GM strike: UAW says it will beat General Motors at midnight
When union officials met in Detroit on Sunday morning, the union issued a new strike threat.
There were "significant differences between the parties regarding wages, health care, temporary staff, job security and profit sharing," Terry Dittes, the union's vice president who chairs the negotiating group, said membership in a letter late Saturday.
The company issued a statement on Sunday detailing the latest offer, including 5,400 jobs and $ 7 billion in investments at its US facilities over the life of the contract. It also promised salary or one-time pay increases in all four years of the deal, an improved profit sharing formula and a $ 8,000 signing bonus per member.
GM said it also offered "solutions" for the two closures that are scheduled to close, one in Lordstown, Ohio, where work was halted earlier this year, and the Hamtramck plant in Detroit, which after the plan will close in early 2020. The company did not disclose details of what these solutions would be.
"We presented a strong offer that improves wages, benefits and jobs in the United States in substantial ways, and it is disappointing that UAW management has chosen to strike at midnight tonight," the GM's statement. "We have negotiated in good faith and with a sense of pressure. Our goal is still to build a strong future for our employees and our business."
Yours accused GM of refusing "to put hard-working Americans ahead of the record $ 35 billion surplus in North America over the last three years."
"We are united in our efforts to reach an agreement for our members and their families deserve, "he added.
These statements from the two sides suggest that it will be difficult to reach an agreement in time to avoid a strike, said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industrial work and economics for the Center for Automotive Research, a think tank in Michigan.
"These are some pretty far apart positions. It would take quite a bit of work to bring them together," she said. "It's hard to believe that they will solve any of these issues without solving all these issues."
If the union goes on strike, it will be the largest of any union against any US business since the last time UAW members beat GM in 2007.
There was a strike that started early Sunday morning by 850 UAW maintenance workers at GM plants. But they work for an external contractor, Aramark, not GM. They had been working under an extended contract since March 2018.
"We have UAW members who work long, hard hours and are still on public assistance," said Gerald Kariem, director of UAW Region 1D, and talked about the maintenance workers . "It's shameful."
The UAW members of the three car manufacturers have much better contracts. GM says the average hourly worker earns around $ 90,000 a year, not including benefits.
UAW has sworn to win GM's deal at the negotiating table to keep all or at least some of these plants in operation.
Experts say the scandal will make it more difficult to rank and enter union members with car manufacturers to ratify any tentative agreement reached by union management. Four years ago, all the offerings went only by narrow margins, although there was no scandal at the time.
