UAW gives GM Sunday night deadline on U.S. labor contract - Yahoo Finance

 

By Bernie Woodall

DETROIT, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers union set a Sunday night deadline for General Motors Co to agree to a new four-year contract, setting up a possible strike of GM's U.S. operations.

GM and the union have been in talks since July and have for the last several days intensified negotiations to reach a deal. The UAW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV have a new contract that goes into effect on Monday, while Ford Motor Co has yet to enter intensified talks with the union.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Richard Chang)

UAW gives GM Sunday night deadline on U.S. labor contract - Yahoo Finance

Fiat Chrysler work schedules helped kill UAW deal

 

DETROIT — Frustration with a type of work schedule that some describe as inhuman — when employees work four, 10-hour shifts per week and switch from late-night shifts to predawn starts within a few days — contributed heavily to the rejection of a UAW labor deal last week.

“Alternative work schedules,” as they are called at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, have become increasingly common across the auto industry because they let plants keep the line running for four extra hours per day without paying significant overtime.

“It deprives people of sleep and damages their health,” said John Klik, who retired a year and a half ago from the Warren Stamping Plant. “Anyone with a young family is screwed. It’s not a life. It’s an existence.”

USA TODAY

UAW threatens strike at Fiat Chrysler

The UAW’s tentative deal with Fiat Chrysler was rejected last week with 65% of Fiat Chrysler union members voting it down. Workers cited entry-level pay, but the work schedule issue has been bubbling for some time, and workers had been looking for more relief.

“It is physiologically more stressful and sociologically more stressful.”

Bill Davis, vice president of operations at Circadian

Under the Fiat Chrysler alternative schedule, plants churn out cars or trucks 20 hours per day, instead of the usual 16, and few workers (if any) earn overtime, even if they work on a Saturday.

The labor agreement would have provided for paying time and a quarter for Saturday hours. But most workers want regular eight-hour shifts with more traditional opportunities for overtime.

“I did it for four and half months, and it’s depressing,” said Tim Manriquez, a skilled-trades worker at a Kokomo, Ind., transmission plant. “After 10 hours, by the time you get home, everything is closed. It’s hard to get anything done outside work.”

What would Manriquez propose?

“Go back to five, eight-hour days. That’s what everyone wants,” he said.

USA TODAY

UAW vows to 'to tell whole story' to members

That takes out the four extra hours of output and raises the possibility that some workers will put in overtime when sales are strong.

“I did it for four and half months, and it’s depressing.”

Tim Manriquez, a skilled-trades worker at a Kokomo, Ind., transmission plant

Much like the two-tier wage structure the UAW agreed to when the automakers were on the brink of failure in 2009, the alternative work schedules were sold as a way to keep production and jobs in the U.S. Now, both concessions are hard to undo.

Fiat Chrysler has been using alternative schedules since 2011, when sales of Ram pickups and Jeep SUVs began rising. That year’s labor contract enabled the UAW’s vice president for the Chrysler department, then General Holiefield, to approve the details of shift schedules.

General Motors uses a range of work schedules, but it currently has no plants where any one shift swings from days to nights in the same week, according to a company spokesman.

Ford uses variations of Fiat Chrysler's schedule, but gauging the level of discontent over it is difficult because Ford is not as far along in its UAW negotiations this year.

USA TODAY

UAW, Fiat officials miscalculated young worker angst

Gary Walkowicz, bargaining chairman at Local 600, which represents workers at Ford’s Dearborn Truck Plant, said schedules aren’t the first issue workers bring up when discussing what they want in a new agreement, perhaps because the 10-hour shifts have been in place longer. “But if you bring it up, they will say they don’t like it,” he said of Ford’s schedule, in which one crew works shifts between days and nights, working Monday night, then Friday and Saturday days and then Sunday night.

“It’s how it disrupts your life. It is not a humane way to work and not a healthy way to live,” Walkowicz said. “More compensation doesn’t fix it,” he said of the Fiat Chrysler agreement that provides double time for Sundays.

