The sides last month extended the deadline past its original September 14 expiration and have been negotiating since then, although the union’s main focus had been on hammering out a new contract with Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, ratified this week.
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A strike also hurts workers who replace a paycheck with a weekly payment from the union’s $600 million strike fund.
According to Bloomberg, that agreement will cost the company $2 billion over the course of four years.
UAW President Dennis Williams has sought richer agreements with GM and Ford Motor Co. after first gaining the Fiat Chrysler deal, approved by a 3-to-1 ratio announced October. 22.
United Auto Workers could go on strike if a national contract agreement cannot be reached with General Motors by midnight Sunday. The company overcame $1.5 billion in costs from recalls over deadly ignition switches and beat Wall Street profit forecasts by a wide margin. In addition to maintaining close relations with GM corporate management, the UAW actually has a substantial ownership stake in the company (10 percent) from stock that is included in the union-run retiree health care fund (Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA). Top-tier workers will get a $4,000 bonus if the agreement is ratified; lower-tier workers will get $3,000.
Based on how many states’ unemployment insurance systems work, such a move during a protracted strike would cause future unemployment insurance premiums paid by GM to increase substantially.
“These are the same UAW characteristics we witnessed firsthand while trying to negotiate a responsible solution when GM and Chrysler had their backs up against the wall during the 2008 auto crisis”, Corker said in an email Friday. The union made a similar threat in recent discussions with Fiat Chrysler before agreeing to a new four-year contract. They also produce full sized vans for the company.
As with FCA, GM plans to use the current contract to deepen the attack on autoworkers.
For years, entry-level workers hired at GM and Ford have looked forward to the time when they would be immediately bumped up to a higher wage.
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To be clear, such a strike would appear to be very unlikely, if for no other reason than the fact that Americans remember that the Obama administration bailed out GM at a considerable cost several years ago.
