I think a lot of the problems came about because the contacts that the unions fought for and management agreed to gave the company little or no flexibility to be able to react to changing market or financial conditions.
For instance, wage increases (raises) become a floor below which the company cannot reduce expenses, as opposed to bonuses which can be negotiated on a yearly basis, dependent upon how the company is doing.
The same thing is true for defined benefit pension plans. Once in place, it is very difficult for a company to crawl out from under the long term (and to some extent, unknown) costs that such plans entail.
With a national debt well into the teens of trillions of dollars, I think just about anyone could make a great argument that every state is getting far more back in return than what it sends to the Feds.
Well true in a sense---the debt is the result of loss of revenue from the 2006-2008 meltdown.
With the tap closed so suddenly, stopping spending is like trying to stop an ocean liner going 30 knots.
I think it took a while for DC to realize that this recession wasn't going away anytime soon and that nobody can really do anything about it. Might not be fixable although band-aid solutions abound.
Well true in a sense---the debt is the result of loss of revenue from the 2006-2008 meltdown.
We were running large deficits well before the meltdown. They just got bigger as revenues plummeted and spending soared. Kind of like taking a drug stimulant to stay awake for the test. Of course a crash comes after that.
Band-Aid is right. Once again Congress and the White House can't get their acts together, so the federal reserve is stepping in. History shows this works short term, but longer term it usually ends ugly. Think back, it blew up under Volcker and again under Greenspan, and it's going to yet once again under Bernanke and Yellen. These political parties are buffoons. The dems think you can just spend your way out of the mess and the repubs think you can cost cut out of it. The former just adds to the problem, while the latter just puts a bigger drag on the economy delaying recovery even more. The long term solution I believe is smart gov spending, smart and targeted budget cutting, along with a "fair" tax system that doesn't favor wealthy investors like Romney with significantly lower tax rates than ordinary Americans, combined with giving Americans confidence once again to spend. In addition, while the tea party seems hostile to immigration, we are going to either have to increase it, and/or increase our birthrates or we will become Japan in a decade or so.
Of course,through modern economic history, it has been boom-crash-boom-crash. We're now in maybe the most lopsided boom in the history of the nation. I suspect the crash will be just as lopsided, but in the other direction. Socialize losses, privatize profits - should create a stable future.
"Bernd Osterloh, the head of the Volkswagen's global works council and a member of the company's supervisory board, was among a delegation of company leaders who visited the plant Thursday and later met with Gov. Bill Haslam and fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker in Nashville.
In his only U.S. interview, Osterloh told The Associated Press that the pending decision about union representation for workers at the automaker's lone U.S. plant will have no bearing on whether the company will decide to add the production of a new SUV in Tennessee or in Mexico.
"Those two things have nothing to do with each other," Osterloh said during the interview, which was conducted in German. "The decision about a vehicle will always be made along economic and employment policy lines. It has absolutely nothing to do with the whole topic about whether there is a union there or not."
Southern politicians say they fear a successful UAW organization of the Volkswagen plant would hurt the region's ability to attract future investment, and that it could lead to the spread of organized labor to other foreign carmakers."
I was taking a closer look at the joke of a contract the UAW allowed the domestics to have. If I am a VW worker, I would not want any part of that kind of Two Tiered contract. You start off with division in the ranks. Off with their heads.
Two-tier wage systems go way back. The Roman Emperor Marcus Opellius Macrinus, in need of a larger army but short on cash, cut the pay for new recruits, forcing them to endure the same battlefield risks as veterans, but at a lower wage. That annoyed the new warriors, and their resentment ignited an army revolt that in 218 ad cost the emperor his life.
They still need to be kicked around for the $10 billion loss. Not to mention the $27 billion we dumped into the GM UAW pension fund that was headed for bankruptcy. All so you can keep buying Buicks! ;-)
That is amazing. And the same bunch of Yahoos want to keep all our medical records. The Federal government is a joke. And it is on US the tax payers. We have a government that is too big to function. Needs to be cut back at least 50% and then maybe more. Makes the UAW and Teamsters look like tight ships.
Of course, the alternative is trusting it all to slimy insurance companies and the medical industry who are known to leak and lose data as well. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether the public or private sector is worse. But overall, most of the public sector is insane. even non-union workers (professionals, etc) usually have crazy above-market benefits and work rules. Maybe the whine from the so-called right about unions needs to stop focusing on the few industrial union workers who remain.
