and the Dodge Ram, they have market leaders. Otherwise...just derivative crap.
And no one writes home about Detroit “quality”, which is far better then it used to be, but still not like Toyota.
So what would be the impetus for higher wages, better benefits? Their stellar performance? They’re barely in the game. Only tariff walls keep them running. And Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas and Arizona beckon for new plants, instead of Blue Wall wheezebag states.
I have no sympathy for any of them. They turned the US auto industry into a joke. Just look at the highways or on any street. If one out of three cars is from the big three, then it's an improvement from what I've seen. And that's counting Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep/Ram, which are now foreign owned. Exclude them, and it's even worse.
Tesla is the only real success story for the US auto industry of late, and the MSN has been inciting rejection of them ever since Elon Musk bought Twitter.
I can remember when the US auto industry was tops in the world. Now it's not even tops in the US. The sad part is that no one in the US auto industry can see how far we've fallen.
Shouldn’t be a problem with the massive profits from all those EVs they’re making............🤣🤣🤣🤣
But then a worker can ask for whatever he sees fit.
No sale workers need to understand their worth they are overhead and it must be controlled for a company to survive.
The ran Chrysler Ford GM out of Los Angeles for their demands
Some wonder what drives work off shore for years.
“workers need to understand their worth they are overhead”
If that were the whole truth, the path to success would be to terminate 100% of one’s workers.
Just give them triple digit raises and Americans will buy the EVs from Chinar.
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