It’s been difficult of late for General Motors on the North American industrial relations front.
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On one hand, this week a potential strike by 1,400 workers at a metal stamping plant in Ontario, Ohio, was avoided, and there were encouraging signs the 3,300 who should be busily welding, painting and assembling the hot-selling Buick Enclave, Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia crossovers at the Delta Township plant near Lansing, Michigan, might soon be back doing just that after walking out on 17 April.
Local reports suggest the strikers are paying a price for their actions in support of United Auto Workers (UAW) union ‘local’ (branch) negotiations on working conditions particular to this plant (several others are similarly affected) that weren’t included in the national GM-UAW deal agreed last year. It was reported yesterday that GM had finally cancelled the medical and life insurance benefits of its striking Delta Township workers while the UAW instead was paying medical costs for workers who turned up for picket line assignments, as well as for their families. Strikers have also lost their dental and vision coverage for now.
Stalled negotiations over local working conditions also recently prompted a UAW walk-out at the Fairfax, Kansas, plant that makes the hit Chevrolet Malibu, much praised by consumer motoring writers after its recent redesign to better take on the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, but GM is at least still getting some supply from another plant in Michigan.
Then there’s the long-running American Axle and Manufacturing strike which has halted the flow of key driveline components from several plants. That dispute is over proposed wage and benefits cuts which AAM says the UAW has granted other suppliers so why not us?
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By GlobalDataBecause you made a huge profit last year and such cuts are unjustified, responded the UAW, so the situation remains the current stalemate.
While GM has reportedly kicked in $200m to help the situation, the automaker’s executives have made it clear they’re not getting involved on a day-to-day basis.
AAM has nonetheless been able to supply some parts, likely from other (non-UAW) plants across the border in Mexico, to the extent that GM’s Dayton, Ohio, mid-size SUV plant is expected to be able to restore its first shift as of Monday, bringing 1,200 idled workers back to work, though the 1,000 second shift employees remain laid-off for now.
US pundits think it likely the UAW and AAM will eventually agree on generous buyout deals for the current high-paid workers (replacing them with a lower-rate workforce it has already begun recruiting) but there’s no sign yet of that much-needed settlement and production resuming.
GM chief financial officer Fritz Henderson said this week the 11-week AAM strike had so far had only a minimal effect on the company’s retail sales, largely because it had built up a large stock of pickup trucks and SUVs as demand shifted to smaller vehicles, but added it had already cost GM US$800m in earnings before taxes in the first quarter.
It’s has, however, been better news for beleagured GM across the border in Canada. As exports to the recession-hit US market slow, and the high Canadian dollar reduces export sales returns, the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union appears to have taken a realistic approach to its negotations and already tentatively agreed new labour deals with GM (and Chrysler) to replace contracts that don’t expire until September!
CAW president Buzz Hargrove last night said the deals keep the automakers’ labour costs essentially the same as now. The GM and Chrysler deals apparently are similar to a deal reached with Ford last month (and already ratified by the workers) and keep the Big Three’s Canadian labour costs essentially the same as at present while preventing a two-tier wage system like that agreed last year between the US automakers and the UAW, in a deal that also freeze wages.
The CAW also received a commitment from GM to produce new vehicles at a plant in Oshawa, Ontario, and agreed buyouts of up to C$125,000 for workers facing layoff from a Windsor, Ontario, transmission plant scheduled to close in 2010.
GM is now doubtless hoping similar mutually-satisfactory agreements can soon be struck before the local plant and AAM strikes south of the border go on for much longer.
Enjoy your weekend,
Graeme Roberts
Deputy Editor
just-auto.com