USA TODAY

UAW votes down Fiat Chrysler contract

A recent Harvard Medical School study that found a quarter of all U.S. workers have insomnia, costing U.S. employers $63 billion in lost productivity each year.

“Studies have indicated that those (who) work across (the) night shift do have higher incident of cardiovascular disease. It is physiologically more stressful and sociologically more stressful,” said Bill Davis, vice president of operations at Circadian, a company that advises companies that run production and deliver services on a 24/7 basis.

Some have tied this type of worker issue to lowered product quality, including increased recalls of vehicles, but there is no research that shows alternative work schedules are causing increased quality problems.

“The company would have data that sheds light on that issue,” said Peter Berg, professor of employment relations at Michigan State University's School of Human Resources and Labor Relations. While the schedules help increase production, Berg said the union might want to ask for evidence that savings from not paying overtime exceeds the cost of quality and safety recalls.

Contributing: Alisa Priddle, Detroit Free Press

Warren Stamping Plant

A Shift: 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday

B Shift: 4:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Wednesday to Saturday

C Shift: 4:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Monday and Tuesday; off Wednesday and Thursday, then 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Kokomo Transmission

A Shift: 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday

B Shift: 4:30 p.m. to 3 a,m. Wednesday to Saturday

C Shift: 7:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday, and Monday into Tuesday; off Wednesday and Thursday, then 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Fiat Chrysler work schedules helped kill UAW deal

Fiat Chrysler CEO again pushes merger with GM

 

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, is taking another swing at trying to promote the idea of a merger with General Motors.

Marchoinne, in a story published Sunday evening by Automotive News, asserts that a merger between the two automakers could generate up to $30 billion annually in earnings before taxes.

The idea isn't new, but Marchionne's estimates of potential profits and his forceful tone are. The outspoken CEO sent GM CEO Mary Barra an email earlier this year outlining his idea for a merger of the two automakers and the reasons it makes sense. Since then, Barra has said both publicly and privately the Detroit automaker has no interest in exploring the idea.

"We already have scale and we are leveraging that scale," Barra said in June. "When you look at the last several years we have been merging with ourselves."

By mid-summer, it appeared that Marchionne was backing away from the idea -- at least in the near future. But he took a more aggressive tone in an interview published by Automotive News..

"Look, the combined entity can make $30 billion a year in cash. Thirty. Just think about that [expletive] number," Marchionne told the publication. "In steady-state environments, it'll make me $28 to $30 billion," at a seasonally adjusted annual selling rate of 17 million new cars and trucks in the U.S.

Marchionne stopped short of saying he is pursuing a hostile deal with GM but said the automaker's board and executives cannot avoid a discussion of the potential cost savings.

"Not hostile," he told the publication. "There are varying degrees of hugs. I can hug you nicely, I can hug you tightly, I can hug you like a bear, I can really hug you. Everything starts with physical contact. Then it can degrade, but it starts with physical contact."

GM said it has already reviewed Marchionne's proposal.

"Our management and board are always working to maximize shareholder value. After we completed a thorough review of a possible merger with FCA, we concluded that executing our current plan is the best way to create value for GM stockholders," GM said in an emailed statement Sunday.

Fiat Chrysler CEO again pushes merger with GM

Auto workers president rejects lower-tier of wages - Yahoo Finance

 

The leader of the United Auto Workers union has rejected a third tier of lower wages for members who make auto parts.

Speaking Wednesday at the union's national bargaining convention in Detroit, President Dennis Williams said the UAW already has too many tiers of lower wages.

Williams was responding to reports that General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. may propose a third tier of pay. He already is under pressure from union members to end a second tier of wages that's about half the $28 per hour made by longtime workers.

He told delegates that he heard people talking about the third tier, which would pay less than the $15.28 starting wage for second-tier workers, on their way in to the convention center Wednesday morning.

