UAW sacrifices look to some like surrender

By Peter Whoriskey
updated 5:22 a.m. CT, Sat., Dec. 20, 2008

For decades after its founding in 1935, the United Auto Workers stood as a powerful model for the American labor movement, an influential organization that historians credit with uplifting living standards for all working Americans.

But with the announcement of the federal loan deal yesterday, the union found itself being forced into concessions that some described as tantamount to surrender.

The $17.4 billion federal loan agreement does keep the domestic auto industry alive. But the terms of that loan also insist that the wages and benefits for union workers be lowered to "equal" the average of nonunion workers, specifically, those at the U.S. plants of Nissan, Toyota and Honda
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I think that this is a very good sign for change in Detroit. The legacy costs were killing them for years and years. Now maybe they can actually be competitive.
I still think that they are getting away with murder but they've been deemed "to important to fail", it seems.

The thing that I find most interesting is they were claiming that tons of people would be put out of work if they fail. These people were out of work already and no one said anything to that affect. The parts suppliers, the steel workers, the tire and battery makers and so on. These people were scaled back or layed off in the third quarter.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

reply to post by wolf241e


Wolf, Thank you for the post....from experience working WITH the union as a salary dude...I can tell you....9 out of 10 brothers and sisters will salute and say sure I'll take that hilll, without question....God love them...


BUT 1 out of 10 will tell you to stick it....and the current agreement from mgmt and the local allows this....put some teeth in the new contract to deal wioth the a-holes swiftly and without recourse!

OT