Thousands of members of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) union walked off the job today at General Motors plants across the country as the two failed to reach an agreement over new contract negotiations.
The UAW has 73,000 members who work for GM at 82 U.S. facilities, including assembly and parts plants and warehouses.
GM has been pushing hard for a health care trust (known as a Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association, or VEBA) so it could move $51 billion in unfunded retiree health costs off its books. GM estimates the liability is a stumbling block to becoming competitive with leaner Japanese manufacturers.
Even after a deal is reached at GM, the union must still come to agreements at Ford and Chrysler, where the issue of a health care trust is likely to be discussed.
Together, the three auto companies have a collective liability of around $100 billion. The VEBA health care trust, would take over responsibility for paying benefits to workers and their families.
It remains to be seen what effect the strike would have on GM sales, though it has enough in stock to withstand a "short" strike. GM had an estimated 65-day supply of cars and trucks when September began, but a strike will still be costly for the company.
In 1998, GM vehicle output was shut down nationwide by local strikes at the Flint Metal Center and a Delphi parts plant in Flint. The shut down stopped GM’s North American production for 54 days and cost the company $2.2 billion.
Over 90% of GM vehicles offer factory-installed XM Satellite Radio.
[AP, New York Times]
UPDATE: According to CNBC, it's estimated that GM will lose $100 Million daily, and 12,200 vehicles daily, as a result of this strike.
Damn it. I hope my new Sierra is finished and on the truck for delivery.
Damn it. I hope my new Sierra is finished and on the truck for delivery.
And you wonder why the American Automakers are going under?
They walked out at 11am and where back on the job by 11:30. Not much of a strike.
get back to work you bums.
on a side note, GM stock is up today by a fraction. lol @ market's reaction to the Useless Auto Workers...
another thought.... what are you talking about? everywhere I see says they're still on strike
I just called my dealer and he said he just got off the phone with the factory and they said that the strike was not long enough for them to go around the block.
On a side note, If they continue to strike GM could just threaten to leave the country then the UAW would be no where.
its hit one of the canadian plants already do to parts, another one will close on tuesday..
You're dealer was lying.
Well apparently. Or maybe the media is lying. We all know how much they hate the big 2 auto makers. Well I guess we can call them the big 3 again. Oh well, just another example of the unions trying really hard to put the american companies out of business so that the foreign robots can assemble foreign cars with foreign materials. :)
and the teamster union claims they wont haul gm automobiles and will honor the picket lines in support of the uaw
The time for Unions has passed. In my industry (tech) you get benefits based on how good of a job you do. If you do a bad job, you get canned and somebody else does the job for you. if you are a good employee, you get rewarded with better wages. But despite this, there are auto workers who make more than many "higher skilled" type jobs around the nation, and they also get benefits long after they are employed. We wonder why the US has such a hard time making cars compared to foreign sources?
Gah, I loath unions. Unions are an excuse for lazy people. Too bad we cannot picket the damn union.
I agree anonymous coward. They are a thing of the past. They are causing their own downfall. I love how they air commercails around here bragging about being drug free. Bunch of greedy fools. Enjoy standing outside looking like a bunch of no nothing fools.
What I think is funny is that the media is saying how much GM is losing but not how much the employees are loosing. Back when UPS went on strike I think we figured that given the time they are were out of work and what they got as a raise it would have to take the employees over a year to get back the money they had lost by not working.