UAW, GM Work At Friendship

Automotive Industries,  June, 1999  by Marjorie Sorge

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DaimlerChrysler is also a completely different predicament. The way things are structured there are two masters to serve, the Americans and the Germans, and it seems the German faction will have the final say. Daimler has some experience with the UAW because the union represents Freightliner, which the German maker owns. But bargaining between the UAW and the automakers is very different.

While this could be an opportunity for the UAW to negotiate a more "international" agreement that is unlikely given the difficulties at GM. The biggest issue here will be organizing the Mercedes plant in Alabama. The UAW will demand that.

For all three companies executive pay versus hourly pay and strong record earnings will be bargaining topics. Top officers at GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler were paid multi-millions in salary last year. That irked the UAW, which often sites a Business Week story that points out CEO-to-worker compensation in the U.S. increased from 104-1 in 1991 to 326-1 in 1997. Add to that the $11.8 billion the three major U.S. automakers earned after-tax in 1998 and it's a sure thing these two subjects will be used as weapons in this year's bargaining.

Even so, the biggest issues are at GM. To make it all come together without a strike, one UAW official advises the automaker to stay out of the limelight and muzzle executives who make controversial comments. He even suggests the automaker find a "sacrificial lamb," someone who represents the old guard's "beat-'em-up" position on the union, and turn him out to pasture.

That's what Luke and Han would have done.

What The UAW Wants

* Guaranteed jobs and income.

* Higher wages, better pensions, increased health care (extending coverage to domestic partners and to children up to 25).

* Improved profit sharing.

* Removal of all financial caps on the Supplemental Unemployment Benefit (SUB) program and job security programs.

* Reduction in the number of allowable layoffs. Currently, companies are allowed to idle workers for up to 36 weeks if sales slow.

* First shot at jobs opened by attrition.

* Commitments from the company to modernize facilities and grow businesses.

* Expanded hiring rights, not only at their employer's facilities but at companies created by a spinoff, sale or reorganization. Those rights would also extend to companies supplying the UAW-represented operation.

* No outsourcing or subcontracting without mutual consent.

* The right to strike over outsourcing.

* Commitments to work with the union on all future product decisions.

* Commitments to evaluate work previously outsourced to foreign or non-union companies so it can be brought back in-house if competitive.

* No work moved from UAW to non-UAW suppliers.

* Work lost to market downturns replaced by bringing outsourced work back in-house.

* Prohibitions against sharing jointly developed cost reduction information with outside vendors. Eliminating the practice of encouraging vendors to rebid their proposals based on that information.