The loss of credit was well founded. Ask the folks that got screwed out of the GM bonds. Of course that is still headed to the Supreme Court that may turn that part of the BK around. Would you give GM money when they we bleeding red ink and making some of the worst vehicles on the planet?
Of course, the alternative is trusting it all to slimy insurance companies and the medical industry who are known to leak and lose data as well. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether the public or private sector is worse.
I disagree. I trust Kaiser to keep my medical info confidential. As long as the Feds keep out of it. The big difference is the private sector wants our info for purely greed based marketing. The Feds want it for complete control of our lives.
Once they get everyone on Medicare or Medicaid they can do as they please. It will be the law of the land. Sorry no cancer treatment for you, you voted GOP last election.
What do you expect. You cannot trust any of the losers North of the San Diego county line. ;-)
Keep in mind the Obamacare data base has been going less than two months and already they have had numerous cases of stolen data. Fortunately UAW does not have access to our medical data YET. It would not surprise me to see them given contracts to administer Medicare, Medicaid etc etc.
Personally I liked it better when your doctor kept your folder in a big rolling file cabinet. Though it is nice to be able to access any tests you have had at Kaiser online. But it is vulnerable to hackers once it is on a server.
The file cabinet stuff wound up in dumpsters and that wasn't secure either. Nothing is secure but the new health rules prevent coverage denial for pre-existing conditions so that big wrinkle should be going away. What employers (current or potential) do with that info is another story if they get their hands on it.
Trusting any corporation with anything is a mistake, as has already been pointed out. Everyone has data breaches, public and private - usually because the person in charge of the data is just high up enough to not face any real accountability for error.
That last bit is kind of paranoid, even too much for me . Sounds like something that is more likely to be a reality in our "most favored partner" that some here strangely seem to idolize rather than in the west.
Simply put, too much information in the wrong hands can further degrade our democratic Republic. Human nature, greed and power hungry politicians that have the say over life and death could be swayed with certain information.
Similar to how the administration favored GM UAW employees over Delphi Non-Union employees.
Delphi, a General Motors company, is one of the world’s largest automotive parts manufacturers. When the government bailed out GM, 20,000 Delphi workers lost nearly their entire pensions. But Delphi employees who were members of the United Auto Workers union saw their pensions topped off and made whole.
Loss of credit may have forced their hand, but it didn't change how poorly GM's financial position was, and the reasons they were doing so poorly relative to their competition.
Funny site, the enraged upper middle class right leaning middle aged demographic, who probably calls himself an independent or libertarian. Looks like a staff of ivy leaguers - real bootstrappers no doubt. I mean, they've earned it and built it.
"The middle class is shrinking, recovery from the recession has been slow and uneven, and jobs that provide family-sustaining wages are difficult to find as the cost of living continues to rise."
Private sector Union wages have been cut in half many places. Trade Unions in places like CA have been diminished to only getting bloated government jobs. And our President and Congress want to give amnesty to 30 million more workers. That should lower the wages and standard of living even more. I can see why some areas have more optimism than others. At least for the 1600 newly minted millionaires. San Francisco is booting out the poor and middle class folks. Parks closed to homeless, rents highest in the nation. Send the dregs elsewhere is the San Francisco way. A new hire at a UAW job would not make enough for the average $3200 per month rent.
It's not the "poor" who suffer as much as the uneducated poor---there are plenty of "poor" young people flocking to big expensive cities, because that's where the opportunity is.
San Francisco may cost $$$ to live there, and may not be suitable for elderly retirees, but it's also where American culture is being transformed into what the entire country will eventually have to embrace, or wither away. Things haven't really changed. All the good ideas in America blow west to east.
Young people know how to cope. They don't rent downtown for $3200, they rent a bus or trolley car away for $2000; or they share a place.
As for the homeless, there is by no means an attitude to "get rid of them". SF is extremely divided in the approach to homelessness. It is their very generosity toward the homeless that has burdened them with learning how to deal with them. Hardly a point of criticism, as opposed to cities that show no mercy.
Just punish those who employ illegals, the jobs will vanish and the illegals will move on to greener pastures. Of course, that wouldn't be "business friendly", and in this society, accountability exists in an inverse relationship with wealth.