"I'm thinking they got too many damn tiers now," said Williams, who received a standing ovation.

Actually, a third tier of wages already is in place at several General Motors factories in the Detroit area for a small number of workers who build battery packs and place parts in the right sequence to be assembled on cars. Without the lower tier, the work may have gone to Mexico or another country with lower labor costs.

Williams told members about bridging the gap in wages, an apparent reference to the first and second tiers. But he also said they're competing in a global economy.

Many at the convention spoke in favor of pay raises for veteran workers. Longtime UAW workers have not had an hourly pay raise since 2007, although they have received hefty annual profit sharing checks. But there's no guarantee of getting checks every year.

Williams didn't address pay raises in his speech, but has said in the past that there are ways to give raises and keep the companies competitive.

In his speech, he said workers shared in getting the auto companies through bad times and "we must equally share in the good times."

Contract talks with between Fiat Chrysler, GM, Ford and the UAW start this summer. The union represents about 137,000 workers at the three companies. The current contract expires in September.

The convention, which takes place every four years, sets the agenda for the union's bargaining efforts with the auto companies and other industries.

This year's talks are the first to come after the auto industry fully recovered from the Great Recession, and could be contentious as the union seeks a slice of the industry's billions of dollars in profits. Auto sales are expected to hit nearly 17 million in the U.S. this year, close to historic highs. They fell as low as 10.4 million in 2009.

Auto companies, mindful of the recession, are reluctant to increase U.S. labor costs and once again be at a cost disadvantage to foreign companies. They actually want to reduce labor expenses, contending that their costs already have grown above competitors.

An analysis done by the Center for Automotive Research, a think tank based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, shows that to be true, at least for General Motors and Ford.

GM's total hourly labor costs, including wages and benefits, total $58 per hour, followed closely by Ford at $57. Both are more than $8 above Honda and Toyota, whose costs are below $50 per hour, the analysis found. Chrysler, with costs totaling $48 per hour, is below Honda and equal to Toyota, but higher than Nissan, Hyundai, BMW and Volkswagen, according to the analysis.

Mercedes-Benz had the highest labor costs in the U.S. at $65 per hour, while Volkswagen was the lowest at $38.

• Labor Issues
• Business
• General Motors

Auto workers president rejects lower-tier of wages - Yahoo Finance

GM, Ford to ask UAW for new lower-pay tier in U.S.: Bloomberg | Reuters

 

Reuters) - U.S. automakers General Motors Co (GM.N) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) are considering asking the United Auto Workers union to create a new tier of lower-paid union workers in their U.S. factories, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.

The UAW currently has a two-tier wage system, that includes top-paid $28-an-hour assembly workers and the lower-paid second tier, whose wages top out at $19.28.

The automakers would be pushing forth for a third tier wage system for certain lower-skilled jobs, according to the report. (bloom.bg/1ImHJBP)

The new pay rate for these lower-skilled jobs would help the automakers bring down labor costs as they compete with Asian and European rivals that pay less at non-union U.S. plants, the report said.

GM and Ford have much higher labor costs than their cross-town rival Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCHA.MI), according to a study released just ahead of a meeting of United Auto Workers officials as they prepare for contract talks with the Detroit Three.

GM's U.S. auto workers on average earn about 21 percent more in wages and benefits than their counterparts at Fiat Chrysler, reflecting the much higher percentage of lower-paid, entry-level workers at FCA, according to a study of 2014 labor costs by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR).

Ford's hourly labor costs were $57, just behind GM's at $58. FCA's U.S. workers averaged $48 per hour.

"We aren't going to comment on potential topics in upcoming negotiations... we are committed to working with our UAW partners on solutions that will benefit employees and improve GM's competitiveness," GM spokeswoman Katie McBride said in an email.

