The United Auto Workers union set a Sunday night deadline for General Motors Co GM.N to agree to a new four-year contract, setting up a possible strike of GM’s USA operations.
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“We’ll engage in a constructive way to come up with a contract that meets the needs of the business, the employees, and all of the stakeholders”, he said after GM announced third quarter earnings.
It all amounts to a few uncertain times for workers here in Wentzville as their company and their union try to hammer out a deal.
The group said it “learned that UAW is seeking to further divide employees at the Volkswagen facility in Chattanooga via an election open only to a small group of “skilled workers” in the plant’s maintenance division”. However, if the union’s negotiators believe there is progress toward an agreement, the deadline could be postponed.
Under the Fiat Chrysler deal, the automaker and union agreed to gradually end the two-tier system of wages, in which less-experienced workers earned sharply lower pay. The UAW gave up the right to strike for the 2011 talks as a condition of the government bailouts of Chrysler and GM.
If a deal isn’t achieved at 11:59 p.m. Sunday or if the deadline isn’t extended, about 53,000 GM workers – which includes about 3,500 in Wentzville – could go on strike.
A rival labor group called the American Council of Employees has said in federal filings that it has signed up 381 members among both hourly and salaried employees in its efforts to keep the UAW at bay. They also produce full sized vans for the company. The FCA agreement changed the formula it will use to calculate profit sharing, a move that GM and Ford might not want to follow because it is more complicated than the one it replaces. It also could do tremendous damage to the relationship between the union and the company that has markedly improved in recent years compared with prior decades.
I would think that companies affected by publicly proclaimed “targeted strikes” would have a case to argue against workers at other plants receiving unemployment benefits.
On Thursday, the UAW succeeded to reach the similar agreement with Fiat Chrysler auto manufacturer.
Today, GM in particular is enjoying much better times.
On October 26, the four-year contract between the trade union and GM is expected to expire.
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Contact Alisa Priddle: 313-222-5394 or [email protected].