BINGO! Illegals follow the money. If you want to crack down on illegals, send the police to all the golf courses and chamber of commerce mixers within 100 miles of the US-Mexico border.
The businesses are just trying to survive. When the State passes a law that says E-Verify is Illegal to use, what is a business supposed to do? Illegals have all the papers because the Feds and State issue them. Illegals are even filing Income tax to get the IEC money grab. So you can try and blame it on businesses that hire Illegals, but it is the state and Feds that are the real culprits. The government has this misguided belief that amnesty will make tax payers out of millions of workers. If they at the bottom of the food chain it will just increase welfare roles. Even the Union leaders are pushing for amnesty. Do they really think that will increase their union members?
Trying to survive? Often by employing those they full well know are illegal, often under the table, for sub-miniumum wages? Oh, those poor bootstrapper businessmen. They shouldn't have to answer to anything. Not doing due diligence isn't enforcing immigration laws as much as it is being careful. Like buying a car without a title.
It's still pretty impossible to make a passable fake of a SS card or equivalent.
The last part is all part of a scheme to buy votes and maybe keep money flowing into social security.
"Volkswagen cannot institute just a works council in Tennessee because U.S. labor law does not allow for company-sponsored unions. In order to set up a works council for the 1,570 hourly paid manufacturing workers at Chattanooga, a U.S. union needs to be involved, because a foreign-based union cannot represent U.S. workers."
I can't remember the last time I had to use my SS card for anything. Not even sure I can find it. And as to how impossible it is to make a fake SS card, driver's license, or other form of accepted proof of identity, I guess that comes down to how close someones looks and whether they know the right things to look for.
A SS card is not considered a form of ID. No picture or date of birth on it. The number is needed for sending in withholding. Take a look at this:
Anti-Discrimination Notice. It is illegal to discriminate against any work-authorized individual in hiring, discharge, recruitment or referral for a fee, or in the employment eligibility verification (Form I-9 and E-Verify) process based on that individual's citizenship status, immigration status or national origin. Employers CANNOT specify which document(s) they will accept from an employee. The refusal to hire an individual because the documentation presented has a future expiration date may also constitute illegal discrimination.
I agree if a person hires an illegal to mow their lawn for cash they should be hung in the town square. How about the municipality that needs a gardener and is NOT allowed by CA state law to use E-Verify. The illegal may have a state issued Driver's license. Or the Contractor that hires a sub contractor that has a valid contractor's license. Is he supposed to make sure all the people on the job are here legally.
I want the Feds to prosecute the states that give out driver's licenses to illegals. I want the IRS to quit issuing ITIN cards to illegals that are stealing money from the legitimate tax payers. If states like CA were not pandering to illegal workers they would not have to be deported. They would leave like they did in Georgia.
Here we should explain that the IRS routinely seeks to collect both federal income taxes and federal payroll taxes from illegal immigrants, who are required to pay regardless of their immigration status. Because such workers don’t qualify for a valid Social Security number, the IRS issues a nine-digit Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. An ITIN doesn’t authorize the user to work legally in the U.S., and doesn’t entitle him or her to Social Security benefits.
This isn't about identity, it is about being a legal worker.
Maybe for once, the employer should take some responsibility for more than buying a bigger house or a fancy SUV for the wife, and learn or train his employees how to decipher documents. Have some skin in the game.
Kind of a funny line of thought - someone isn't enforcing laws, so I don't have to worry about abiding by them either, just plead ignorance. But when in an oligocracy and you have money...
incorrect on that one. California banned the *mandating* of E-verify by cities requiring businesses to use it IF they want to do business with the city. That was a good call BTW.
Businesses can use it on their own if they wish.
Hiring illegals is 100% the fault of the businesses who hire them. End of story there.
When the recession hit hard, many illegals went back to their home. It's all about the money. Illegals don't risk their lives coming here so that they can bathe in America's glory. Same with the UAW--they don't do that work because they just love the assembly line.
On one point I think we agree---that Mexico points the way to what happens when the middle class is wiped out.
I know the UAW would love to push their way into the Chattanooga plant with their EVIL Card Check pushed by the Obama administration. Luckily the workers have the state of TN on their side.
