Union ratifies contract, ends strike with GM
A contract between Delta Township’s auto workers union and General Motors Corporation was ratified by the union members Friday, ending the month-long strike of about 2,300 workers at GM’s Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant.
The contract was passed with 73.5 percent approval.
Although a tentative agreement was reached Thursday morning, United Auto Workers Local 602 voted it into approval at Lansing Center following an informational meeting explaining the agreement. The assembly plant makes GM’s popular crossover vehicles, the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook.
Local 602 is representing the workers, who began the strike April 17 in regards to lower pay for newer workers.
“The main goal and objective was to preserve the standard of living we’ve become accustomed to,” said Steve Bramos, chairman of the union’s negotiating committee. “I want a healthy company but I don’t want that at the expense of us.”
Bramos, an MSU graduate, said he thought the agreement was fair and equitable.
Local 602 president Doug Rademacher said the workers needed to strike to secure the first ever local agreement on working conditions for the new plant.
Because it is the first agreement for the plant, it is important to make sure it sets a good precedent for future workers, he said.
Although a national agreement was reached in the fall, local unions make their own arrangements regarding workplace policies, he said.
Conditions of the contract include a requirement for GM to give $2,000 bonuses to every production employee who helped open the plant.
MSU economics professor Charles Ballard said he thought the national agreement may have left Delta Township workers feeling slighted, provoking the strike.
Ballard said the agreements required Local 602 to make some “very serious concessions.”
“Those agreements were, at lease for some of the members, a bitter pill to swallow,” Ballard said.
GM corporate spokesperson Dan Flores said he thinks the agreement was fair to the union workers. Flores added he hopes the workers will return to work soon.
Workers will regain health care benefits withheld during the strike, Flores said. The UAW covered workers’ costs during that time.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Published on Friday, May 16, 2008
Comments
MEH
05/16/08 @ 5:45pm
Good job getting this story out so quickly, especially on a Friday.
Benjy Compson
05/16/08 @ 8:46pm
“The main goal and objective was to preserve the standard of living we’ve become accustomed to,” said Steve Bramos, chairman of the union’s negotiating committee.
Response: Note he didn’t say “the standard of living we deserve,” but rather what they’re accustomed to. Interesting.
“I want a healthy company but I don’t want that at the expense of us.”
Response: I agree, mostly. Those fools up top getting million (sometimes multi-million) dollar incomes or severance packages from GM (and Ford and Chrysler) should cut WAY back before it trickles down to the line workers.
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And from the original AP story (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GM_STRIKES?SITE=TXMCA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT)
“Now management can step aside and do what they do best – pay us – and let us do what we do best – build globally competitive quality vehicles”
What the people above union workers do best isn’t “pay them.” They design the cars you assemble. You assholes don’t “build globally competitive quality vehicles,” you build the cars that engineers design for you. Engineers design “globally competitive quality vehicles.” Well, I’ll admit, that’s not exactly what we do. We try to. But a big reason we’re not as competitive as we should be is the inflated cost for consumers due to overpaid line workers and VASTLY overpaid executives. (I won’t post my salary, because it is almost embarrassing.) And the reason cars don’t meet the quality levels of other companies is that these pampered assholes DON’T WORK HARD. I’m an engineer, and I’ve been to quite a few UAW plants and a few non-union plants. Without fail, I’ve seen better workers at non-union plants.
It is the sense of entitlement that UAWers and high-level executives have that is dragging down the domestic auto industry. (Well, that and executives’ resistance to change the status quo regarding fuels.) The UAW has collective bargaining and political influence to push up wages. Top level execs have inside corporate politics and can essentially set their own wages. Trust me: mid-to-high-level supply chain, accounting, engineering, research, etc., etc., etc., employees are getting fucked on both sides.
I am a Michigan State University (undergrad) alumnus. I am a 24-yr old native Michigander engineer with an MSME. I love this state. But it is dominated by automobiles, and right now the industry is broken.
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Sorry for the rant. I’ll admit it was immature, but it was cathartic.
Dave
05/17/08 @ 10:05pm
Sounds great
American Worker
05/17/08 @ 10:07pm
Benjy Compson is not aware that UAW members from the assembly plant work shoulder to shoulder with the design engineers to design the vehicles for ease of assembly, a process called DFM – Design for Manufacturability – something the engineers, who have NEVER worked on an assembly line, can not do by themselves.