Last week the UAW went out on strike against General Motors, ostensibly to protect American union jobs. The strike only lasted two days before an agreement was announced and workers returned to work. Since then, both the union and GM management have lauded the new contract.
Now some details of the new contract have been made public. It's easy to see why management likes the newly proposed contract, but I'm a bit mystified as to why union leaders think it's good for their workers.
Even though workers were willing to use the most powerful tool in their arsenal -- a nation-wide strike, it looks like GM's management was able to bully UAW leaders into giving them everything they wanted.
Management was able to dump their obligation for retiree healthcare onto the union, lower wages for thousands of workers and gain approval to close two plants (and maybe several more). It sounds to me like the union needs some better negotiators. If this was the best they could do, why bother to miss two days of work?
Union leaders hailed this as a victory for the union movement in America. I disagree. I think it is indicative of the sad state of unions in this country.
It does seem like GM is getting what they want and thats what has come out so far. Has this been ratified by the membership?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so. It'll be interesting to see what the rank-and-file thinks about this.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least the unions still exist in some form or fashion, no matter how weak they have become.
ReplyDeleteOnce they are gone, the Corporations will go hog wild hog tying the American workers once again, all under the guise of "being competitive" with the 10 year old slave labor that they would otherwise outsource to...