**Green, the vice chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, is calling for VW to follow the rule to allow workers a secret ballot election that he says would offer the same privacy for each worker as a political election
Card checks, he said, leave workers open to intimidation, while secret ballot elections grant workers a moment behind the curtain to vote their conscience
"You've got seven guys standing around you who work with you every day and they're saying, 'hey, sign this card,'" Green said. "We don't elect the governor that way, we don't elect our representatives that way, the ballot is secret. That's democracy.**
At present the only chance the UAW can expand is with the foreign companies. My prognosis is the UAW will continue to lose D2/3 members as more of their production goes south of the border. The best thing the UAW could do for the workers is put the pension money into 401ks and close up shop. They have destroyed their credibility as a union agreeing to the two tier wage schedule.
****The United Auto Workers, which has lost 75 percent of its membership since 1979, is pulling out all the stops to gain recognition at Volkswagen AG’s non-union plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
If successful, the effort would mark a turning point: The UAW has never been able to organize workers at any of the South’s foreign automobile manufacturers.
Both sides are seeking to be conciliatory. UAW President Bob King has said he realizes that any deal has to work “for our employers.” Volkswagen, meanwhile, is aiding the UAW’s effort to represent the workers in wage and benefits bargaining in return for a promise the union will cede its authority to a German-style “works council.”
The union feels a constant need to demonstrate its value to workers, which can devolve into an “us versus them” mentality that damages the company. Legal Constraint
This environment is intensified by the National Labor Relations Act requirement that the employer negotiate terms and conditions of employment with the workers’ union as their exclusive bargaining representative. The German model of dual representation -- with an industrywide union required by law and plant-level works councils negotiating workplace terms of employment -- is inconsistent with U.S. law.
In fact, the act’s broadly worded “company union” prohibition has been interpreted as barring the establishment of works councils altogether. In a 1994 case involving Electromation Inc., the NLRB, building on a 1959 Supreme Court ruling, found that the law prohibits the creation of any employer-assisted organ that engages in bilateral communications with employees on wages, hours or working conditions.
A German-like works council that represents employees -- with management participating on both sides of the negotiating table -- would seem to fall squarely within this proscription.
How does this legal obstacle affect the negotiations at VW’s Chattanooga plant? It means that the UAW’s promise to cede its authority to a German-style works council is empty. Union officials must know such an arrangement is prohibited by U.S. law; the plant’s workers who think otherwise run the risk of being duped.****
"The UAW retiree trust — which pays health care benefits for 117,000 UAW retirees of General * Motors, Ford and Chrysler, as well as their dependents — will receive $3.65 billion from Fiat as part of the deal, including an immediate cash injection of $1.75 billion at closing on Jan. 20."
"UAW membership has edged up to about 382,500 at the end of 2012 from almost 355,200 at the end of 2009. But it’s still well below the peak of 1.5 million in 1979. The outcome at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee is a test whether the Detroit-based union can revive itself. History isn’t on the union’s side. The UAW’s last organizing vote at a major vehicle-assembly plant was in 2001 at Nissan Motor’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, where it lost by a 2-1 margin in 2001." (Forbes)
How long will that $3.65 Billion last covering 117,000 plus retirees and spouses? It is NOT going to grow put into any kind of safe investment. And why does the GM, Ford and Chrysler retirees benefit from the sale of Chrysler. What that writer did not mention is the HC trust is BROKE, so they had to get some money from somewhere. With an aging workforce putting pressure on the HC, I don't see that pittance lasting long. They will have to pay top dollar for HC. Unlike Medicare that only pays 33 cents on the dollar billed. The UAW will have to pay full fare. That is how the old ponzi scheme works.
Unfortunately not all insurers have the stroke to beat down the hospitals and doctors. The couple times I had claims on the Alaska Teamster medical insurance they paid the whole billed amount. I thought the doctor and hospital here in San Diego over charged, but by the time I got my portion of the bill the Teamsters had already paid their 70% and I was stuck with the 30%. The San Diego hospital/Drs charged $5000 for an outpatient tonsilectomy on my son. My younger step son had the same surgery the year before in Anchorage and the cost was only $1200. I wanted to protest but it was too late once the bunch of thieves here already had 70% in their pocket. They would have taken me to claims for not paying the other 30%.