Ford was not immediately available for a comment. UAW could not be reached outside business hours.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera and Anjali Rao Koppala in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr and Anupama Dwivedi)

GM, Ford to ask UAW for new lower-pay tier in U.S.: Bloomberg | Reuters

US auto labor cost study shows impact of two-tier wage system - Yahoo Finance

 

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co <GM.N> and Ford Motor Co <F.N> have much higher labor costs than their cross-town rival Fiat Chrysler, according to a new study released just ahead of a meeting of United Auto Workers officials as they prepare for contract talks with the Detroit Three.

GM's <GM.N> U.S. auto workers on average earn about 21 percent more in wages and benefits than their counterparts at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles <FCAU.N> <FCHA.MI>, reflecting the much higher percentage of lower-paid, entry-level workers at FCA, according to a study of 2014 labor costs by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR).

Ford Motor Co's <F.N> hourly labor costs were $57, just behind GM's at $58. FCA's U.S. workers averaged $48 per hour.

The two-tiered pay scale implemented as part of the United Auto Workers 2007 labor agreement allows GM, Fiat Chrysler and Ford to pay their newer "entry-level" workers less than veteran ones. UAW leaders have said that narrowing the gap between new hires and veterans will be a top issue when negotiations begin with the Detroit automakers this summer.

Germany's Daimler AG <DAIGn.DE>, for its Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama, at its only U.S. plant, has the highest U.S. auto labor costs, at an average of $65 an hour. Workers at the U.S. plants of Volkswagen AG <VOWG_p.DE> and BMW <BMWG.DE> earn the least, at $38 and $39 per hour, respectively, according to estimates by CAR.

GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler are the only automakers whose U.S. workers are represented by the UAW.

Despite major restructuring since the 2009 recession, GM and Ford still have higher labor costs than their major competitors. The $10 per hour labor cost gap between GM and Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> translates to roughly $250 a car in additional labor costs for GM, according to data in the study.

Some 43 percent of Fiat Chrysler's U.S. auto workers earn the lower entry-level wage, almost double the percentage of such workers at Ford and GM.

Of the other automakers operating in the United States, Honda Motor Co <7267.T> workers earned on average $49 per hour, Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> $48, Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> $42, Hyundai Motor Co <005380.KS> and its corporate stablemate Kia Motors Corp <000270.KS> $41.

Per hour labor cost averages include pay for "temporary" workers who are formally employed by outside agencies such as Kelly Services Inc <KELYA.O> but mainly work full-time alongside workers employed directly by the automakers. Japanese automakers have the highest percentages of temporary workers, which cut labor costs, CAR analysts have said

US auto labor cost study shows impact of two-tier wage system - Yahoo Finance

GM ordered new switches months before recall: WSJ - Yahoo News

 

…."This is simply mind-blowing in its raw evilness," said Bob Hilliard, lead counsel for the personal injury and wrongful death plaintiffs in the Federal Multi District Litigation against General Motors.

"GM should have notified its customers immediately to take all weight off of their keychains. By the time GM actually ordered these parts, it had to have already spent months making the decision to place the order," Hilliard said in a statement….

Read the entire story by clicking on the following:  GM ordered new switches months before recall: WSJ - Yahoo News

Wolf Automotive in Belvidere closing at end of August - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

By Alex Gary

Wolf Automotive, a Belvidere mainstay since 1924, will close at the end of August.

The business was started by C.J. "Doc" Wolf and continued by Bill Wolf and now run by John Wolf. For 86 of those years the business was a General Motors dealership selling Chevrolet.

In 2009 though, in the depths of the Great Recession both General Motors and Chrysler were forced to reorganize in bankruptcy court. ….

In Belvidere, Chrysler took Dodge from Belvidere Motors and gave it to Jack Wolf Auto Mall, which is owned by John Wolf's uncle.

In Wolf Automotive's case, General Motors pulled the Chevrolet franchise and didn't reassign it, leaving Bachrodt the only Chevrolet dealer in Boone and Winnebago counties.

The effects were devastating. Belvidere Motors and Strandquist have long since closed and now Wolf Automotive will be added to the list.

