The United Auto Workers union (UAW) has hit back at General Motors over Monday’s announcement of 30,000 job cuts, saying that it is management’s responsibility to develop cars that people want to buy.
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A statement issued by UAW president Ron Gettelfinger and vice president Richard Shoemaker, who directs the union’s General Motors department, said:
“[Monday’s] action by General Motors is not only extremely disappointing, unfair and unfortunate, it is devastating to many thousands of workers, their families and their communities. While GM’s continuing decline in market share is not the fault of workers or our communities, it is these groups that will suffer because of the actions announced today. For the workers, their families and the thousands of other people who work in the small businesses that supply these facilities, hope is diminished, the future is unclear and communities are less stable.
“The UAW-represented workers impacted by [Monday’s] action are protected by our job security programme as well as the other provisions and protections of the UAW-GM National Agreement. The UAW will do everything in its power to enforce those programmes and protect the interests of the workers impacted by today’s action.
“We have said consistently that General Motors cannot shrink itself to prosperity. In fact, shrinking General Motors only exacerbates its problems.
“Workers and their unions have worked hard to improve product quality and productivity at GM facilities in the United States and Canada, and these efforts have produced strong gains in both these critical areas, as reported in recent studies by JD Power & Associates and the Harbour Report.
“The actions covered by today’s announcement will be the subject of ongoing discussions and the 2007 negotiations between the UAW and General Motors. Today’s announcement clearly makes those negotiations much more difficult.
“GM’s return to prosperity depends on it offering products that consumers find attractive, exciting and want to buy. Only then will GM’s market share stabilise and grow, only then will revenues increase and only then will General Motors return to prosperity. Being successful in this regard is the exclusive responsibility of management: Workers have no control over GM’s capital investment, product development, design, marketing and advertising decisions. But, unfortunately, it is workers, their families and our communities that are being forced to suffer because of the failures of others.”
