united auto workers

Marking the end of the Flint Sit Down Strike

Steve Carmody — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:23:33 +0000

Saturday marks the 75^th anniversary of the end of the Flint Sit Down Strike.

Hundreds of UAW members gathered in Flint today to commemorate the pivotal moment in the history of the union movement.

Union members honored in song the six surviving sit down strikers and women’s brigade members who gathered to mark the anniversary of the strike that many say legitimized the United Auto Workers union.

UAW local voting on strike authorization

Steve Carmody — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:45:48 +0000

United Auto Workers members are voting on whether to authorize a strike at General Motors’ Lansing Delta Township plant. The vote centers on several workplace issues.

GM, UAW to announce details of tentative contract on Tuesday

Tracy Samilton — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:21:03 +0000

Contract talks between the United Auto Workers and Chrysler and Ford continue this week, after GM became the first to settle on the terms of a tentative agreement with the union, late Friday.

Officials with the union and the automaker will release details of the contract on Tuesday at an 11:00 a.m. press conference.

The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press report that the GM contract probably includes a signing bonus for workers if they agree to the deal, and a pay increase for entry-level workers.

Plus, GM is expected to agree to add more jobs in the U.S.

GM may ask for (and get) pay-for-performance clause in UAW contract

Tracy Samilton — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:02:01 +0000

A top GM executive said Thursday that the automaker wants to peg United Auto workers' pay to their job performance. Workers who turn out quality vehicles would benefit financially.

"We want to pay for the performance," GM North American President Mark Reuss told reporters at an industry conference. “All of those things that I get measured on, I want everybody else measured on, too.”

That would be a big change at GM, where the current UAW contract expires Sept. 14.

Can the UAW Survive?

Jack Lessenberry — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:12:46 +0000

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/michigan/local-michigan-977199.mp3

Later this month, contact talks are set to begin between the United Auto Workers’ union and Ford, General Motors and Chrysler.

There’s a temptation to feel nostalgic about that. This has been a time-honored tradition in Detroit since the 1940s. Every three years, negotiations began, and the union selected a strike target.

That target could have been any one of what were then referred to as the Big Three. Negotiations followed a system called “pattern bargaining,” which meant the union and the selected company would battle things out to a settlement.

Sometimes a deal could be reached without a strike; sometimes not. Once a deal was reached, the other two automakers would settle with the union on essentially the same terms.

During the glorious fat years of postwar prosperity, the bargaining scenario also followed a predictable pattern. When negotiations began, the company would offer the union the equivalent of a crust of bread. The union would demand the moon, plus a kitchen sink with gold-plated handles. Eventually, with or without a strike, they’d reach a deal where the union got the moon, but had to settle for a sink with plain old chromium handles.

Walter Reuther would then promise to get the gold-plated ones in the next contract, and he usually would. But everything is different now. Chrysler and GM went through a near-death experience two years ago. As part of the price for the federal government’s saving them, the UAW had to agree not to strike either company.

The only thing they can do in the case of a grievance is ask for binding arbitration. The union could theoretically strike Ford, but now that all automakers aren’t on an equal playing field that’s unlikely.

But the UAW does face two immense new challenges.