Click on the following to read all of the story:  Wolf Automotive in Belvidere closing at end of August - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

An American Auto Bailout - For France? - Yahoo! News

In a move little noticed outside of the business pages, General Motors last week bought more than $400 million in shares of PSA Peugeot Citroen - a 7 percent stake in the company.

Because U.S. taxpayers still own roughly one-quarter of GM, they now own a piece of Peugeot

Click on the following for more details:  An American Auto Bailout - For France? - Yahoo! News

News Flash: GM-UAW Agree on New Contract

The UAW announced the agreement just after 11 p.m. EDT Friday, after a little more than eight weeks of bargaining.

The contract covers 48,500 GM workers in the U.S. GM was the first of the Detroit Three to reach an agreement with the UAW. Chrysler Group and Ford Motor Co. are still negotiating.

The UAW says the contract improves health care benefits for workers and protects their retirement benefits. It also says there is an improved profit-sharing plan.

Read more of this story by clicking on the following:  http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/09/16/business/AP-US-Autos-Contract-Talks.html?_r=1&hp

Automakers’ Bailout and Bankruptcies Shortchanged Accident Victims - ProPublica

Chrysler and General Motors were released of some legal liability for product defects, the Wall Street Journal reported today. As a result, the automakers do not have to pay out damages to car-accident victims [1] who had lawsuits pending or had already won damages before the companies filed for bankruptcy.

University of Pennsylvania law professor and bankruptcy expert told the Journal that it's an unusual case [1] of the government picking winners and losers. With mixed legal precedents on the issue, federal bankruptcy judges prioritized certain lenders—the U.S. Treasury, for one, received huge ownership stakes in the two companies—and left car accident victims in the lurch.

Read the rest of the story:  Automakers’ Bailout and Bankruptcies Shortchanged Accident Victims - ProPublica

U.A.W. Open to More Jobs in a Second Pay Tier - NYTimes.com

Hope for Janesville? Probably a two tier wage system would be required.

the union would ask G.M. to reopen plants in Spring Hill, Tenn., and Janesville, Wis., and to keep operating a plant in Shreveport, La., that is scheduled to shut in mid-2012. He said the Spring Hill and Janesville plants, which G.M. placed on standby status as part of its bankruptcy reorganization in case more production capacity was needed in the future, had a “great” chance at being revived but that he was not so sure about Shreveport’s prospects.

No current workers have been moved down to the lower tier, and Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in labor relations

workers on the second tier can be moved to the first when positions open up, the system can encourage automakers to bring some work in-house that had been done by suppliers or in other countries.

U.A.W. Open to More Jobs in a Second Pay Tier - NYTimes.com

Behind Administration Spin: Bailout Still $123 Billion in the Red - ProPublica

 

ProPublica, we've provided a comprehensive bailout database [4] since TARP's launch. It shows not only how much money has gone to each recipient [4], but how much each has paid in interest and dividend payments. With all this data, we're able to clearly show how deep in the hole the program remains [5]. And the answer as of today is $123 billion.

Add that to the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which our site also tracks and is separate from the TARP -- and taxpayers are $257 billion in the hole [5].

Click on the following for more details:  Behind Administration Spin: Bailout Still $123 Billion in the Red - ProPublica

General Motors’ Wage-Cutting Deal Clears Way for Subcompact Car - NYTimes.com

 

cost-saving arrangement, G.M. will pay 60 percent of the plant’s 1,550 workers the going wage of about $28 an hour, and the remainder of the workers about half as much — or $14 an hour. While the U.A.W. had previously agreed to lower wages for new hires, some of the second-tier workers at the Orion plant could be among current G.M. employees called back from layoff.

Click on the following for more details:  General Motors’ Wage-Cutting Deal Clears Way for Subcompact Car - NYTimes.com

GM may not be able to sell Indianapolis stamping plant

I thought such things were over with as long as GM=Government Motors. 

GM wants to sell the plant to Chicago based JD Norman.