As far as Fiat owning Chrysler outright. How many UAW jobs will go away? Consolidation means people will lose their jobs.
Comments
I think a lot of the problems came about because the contacts that the unions fought for and management agreed to gave the company little or no flexibility to be able to react to changing market or financial conditions.
For instance, wage increases (raises) become a floor below which the company cannot reduce expenses, as opposed to bonuses which can be negotiated on a yearly basis, dependent upon how the company is doing.
The same thing is true for defined benefit pension plans. Once in place, it is very difficult for a company to crawl out from under the long term (and to some extent, unknown) costs that such plans entail.
With the tap closed so suddenly, stopping spending is like trying to stop an ocean liner going 30 knots.
I think it took a while for DC to realize that this recession wasn't going away anytime soon and that nobody can really do anything about it. Might not be fixable although band-aid solutions abound.
We were running large deficits well before the meltdown. They just got bigger as revenues plummeted and spending soared. Kind of like taking a drug stimulant to stay awake for the test. Of course a crash comes after that.
In his only U.S. interview, Osterloh told The Associated Press that the pending decision about union representation for workers at the automaker's lone U.S. plant will have no bearing on whether the company will decide to add the production of a new SUV in Tennessee or in Mexico.
"Those two things have nothing to do with each other," Osterloh said during the interview, which was conducted in German. "The decision about a vehicle will always be made along economic and employment policy lines. It has absolutely nothing to do with the whole topic about whether there is a union there or not."
Southern politicians say they fear a successful UAW organization of the Volkswagen plant would hurt the region's ability to attract future investment, and that it could lead to the spread of organized labor to other foreign carmakers."
Tennessee cautious as Volkswagen talks union (Newsday)
Two-tier wage systems go way back. The Roman Emperor Marcus Opellius Macrinus, in need of a larger army but short on cash, cut the pay for new recruits, forcing them to endure the same battlefield risks as veterans, but at a lower wage. That annoyed the new warriors, and their resentment ignited an army revolt that in 218 ad cost the emperor his life.
http://www.thenation.com/article/172684/how-two-tier-union-contracts-became-labo- rs-undoing#
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/govt-expects-finish-gm-stock-sale-year-- end-20963062
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
loss of credit during the economic melt-down.
I disagree. I trust Kaiser to keep my medical info confidential. As long as the Feds keep out of it. The big difference is the private sector wants our info for purely greed based marketing. The Feds want it for complete control of our lives.
Once they get everyone on Medicare or Medicaid they can do as they please. It will be the law of the land. Sorry no cancer treatment for you, you voted GOP last election.
I'd sooner trust the UAW not to put turtles or empty Pabst cans in my doors.
Keep in mind the Obamacare data base has been going less than two months and already they have had numerous cases of stolen data. Fortunately UAW does not have access to our medical data YET. It would not surprise me to see them given contracts to administer Medicare, Medicaid etc etc.
Personally I liked it better when your doctor kept your folder in a big rolling file cabinet. Though it is nice to be able to access any tests you have had at Kaiser online. But it is vulnerable to hackers once it is on a server.
There's probably some union rules governing that.
That last bit is kind of paranoid, even too much for me
your statement can be taken two ways --lol!
Similar to how the administration favored GM UAW employees over Delphi Non-Union employees.
Delphi, a General Motors company, is one of the world’s largest automotive parts manufacturers. When the government bailed out GM, 20,000 Delphi workers lost nearly their entire pensions. But Delphi employees who were members of the United Auto Workers union saw their pensions topped off and made whole.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/08/obama-administration-footprints-al- l-over-denial-of-pension-benefits-to-non-union-delphi-employees.php
Sort of like dumping the underwater house.
Loss of credit may have forced their hand, but it didn't change how poorly GM's financial position was, and the reasons they were doing so poorly relative to their competition.
This phrase says it all:
"The middle class is shrinking, recovery from the recession has been slow and uneven, and jobs that provide family-sustaining wages are difficult to find as the cost of living continues to rise."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/the-dawn-of-the-startup-doucheb- ag-san-francisco-locals-disturbed-as-google-facebook-apple-and-ebay-professional- s-move-in-8845193.html
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/san-francisco-parks-closure-passes-homele- ss-advocates-worry-about-criminalization/Content?oid=2620699
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tech-boom-forcing-longtime-S-F-family-out-- of-home-4843955.php
San Francisco may cost $$$ to live there, and may not be suitable for elderly retirees, but it's also where American culture is being transformed into what the entire country will eventually have to embrace, or wither away. Things haven't really changed. All the good ideas in America blow west to east.