JD Norman is the only potential buyer in this deal. The company has plants in the U.S. and Mexico

The only options for the plant are to have the sale go through, or for GM to close the plant in 2011.

If union workers at GM's Indianapolis stamping plant don't negotiate by the end of business Wednesday, the sale of the plant could be in jeopardy, resulting in its closure.

Click on the following for more details:  GM may not be able to sell Indianapolis stamping plant

Daimler, Renault and Nissan Said Close to an Alliance - NYTimes.com

A good summary of the current situation of many alliances in the world auto/small truck industry. 

— Daimler, Renault and Nissan — are expected to announce an alliance as soon as Wednesday

Click on the following for more details:  Daimler, Renault and Nissan Said Close to an Alliance - NYTimes.com

Reichert Chevy/Buick in Woodstock and Crystal Lake set to go to arbitration over dealers

Has anyone hear about Wolf Chevy and Wolf GMS-Cadillac in Belvidere?

[Attorney]Coen … recommended that Reichert use an experienced arbitration attorney from Chicago to make his case. The hearings are supposed to begin within 180 days of the arbitration agreement, which was made in late December.

Though the Crystal Lake lot of Reichert’s looks sparse, he said the dealership had 40 cars on the Crystal Lake lot and 20 on the Woodstock lot.

“The Woodstock lot looks OK, but the Crystal Lake lot looks empty because it’s used to having 200 cars,” he said. “It’s just a lot of blacktop out there.”

Click on the following for more details[this link is free for only 7 days]:  Business Journal | Reichert set to go to arbitration over dealers

Fiat/Chrysler: Damaged When Delivered? New Report Documents Shocking Auto Delivery Practices | Car Buyers Beware

The following is from the Teamsters’ website and describes various publications endorsed by the  International Brotherhood of Teamsters and available on the web.  The various colored words are web links.

CarBuyersBeware has released a new report with photographic evidence of the shoddy practices being used by alternative carriers to deliver new cars and trucks to auto dealers. The report contains pictures that were taken across the country in just the last few months. These practices endanger your new cars' frames, suspensions, tires, and more.
Consumer groups are understandably appalled. Nonprofit organizations Consumer Action and Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS) have worked to improve protections for new and used car buyers. They say, "one of the most insidious problems American car buyers face is undisclosed damage to new vehicles, which may occur while they are being transported to dealership lots."
In this report, CARS and Consumer Action call on Fiat/Chrysler to "reverse direction and instead of cutting corners on auto shipping, take more steps to ensure that their new vehicles are not damaged en route to dealerships. The car buying public deserves no less."
And what about the auto dealers, who rely on the auto makers to choose the companies that deliver cars to them? They're not happy either. Over 160 dealers across the country have already signed an open letter asking them to reconsider.
If you are also opposed to the changes Fiat/Chrysler is making that endanger your new cars and destroy middle-class jobs with good benefits, please take action here to ask them to reconsider.

Fiat/Chrysler: Damaged When Delivered? New Report Documents Shocking Auto Delivery Practices | Car Buyers Beware

Wolf Chevrolet among dealerships fighting to retain franchise

 Other reports suggested that all of the Cadillac franchises in Boone, Ogle and Winnebago counties could be eliminated, but officials from those dealerships could not be reached for comment

Click on the following for more details:  Wolf Chevrolet among dealerships fighting to retain franchise - - BusinessRockford.com

Thousands of European workers rally against sale of GM's Opel

GM agreed to sell its Germany-based Opel unit, which employs 55,000 workers in Europe, to Magna International, a Canadian auto-parts company, and Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia.

Politicians in Belgium allege the Antwerp plant is more profitable than a German counterpart that has been spared, and are seeking an investigation if Germany sweetened the Magna deal in exchange for a promise to protect German jobs….The European Union's competition committee is now looking into Germany's role in the deal to determine if Berlin's lobbying broke EU antitrust regulations

Thousands of European workers rally against sale of GM's Opel / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com