Young people know how to cope. They don't rent downtown for $3200, they rent a bus or trolley car away for $2000; or they share a place.
As for the homeless, there is by no means an attitude to "get rid of them". SF is extremely divided in the approach to homelessness. It is their very generosity toward the homeless that has burdened them with learning how to deal with them. Hardly a point of criticism, as opposed to cities that show no mercy.
Here's my question....
How does anyone devise a WORKABLE method to evict 1 million individuals, much less 20-30 million?
Its easy to just say "round them up and kick them out", but it's quite a different thing to actually do it.
I agree with you on this one. It should not be the role of businesses to enforce our immigration laws.
It's still pretty impossible to make a passable fake of a SS card or equivalent.
The last part is all part of a scheme to buy votes and maybe keep money flowing into social security.
"Volkswagen cannot institute just a works council in Tennessee because U.S. labor law does not allow for company-sponsored unions. In order to set up a works council for the 1,570 hourly paid manufacturing workers at Chattanooga, a U.S. union needs to be involved, because a foreign-based union cannot represent U.S. workers."
VW in delicate dance with German union over Tennessee plant (globalpost.com)
Anti-Discrimination Notice.
It is illegal to discriminate against any work-authorized individual in hiring, discharge, recruitment or referral for a fee, or in the employment eligibility verification (Form I-9 and E-Verify) process based on that individual's citizenship status, immigration status or national origin. Employers CANNOT specify which document(s) they will accept from an employee. The refusal to hire an individual because the documentation presented has a future expiration date may also constitute illegal discrimination.
http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-9.pdf
Looks to me like an employer could get in trouble for being an immigration cop in his hiring practices.
I don't blame businesses for hiring them. They worker harder than most minimum wage citizens would, and probably harder than most union workers.
DEPORTATION? Who exactly will finance the *largest forced deportation in the recorded history of mankind?*
You really wanna pay for that.
Here we should explain that the IRS routinely seeks to collect both federal income taxes and federal payroll taxes from illegal immigrants, who are required to pay regardless of their immigration status. Because such workers don’t qualify for a valid Social Security number, the IRS issues a nine-digit Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. An ITIN doesn’t authorize the user to work legally in the U.S., and doesn’t entitle him or her to Social Security benefits.
http://www.factcheck.org/2012/05/tax-credits-for-illegal-immigrants/
http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/auditreports/2011reports/201141061fr.pdf
Maybe for once, the employer should take some responsibility for more than buying a bigger house or a fancy SUV for the wife, and learn or train his employees how to decipher documents. Have some skin in the game.
Kind of a funny line of thought - someone isn't enforcing laws, so I don't have to worry about abiding by them either, just plead ignorance. But when in an oligocracy and you have money...
Businesses can use it on their own if they wish.
Hiring illegals is 100% the fault of the businesses who hire them. End of story there.
When the recession hit hard, many illegals went back to their home. It's all about the money. Illegals don't risk their lives coming here so that they can bathe in America's glory. Same with the UAW--they don't do that work because they just love the assembly line.
On one point I think we agree---that Mexico points the way to what happens when the middle class is wiped out.
I know the UAW would love to push their way into the Chattanooga plant with their EVIL Card Check pushed by the Obama administration. Luckily the workers have the state of TN on their side.
**Green, the vice chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, is calling for VW to follow the rule to allow workers a secret ballot election that he says would offer the same privacy for each worker as a political election
Card checks, he said, leave workers open to intimidation, while secret ballot elections grant workers a moment behind the curtain to vote their conscience
"You've got seven guys standing around you who work with you every day and they're saying, 'hey, sign this card,'" Green said. "We don't elect the governor that way, we don't elect our representatives that way, the ballot is secret. That's democracy.**
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/nov/03/vw-plant-decisionsecret-ballot-or-union-card-check/
At present the only chance the UAW can expand is with the foreign companies. My prognosis is the UAW will continue to lose D2/3 members as more of their production goes south of the border. The best thing the UAW could do for the workers is put the pension money into 401ks and close up shop. They have destroyed their credibility as a union agreeing to the two tier wage schedule.
****The United Auto Workers, which has lost 75 percent of its membership since 1979, is pulling out all the stops to gain recognition at Volkswagen AG’s non-union plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
If successful, the effort would mark a turning point: The UAW has never been able to organize workers at any of the South’s foreign automobile manufacturers.
Both sides are seeking to be conciliatory. UAW President Bob King has said he realizes that any deal has to work “for our employers.” Volkswagen, meanwhile, is aiding the UAW’s effort to represent the workers in wage and benefits bargaining in return for a promise the union will cede its authority to a German-style “works council.”
The union feels a constant need to demonstrate its value to workers, which can devolve into an “us versus them” mentality that damages the company. Legal Constraint
This environment is intensified by the National Labor Relations Act requirement that the employer negotiate terms and conditions of employment with the workers’ union as their exclusive bargaining representative. The German model of dual representation -- with an industrywide union required by law and plant-level works councils negotiating workplace terms of employment -- is inconsistent with U.S. law.
In fact, the act’s broadly worded “company union” prohibition has been interpreted as barring the establishment of works councils altogether. In a 1994 case involving Electromation Inc., the NLRB, building on a 1959 Supreme Court ruling, found that the law prohibits the creation of any employer-assisted organ that engages in bilateral communications with employees on wages, hours or working conditions.
A German-like works council that represents employees -- with management participating on both sides of the negotiating table -- would seem to fall squarely within this proscription.
How does this legal obstacle affect the negotiations at VW’s Chattanooga plant? It means that the UAW’s promise to cede its authority to a German-style works council is empty. Union officials must know such an arrangement is prohibited by U.S. law; the plant’s workers who think otherwise run the risk of being duped.****
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-09/uaw-makes-promises-to-vw-workers-it-can-t-keep.html
Highlights:
"The UAW retiree trust — which pays health care benefits for 117,000 UAW retirees of General * Motors, Ford and Chrysler, as well as their dependents — will receive $3.65 billion from Fiat as part of the deal, including an immediate cash injection of $1.75 billion at closing on Jan. 20."
Big winner in Fiat-Chrysler stock sale: UAW retirees (bizjournals.com)
"UAW membership has edged up to about 382,500 at the end of 2012 from almost 355,200 at the end of 2009. But it’s still well below the peak of 1.5 million in 1979. The outcome at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee is a test whether the Detroit-based union can revive itself. History isn’t on the union’s side. The UAW’s last organizing vote at a major vehicle-assembly plant was in 2001 at Nissan Motor’s plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, where it lost by a 2-1 margin in 2001." (Forbes)
Non-automotive but we were discussing this a while back - Boeing machinists OK contract tied to 777X (adn.com)
How long will that $3.65 Billion last covering 117,000 plus retirees and spouses? It is NOT going to grow put into any kind of safe investment. And why does the GM, Ford and Chrysler retirees benefit from the sale of Chrysler. What that writer did not mention is the HC trust is BROKE, so they had to get some money from somewhere. With an aging workforce putting pressure on the HC, I don't see that pittance lasting long. They will have to pay top dollar for HC. Unlike Medicare that only pays 33 cents on the dollar billed. The UAW will have to pay full fare. That is how the old ponzi scheme works.
It's always fun reading our doc bills and comparing the billed cost to the "negotiated" rate that our insurance company pays. Talk about a disconnect.
Wonder how much Fiat stock the trust purchased?
Unfortunately not all insurers have the stroke to beat down the hospitals and doctors. The couple times I had claims on the Alaska Teamster medical insurance they paid the whole billed amount. I thought the doctor and hospital here in San Diego over charged, but by the time I got my portion of the bill the Teamsters had already paid their 70% and I was stuck with the 30%. The San Diego hospital/Drs charged $5000 for an outpatient tonsilectomy on my son. My younger step son had the same surgery the year before in Anchorage and the cost was only $1200. I wanted to protest but it was too late once the bunch of thieves here already had 70% in their pocket. They would have taken me to claims for not paying the other 30%.
As far as Fiat owning Chrysler outright. How many UAW jobs will go away? Consolidation means people will lose their jobs.